Facts About Earthquakes

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

18 Apr 2008 04:30 AM

Folks in Illinois and as far as Indiana were woken this early morning by windows rattling and the earth shaking beneath them. A 5.4 earthquake shocked many people in the midwest, since an earthquake of that size is very unusual for the area. Thankfully, no damage has been reported so far, but since the earthquake took many people by surprise, I thought I would share some facts about earthquakes, such as the one that they can occur in places not expected.

I remember, for example, experiencing an earthquake some years ago in New Work City, not an area known for its earthquakes. It was very mild, but noticeable, much louder than the vibration that might have occurred as the result of a passing subway train. Fortunately, that was my only first hand experience with an earthquake, and it was very mild.

So here are some facts about earthquakes.

There are more than a million earthquakes occurring each year, or about 80,000 per month. Most of these earthquakes are too small to even be noticed by us other than through earthquake sensing equipment. There are about 1,000 moderately damaging earthquakes per year, such as the one that took place in Illinois today.

While earthquakes can occur all over the world, ninety-five percent of them happen on active boundaries where tectonic plates come together. In the United States, California is not the premier earthquake state, as we might guess. it is actually Alaska, which has more earthquakes than all of the other states in the union combined. Other active areas around the word include Japan, South America, and the Philippines.

Only five percent of earthquakes occur away from the the plate boundaries. They are called mid-plate or Intra-plate earthquakes, and scientists don't yet fully understand this phenomena. Have you ever experienced an earthquake?

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

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Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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