Millennium Ark: Earthquakes 1992

October 30, 2010 update
By Holly Deyo

It's not your imagination. More earthquakes than usual have struck in 2010. Because many events clustered together during the first seven months, it furthered magnified the data. If this increased trend maintains through the last two months of 2010, it could further push quake stats.

Something unique occurred July 23^rd. Three massive earthquakes – 7.3, 7.6 and 7.4 – struck the Philippines in rapid succession, like seismic gunfire. Since then thousands of aftershocks have hit the same area.

Quakes don't have to peg the largest magnitude to bring utter destruction. Look at January's Haiti event. That 7.0 event is responsible for this year's massive death toll. "The cost of rebuilding Haiti’s homes, schools, roads and other infrastructure could soar to nearly $14 billion." As of Oct. 13, 2,000,000 people were still homeless.

More Swarms

Quakes clustered in several places around the U.S. this year – the most recent in Arkansas with more than 100 temblors since last month and more shakes are added daily.

Oklahoma also experienced unusually high quake activity this month including a Richter 4.3. Speculation raised the question that these might have been human-caused, but scientists dismissed the theory on Monday. Though the largest event only produced a Richter 4, the area bears watching as it includes the New Madrid Seismic Zone.

Another intensive swarm hit southern Calif. in July and it continues today. These events coincide with the current quake series in Mexico.

Earlier in the year, yet another swarm clustered at Yellowstone. It managed to chalk up over 1500 shakes before quieting again in February.

Outside the country, Christchurch, New Zealand saw a record-breaking (for them) 1445 earthquakes following a 7.1 temblor that struck early last month.

Last year a 30,000-strong swarm pummeled Saudi Arabia. To scientists' surprise, these temblors revealed that the area is "unexpectedly volcanically active". Lava is just a mere 2km below surface.

Shaking Big, Shaking Early

This is how worldwide earthquakes stack up to date. Not only has a significant amount of quakes occurred, but extraordinary numbers of people have perished in them. Over a quarter million lives have been lost this year when only 10,000 is expected.

By July, yearly averages were already filling up. Disturbingly all of the larger magnitude quakes are at 100%, and some notably more so. (NOTE: At least they were on Oct. 20. Subsequently, USGS adjusted down Richter 6's and boosted the 5's.)

GLOBAL EARTHQUAKES JANUARY 1, 1992-OCTOBER 30, 2010

Mag.	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	Mag.	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	Yearly Ave.	Thru Oct 30, 2010 to Ave.
8.0-9.9 Great	0	1	2	3	1	0	2	0	4	3	1	1	2	8.0-9.9	1	1	4	0	1	1	1¹	100%
7.0-7.9 Major	24	15	13	22	21	20	14	23	16	15	12	16	14	7.0-7.9	11	11	14	12	16	19	15¹	127%
6.0-6.9 Strong	163	141	161	185	160	125	113	123	153	124	130	145	146	6.0-6.9	154	139	178	168	142	133	134²	99%
5.0-5.9 Moderate	1,521	1,449	1,542	1,327	1,223	1,118	979	1,106	1,345	1,243	1,218	1,252	1,637	5.0-5.9	1,954	1,529	2,072	1,768	1,700	1497	1319²	115%
4.0-4.9 Light	5,153	5,034	4,544	8,140	8,794	7,938	7,303	7,042	8,084	8,084	8,584	8,454	10,783	4.0-4.9	13,702	13,048	12,105	12,292	6,980	7,787	13,000	60%
Deaths	3,814	10,036	1,038	7,949	419	2,907	9,430	22,711	231	35,000- 40,000*	1,712	43,819	284,010	Deaths	82,364	6,605	712	88,208	1,787	226,623	10,000	2266%