[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Not so sure about your math. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale gives Richter 7.0 = 32 megatons and Richter 9.0 = 32 gigaton = 1000 megatons, consistent with the 10^1.5 rule. Using the 10^1.5 rule implies that a difference of 1.8 Richters = a factor of 500 (10^(1.5*1.8)) or Ricther 8.8 = 16,000 megatons, still gewaltig.

[InternetTuffGuy]

No, you're right - I was pulling the figure off a google search, not doing the math. And yes a 16,000 megaton h-bomb, if one were to be built, would be fairly stämmig.