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Earthquakes

Each year there are between 70 and 75 damaging earthquakes around the globe. They can occur anywhere, but most major earthquakes start where the continental plates meet. Despite 40 years of research, there is still no reliable means of predicting most earthquakes. Earthquakes do strike Britain on a regular basis. NERC's British Geological Survey registers 200-300 small earthquakes a year in the UK. Monitoring is essential because even small earthquakes pose a potential hazard to sensitive installations such as dams and chemical plants.

More information is available from NERC's British Geological Survey (BGS):

• UK earthquakes over the last 50 days
• A map of UK earthquakes
• Map of BGS seismograph stations throughout the UK

Recent major earthquakes

On 22 February 2011, an earthquake with magnitude 6.3 the Canterbury region of New Zealand, centred near the city of Christchurch. It caused widespread damage and killed 181 people, making it the second-deadliest natural disaster in New Zealand's history.

A catastrophic 7·0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on 12 January 2010. Its epicentre was only around 25km from the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince, and it affected an estimated 3 million people and killed tens or even hundreds of thousands - estimates range from around 46,000 fatalities to more than 300,000.

On 12 May 2008, an earthquake with a magnitude of around 8·0 hit Sichuan in China, just 90km northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu. It killed an estimated 69,000 people and left another five million homeless.

An earthquake of magnitude 7·6 hit Kashmir in northern Pakistan on 8 October 2005, killing at least 30,000 people, and causing enormous damage. Many towns were damaged and some villages completely destroyed. Large destructive earthquakes have struck Kashmir in the past. In 1905, an earthquake on the Kashmir-India border region killed 19,000 people. More recently, an earthquake of magnitude 6·3 in 1981 killed over 200 people in northwest Kashmir. Pakistan's most damaging earthquake occurred near the city of Quetta in 1935, killing 30,000 people.

On Boxing Day 2004 a truly enormous earthquake (9·0) hit the coast of Indonesia. It ripped apart the seabed along a seam 1000km long. The subsequent tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed over 300,000 people, and injured half a million.

An estimated 30,000 people died when the town of Bam in Iran was reduced to rubble by an earthquake of magnitude 6·3 on Boxing Day 2003.

Collapsing buildings are the main cause of death during an earthquake. Improvements in structural design mean engineers can now build homes and offices to withstand very large movements, saving many lives. Strict building regulations in Northridge, California, ensured casualties were low compared with the smaller Bam earthquake that reduced the town to rubble.

Earthquake facts

Earthquakes can occur anywhere but major earthquakes tend to happen where continental plates meet.

Although there are thousands of earthquakes throughout the world each year, only a small proportion cause damage to towns or cities.

There is still no reliable way to predict earthquakes accurately despite 40 years of research, but statistics and geological knowledge can indicate where large earthquakes are likely and what their effects will be.

Many major earthquake zones such as California and Japan are extremely well monitored but there have been no consistent early warning signs before a disaster. Recently, scientists have developed systems to transmit warning signals immediately after a major earthquake that will give distant cities enough time to shut-down critical facilities.

Some seismologists gave advanced warning that a potentially large earthquake could strike the coast of Sumatra some months before the Indian Ocean quake in 2004. There were no mechanisms to convert this into practical measures, so the warning went unheeded.

Collapsing buildings cause most deaths during an earthquake. Engineers can build homes and offices to withstand earthquake shaking, saving many lives.

Japan is one of the most seismically active countries on the planet and geologists know there will be a major earthquake near Tokyo in the future - possibly soon. The damage is likely to run into many billions of pounds.

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