February 3, 2013 - 40 Years of Global Earthquakes by Region: The chart above reflects global earthquakes, greater than or equal to 7.0 magnitude, by five regions of the world over the last 40 years. The SW (south-west) Pacific was the “winner” by far. This region included all of the SW Pacific below 30 degrees North Latitude. The countries, in this region and the number of quakes are Indonesia (36), the Solomon Islands (19), Papua New Guinea (16), the Philippines (14), New Zealand (14), Vanuatu (12), and others. This area saw the December 26, 2004 Sumatra mega-quake; that killed over 200,000 people, primarily from the subsequent tsunami.
Next in line was the NW (north-west) Pacific (above 30 degrees North Latitude). Prominent here are Japan (37) and Russia (24). This region witnessed the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. Again, most of the damage and deaths were due to the tsunami.
The United States and Mexico were a surprising third (I was expecting the west coast of South America).
South America was fourth, with Chile experiencing over half of the major tremors in this location. The largest earthquake in the last 100 years occurred near Santiago, Chile in 1960.
The other groups includes seven regions such as Antarctica, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and others.
The Master of Disaster
I’m really looking forward to tomorrows post. I wonder what the future holds for the Orange County, CA area in terms of future earthquakes and tsunamis. Especially for next year. Really love your site and emails. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for your very informative blog, Master. Curious to see where this is all leading to. As Jacquelyn says, keep up the great work!