Earthquakes-Updated

It has been 4 years since I updated the article I wrote in 2012 regarding the increase in earthquakes in the times we are living. It took me a while to find the correct query page from the USGS website. It is here.

2011 was a highpoint in the past 6 years (2010 to 2015). Here are the counts for each year and then an average of those years. Again, the downloaded criteria was: Global earthquakes registering 6.0 and greater. So the counts below do not include earthquakes at 5.9 or less. (I also eliminated from the data all nuclear explosions, rock bursts, and anything else other than type “earthquake.”)

Year	Total
2010	175
2011	207
2012	133
2013	142
2014	155
2015	146
6 yr avg	159.67

After 2011, the averages drop to 144 per year (2012-2015). This made me wonder how each half-decade I had previously documented, faired by itself. I was surprised to find that since my first extract back in 2012, the USGS had retroactively added data even farther back than the original year of 1972. I went back to 1960:

5-Yr Period		Average
1960	1964	136.4
1965	1969	134.6
1970	1974	128.6
1975	1979	95.2
1980	1984	107
1985	1989	144.8
1990	1994	154.6
1995	1999	151.2
2000	2004	150.2
2005	2009	168.2
2010	2014	162.4

Again, since 1990, the averages have been significantly larger than the preceding periods.

In the charts below, the same periods of time as shown above are charted, but for a more finite set of data. Seems that since 1985 the numbers have increased.

7.0 and Greater				8.0 and Greater
5-Yr Period		Average		5-Yr Period		Average
1960	1964	63.6		1960	1964	51.8
1965	1969	68.2		1965	1969	59.6
1970	1974	67		1970	1974	54.4
1975	1979	45.4		1975	1979	37.2
1980	1984	54.6		1980	1984	46.6
1985	1989	72.4		1985	1989	60.8
1990	1994	76.2		1990	1994	65.8
1995	1999	79.2		1995	1999	66.6
2000	2004	81		2000	2004	70.2
2005	2009	85.6		2005	2009	74
2010	2014	69		2010	2014	54.4