Earthquake statistics for the last 5 years table. Major earthquakes in the world over the past five years (2004–2010)

Today it is no longer a secret to anyone that on all continents of our planet there is a significant increase in cataclysms and natural disasters that are associated with cosmic cyclical processes and, as a consequence, global climate change. The increase in activity and frequency of natural disasters on a planetary scale is due to seismic activity. Scientists around the world are concerned about the constantly changing data on the increase in the number of earthquakes. Not only their number increases, but also the intensity, location, and nature of destructive actions.

Thus, an area of ​​special attention for the scientific direction of climate geoengineering and the entire world community today are two points on different hemispheres of the globe - the Yellowstone caldera in the USA and the Aira caldera in Japan. These are two huge underground volcanoes located at the junction of lithospheric plates. According to scientists, the activation of one of them can lead to the subsequent activation of the other, and this is not only a large-scale eruption, but also earthquakes, tsunamis and other consequences. The scale of such a global catastrophe is difficult to assess.

This and other important issues of early warning of people about impending cataclysms were openly stated in 2014 by the global community of ALLATRA SCIENCE scientists in the report “On the problems and consequences of global climate change on Earth. Effective ways to solve these problems."

Earthquake.

According to official terminology, an earthquake is a vibration of the earth's surface or underground points that are a reflection of the internal geological changes of the planet. The basis for this effect is the displacement of tectonic plates, which lead to ruptures in the earth's crust and mantle. As a result, oscillatory movements, depending on the intensity of the process, can spread over long distances, bringing with them not only a destructive effect on social infrastructure, but also a threat to people’s lives.

This issue is dealt with by a special science – seismology. Several areas are being actively studied, including: deepening the knowledge of what seismic activity is in essence and what it is connected with, possible forecasting of these natural disasters, for timely warning and evacuation of people. Like any other science, seismology can actively develop only in a mutually beneficial symbiosis with other sciences (physics, history, biology, geophysics, etc.), since the fundamental basis for all knowledge on our planet is, of course, common.

Seismic activity online and in the world.

Seismic monitoring is developing in most countries, regardless of the territory, frequency and threat of earthquakes. In addition, a seismic monitor is one of the fundamental factors in the development and preservation of the integrity of energy industry facilities. Almost every person on the planet today is an active consumer of electricity. Therefore, power plants are located in all countries and on all continents, including areas of high seismic hazard. The action of such a destructive force of nature is fraught not only with an energy disaster, but also with global environmental problems.

In order to control seismic processes (earthquakes), study them and warn the public in advance about their occurrence, seismic stations are built in designated areas. All necessary characteristics of tremors are studied - magnitude, location and depth of the source.

Earthquakes online.

Thanks to Internet technologies, data is also available to all people today: “earthquakes online.” This is the so-called earthquake map, which provides information about tremors around the world around the clock.

Active participants of the ALLATRA International Public Movement have developed the most complete map of seismic activity, which displays objective data from world information portals and seismic monitoring stations. Informing the public and awareness of the processes occurring on the planet, their causes and consequences is the main goal of this project.

Today, everyone can observe a significant increase in abnormal weather changes, natural disasters, and cataclysms. The active participation of all people, unification, mutual assistance and friendship, the prevalence of true moral and spiritual values ​​in society is the key to the survival of civilization in the future.

