Natural disasters are terrifying. While some can be foreseen and often have seasonal occurrences, like tornados mostly happen in April, May, and June while hurricane season is around June through November. However, some natural disasters like earthquakes can happen at any time, anywhere.
But what are some weird facts about earthquakes that you might not know about? Earthquakes can range from a slight inconvenience to mass destruction, all depending on the intensity and length that they last. But those wanting to learn all about them should check out these top weird facts about earthquakes.
7. The Pacific “Ring of Fire”
Where do the most earthquakes on earth occur? The area is known as the “Ring of Fire“, or Circum-Pacific belt, which is a zone in the Pacific Ocean where 90% of the world’s earthquakes occur. This is because of the volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific basin which forms this ring. It’s also an area that has frequent volcanic eruptions.
After the “Ring of Fire”, the next most popular region for earthquakes is the Alpide belt, which extends from Meditteranean region, eastward through Turkey, Iran, and northern India.
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6. The Deadliest Earthquake Ever
Natural disasters are something that we can’t avoid. We might be able to prepare for them, but sometimes you never know when the strongest one will hit. Earthquakes are similar. When it comes to facts about earthquakes, one of the deadliest recorded in history was back in 1556 in China.
The magnitude was an estimated 8 in Shaanxi Province, China, where approximately 830,000 people died. The earthquake occurred early in the morning and devastated a 520-mile-wide area, including Huaxian, Weinan, and Huayin counties.
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5. Both Sun and Moon Cause Tremors
One of the many weird facts about earthquakes is that the position of planets can influence or cause earthquakes and tremors. It might not seem believable, but it’s been shown that during times of higher earth and ocean tides, such as during full or new moons, earthquakes are more likely on shallow thrusts fault nears the edges of continents and in underwater zones.
And talk about powerful eruptions on the sun trigger earthquakes as well. More and more studies have shown that the position of the moon and sun can cause small tremors deep within the San Andreas fault.
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4. How Many in a Year?
Many of us have been lucky enough not to experience such a traumatic event. But that just means we’re not aware of the dangers that lurk beneath the earth’s crust. One of the many weird facts about earthquakes is that they happen more often than you might think.
It’s estimated that about 500,000 detectable earthquakes happen each year. 100,000 of those can be felt, and about 100 of these cause damage. In 2010, there were a whopping 23 major earthquakes, which means greater than or equal to a magnitude of 7, which is the most in one year.
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3. Los Angeles Is Moving
As you might know, earthquakes happen with tectonic plates move against one another. That’s how mountains are formed and how pieces of land move around, from these tectonic plates. But interestingly enough, these earthquakes and shifting are causing Los Angeles to move — literally.
Thanks to the San Andreas fault, Los Angeles, which sits on the edge of the Pacific Plate, is moving northward, about two inches per year, which is the same speed as the growth of fingernails. That might not seem like much, but compared to the timeframe of the universe, it’s quite fast.
2. The Largest Recorded Earthquake
We’ve covered how dangerous and fascinating earthquakes are, but what about figuring out just how massive they can be? One of the many weird facts about earthquakes is that the largest earthquake recorded in history was in the city of Valdivia, Chile in 1960. With a magnitude of 9.5, it was not only one of the deadliest, killing 5,700, but was a huge quake that struck and lasted 10 minutes.
The quake caused a large amount of land subsidence along a long stretch of Chile’s coast, and many landslides were reported in rural areas. That’s not all, as two days after the incident, the Cordon Caulle volcano erupted as a result of the seismic activity.
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1. Earthquakes in Space
The number one spot for the best weird facts about earthquakes is that they’re not just one the our planet. Earthquakes actually happen on the moon as well. Yes, you read that right. While they’re not called earthquakes there — they go by moonquakes — geoscientists have learned that the moon is subjected to tremors just the same.
Granted, the workings of how it happens are a bit different. For a moonquake to occur, it usually involves meteoroids striking the moon’s surface, a tremor being triggered by the structure and temperature change in the moon, or even by the gravitational pull o f the Earth. Since there are no tectonic plates on the moon, moonquakes occur in drastically different ways.
