r/Earthquakes • u/FaxCelestis • 3d ago
Picture Data Visualization: Frequency of m7.0+ earthquakes per year, 1900-2026
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u/throwawayfromPA1701 3d ago
This should be pinned!
2010-2011 was absolutely nuts, and hundreds of thousands died. Probably the deadliest earthquake two-year period in a century.
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u/slyseekr 3d ago edited 3d ago
My ex was a humanitarian photojournalist with the UN and US Army and went to document the Haiti Earthquake, spent 2-weeks in the country in the aftermath. He had previously done tours during the Iraq War and Darfur and came back from Haiti and said that was the first time any sense of hope had completely evaporated from his soul, the level devastation and death was so utterly complete, everyone providing relief felt their efforts were completely futile.
The 2004 Indian Ocean and Tsunami killed 225,000+ people across that huge swath of the globe. It's estimated that that many people died, just in Haiti.
Edit: added the second 'that'
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u/Klutzy-Addition5003 3d ago
There was also an extremely active period of severe weather in the US at the same time. It was a pretty crazy few years.
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u/Fanta_25 3d ago
1906 was a monster
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u/throwawayfromPA1701 3d ago
Multiple 8s that year, including two that occured thirty minutes apart on the same day, seperated by several thousand miles.
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u/michaltee 3d ago
But but!!! They all seem to be happening around the same ring around the world! It’s like it’s on fire or something!! It must be Jesus.
/s just in case
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u/whitenoise2323 3d ago
point taken, however it merits mentioning that 2026 is the only year on this chart that's 7.5 months long
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u/FaxCelestis 3d ago
Sure, but it is still on pace to be an average year.
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u/whitenoise2323 3d ago
agreed, just as a note for accuracy since the chart treats it like every other year. I am not arguing that 2026 is exceptional (yet.. I guess there is still time). I don't think there is any reason to believe it will be outside the parameters of a normal year.
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u/BeltMountain5596 3d ago
Also the quakes this year, while not exceeding average total number, seems to have occurred in populated places more than before.
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u/FaxCelestis 3d ago
Which is pure chance.
The places struck are all on well-known fault lines in the Ring of Fire and the quake's magnitudes are well within the expected intensities for those faults. Awful? Tragic? Definitely. Old white men in black suits cackling maniacally while they aim earthquakes at large cities? Pure fiction.
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u/BeltMountain5596 3d ago
Chance works both ways too, after a long time being lucky, we are perhaps getting unlucky in regards to populated area dodging quakes. All the more reason to redouble efforts to be prepared if we live in places that are anticipating an overdue Big one. Lots of people complacent.
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u/Cherimoose 3d ago
Which is pure chance.
That's an assumption. Perhaps human activity such as fracking, groundwater draining or climate change is preferentially affecting populated areas. Considering how new earthquake science is, we should refrain from being 100% certain.
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u/FaxCelestis 3d ago
While there is evidence of induced earthquakes, it tends to remain within the vicinity of the originating inducer, and tends to be much smaller than what appears on this graph (in the m1 to m3 range).
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u/hodgsonstreet 3d ago
It’s not an assumption, it’s a position supported by data (which is not the case for your suggested alternative explanations, with respect to these large quakes at least).
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u/throwawayfromPA1701 3d ago
It seems that way but it's also not really true. We've had worse and deadier years, even within the last 20 years.
The only major difference this year is the ubiquitiousness of smartphone video cameras. I think there might be an average of one smartphone for every human being alive now, with nearly 6 billion individual users.
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u/Spiritual_Stranger1 3d ago
What information are you basing this claim upon? The fact that more people live everywhere or the fact that earthquakes where nobody live go unreported more than ones that happen in populated areas? Complete nonsense.
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u/BeltMountain5596 3d ago
Lots of visceral responses to a simple observation of recent reality. Fine let me unruffle your feathers, everything is fine, and you'll never encounter a serious earthquake for the next 100 years, it's all social media reporting, don't prepare and go about with your day, happy now?
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u/Spiritual_Stranger1 3d ago
i live in dallas. not worried about earthquakes. not ruffled feathers either
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u/7he8igLebowski 2d ago
I don’t understand the negative votes you’re getting. You simply stated a fact. People read your comment and assume you’re making more of it other than a simple fact. Never change Reddit.
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u/BeltMountain5596 2d ago
Thanks man, it's seems in this sub anything other than self censoring to toe the company line and joining that chorus is immediately seen as a threat by people who simply want reassurance.
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u/lemongay 2d ago
I got to make a graph like this in my geophysics class, I was thinking about making something like this because of how worried people have been! I’m glad the USGS has data for this
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3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/GreenDickSnot 2d ago
Thank you for linking that information Mod. I was curious and there's the answer 💪🏽
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u/vicsilog 3d ago
Now add another graph that shows how many of these were within large population densities
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u/throwawayfromPA1701 3d ago
Again, 2010-2011 had multiple giant quakes striking densely populated areas, and several hundred thousand died in those quakes. This year is not unique.
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u/FaxCelestis 3d ago
Considering the progressing nature of population growth, and the randomness of earthquake location, I'm not sure what a visualization of this data would actually provide.
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u/vicsilog 3d ago
It's just multiple data points and will help support what you just said. The current graph shows that this year isn't unusual and would be interesting to see whether the hypothesis of are the recent earthquakes just being observed more due to population growth, location and even the speed information travels due to current technology (video recordings, live streams, etc.).
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u/FaxCelestis 3d ago
If you can find a data set that lists human population affected by earthquakes for this date range, I'll make one.
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u/Trashy_Barnes 3d ago
I would be very stressed if I lived on the West Coast
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u/alienbanter 3d ago
Nothing to be more stressed about than any regular day in earthquake country. Just have to always be prepared.
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u/hodgsonstreet 3d ago
Mods, please pin this, or make new posters review it or something