Preface Last year, when the Haiti earthquake happened, I collected some data about it and about earthquakes that have occurred on Earth since 1960. They are given at the beginning of this article. This year, the tragedy repeated itself in Japan. Only a few days have passed since the earthquake and the tsunami it caused, but it is already clear that this was a terrible disaster that killed a huge number of people. I copied several news articles that were directly related to this earthquake and which I found interesting. The nature of man is such that he always looks for the causes of tragedies and tries to compare the facts. If only we could somehow take them into account in order to avoid similar disasters in the future. But, most likely, man cannot outwit nature. Therefore, all that remains is to analyze and hope for her mercy. Statistics of earthquakes of the XX-XXI centuries. According to the analysis conducted by Tatyana Chernoglazova from the Institute of Earth Sciences (Kazakhstan, Alma-Ata) http://trounev.com/Chaos/No5/TCH2/TCH2.htm, from 2000 to 2006, the total number of earthquakes with amplitudes from 1 to 8 points on the Richter scale increased from 19136 to 29534 events, i.e. by 10398. At the same time, the number of large earthquakes with magnitudes 5-8 increased by 108 events: 1518 in 2000 and 1626 in 2006, while the number of medium earthquakes with magnitude 2-5 increased by 10290 events: 17618 in 2000 year and 27908 in 2006. The number of victims of the earthquakes of 2000-2006 is 437,061 people! The number of victims of the 2007-2009 earthquakes is 95,837 people! In total, as a result of earthquakes inXXIcentury (excluding those killed in Japan), 764,898 people died! The most destructive earthquakes in the last 80 years:(According to the sites: http://newsru.co.il/world/16aug2007/eq_stat_114.html http://www.newsru.ru/world/13jan2010/quake_haiti.html) http://news.rambler.ru/ 9274158/) December 16, 1920. China, Gansu province. - 180,000 - 240,000 people October 5-6, 1948. Turkmenistan (Central Asia) - 100,000 - 150,000 thousand people February 29, 1960. Agadir (Morocco) - 12,000 dead. April 26, 1966. Tashkent (USSR) - 8 dead. January 5, 1970. Yunnan (PRC) - 16,000 dead. May 31, 1970. Peru - 67,000 dead. December 22, 1972. Nicaragua - 6,000 dead. February 4, 1976. Guatemala - 23,000 dead. July 28, 1976. Tien Shan (PRC) - according to various sources, from 300,000 to 655,000 dead. August 17, 1976. Mindanao (Philippines) - 8,000 dead. September 16, 1978. Tebes (Iran) - 25,000 dead. September 19-20, 1985. Mexico City (Mexico) - 25,000 dead. December 7, 1988. Spitak (Armenia) - 25,000 dead. June 21, 1990. Iran - 50,000 dead. January 17, 1995. Japan - 5,100 dead. May 28, 1995. Russia. Sakhalin (9 points) - 2040 dead. May 30, 1998. Afghanistan - 5,000 dead. August 17, 1999. Izmir (Türkiye) - 17,000 dead. January 26, 2001. Bhuj (India) - 20,000 dead. December 26, 2003. Bam (Iran) - 30,000 dead. December 26, 2004. South Asia - 230,000 dead. March 2005. Indonesia, Nias Island (8.2 points). 1300 people died. October 2005. Pakistan (7.6 points) 73,000 people died, including 17 thousand children. May 27, 2006. Indonesia - 5,100 dead. May 2007. Indonesia, Java island (6.2 points). 6,618 people died. August 2007. Peru, Ica department, (8 points) 519 people died. May 2008. China, Sichuan, (7.9 points). 87,000 thousand people died. October 2008. Pakistan, Balochistan province (6.4 points). 300 people died. April 2009. Italy, L'Aquila. (5.8 points) 300 people died. October 2009. Sumatra (Indonesia). 1,100 people died. January 12, 2010. Haiti. 232,000 people died. The total number of people killed as a result of earthquakes between 1920 and 2010 was 2,045,314*. Let’s add to this figure the 28 thousand victims of the 2011 earthquake in Japan (the data is still speculative) and we get more than two million seventy three thousand people! And only inXXIcentury, more than seven hundred thousand people became victims of earthquakes, not counting those killed in Japan.*figures are approximate, since data on victims of some earthquakes is not accurate. These are just statistics, but behind them there is so much fear, grief, tears, broken destinies, destroyed houses, cities, villages. And we, the inhabitants of the Earth, cannot do anything except think about our ambitions and our attitude towards our only breadwinner, towards our only home - Planet Earth, as well as about our attitude towards each other. I have no doubt that the active work of people to “develop” the planet has contributed to the processes taking place in it. I would like to believe that the future will be lenient towards us. Let us remain silent in memory of the victims. Below is about the earthquake in Japan and Haiti. Earthquake in Japan on March 11, 2011 An earthquake with a magnitude of 9 on the Richter scale (according to preliminary data - 8.9 points) occurred on Friday, March 11, 2011 in Japan. The epicenter of the earthquake was 373 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, its source lay at a depth of 24 kilometers. Soon and in the following days, several more powerful tremors with a magnitude of over 6.0 occurred in the same area, the epicenter of one of them was only 67 kilometers from Tokyo. The magnitude of the strongest aftershock was 7.1.
The earthquake caused a powerful tsunami - huge waves ten meters high covered the Japanese coastal area, and then the tsunami quickly began to spread across the Pacific Ocean at tremendous speed. The waves reached almost the entire coastline of the Pacific Basin - the USA, Indonesia, New Zealand, Kamchatka, but no large-scale disaster occurred in other countries. The scale of the tragedy is enormous - millions of people were left homeless, important economic facilities were destroyed, both in the coastal zone and in megacities, tens of thousands of people died or went missing, and a disaster occurred at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture. At present, it is too early to draw conclusions; search operations are underway and data on damage is being collected. But it is already known today that the strike of the underground disaster on March 11, 2011 was the 5th most powerful in the last 100 years. Currently, the strongest earthquake known to mankind over the last 100 years, about which there is official documented data, is the earthquake in Haiti, which occurred on January 12, 2010 at about 17:00 local time. After the main shock of magnitude 7 on the Richter scale, which lasted about 40 seconds, about 30 more were recorded, half of which were at least magnitude 5. In second place is the earthquake that occurred on July 28 back in 1976 in the Chinese city of Tangshan. An 8.2 magnitude earthquake that killed 222,000 people, and that's apparently a "strong" estimate. According to estimates of some international organizations, the number of victims of the Tangshan earthquake was much higher, up to 800 thousand people, while the strength of the tremors was slightly lower - 7.8 points. Naturally, there are no exact figures - according to archival reports, it is assumed that the Chinese government deliberately underestimated the scale of the disaster by several times. http://news.rambler.ru/9274158/ “Japan is now experiencing the most severe crisis since the Second World War,” said the country’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan. “The question now facing all Japanese is whether we can overcome this. I am sure that we will do it."
