5 Interesting Earthquake Facts
Because natural disasters are fascinating
Okay, so here’s the thing: sometimes when I’m having trouble sleeping, when my mind is racing about whatever, I read about earthquakes to calm myself down.
I know… it’s weird — I’m weird. But hey, it’s my thing, so let’s just roll with it.
Anywho, I’ve been doing this late-night earthquake therapy somewhat regularly for a few years now — ever since I moved to California. So inevitably I’ve learned a few things. And, well, it doesn’t feel right to do all this research without sharing some of it, so here we are.
Without further ado, it’s with a great need for sleep that I give you some of my favorite earthquake facts:
1 ) There are an estimated 500,000 detectable earthquakes in the world each year
Approximately 100,000 of these quakes can be felt, 100 may cause significant damage in populated areas, 10–15 may cause major damage, and about 1 or 2 are powerful enough to destroy communities near their epicenter.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGA), people typically begin reporting earthquakes at magnitudes of 3.0 and above.
