Why So Many Earthquakes Lately?

Why so many earthquakes lately?
Posted: Mar 11, 2010 11:18 AM CST 
MADISON (WKOW TV) --  Seems like the biggest issue in the news for 2010 - earthquake, after earthquake, after earthquake.

So why are we hearing about so many earthquakes- and is this an increase from previous years?

According to the National Earthquake Information Center, there are 50 earthquakes a day- and about 20,000 earthquakes a year. In fact.. there's a hundred percent chance there will be an earthquake today.. somewhere.

50 quakes rattle the earth every day: 20,000 in a year.

Jennifer Nielsen, an instructor in Physical Sciences Department at Madison College, says, "We just don't notice it, but our seismographs notice it and record that information."

When serious earthquakes hit, the whole world takes notice. We've seen Haiti ripped apart, the Solomon Islands were hit, Turkey, then Chile, in just the past few months.

Nielsen says, "It's not that there have been more earthquakes lately, it's just that we're more aware of earthquakes happening."

One reason we notice them is because there are so many more seismographs around the world to catch these waves.

Another earthquake myth: that earthquakes in one area of the world cause a quake.. thousands of miles away. Not true.

Nielsen adds, "It is completely a coincidence these two happened within a short weeks time. It's just probability."

Professor Clifford Thurber, a UW-Madison seismologist, says, "There's no direct connection between the two, the one in Haiti didn't cause the one in Chile, however the February one in Chile certainly is responsible for the one happening today."

Earthquake experts at both UW-Madison and Madison College say the number of earthquakes has remained *relatively constant when you're talking a timescale of 100 years. Break it into decades, the numbers go in cycles.

Thurber says, "There were more large earthquakes in the 2000's than 1990's, that's absolutely true. Is that normal? I'd say it's in the realm of ordinary variation."

Seismologists expect about 17 major earthquakes a year. Another interesting fact to throw out there: from 1975-1995 there were only four states that didn't have any earthquakes. They were: Florida, Iowa, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Online Reporter: Teresa Mackin