Live from the USGS catalog

Earthquake
Insights

Are there more earthquakes than usual, and is the rate changing?

People often ask: is the rate of earthquakes changing? Are there more earthquakes than usual? Here, we let the data answer those questions directly.

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Are there more earthquakes than usual this year?

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      Magnitude M6+ counts every earthquake of magnitude 6.0 and up. M7+ counts only 7.0 and up.

      We don’t show any smaller earthquakes, because the catalog becomes less reliable for smaller events as you step back in time.
      Period This year counts from January 1, and compares against the same stretch of every earlier year back to 1976.

      Last 365 days shows a full twelve months, ending today, with matching time windows from previous years.
      Catalog A big earthquake is followed by hundreds of smaller aftershocks — so a year with one great earthquake might appear to be much busier than usual. Select Mainshocks only to remove these aftershocks. This is called declustering.
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      Highlighted years