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Geology / Earthquakes

Earthquakes are the most widely spread evidence that the Earth is still active. It has been active since it was first formed billions of years ago. Just one billion years ago the Earth had somewhat settled down, there were areas of land (continental crust) surrounded by oceans with their thinner, denser oceanic crust deep beneath the waves. The earth's surface became divided into stable areas of crust with mobile unstable margins. As the oceanic crust cooled it became denser and fell back into the semi-liquid (on a geological time scale) vast volume of the Earth's mantle. This thick mantle is itself driven by convection currents that are continually transporting heat energy from the still hot Core to the cold crust.

One of the main causes of earthquakes are the jerky but remoreseful movements of the plates as they slide, crush or descend past each other. These events cause the really big earthquakes. Alternatively the ascent of the hot magma from the mantle can cause earthquakes, but these tend to be not as strong and not as deep. An eruption of a large volcano can cause local earthquakes as the magma rises and stresses the shallow rocks. Human activity can create small earthquakes too, this often happens when a rivers are dammed and the huge weight of the water building up in the lake causes stresses in the underlying rocks.

This site has an archive of earthquakes in recent times both as a list of events and as an animation. Looking at the pattern of earthquakes over the last few months quickly demonstrates the location of the active plate margins around the world.

If you'd like to look at recent earthquakes, we have generated some pages using data supplied by : U.S. Geological Survey


Date and TimeStrength, LocationLatitudeLongtitude
March 15, 2010 00:42:55 GMTM 4.9, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile-34.1757-71.6970
March 14, 2010 22:42:26 GMTM 5.2, Flores region, Indonesia-8.2388122.7156
March 14, 2010 22:33:19 GMTM 5.4, South Sandwich Islands region-58.2727-23.7362
March 14, 2010 21:17:18 GMTM 5.3, Mid-Indian Ridge-7.063667.9706
March 14, 2010 20:57:04 GMTM 4.7, Region Metropolitana, Chile-33.6806-71.3279
March 14, 2010 20:33:10 GMTM 6.0, South Indian Ocean-2.763483.6777
March 14, 2010 20:14:24 GMTM 4.9, Araucania, Chile-38.4485-72.8520
March 14, 2010 20:06:46 GMTM 2.9, Puerto Rico region18.1159-65.3720
March 14, 2010 20:04:58 GMTM 5.6, Araucania, Chile-38.3789-73.4141
March 14, 2010 19:23:31 GMTM 4.9, Bio-Bio, Chile-37.7257-73.5280
March 14, 2010 19:10:51 GMTM 5.0, offshore Libertador O'Higgins, Chile-34.6362-72.2381
March 14, 2010 19:09:06 GMTM 4.5, northwestern Kashmir35.294574.4384
March 14, 2010 18:23:07 GMTM 5.0, Philippine Islands region5.2004127.3165
March 14, 2010 17:20:33 GMTM 4.9, south of the Kermadec Islands-34.0287-179.1703
March 14, 2010 16:42:53 GMTM 3.0, Northern California38.8188-122.7933
March 14, 2010 16:22:37 GMTM 4.6, Bougainville region, Papua New Guinea-6.3807155.2667
March 14, 2010 14:01:18 GMTM 5.0, offshore Araucania, Chile-38.4338-73.6636
March 14, 2010 13:52:24 GMTM 5.7, offshore Araucania, Chile-38.4451-73.6154
March 14, 2010 11:42:52 GMTM 3.2, northern Alaska67.6969-159.6030
March 14, 2010 11:32:31 GMTM 4.9, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile-34.5358-71.8615
March 14, 2010 09:54:18 GMTM 4.8, Mindanao, Philippines8.6464126.4675
March 14, 2010 09:26:15 GMTM 2.7, Virgin Islands region18.4160-64.9869
March 14, 2010 09:01:25 GMTM 4.9, offshore Bio-Bio, Chile-37.1732-73.5137
March 14, 2010 08:46:19 GMTM 2.9, Southern Alaska60.1930-152.9436
March 14, 2010 08:08:05 GMTM 6.6, near the east coast of Honshu, Japan37.7802141.5623
March 14, 2010 07:38:00 GMTM 3.7, Kodiak Island region, Alaska56.1420-152.3342
March 14, 2010 07:31:25 GMTM 5.4, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile-34.2077-71.7393
March 14, 2010 07:04:15 GMTM 4.8, Izu Islands, Japan region33.3938140.8375
March 14, 2010 06:53:47 GMTM 2.5, Southern California32.7151-115.8388
March 14, 2010 06:53:29 GMTM 4.5, Kashmir-India border region32.133675.7529
March 14, 2010 06:17:15 GMTM 2.6, Northern California38.8382-122.8248
March 14, 2010 04:13:13 GMTM 2.6, Southern Alaska59.7739-153.0768
March 14, 2010 02:52:54 GMTM 4.6, offshore El Salvador12.8486-88.7549
March 14, 2010 02:43:25 GMTM 4.7, Nicobar Islands, India region8.749892.2741
March 14, 2010 02:21:08 GMTM 4.8, Bonin Islands, Japan region28.5735142.7904
March 14, 2010 01:40:44 GMTM 4.9, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile-34.5478-71.7825