The energy released on the Earth's surface ("M"E, which is the "seismic potential for damage") by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was estimated at . This energy is equivalent to over 1,500 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, but less than that of Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated. The total physical work done "M"W (and thus energy) by the quake was , the vast majority underground, which is over 360,000 times more than its "M"E, equivalent to 9,600 gigatons of TNT equivalent (550 million times that of Hiroshima) or about 370 years of energy use in the United States at 2005 levels of . The only recorded earthquakes with a larger "M"W were the 1960 Chilean and 1964 Alaskan quakes, with and , respectively.