As of March 14, 5,000 people were listed as dead, the fate of 10,000 people is unknown. Below is a selection of articles about this earthquake from different perspectives. Shift of the Earth's own axis by 17 cm
A powerful earthquake in Japan led to a shift of the Earth's own axis, around which the planet is balanced in mass, by 17 cm and to a reduction in the length of the Earth's day by 1.8 microseconds. These updated data were provided by ITAR-TASS on March 14, 2011, by scientist Richard Gross from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory located in Pasadena (California). Two days ago, Ross indicated smaller estimates - 15 cm and 1.6 microseconds (1 microsecond is one millionth of a second). Now the preliminary calculations have been verified and corrected based on readings from US orbital satellites. Their data allows us to create “the most accurate picture” of the changes that have taken place on the planet, the scientist noted. He considers new, extremely minor adjustments very likely given the continued high seismic activity on the Japanese Islands. As Ross explained earlier, the Earth's own axis, which should not be confused with the planet's rotation axis, is constantly shifting under the influence of any events that lead to a change in the distribution of masses of large objects on the surface. “The length of the day changes in the same way as a figure skater increases the speed of rotation of his body in place, pressing his hands to his sides. The earthquake in Japan shifted the mass of the Earth in such a way that the planet began to rotate a little faster. Accordingly, the length of the day decreased,” the NASA scientist added . As for the Earth's rotation axis, here, as Ross explained, external forces act and influence. “Only the gravitational attraction of the Sun, Moon and other planets can do this,” he added. The specialist compared the cataclysm in Japan with last year's earthquake off the coast of Chile. It shifted the Earth's own axis by 8 cm towards 112 degrees east longitude and shortened the length of the day by 1.26 microseconds. The length of an earthly day is 86.4 thousand seconds, or just under 24 hours. Over the course of one year, this indicator changes by about 1 millisecond (1 thousand microseconds), usually depending on seasonal variations in the distribution of masses on the surface of the planet, ITAR-TASS reports. http://rus.ruvr.ru/2011/03/14/47352766.html Scientist: Earthquake in Japan will not affect the planet's climate SAINT PETERSBURG, March 14. An earthquake in Japan will not affect the planet's climate or weather. The shift of the earth's axis, which occurred as a result of a severe natural collapse, will also not have any effect on subsequent processes in nature. So says Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Deputy Director for Science at INENKO RAS, Professor of Climatology at St. Petersburg State University Gennady Menzhulin. As he told Rosbalt, no problems can arise due to the displacement of the earth's axis. “This is a rather rare, but common occurrence that occurs as a result of large earthquakes,” the scientist said. “The fact that underground masses shift due to circulation in the core is not a problem. This will not bring any changes to the climate or weather. Events in "Japan is truly unique, but the main thing is the processes of direct destruction, that is, what the earthquake and tsunami directly brought. A little, not a few microseconds, the earth moved - this is a fairly common, although infrequent, phenomenon. There is no need to be afraid of this." http://www.rosbalt.ru/2011/03/14/828127.html Sunspot, earthquake - is there a connection?
Comparing the earthquake in Japan that has occurred now with last year’s devastating powerful earthquake on the island of Haiti, the magnitude of which is estimated at 7 points, scientists use the following formula: M = 2/3 (log E - 11.8), in which E is an energy measurement indicator earthquake, calculated in joules, and M is its magnitude. The formula shows that the power of the earthquake that occurred in Japan was a thousand times higher than that year in Haiti, it became the most powerful in the entire Japanese history of observing seismic activity. This time, the epicenter of the earthquake was in the sea at a short distance from one of the Japanese islands - Honshu, just 140 kilometers from the city with a million population Sendai, at a distance of 370 kilometers from the largest Japanese metropolis - Tokyo. A surge in seismic activity covered the most problematic area, located in the Japan Trench, a geological depression several kilometers deep. At this point, two geological plates meet - the Okhotsk and the Pacific. Japanese scientists have long known the danger this zone poses to them, where one geological plate is covered by another, so they have been conducting professional seismological research for a considerable time, paying attention to new technologies. The earthquake itself occurred a few days after astronomers recorded an increase in solar activity, which had previously been quiet for a long time. The sunspot, numbered 1164, ejected a coronal mass. This substance rushed into outer space at a tremendous speed of 2200 km/s - emissions of such high force have not been observed in the last six years. Some charged particles eventually managed to reach the Earth on March 8-9, which caused a powerful geological storm on our planet, and after it shook the Japanese islands. Now there are still no generally accepted explanations for the cause of such earthquakes; some scientists consider solar activity to be such a factor, due to which the bowels of the planet begin to release the long-accumulated energy of increased temperature, deformation, and pressure. Such scientists include Kevin Martin, a meteorologist from the United States, who provides evidence of an obvious connection between seismological processes on earth and increased solar activity. Geophysicist Richard Gross, assessing the global scale of the Japanese earthquake, says that a new redistribution of masses occurred, due to which the Earth's rotation axis shifted. The line along which the Earth's mass is balanced has shifted by about 15 centimeters, causing the planet's rotation speed to increase slightly and Earth's day to shorten by 1.6 milliseconds. Japan suffered not only from the earthquake itself, but also from a powerful tsunami - huge waves ten meters high covered the Japanese coastal zone, and then the tsunami quickly began to spread across the Pacific Ocean at tremendous speed. The waves reached almost the entire coastline of the Pacific Basin - the USA, Indonesia, New Zealand, Kamchatka, but no large-scale disaster occurred in other countries. The tragic events in Japan once again raise the question of the possibility of predicting upcoming earthquakes. Although thousands of seismographs were installed in the country, which recorded the approaching disaster, they showed a surge in seismic activity only 80 seconds before the start of the tremors, when it was no longer possible to evacuate the population. Such a short time may be enough to park a vehicle, get out of an elevator, or quickly run out of the house. The tsunami was predicted in advance, taking into account the time delay of the tremors and the appearance of huge waves, thanks to which the governments of the countries of the Pacific Ocean were able to warn their population about the approach of the tsunami. The work of the Japan Seismological Service is considered by the government as one of the priorities, given the country's location in a geological fault zone. Conclusions about the possible consequences of earthquakes and tsunamis were made in Kobe after a similar tragedy in 1995. As a result, Japan adopted some of the highest standards for seismicity, which are taken into account during the construction of all buildings, so the country was prepared for such disasters, although such severe consequences could not be avoided. And if it was impossible to evacuate citizens during an earthquake, residents of coastal Japanese cities were warned about the approaching tsunami in time, as a result of which new victims were avoided. http://www.ufolog.ru/event/11041 Earthquake in Japan: is the Moon to blame?
