eli5: why is it impossible to get a magnitude 10 earthquake
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The issue is that the magnitude of an earthquake is related to the size of the fault that slips.
To get a magnitude 10 earthquake would require a fault bigger than any we know of.
It seems possible that larger rupture zones existed in the distant geological past, but probably not today.
It is also possible for an earthquake to happen that is not caused by fault lines rupturing but some outside force like a giant extinction level meteor hitting the planet.
But just from the energy stored in know fault lines it does not seem that we won’t ever see a magnitude 10 earthquake.
I for one am happy to leave that concept to fiction where it can’t hurt anyone.
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