The earthquake that devastated Chile on February 27 was 500 times more powerful than the one in Haiti. Measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale, Chile's earthquake was the seventh largest on record. It threw the earth off its usual rotation by 1.26 megaseconds. Some news stories may try to scare you into thinking thats a huge number but in reality it would take 2,174 years of daily earthquakes that size to add up to the earth being thrown off by just a second. Santiago and its Fine Art Museum were heavily effected by the earthquake. About 500,000 houses were damaged, and only 734 people are reported dead, a very low number for an earthquake that size. Chile was effected the most in the very center of it, the Maule Region.