What magnitude earthquake in California will bring Tahiti level chaos and destruction?

Question by Jesse: What magnitude earthquake in California will bring Tahiti level chaos and destruction?
10? 11? 12? Also will it cause major canyon size cracks on earth and make Vegas beach front property like the movie 2012 depicted devouring everything?

Is there a maximum magnitude earthquake you can have? Can you have magnitude 20 or above?
I posted question here cause I didn’t get any answer in the geology forum & since military people know everything.
Oh yeah, Haiti!

Best answer:

Answer by thegubmint
I presume you mean Haiti, not Tahiti.

The largest earthquake ever was at 9.3, as I recall. There’s basically no such thing as a 10 or higher. The movie 2012 is science fiction; bad science fiction at that.

California would probably have to have well over an 8 with an epicenter in one of the major metropolitan areas to even approach the destruction in Haiti. Construction requirements in California are far and away superior. The quake would have to be several magnitudes higher to achieve the same level of destruction as that wrought by a high 6 on Port Au Prince. I was actually in Pleasanton in 1989 for the big quake then, a 7.2 that brought down the chunk of the Bay Bridge. It shook things up pretty well, and there was some extensive damage at the epicenter and in one area of San Francisco, but nothing like Haiti.

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