From videos online so far, it seems the strength of the quake didn't translate to massive lateral movement. There seemed to be lots of intense P-wave wiggling and bumping rather than large S-wave swings back and forth. The big Japan quake was one of those, where you saw offices being slid back and forth and everything flying off shelves.
Not sure what that means for the tsunami - but so far it seems less intense than the 8.8 would imply.
Japan uses a scale that measures the movement[0]. Of course depending on where you are the result changes, but it's a lot more usable for the practical "how much shaking will be involved here/was involved here".
The first list on that page is specifically for the deadliest earthquakes, and so it only includes earthquakes with 100,000+ fatalities. The ranking by magnitude is farther down (and according to that list, a magnitude of 8.8 would make it tied for sixth place).
Multiple lists. On the list of strongest by magnitude, it would be in a three-way tie for 7th if there's no further revision to the magnitude estimate (which there usually is). It would be second by magnitude on the list of deadliest earthquakes, but thankfully due to location will not likely make that list.
russellbeattie|7 months ago
Not sure what that means for the tsunami - but so far it seems less intense than the 8.8 would imply.
rtpg|7 months ago
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Meteorological_Agency_se...
swader999|7 months ago
tjohns|7 months ago
(Update: It was just revised upward to 8.8.)
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us6000qw60...
nsingh2|7 months ago
[1] Table on https://www.tsunami.gov/
burnt-resistor|7 months ago
SubiculumCode|7 months ago
ac29|7 months ago
BalinKing|7 months ago
addaon|7 months ago