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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
May 08, 2008 23:44:14 GMTM 3.1, Greater Los Angeles area, California34.0241-117.1463
May 08, 2008 23:21:07 GMTM 5.5, near the east coast of Honshu, Japan36.1273141.6902
May 08, 2008 22:43:08 GMTM 4.6, near the south coast of Honshu, Japan35.6149139.9915
May 08, 2008 21:18:55 GMTM 4.9, near the east coast of Honshu, Japan36.0191141.0223
May 08, 2008 20:56:00 GMTM 3.6, Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska51.9895-177.8552
May 08, 2008 17:04:32 GMTM 4.5, Fiji region-20.0605-177.9726
May 08, 2008 16:49:49 GMTM 4.5, off the coast of Central America3.4405-88.3455
May 08, 2008 16:41:00 GMTM 4.4, Simeulue, Indonesia2.887696.2805
May 08, 2008 16:21:34 GMTM 2.8, Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska52.0675-177.6627
May 08, 2008 14:51:52 GMTM 2.5, Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska51.8898-177.6294
May 08, 2008 14:12:55 GMTM 5.0, Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska52.1044-177.5497
May 08, 2008 13:21:50 GMTM 4.9, Mariana Islands region12.1545141.1657
May 08, 2008 12:26:22 GMTM 4.7, southern Greece36.116722.0251
May 08, 2008 12:17:27 GMTM 2.6, Southern Alaska61.5943-141.2470
May 08, 2008 11:31:29 GMTM 5.0, northern Sumatra, Indonesia5.400494.6346
May 08, 2008 10:04:53 GMTM 3.1, Puerto Rico region18.9840-67.4913
May 08, 2008 09:48:40 GMTM 4.7, off the east coast of Honshu, Japan35.9413142.0991
May 08, 2008 09:40:35 GMTM 4.8, near the east coast of Honshu, Japan36.1971141.9229
May 08, 2008 09:19:24 GMTM 3.3, Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska53.8343-177.4231
May 08, 2008 08:45:21 GMTM 3.6, Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska51.8376-177.5543
May 08, 2008 06:12:40 GMTM 2.6, Virgin Islands region18.6323-64.9358
May 08, 2008 05:55:01 GMTM 3.8, Nevada39.5420-119.9210
May 08, 2008 05:26:31 GMTM 4.7, near the east coast of Honshu, Japan36.0228141.8758
May 08, 2008 04:54:44 GMTM 3.3, Andreanof Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska51.9315-177.2971
May 08, 2008 04:24:43 GMTM 3.1, Puerto Rico region19.1280-67.6667
May 08, 2008 02:57:29 GMTM 2.5, Nevada39.5420-119.9210
May 08, 2008 02:49:58 GMTM 3.6, Saint Martin region, Leeward Islands17.5602-63.6063
May 08, 2008 02:47:39 GMTM 2.6, Nevada39.5470-119.9210
May 08, 2008 01:37:30 GMTM 2.9, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska60.6055-150.0022