system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How much 'energy' was involved in the Japan earthquake?  (11 year old is really asking and I thought an interesting question)

My son and I talked about the earthquake and the immense 'power' of the tsunami after watching the videos.  Is there a way to quantify the energy of the earthquake(s)?  If so, can you also explain the amount energy in a way that an 11 year old can understand?  Thanks!
gpt
From wiki:

> This earthquake released a surface energy (Me) of 1.9±0.5×10^17 joules,[38] dissipated as shaking and tsunamic energy, which is nearly double that of the 9.1-magnitude 2004 Sumatran earthquake that killed 230,000 people. The total energy released (Mw) was calculated by the USGS WPhase Moment Solution at 3.9×10^22 joules,[39] slightly less than the 2004 Sumatra quake. The total energy released underground was some 205,000 times that on the surface.

To put this in perspective, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima released 5.4x10^13 J. Thus, the surface energy released by the earthquake alone was about 3500 times the energy released by the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Of course, the distinction between how the energy is released is important.