MOSCOW, March 11 - RIA Novosti. A change in the strength of the gravitational influence of the Sun and Moon on the Earth, the so-called tidal forces, can in some cases serve as a “trigger” for earthquakes in the ocean, Leonid Zotov, an employee of the Gravimetry Laboratory of the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute of Moscow State University (SAI), told RIA Novosti. In his opinion, the assumption that the upcoming unusually strong rapprochement of the Earth and the Moon is “to blame” for the earthquake in Japan may have some basis. The influence of gravity of the Moon and the Sun lifts the areas of the earth's surface facing them, forming the so-called tidal humps. This influence is most severe in the ocean, where fluctuations in water levels can reach several meters. In some cases, the effects of the Moon and the Sun “add together” and the tides become especially high. Their height is also affected by changes in the distance to the Moon due to the elliptical shape of its orbit. “From those observations of large earthquakes that occurred in Chile, Sumatra and Haiti, it is possible to identify a certain factor, namely the influence of the tide. The fact is that these earthquakes did not occur on land, but in the ocean, and the tide in the ocean can to be such a trigger,” said the agency’s interlocutor. Is it Luna's fault? Next week, on March 19, the Moon will approach the Earth at a distance of 356.6 thousand kilometers, which usually happens once every few decades. There have been many reports in the press that due to this rapprochement, dubbed by journalists as a “supermoon,” numerous disasters could occur. The Moon's orbit is not exactly elliptical: the average distance from Earth to the Moon is about 384 thousand kilometers, and its monthly fluctuations are about 5% of the average. This periodic movement is superimposed by disturbances caused by the influence of the Sun's gravity. However, the satellite never moves more than 406.7 thousand kilometers from the center of the Earth and does not approach closer than 356.41 thousand kilometers. This time the satellite will approach our planet about 7 thousand kilometers closer than usual. “On this day, the Earth will indeed experience almost the maximum possible influence of the lunar-solar tide... Given that geophysicists have noticed a weak connection between the movement of the Moon and earthquakes, we can probably expect a slight increase in the frequency of earthquakes in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bMarch 19. But there is no reason to expect something catastrophic,” astronomer Vladimir Surdin from the traffic police told RIA Novosti the day before. However, a catastrophic earthquake in Japan occurred almost a week before the “supermoon” expected by the press. Seismogeologist Alexander Marakhanov, head of the seismotectonic detachment at the Schmidt Institute of Earth Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in a conversation with RIA Novosti, called it unlikely that the “lunar factor” could have affected the events in Japan. “It’s hard to imagine that this had any impact. An earthquake is a deep tectonic process that occurs not even in the earth’s crust, but in the mantle. It seems to me that an influence of this kind is unlikely,” the agency’s interlocutor said. In his opinion, if such a connection exists, it is extremely subtle. “Roughly speaking, if someone killed a butterfly in the 17th century, then in the 20th century someone did not have a daughter. There is such a class of connection here. Maybe they exist, but it is very difficult, it is very difficult to connect directly,” - said Marakhanov.
The scientist emphasized that tectonic stresses that lead to earthquakes accumulate over a very long time. “It takes thousands of years for this accumulated tension to be discharged as a result of the influence of some kind of trigger mechanism,” Marakhanov said. He did not rule out that some kind of gravitational influence could become such a mechanism, but this would only mean that the inevitable earthquake would occur an hour or a month earlier. But there is no correct scientific data to talk about this now, he added. Stress relief Astronomer Zotov says the trigger for large earthquakes may not be an increase in tidal waves, but, on the contrary, a previous strong drop in sea level, which leads to a decrease in water pressure on the ocean floor. The weakening of pressure can trigger tremors. “There is a “rollback” of water, and this is the trigger mechanism. Today was the minimum point before the highest tide in several years. Today we pass the minimum, and the maximum will be on March 19 when the Moon passes perigee (the closest point of the orbit to the Earth),” - said the astronomer. He added that catastrophic earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, Sumatra and the current one in Japan occur near the full moon or new moon, at a time of increased tide. “I am inclined to believe that the tide actually plays a role. For oceanic earthquakes, it is such a trigger. It is triggered and unloading occurs,” Zotov said. “The earthquakes that have been occurring in the ocean lately have in some strange way gravitated towards full moons and new moons, and the greatest swing of the lunisolar tide. I believe that in this case it really turns out to be a trigger,” he added. According to the scientist, observations of the displacement of the earth's axis can become an indicator for upcoming earthquakes. “It is possible that it may be useful not only to track the influence of processes such as ocean tides on the displacement of the Earth’s pole, but also using this index, based on the coordinates of the pole, it is possible that it is possible to predict what can happen on Earth. In particular, on my look, this tidal swing, which affects the speed of the Earth’s rotation, may be associated with strong earthquakes,” he said. Traditional candidate Seismologists, however, have found a more familiar candidate for the role of the “trigger” of the Japanese earthquake - another, less powerful earthquake that occurred a few days before. "About a week ago there was another earthquake there, a little further north. I think that was a precursor... It was further north, also near the island of Honshu, and it looks like that was the edge of the source of this very large earthquake that happened today," Deputy Director for Science of the Schmidt Institute of Earth Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Science Evgeniy Rogozhin, told RIA Novosti earlier. According to him, although this is a rather complex process, the Japanese could have predicted it, they have one of the best networks in the world. “But, unfortunately, they seem to have missed the mark; they had no forecast after this event, which happened about a week ago,” the scientist added. http://www.rian.ru/jpquake_analitics/20110311/345756375.html Fish and birds warned Japan about a terrible tragedy
