<P> One of the most devastating earthquakes in recorded history was the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake, which occurred on 23 January 1556 in Shaanxi province, China . More than 830,000 people died . Most houses in the area were yaodongs--dwellings carved out of loess hillsides--and many victims were killed when these structures collapsed . The 1976 Tangshan earthquake, which killed between 240,000 and 655,000 people, was the deadliest of the 20th century . </P> <P> The 1960 Chilean earthquake is the largest earthquake that has been measured on a seismograph, reaching 9.5 magnitude on 22 May 1960 . Its epicenter was near Cañete, Chile . The energy released was approximately twice that of the next most powerful earthquake, the Good Friday earthquake (March 27, 1964) which was centered in Prince William Sound, Alaska . The ten largest recorded earthquakes have all been megathrust earthquakes; however, of these ten, only the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake is simultaneously one of the deadliest earthquakes in history . </P> <P> Earthquakes that caused the greatest loss of life, while powerful, were deadly because of their proximity to either heavily populated areas or the ocean, where earthquakes often create tsunamis that can devastate communities thousands of kilometers away . Regions most at risk for great loss of life include those where earthquakes are relatively rare but powerful, and poor regions with lax, unenforced, or nonexistent seismic building codes . </P> <P> Earthquake prediction is a branch of the science of seismology concerned with the specification of the time, location, and magnitude of future earthquakes within stated limits . Many methods have been developed for predicting the time and place in which earthquakes will occur . Despite considerable research efforts by seismologists, scientifically reproducible predictions cannot yet be made to a specific day or month . </P>

At what type of boundary do the largest earthquakes usually happen