December 2017

Were there more earthquakes in November than in September or October 2017?

As for the last 2 months, earthquake data with a magnitude greater than 4.5 on the Richter scale, for the 30 days prior to 2nd of November was downloaded.

Up-to-date earthquake data is available from the USGS site (United States Geological Survey). From this data, two visualizations/maps were created.

The FIRST is an interactive, but static, map showing some 495 earthquakes. These earthquakes feature a magnitude greater than 4.5 on the Richter scale. Compare this with 377 in October and 458 in September.

Using the time widget (map tool) it can be seen that on the 19th of November there were 34 earthquakes. Further investigation of the map shows that all of these occurred east of New Caledonia.

Still further investigation of the map using the time widget (map tool) shows that in the week 14th – 21st November, this area had 76 M4.5+ earthquakes!

The SECOND map is also an interactive, but this time animated. This map again shows earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 4.5 on the Richter scale.

The timeline at the bottom of this map is animated showing the earthquakes in a time sequence as they happened. This timeline can be paused, and then the time cursor can be moved manually to really see where the days earthquakes occurred.

It is interesting to see the animated earthquake activity east of New Caledonia in the week 14th – 21st November, especially on the day when there are 34 earthquakes!