In northeastern Japan, where underground hotspots continue to occur, not only people but also animals are suffering. Scientists have started talking about possible damage to nature and animals. Moreover, as it now turns out, birds and fish predicted the earthquake several months before it happened. They tried to warn about the disaster in advance. Over the past few months, Japanese fishermen have been surprised to catch deep-sea belt fish with their nets. This long and thin snake-like ocean dweller usually does not rise to a depth of more than 200 meters. It was this that surfaced en masse before the Chilean and Taiwanese earthquakes last year. According to Japanese legends, the belt fish only comes to the surface to warn of an impending earthquake. The belt fish (herring king, belt fish) is a pelagic (semi-deep-sea) fish found in warm and moderately warm waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans at depths of up to 1000 meters and sometimes found on the surface. Herring kings are found off the coast of Norway and in the southern and eastern parts of the Sea of ​​Japan. Remnetela often reach a length of 5.5 m (weighing 250 kg), but specimens up to 11 m in length have been recorded. The fish is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest fish currently alive living bony fish. Their body has a belt-like shape: with a length of 3.5 m, the width of the body can be only 5 cm. The dorsal fin begins on the head above the eye and continues to the rear edge of the body. The fish usually swims with its head up, placing its body in a position close to vertical. This fish has no commercial value: the meat of the herring king is inedible, and even animals refuse it. Information from the site: http://fishkolpino.2x2forum.ru/t375-topic Bottom fish, especially catfish, really sense the slightest vibration of the bottom, explains Alexander Kasumyan, professor of the Department of Ichthyology, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University. “Catfish are very sensitive to geomagnetic changes. There have even been attempts to use this ability to predict events. Unfortunately, this has not yet resulted in good results,” says Kasumyan. Those who did not manage to swim away from the Japanese coast on Friday most likely died, says Kasumyan. A huge number of fish washed up on land, the most delicate ones died from sulfur gases while still in the water. “The gases that pass through the water column to the atmosphere are mainly dangerous. And while they pass, some of the substances dissolve in the water. Local cases of fish death may occur,” explains Kasumyan. However, the consequences for those who survived will also be unpleasant, especially when all the garbage from the land begins to return back to the ocean, assures Nikita Kucheruk, head of the laboratory of coastal fauna of the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "Damage to coastal petrochemical plants, industries and the discharge of various pollutants is not very good. Various crustaceans, crabs, lobsters, clams, seaweed, kelp - all of this was affected. Recovery, if nothing else happens, should take from a year to five years,” Kucheruk calculates. Birds also suffered from the violence of the elements. Cranes traditionally winter in Japan, including those listed in the Red Book, for example, the Japanese crane. In the Land of the Rising Sun there are many seabirds that are endangered, such as the fish owl and the crested old man, explains Viktor Zubakin, president of the Russian Bird Conservation Union. “A tsunami could wash away the nests of seabirds located on rocky cliffs. The tsunami could also flood some feeding areas for birds. Of course, if buildings were destroyed, then synanthropic birds that nest on buildings could also suffer,” says the expert. According to experts, it is too early to talk about the consequences. There is no clear information about which animals were injured. In any case, the flora and fauna of Japan did not suffer serious and irreparable losses, scientists say. Animals are smarter than people: all of them who could, left the disaster zone even before the earthquake. http://news.rambler.ru/9293369/ Shocking figures released by scientists at the University of Tokyo Posted April 15, 2011 During the disaster on March 11, the most powerful tsunami on record hit the northeast coast of Japan. Scientists at Tokyo Oceanographic University have found that near the city of Miyako in Iwate Prefecture, the height waves reached 38.9 m. It was previously reported that the tsunami was 6 m high. Previously, the tsunami in the same prefecture in 1896, whose height was 38.2 m, was considered a record. According to some reports, the most gigantic wave in the history of Japan reached 85 m - this was in 1771 in the area southern Ishigaki Island, but scientists cannot confirm this information because records were not yet kept. List of victims terrible magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami totals more than 28 thousand people, of them 13,538 officially confirmed dead and 14,589 missing. Experts believe that Radiation from Fukushima will kill about 500,000 more people. The day before, in the 10-kilometer exclusion zone around the emergency Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, where a record high level of radiation was recorded, about 300 rescuers in protective suits began to manually clear the rubble in the city of Namie. Searches are being conducted in this area for the first time since the evacuation. We are talking about thousands of victims. At the same time, strontium was detected outside the 30-kilometer zone around the reactor. Japanese experts predict that in 30 years, radioactive substances released into sea water from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant will spread throughout the Pacific Ocean. http://www.bagnet.org/news/summaries/one_day_of_planet/2011-04-15/123861 Earthquake in Haiti On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, off the coast of Haiti, 16 km from the capital Port-au-Prince, the most powerful earthquake in the Caribbean in 200 years, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, occurred.
