13 Earthquake Facts You May Not Know

Teresa Neumann : Mar 15, 2010
Staff - Live Science

"You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains." -Matthew 24:6-8

Live Science has posted an interesting report entitled 13 Crazy Earthquake Facts. With all the seismatic activity happening in the world of late, it seemed noteworthy.

Those facts are listed as:

1. Earth has been more seismologically active in the past 15 years.
2. San Francisco is moving toward Los Angeles.
3. March is not Earthquake Month.
4. There are about 500,000 earthquakes a year.
5. The sun and moon cause tremors.
6. A city in Chile moved 10 feet in the most recent earthquake.
7. There's no such thing as "earthquake weather."
8. Earth's bulge was trimmed a little by the 2004 Indonesian earthquake.
9. The Pacific Ring of Fire is the most geologically active region on Earth.
10. Oil extraction can cause minor earthquakes.
11. The largest earthquake ever recorded was a magnitude 9.5 in Chile on May 22, 1960.
12. Quakes on one side of the Earth can shake the other side.
13. The deadliest earthquake in recorded history struck China in 1556, killing an estimated 830,000.

To read fascinating details on each of these facts, click on the link provided.