Top Interesting Facts About Earthquake!

By John C. Barnard Last updated Apr 28, 2022 0

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Earthquakes can be produced by natural occurrences such as volcanic eruptions and meteor impacts, but the bulk of naturally occurring earthquakes are caused by plate movement.

The earth’s surface is made up of 20 plates that are constantly changing. Shifting plates can cause the crust to shatter due to increased pressure. Stress can be released as energy, which travels through the earth in the form of waves (aka earthquakes).

During an earthquake, it’s usually not the shaking ground that kills people. It’s the destruction of man-made structures as well as the triggering of other natural disasters like tsunamis, avalanches, and landslides.

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Around the world, the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) monitors an average of 20,000 earthquakes per year (about 50 per day). However, it is predicted that millions of earthquakes occur each year that are too weak to be recorded.

Each year, roughly 10,000 earthquakes strike southern California, the vast majority of which go unnoticed. If a major earthquake occurs, however, the aftershock series will spawn several further earthquakes of all magnitudes over months.

Almost 80% of all earthquakes occur along the Pacific Ocean’s rim, known as the “Ring of Fire”; a region that encircles the Pacific Ocean and has 452 volcanoes (nearly 75% of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes).

On March 28, 1964, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake rocked Prince William Sound, Alaska, making it the largest earthquake ever recorded in the United States.

On May 22, 1960, a magnitude 9.5 earthquake struck Chile, making it the world’s greatest recorded earthquake.

Seismographs detected seismic waves that went around the world after the 1960 Chilean earthquake. The ground was shaken for days as a result of these seismic waves.

On December 26, 2004, an underwater earthquake in the Indian Ocean unleashed a series of deadly tsunamis. The tsunamis slammed into the beaches of major landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, causing 100-foot waves and killing about 225,000 people across 11 countries.

Alaska is the most earthquake-prone state in the US, as well as one of the world’s most seismically active regions. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes the region roughly every year, and a magnitude 8.0 or higher earthquake strikes once every 14 years.

Every year, there are millions of earthquakes. According to the US Geological Survey, there are around 17 large earthquakes measuring above 7.0 on the Richter scale per year, with one great earthquake measuring above 8.0. Experts believe that several million earthquakes occur each year, many of which go unreported due to their remote location or modest magnitude.

The length of a day can be affected by an earthquake. The distribution of the earth’s mass was affected by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake that rocked northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, causing it to revolve slightly quicker and shorten one earth day by roughly 1.8 microseconds.

San Francisco is encroaching on Los Angeles. San Francisco is creeping closer to Los Angeles at a rate of around two inches every year. Your fingernails grow at the same rate as your hair. Because the two sides of the San Andreas Fault are steadily slipping past one another, this is happening. In several million years, the cities will collide.

Before an earthquake, standing water has a distinct odor. Before an earthquake, ponds, canals, lakes, and other bodies of water may emit a foul odor and become somewhat warmer.

As the plates shift, gases are released underground, causing this. This could lead to a shift in the behavior of the local wildlife. Toads vanished before an earthquake struck Italy in 2009, and then reappeared, according to researchers from the Open University’s Department of Life Sciences. Toads are also thought to detect changes in water chemistry induced by rock stresses.

“Seiches” are post-quake internal waves. An internal wave can sometimes be seen churning the water about in swimming pools and ponds after an earthquake. A seiche (pronounced “says”) is the medical term for this.

After the earthquake, the water can continue to slosh around for hours. A seiche produced by the 1985 earthquake in Mexico, 2000 kilometers away, caused the swimming pool at the University of Arizona in Tucson to lose water.

The Inca and traditional Japanese architecture were built to withstand earthquakes. Inca architecture, like Japanese pagodas, was designed to endure earthquakes.

The majority of earthquakes occur in the Pacific Ocean. The Ring of Fire, which is a region in the Pacific Ocean basin, is home to the vast majority – around 90% – of the world’s earthquakes.

An earthquake in Chile caused a city to shift ten feet to the west. The earth’s crust was ruptured so violently during a huge earthquake on Saturday, February 27, 2010, registering 8.8 on the Richter scale, that the city of Concepcion literally relocated 10 feet to the west.

Everest shrank as a result of an earthquake. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal on April 25, 2015, causing serious damage and the shrinking of several Himalayan mountains, including Mount Everest, which shrank by one inch.