As a result, as the media report, the capital of the country, Port-au-Prince, was almost completely wiped off the face of the earth - every third house was destroyed. IN buildings of the UN mission and the World Bank, hospitals, hotels, as well as the parliament building and the presidential palace collapsed in the city. Hundreds of people remain under the rubble of collapsed buildings; their search and rescue is complicated by the lack of rescuers. It is not yet possible to establish the exact scale of the disaster and the number of victims. According to Haitian President Rene Preval,earthquake death toll could reach 100 000 Human . Many states sent their rescuers and doctors to Haiti, including the United States, Russia, FR ance, Brazil, Venezuela, Cubaand others. Financial assistance to the affected country was provided by the UN, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Red Cross and other organizations. Photo from Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/slideshow?articleId=USTRE60B5IZ20100113#a=31 Background information about the Republic of Haiti. The island of Haiti was discovered in 1492 by Columbus. From that time on, colonization by the French and Spaniards began, during which all local residents were destroyed and slaves were imported from Africa. As a result, by the day of independence and the establishment of republican rule in January 1804, in the western part of the island, which became known as the Republic of Haiti, three population groups had formed: whites - 36,000 people, free mulattoes - 28,000 people and 500,000 blacks, who were before that slaves. Since that time, the entire history of the Republic of Haiti has been one of rebellion, dictatorship, and crises. As a consequence of the fragile economy, the standard of living of the Haitian population is extremely low: 80% of the population lives below the poverty level. As of July 2009, Haiti had a population of 9,000,000 people, with a population density of 361 people per square kilometer. The territory area is 27,750 km square. The average life expectancy of Haitians is 61 years. The capital of the Republic of Haiti is the city of Port-au-Prince. Founded by the French in 1749. According to 1995 data, 846,200 people live in it. According to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, a third of the population of Haiti, which is 3,000,000 people, suffered from the earthquake. Harakiri civilization The fate of Japan after the disaster that befell it becomes a test of the strength of all humanity. Our knowledge of the real capabilities of humanity largely depends on how Japan, with the help of the world community, copes with a cataclysm of gigantic and still completely unpredictable destructive power, on what its nuclear, economic, and mental consequences will be. Japan is not only a country with a very unique civilizational coloration. It is also one of the pioneers of technological progress, as well as a state that has shown how to rapidly develop by combining ancient traditions and modern technocratic thinking. In a sense, it was by the example of Japan, where until quite recently, by the standards of history, some one and a half centuries ago, the local population was strictly forbidden to communicate with foreigners, where an isolationist way of life reigned, that we could generally judge the reality of human progress. Of course, there is no difference in the degree of tragedy of sudden human losses caused by natural disasters, regardless of whether they happen in Japan or in Haiti. But Haiti is a country where the level and price of human life is critically low and without natural disasters. Living like the Haitians is definitely not the ultimate dream of thinking people all over the planet. Haiti, even in its usual, non-catastrophic state, is an example of degradation, a state falling out of the flow of civilization. Japan, on the contrary, is “the vanguard of humanity.” One of the few countries that have embodied the features of some abstract ideal to which communities of people (and perhaps, to a lesser extent, individuals) strive. Now we will see the collapse or, conversely, the viability of this ideal, this intermediate peak of human development. Now, in the midst of the catastrophe, when the possible consequences of its atomic component are still unpredictable, we are naturally observing, I hope, a temporary barbarization of life in Japan. None of us, finding ourselves in conditions where our usual infrastructure was suddenly destroyed and there was a shortage of water, food and electricity, would have behaved differently. The same thing could be observed in hurricane-washed New Orleans, when respectable bank clerks fought like wild animals for every piece of bread and sip of water. Moreover, Japan, as far as one can judge from eyewitness accounts coming from there, is a stunning example of the courage and organization of people in the face of a sudden national nightmare that has befallen them. There is practically no looting in the country; people were quickly and organizedly evacuated from radiation contamination zones. Previous destructive earthquakes, of which there were many in Japan, did not cause such consequences also because at that time such dangerous objects as nuclear power plants were absent or not affected. In this sense, the current tragedy looks like a reckoning for technological development. If Japan manages to restore destroyed settlements relatively quickly and painlessly and prevents a repeat of Chernobyl, we can talk about the chances of all humanity to survive and adapt to unpredictable or predicted global upheavals. Over the past millennia, humanity has constantly expanded its technological capabilities and increased pressure on nature. At the same time, the growth of humanity obviously lagged behind the technological one. Technology has not made people kinder, although it has extended their lives. And now we see how technological progress, the presence of weapons of unprecedented destructive power, and sophisticated economic schemes encounter natural or psychological obstacles that can instantly erase the achievements of decades, if not centuries. The global economic crisis of 2008 caused a wave of apocalyptic forecasts, but the relatively rapid recovery of markets after the governments of leading countries coordinatedly pumped them with urgently printed money again plunged human civilization into a relatively benign state. Meanwhile, this crisis, and the new era of terrorism, which we conventionally count from September 11, 2001, and natural disasters leading to man-made ones, are features of a general civilizational dead end. It is not economic and man-made, it is mental. Terrorist attacks, economic collapses, man-made accidents are not the acquisitions of recent decades. But the complexity and danger of objects generated by the external, scientific and technological progress of mankind in the absence of internal progress, improvement of the nature of man himself, the depletion of natural resources, the accumulation of mountains of weapons of mass destruction have made people hostage to the current trajectory of development. Centuries-old attempts by man to conquer nature or deceive it have not been successful. Nature is still stronger than us. And humanity is guaranteed to commit hara-kiri for itself if it does not learn through joint efforts (of course, for now, against the backdrop of cultural, religious, political discord in the world, this sounds utopian) to coexist with nature, to create more harmonious technological and social systems. A natural disaster with one blow can throw even the most developed country into the Stone Age. Understanding this should help humanity to shed arrogance and pride, adapting to the world, developing sensitively and valuing every human life. Semyon Novoprudsky - Executive Secretary of the newspaper "Moscow News"

