10 Interesting Facts on Earthquakes

The earthquake is an uncontrollable natural phenomenon that has brought humans to their knees since he first stepped on the earth (To find out when the earliest reported earthquake occurred, scroll down). Here is 10 facts on earthquakes you probably did not know:

  1. The largest earthquake that was ever recorded in the U.S. was in Alaska. The magnitude 9.2 quake hit Prince William Sound in March of 1964. Contrary to popular opinion, Alaska has the most frequent earthquakes, not California.
  2. The largest earthquake ever recorded globally was a magnitude 9.5 that struck Chile in May of 1960.
  3. Due to the rate of motion in the San Andreas Fault Zone researchers believe that in 15 million years Los Angeles will be pleasantly located directly next to San Francisco.
  4. The earth’s moon has small magnitude earthquakes called “moonquakes.” Moonquakes rarely happen and are not as strong as the ones on earth.
  5. Southern California has approximately 10,000 small magnitude earthquakes every year. Most of these are simple tremors and might not even be felt.
  6. Between 1975 and 1995, 46 states had an earthquake. The only four that did not were Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Florida.
  7. The majority of earth quakes happen at less than 50 miles below the surface of the Earth.
  8. The deadliest earthquake in history happened in China in 1556 in China. More than 800,000 people were killed.
  9. The earliest recorded earthquake took place in 1831 BC in China. Earthquakes have been fairly well documented since around 800 BC.
  10. The British settlers of America experienced their first quake in 1663.