Visualize the power and frequency of earthquakes across the moment magnitude scale, where a whole number increase corresponds to about 32 times more energy released.

The frequency of earthquakes and the distribution of their magnitudes have not changed significantly over long-term records, but technological improvements have enabled scientists to detect more of them as they occur.

A magnitude 25 earthquake would release enough energy to destroy the sun, while a particle of dust drifting onto a table would have a magnitude of about -15.

Earthquakes of identical magnitudes are unlikely to cause equal damage because magnitude only measures energy released, and earthquake severity depends on environmental factors, such as local architecture and geological conditions.

Because the Richter scale was calibrated to crustal and mantle properties in Southern California, seismologists have instead used the moment magnitude scale to quantify earthquakes since the 1970s.

View the 10 largest earthquakes ever recorded as of 2025, led by a 1960 magnitude 9.5 earthquake in Chile, which left about 2 million people unhoused.

Reported earthquake magnitudes often change because initial values are based on limited information, whereas revised magnitudes account for factors such as fault size, rupture duration, and seismic wave behavior.

Although earthquakes cause about 80% of tsunamis, almost all earthquakes lack sufficient energy to cause the sudden shift in the ocean floor needed to substantially displace enormous volumes of water.

What makes the Earth shake?

Researchers are demystifying the science of earthquakes—from their origins deep within the Earth to the scales that measure their strength. This article, which was part of a series of weekly reports from Cornell University, serves as a guide to...

Micro-seismic activity has been produced from people cheering or dancing at sporting events, concerts, and other large gatherings, but scientists can easily distinguish these vibrations from natural earthquakes using seismometers.

Some earthquakes can produce smaller tremors called boomerang earthquakes, which travel in the opposite direction and ripple back to the original earthquake's source.

View a map of the world's major earthquakes from 1956 to 2022, which can be used to identify tectonic plate boundaries.

The world's largest earthquake simulator is an 800-ton shake table facility in Miki, Japan, which was built to test the resilience of structures after the 1995 Kobe earthquake killed over 6,000 people.

Thunderquakes—seismic waves created when lightning strikes the ground—have enabled scientists to image underground environments near Earth's surface by detecting vibrations along subterranean fiber-optic cables.

View the past month of earthquakes worldwide with this digital globe, which displays data from the US Geological Survey.

Tectonic earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates sliding past one another at fault zones, deforming rock through friction as energy builds like a stretched rubber band.

The four types of seismic waves—vibrations that carry energy generated by geological events, such as earthquakes—are categorized as body or surface waves.

Rather than predicting them in advance, earthquake early warning systems detect tremors moments after they begin and send notifications that reach users before the seismic activity does.

Predicting earthquakes is difficult because different rock types can withstand different amounts of stress before breaking and melt at different temperatures within Earth's interior, introducing uncertainty into predictive models.

If, not when: An earthquake is destined to destroy the Pacific Northwest.

When the Cascadia fault line ruptures, it could be North America’s worst natural disaster in recorded history. Read a deep dive into the history of the region and the potential impact of the eventual seismic boom.

Every day, lightning releases several Hiroshima bombs' worth of energy into the atmosphere

If all this lightning struck one location at once, the bolt would be the diameter of the center circle of a basketball court, turning the entire court into a crater. Its heat would ignite surfaces for miles around, and its shockwave would demolish buildings.

Why starquakes may explain various phenomena associated with neutron stars

Fast radio bursts—repeated millisecond-long pulses of enormous energy from neutron stars—are emitted with a timing that resembles the earthquakes and aftershocks seen on Earth when geological activity releases energy from within the planet. Although pulsars should gradually spin more slowly as they lose energy from emitting jets of radiation, sudden increases may result from interior matter moving during starquakes.

Visualizing the year in US tornadoes, 2024

Between January and November 2024, over 1,700 tornadoes were documented to have touched down in the US, a relatively high number (and similar to the numbers in 2004, 2008, and 2011). This map shows their location across the country to help capture the number.

Scientists determine earthquake locations by comparing how long it takes different seismic waves to be detected at three stations around the world, from which an origin, or hypocenter, can be triangulated.

Explore an interactive map of volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis from 2150 BCE to the present.

Thunder occurs when fast-flowing electricity heats and pressurizes air, causing it to expand and produce a shockwave at each point along the bolt at multiple frequencies.

Explosive volcanic eruptions happen when magma pressure overcomes rock strength

Magma usually stays underground because of a balance between its upward pressure, the weight of the Earth’s crust above, and the crust’s rock strength. Landslides can reduce crust weight, while built-up gas pressure can strengthen magmastatic pressure.

Why Turkey's earthquakes were so deadly

The death toll from February 2023 has reached the tens of thousands, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters of the century. The intense seismic activity combined with poor and unregulated construction in many areas to drive fatalities....

