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Shaking things up
Global earthquakes in the last week, as of noon Wednesday
6.0+ 5.0–5.9 4.0–4.9 3.0–3.9 2.5–2.9

7days
227 The closer an
earthquake is to
the surface, the
earthquakes more damaging
it is.
Ring

32
In 2010,
of there was an 8.8
Fire magnitude quake off
the coast of Maule,
earthquakes About 90% of the world’s
Chile. There were
304 aftershocks
per day earthquakes and 80% of the
world’s largest earthquakes occur
along the Ring of Fire.
with magnitude 5.0+
— 21 of these were
(average) 6.0+.

Number of major So far,

earthquakes there have been
four earthquakes

since 1990 with a magnitude

of 7.0+ this year.
Located by the USGS National Earthquake
Information Center
Magnitude 6.0–6.9 7.0–7.9 8.0–9.9
178
168
Annual frequency of earthquakes, by magnitude
158 151 8.0+ 7.0–7.9 6.0–6.9 5.0–5.9 4.0–4.9 3.0–3.9 2.0–2.9
140 141 140 142 144 1 15 134 1,319 13,000* 130,000* 1,300,000* *estimated
126 130
228,802 226,896
Estimated
number of deaths
caused by
earthquakes 88,003 88,011

14 15 13 14 14 10 14 12 16
21 since 2000
9 33,819
1 1 0 1 2 1 2 4 0 1 1 21,357
231 1,685 6,605 712 1,790
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Earthquakes less than 4.5 magnitude are only recorded in the U.S. and neighbouring countries 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Sources: USGS; Wikipedia SUSAN BATSFORD, GRAPHICS EDITOR; INFOGRAPHIC BY MEGAN DINNER/QMI AGENCY