Earthquake Facts
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth’s crust that creates seismic waves. They can come without warning and cause destruction beyond imagination. Earthquakes with a magnitude 3 or lower are generally not issues, but a quake with a magnitude 7+ will cause serious damage over large areas. Continue reading to find out some interesting Earthquake Facts.
Fact #1 - An earthquake’s point of initial rupture is called its focus or hypocenter. The term epicenter means the point at ground level directly above this.
In most cases, the epicenter is the location of the greatest damage. It’s the place you least want to be.
Fact #2 - The largest recorded earthquake in the United States was a magnitude 9.2 that struck Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 28, 1964. The largest recorded earthquake in the world was a magnitude 9.5 in Chile on May 22, 1960.
These size earthquakes can shift the geography of their regions. They are so massive that they can be felt hundreds of miles away.
Fact #3 - It is estimated that there are 500,000 detectable earthquakes in the world each year. 100,000 of those can be felt, and 100 of them cause damage.
That is a hell of a lot of earthquakes. That means there are about 274 earthquakes that can be felt every single day. My guess is most of us just pass it off as something else because the feeling is so small.
Fact #4 - The world’s deadliest recorded earthquake occurred in 1556 in central China. It struck a region where most people lived in caves carved from soft rock. These dwellings collapsed during the earthquake, killing an estimated 830,000 people.
Often times it isn’t the earthquake itself that kills the most people, it is the resulting tsunamis, landslides and fires.
Fact #5 - An aftershock is an earthquake that occurs after a previous earthquake, the mainshock. An aftershock is in the same region of the main shock but always of a smaller magnitude.
The aftershock is formed as the crust around the fault line adjusts itself.