Hello everyone! Evgenia Klimkovich is in touch.

How much a person can do! Today he controls iron machines, lifting them into the air thousands of kilometers, creates robotic assistants for the home, and leaves his traces in outer space. But no power of the most intelligent creature on Earth can cope with nature. She dictates her own rules of life, periodically reminding who is the boss on the planet.

Today I will tell you what the strongest earthquakes in the world have happened over the last 100 years in human history, what consequences they brought, and what victims the seismic regions had to face.

Lesson plan:

Chinese earthquake in Haiyuan

One of the deadliest disasters of the 20th century occurred on December 16, 1920 and covered an area of ​​3.8 square kilometers. The strength of the waves, recorded by seismographs at 7.8 on the Richter scale, caused waves even off the coast of Norway.

After the tremors, landslides followed and cracks appeared in the earth's surface. Entire Chinese settlements floated into the fractured depths of the earth's crust, and almost all residential buildings in the large cities of Lanzhou, Taiyuan and Xi'an were destroyed.

59 percent of the population of the epicenter of the earthquake, the city of Haiyuan, died from destructive tremors or froze from the cold and found themselves homeless. The disaster killed more than 230,000 people.

Japanese Kanto disaster

Occurred on September 1, 1923 and received a rating of 8.3 points. The earthquake was named after the province where the main impact occurred. It is also called Tokyo or Yokohamxima because the disaster almost completely destroyed the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama.

The disaster was the most destructive in Japanese history. Over two days, 356 tremors occurred, the epicenter of which was located at sea depth. Coastal villages were destroyed by a twelve-meter tsunami. The fires that started spread over a large area with wind currents. The earthquake damaged buildings over an area of ​​56,000 square kilometers.

The estimated economic damage from the disaster was estimated at the country's two-year budget. There was even a question about moving the capital from the destroyed Tokyo.

Officially, 175,000 deaths were reported, but half a million residents were listed as missing. The total number of victims of the Japanese earthquake is estimated at 4 million, including a million people left homeless.

Earthquake in Turkmenistan

It is considered one of the most severe disasters of the 20th century, since the magnitude of the tremors was recorded at 9-10 points.

It began in Ashgabat on the night of October 6, 1948 and in a short period completely wiped out the city where 130,000 people lived, destroying 98% of the buildings. This day today in Turkmenistan has been declared a day of obedience. Tremors from the epicenter, located at a depth of 12 kilometers, were heard for another four days.

The number of victims was about 160,000 people.

Disaster in Chile

An earthquake with a magnitude of 9.5-10 tremors occurred on May 22, 1960, causing a tsunami with waves more than 10 meters high, which covered not only the Chilean coast itself, but also nearby Hawaii, the Philippines and the coast of Japan, moving at a speed of 700 kilometers per hour. hour, reaching California, located 17,000 kilometers from Chile.

6,000 people died, and about 100,000 residents were left homeless.

Tangshan earthquake

A natural disaster of eight on the Richter scale occurred on the night of July 28, 1976. It is considered the largest natural disaster of the 20th century. The first shock destroyed 90% of the city of a million people - 5.5 million houses, and the subsequent one 15 hours later buried under the rubble those who cleared the rubble.

The underground impacts continued until August 1, and in total there were about 130 of them with an average magnitude of about 4.5. The earthquake was felt 800 kilometers from its epicenter.

The Tangshan disaster, which unofficially claimed about 655,000 people, is considered the second-largest in human history after the Shaanxi disaster of 1556, which killed 800,000 people.

The Chinese disaster formed the plot of the film Earthquake.

Spitak disaster

On December 7, 1988, in half a minute, an earthquake almost completely destroyed the north of the Republic of Armenia, where more than a million people lived. The epicenter of the disaster was the city of Spitak, where the tremors reached 9-10 points, they were enough for the city to disappear. About 40% of Armenia's industry was put out of action, the city of Leninakan was severely damaged, and more than 300 settlements were partially destroyed.

Up to 150,000 residents became victims of the earthquake, and more than half a million were left without their homes.

In order to avoid a nuclear disaster, the work of the Armenian nuclear power plant was suspended.

At the end of the article you will find a video about this tragedy.

Russia, Sakhalin island

The earthquake, whose power at the epicenter reached 8 points, began on May 28, 1995. The village of Neftegorsk suffered the most.

The village was wiped off the face of the Earth in 17 seconds, killing 2,040 residents.

Echoes of the earthquake were heard in the north of Sakhalin in the city of Okha. Today, instead of the former Neftegorsk, a chapel and memorial are being built. Only slabs with carved numbers remind us of the houses demolished by the natural disaster.

Andaman earthquake

A widespread disaster that struck countries in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004. It was caused by an underwater earthquake off the coast of Indonesian Sumatra and was estimated at 9.1 points.

