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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Is the number of earthquakes increasing?-Subodh Varma

Is the number of earthquakes increasing?-Subodh Varma

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published Published on Apr 13, 2012   modified Modified on Apr 13, 2012
-The Times of India
 
That’s what it appears. Just yesterday (11 April 2012) there were two powerful quakes off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, and two more in Mexico. In recent memory, there have been massive earthquakes in Japan last year (which caused the tsunami and the Fukushima meltdown), in Chile and Haiti in 2010, in Samoa and Sumatra in 2009, in China in 2008 and so on.

But it's not true that there are more earthquakes today than earlier - it's just that we get to know more.

Records since 1990 kept by various scientific bodies including the US Geological Service (USGS) show that there are on an average 17 major earthquakes (7.0 - 7.9) and one great earthquake (8.0 or above) in any given year. There are nearly 20,000 earthquakes recorded by the USGS every year, most of them of such minor magnitude that they are barely felt by people. Since 2009, they have stopped publishing records of earthquakes below 5.0 magnitude.

Data confirms that over a long time period, there is no increase in the number of earthquakes. Here’s the data from USGS for the past 40 years:
Earthquake
As you can see there is hardly any increase. But what about say a century ago?

There is an increase but that is because mankind is now recording earthquakes much more than before. In 1931 there were just 350 seismograph stations across the world, mostly in the West. Today there are over 8000 such stations.

Also there is almost live communication, vetting by experts, classification, measurement, etc. Data is recorded and processed and made available much faster and much better. News flashes across the world within minutes, cell phone images are live before the event is over. So we see much more.

And, don’t forget that people are much more around the world so quakes are felt and talked about and reported much more.

All this creates the impression that earthquakes are occurring more frequently. But in reality its just the same old same old.

The Times of India, 12 April, 2012, http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Curiosity-Shop/entry/is-the-number-of-earthquakes-increasing


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