| Large earthquakes around the world |
| As shown in our page on big earthquakes in years, big_earthquakes.html, there were 50 earthquakes of manitude 7 and above in 49 months. We can conclude that over a period of few months, there has been one big earthquake in a month. But a major earthquake does not imply there will be large scale destruction of property and loss of many lives. All major earthquakes did not raise an alarm, at least not in every case or every earthquake prone region. * Where do major earthquakes occur ? * Where do big earthquakes cause human calamity ? Human calamity is caused when large scale destructions, loss of homes, loss of lives take place. Damages due to earthquakes, do not depend on magnitude of earthquakes alone. A large earthquake of 7 magnitude at 10 km depth would be devastating. But instead of shallow depth of 10 km, if the depth is more than 100 km, much less destructions will be seen on earth's surface where we live. More number of aftershocks and tsunamis result due to shallow depth of an earthquake event. If one browses through monthly earthquake data pages in this website, one can find the names of places on the ring of fire appearing too often. Significant earthquakes are occurring in and around these regions every now and then. Some of these regions are thickly populated, they include Japan, Indonesia, Chile, Peru. Other places include small islands in south pacific mostly known as vacation spots for tourists - Vanuatu, Mariana, Fiji, Tonga. These are lonely places with few expensive hotels (5 star) for tourists. Their structures are made with special care to withstand severe earthquakes. There was hardly any significant loss or damage so far. The local population of original inhabitants is familiar with large frequency of earthquakes. They do not live in high rise towers or concrete buildings in thickly populated localities. They have managed their community and life style in consonence with nature. Among populated countries, Japan has designed their residence to match well with frequent earthquakes, big or small. Hence less damage and loss to their population. Indonesia, Chile, Peru or other less developed countries are yet to cope up with hazards of nature, specially earthquakes. Earthquakes and Tsunamis take a heavy toll of lives in these countries. People become homeless, widespread destruction disturbs the already weak economic condition of people. Among places away from the ring of fire, Asian countries like Iran, Afganistan, China, India and American countries like U.S., Mexico, Carribean Islands and Brazil large earthquakes occur but less frequently. We observed that death tolls are very heavy even if magnitdes measure much less than 7. Destruction of property and life make earthquakes very serious and hazardous natural events. Scientific means could not be devised to predict earthquakes which follow the fault lines. People and Governments are aware that a large earthquake is pending in coming future in the Himalayan belt or in California. * But when? Science communities wait for a signal from nature before an earthquake occurrance. Statisticians look through years of data of earthquake events to find a periodicity in order to project a trend. No scientific experiment or statistical analysis can yet find a definite clue to earthquake occurances. Astrologers often send false alarms to the poor populations to make a fast buck. Earthquakes have nothing to do with planets or lunar cycles. Every day is a likely day for a large earthquake to occur - somewhere, but definitely not near your home. Large earthquakes of recent times are shown below. |
| ----Monthly data of eartquakes---- |
| We observed in this website from year 2001... A VERY powerful earthquake of magnitude 9 and tsunami on sun Dec 26, 2004 killed nearly 300,000 people in Indonesia and India |
| Largest earthquake |
 |
| 8.3 2006/11/15 11:14:16 46.61N 153.22E 28 KURIL ISLANDS |
| 8.1 2007/01/13 04:23:20 46.27N 154.45E 10 KURIL ISLANDS 8.0 2007/04/01 20:39:56 8.45S 156.95E 10 SOLOMON ISLANDS 8.4 2007/09/12 11:10:26 4.51S 101.38E 30 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA |
| Mag Date Time UTC Lat Long Depth Place of earthquake Km |