More earthquakes or more awareness?


According to Geonet, it’s not the earthquakesn we are getting more of.

@geonet

Monday Mythbusting: Earthquake numbers in NZ are increasing = Myth!
Monitoring equipment + awareness + media coverage have increased

This means:

  • More are being detected through better monitoring
  • Media coverage has increased
  • We take more notice of the coverage.

Geonet have statistics of earthquake occurences since 1960. The GeoNet project locates:

  • 50 and 80 earthquakes each day, or about 15,000 a year
  • 1 magnitude 4.0 or more earthquake per day

So next time you hear of a 4+ erathquake it’s probably another day, although there can be days without a 4+ and days with multiple 4+

Number of Earthquakes in the New Zealand Region from 1960 to 2011:

Table from Geonet:

Year

4.0-4.9

5.0-5.9

6.0-6.9

7.0-7.9

Total

1960

213

31

3

-

247

1961

124

16

3

-

143

1962

164

16

-

-

180

1963

144

6

1

-

151

1964

168

12

2

-

182

1965

144

14

4

-

162

1966

162

16

-

-

178

1967

170

13

-

-

183

1968

420

35

1

1

457

1969

284

10

1

-

295

1970

263

17

2

-

282

1971

192

19

1

-

212

1972

174

16

-

-

190

1973

229

21

-

1

251

1974

311

27

1

-

339

1975

230

23

-

-

253

1976

325

27

3

-

355

1977

246

23

3

1

273

1978

207

6

-

-

213

1979

292

28

2

-

322

1980

212

20

-

-

232

1981

248

18

1

-

267

1982

261

14

1

-

276

1983

252

15

-

1

268

1984

507

45

2

-

554

1985

614

50

3

-

667

1986

245

17

2

-

264

1987

341

32

2

-

375

1988

332

41

2

-

375

1989

303

11

4

-

318

1990

344

20

4

1

369

1991

335

19

6

-

360

1992

414

22

4

1

441

1993

539

37

5

-

581

1994

564

42

4

-

610

1995

1,178

107

7

-

1,292

1996

338

21

2

1

362

1997

531

36

1

2

570

1998

413

21

1

1

436

1999

357

29

2

1

389

2000

352

20

2

2

376

2001

825

37

3

2

867

2002

357

22

-

-

379

2003

542

39

3

1

585

2004

268

13

-

1

282

2005

252

21

1

-

274

2006

232

22

-

1

255

2007

259

21

3

1

284

2008

253

25

2

-

280

2009

545

69

4

1

619

2010

381

38

2

1

422

2011

496

51

7

-

554

Total

17,552

1,371

107

21

19,051
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by Pete George on July 23, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Pete George on July 23, 2012

http://yournz.org/2012/07/23/more-earthquakes-or-more-awareness/

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1 Comment

  1. Quentin Todd

     /  July 24, 2012

    Very interesting seeing the cycles of numbers. The patterns of the shakes in the 7.0-7.9 column came in roughly 4-year blocks but 1996 to 2011 certainly increased. Most interesting. I’d say in support of your comment that technology in reading quakes has definitely improved our knowledge of earthquakes.

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