The worst disaster of the 21st century in the last 40 years brought a tsunami to the shores, which in 15 minutes washed away everything that was built on the island in its northern part. The earth's crust shifted 1,200 kilometers, giving the waves a speed of 720 kilometers per hour. Two hours after the first shock, waves covered the shores of Thailand and reached the coasts of India and Sri Lanka.

In eight hours, the tsunami traveled around the entire Indian Basin.

Experts have calculated the damage from the earthquake at $10.7 billion. About 230,000 people are listed as dead.

Earthquake on the island of Haiti

More than half of the residents of the capital Port-au-Prince were left homeless as a result of the disaster that occurred on January 12, 2010.

Until now, no one can accurately say the number of victims of the natural disaster; it is in the range of 160,000 - 220,000 people. The 7.1 magnitude earthquake deprived more than three million people of their property.

In terms of material damage, the disaster is the most destructive in the history of the state; experts estimate the loss at 5.6 billion euros. A charity telethon was organized to help the Haitians, in which many Hollywood stars took part.

Japan

Disaster on the island of Honshu. The source of the earthquake was located at a depth of 24 kilometers in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The magnitude 9 tremor on March 11, 2011 caused a tsunami with ten-meter waves, flooding 327 square kilometers of area, most of it in the Miyagi region.

The natural disaster caused a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, leaving the surrounding areas uninhabitable.

The earthquake killed 15,890 people. The country's government estimated the economic damage from the disaster at $200 billion.

These are the sad natural disasters that have occurred in different parts of the world over the past 100 years, bringing pain and loss to families. These are just some of them that amazed the world with their scale, because nature makes itself felt by causing tremors hundreds of thousands of times a year. By the way, we considered in detail the question of why earthquakes occur.

I wish you success!

Evgenia Klimkovich.

An increase in magnitude of 1.0 corresponds to a 10-fold increase in oscillation amplitude and an approximately 32-fold increase in energy (1). Accordingly, 32 earthquakes of magnitude 7 are equal to an earthquake of magnitude 8 (in energy in joules).

I take earthquake data for the USA from the website http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ear... .

I was interested to see the increase in the number of earthquakes and the increase in energy.

Magnitude is calculated using the formula:

M = 2/3 * (log E - 4.8),

where E is the earthquake energy in joules (1).

Accordingly, the earthquake energy:

E = 10^(3*M/2+4.8).

The most interesting areas in the USA:

Cascadia Zone in Washington and Oregon

California Fault (San Andreas Fault, Long Valley Supervolcano)

Oklahoma fault

Yellowstone supervolcano in Wyoming

Oklahoma fault

Data of all earthquakes on the Oklahoma fault for the period 2001-2016:

The number of earthquakes began to increase since 2006. A strong increase in the energy and number of earthquakes began in 2009.

Earthquake data:

November is the most active month in terms of energy growth and the number of earthquakes.

From 2001 to 2015, 8,206 earthquakes occurred on the Oklahoma fault, with a total energy of 4.2249E+13 joules.

Cascadia Zone

The earthquake statistics area is shown in this picture:

Data from all earthquakes in the Cascadia zone for the period 2001-2016:

Energy has been falling since peaking in 2005. Since 13, there has been a sharp increase in the number of earthquakes.

Earthquake data by month for the period from 2001-2015:

Peak energy occurs in the month of February.

Supervolcano Yellowstone

The earthquake statistics area is shown in this picture (radius 150 km from the volcano calcadera):

Data of all earthquakes (within a radius of 150 km from the calcadera) for the period 2001-2016:

Since 13, there has been a sharp increase in the number of earthquakes. The energy of earthquakes is decreasing.

Earthquake data (within a radius of 150 km from the calcadera) by month for the period from 2001-2015:

Peak energy occurs in March and December.

California fault

The earthquake statistics area is shown in this picture:

Earthquake data (magnitude >2) for the period 2001-2016:

Decline in energy and increase in the number of earthquakes on the California fault.

Earthquake data (magnitude >2) by month for the period from 2001-2015:

The greatest activity of released energy occurs in February.

General statistics for the USA

The earthquake statistics area is shown in this picture:

Specially expanded the area on the map to capture the Cascadia zone.

Data for 2015

In total, in 2015, 61,965 earthquakes occurred in the United States with a total energy of 1.00786E+15 joules. Of these, 8753 were earthquakes of magnitude >2 with a total energy of 9.18E+14 (10 atomic bombs with the same power as were dropped on Nagasaki).

Data for 2016 year for all earthquakes in the USA:

The number of earthquakes and energies (according to the website) is less than last year for the same period.

Earthquake data magnitude > 2 for the period 2001-2016:

Earthquake data magnitude > 2 by month for the period from 2001-2016:

2005 and 2010 brought June down a lot.

The total energy from 2001 to 2016 with magnitude >2 is 2.33E+16 (265 atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki).

In 2016, the number of earthquakes and their energy are less than in the previous year for the same period.

The energy of earthquakes is growing, this can be seen from the trend line, although at the moment there is a decline. If the trend continues, there should be a surge.

The number of earthquakes is growing faster than energy. Since the beginning of the 2000s and over the past 2 years, the number of earthquakes has increased 4 times.

Please note that since 2010 there has been a decline in energy and an increase in the number of earthquakes. In 2016, this trend continues.

The greatest activity occurs in April and August.

The most energy is released in the Cascadia zone (8.72077E+15) and on the California fault (7.07154E+15). Next comes the Oklahoma fault (4.2249E+13) and the Yellowstone fault (9.18929E+12).

Compare the Cascadia area and Yellowstone.