Four Major earthquakes this week, looking at some earthquake data

United States Geological Society (USGS) rates a quake major if it is over 6.0 in magnitude. Each year, the average number of 6.0-6.9 quakes occurring in that range for the entire year is 134. So far this year (2013) there have been 60 in the 6.0+ range. There have been four this week.

The breakdown goes like this: (Data from USGS)

Comparing last year at this same time, the number of quakes in the 6.0-6.9 range was 59.

Let’s compare this half-year to last year’s half-year.
The number of quakes in the year 2012 between magnitude 4.0-9.9 from Jan 1- June 15 are 4,266.

The number of quakes in the year 2013 between magnitude 4.0-9.9 from Jan 1- June 15 were 6,130.

Looking at a longer term trend for quakes between 4.0-9.9 magnitude, from Jan-June for the last 7 years:

Now, looking at only half a year is not the best way to look at data for this data set, because earthquakes don’t occur in a predictable or proportional way over the course of a year. But if wanting to use this year’s data at all, it is important to look at apples-to-apples, so I compared it that way for the previous years.

As a note, USGS changed their pages. The search page is still functional, but one critical piece is missing from the way they offered the search results before: the total count. If I want to get a total count for any search data on earthquakes, I have to copy the USGS result into Word, manually delete the extraneous information, copy all, press the number button, and look at the last line to see how many there are. It is cumbersome. As with any data gathering, the more you introduce humans monkeying with the data, the more chances there will be to introduce human error. In addition, I can’t find out how many quakes there are for the entire year because the sheer volume of copied information will crash or freeze Word.

Come on, USGS, give us the total number of quakes for our search function again. Please?

So there ya go, just FYI, some information for you at the half-way point in 2013. Does it feel like half the year is gone already? It is going so fast. Maybe July-December will be the time frame the Savior will come! One can hope for the Blessed Hope, and pray too. :). Maybe tomorrow will be the Day.