Scientists quantify how far from the poles auroras will be visible using the G-scale

The Geomagnetic Storm scale indicates the expected severity of the deformation of Earth's magnetic field based on the amount of energy injected by the solar wind. Solar activity is monitored using various satellites to forecast these storms, which can also be used to anticipate damage and disruption to power systems, radio communications, and satellite navigation.

View maps of seafloor topography, earthquakes, and volcanic activity, which scientists use to create outlines of Earth's tectonic plates.

The average eruption cycle of the Yellowstone supervolcano is 735,000 years

Eruptions a little over 2 million, 1.3 million, and 630,000 years ago indicate that the eruption is not imminent, though the sample size is small. Recent analysis reveals magma pockets are not interconnected, reducing eruption risk.

Likened to a car backfiring or a faraway cannon fire, skyquakes have been reported worldwide in Earth's atmosphere without any obvious cause.

Enhanced geothermal power systems can trigger earthquakes by injecting fluid into rock, increasing subterranean pressure.

Should you get earthquake insurance?

Standard home insurance doesn’t typically cover earthquakes. Even if you don't live in a state that's known for its earthquakes like California, it might be worth considering—although it's worth noting that only 13% of California residents have earthquake insurance. Learn more about earthquake insurance in this article.

Rather than being triggered by a massive displacement of water from a geological event, meteotsunamis are caused by rapid changes in air pressure from fast-moving weather systems.

Portugal's 1775 earthquake is considered Europe's first modern natural disaster.

Some scientists hypothesize that stressed rocks can discharge built-up static electricity in the form of lightning—a phenomenon known as fracto-luminescence, or earthquake lights.

See this graphic describing what different decibel levels mean for hearing loss.

The Ring of Fire, which spans 40,000 kilometers (24,900 miles) around the Pacific Ocean, is the most geologically active region on Earth.

Scientists investigate Earth's interior by studying seismic waves

Scientists investigate Earth's interior by studying seismic wavesBelow Earth's atmosphere lies the crust, which extends to the Mohorovičić discontinuity between five and 20 miles below Earth's surface. Below the crust lies the mantle, the liquid-metal outer core, and the solid inner core, which surpasses 5,200 degrees Celsius (9,392 degrees Fahrenheit).

Human activities release 100 times the carbon dioxide of all volcanic eruptions

While gases released by volcanoes contribute to climate change, humans produce the carbon dioxide equivalent of a Mount St. Helens-sized eruption every 2.5 hours, or more than one Yellowstone eruption yearly, even though such supervolcanoes only erupt about every 100,000 to 200,000 years or more.

See the lists of the worst hurricanes in the US through 2024

Several metrics, including wind speed, pressure, damage costs, and casualties, may be used to define the most devastating hurricanes. This page provides the top 10 hurricanes across each of these sorting methods.

Within an 18-hour period in 1974, 13 states were hit by 148 tornadoes

From April 3-4, a tornado outbreak killed over 300 people and caused $600M in damage ($3.8B in 2024 dollars). The event revealed deficiencies in various technologies, including crude radar imaging and slow typewriter-based communication systems, which quickly bottlenecked and became outdated as tornado watches became tornado warnings.

Unlike hurricanes, tornadoes are not ranked based on measured wind speed

Technological limitations prevent direct measurements of wind speeds where tornadoes make contact with the ground. Instead, the Enhanced Fujita scale assigns a rating with a range of speeds based on how much damage a tornado caused to various types of structures. These types are more extensive than the original Fujita scale.

Available data suggest that while hurricane frequency has not increased over the past century, average hurricane intensity has, a trend scientists attribute to rising air and ocean temperatures.

The unpredictability and brevity of lightning make lightning power impractical

While a typical lightning strike provides 30,000 amps at 300 million volts, the bolt only lasts about 30 microseconds. If the electrical surge could be captured—assuming one knew beforehand where it would strike—it would only provide enough electricity to power one home for about 6.4 hours.

Geological tremors on the moon provide evidence that it is shrinking

Apollo seismometers have collected moonquake data, which scientists have analyzed to map the moon's interior and reveal that fault slips producing tremors are the result of sublunar cooling and contraction. It also revealed that the moon's inner core is about 500 kilometers (311 miles) across.

Tornadoes produce inaudible signals to humans hours before forming

Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have found that tornado-producing storms generate specific sounds below the range of human hearing, much like the infrasonic signals produced by earthquakes and avalanches. Although difficult to distinguish from wind noise, scientists hope to build systems that use these signals to improve tornado forecasting.

Earth is constantly bombarded by material from space

Most of this matter is composed of small particles, with any smaller than 33 feet in diameter burning up in the atmosphere. Larger asteroids can reach the ground, and those larger than several thousand feet cause global damage, including earthquakes and tsunamis.

Explore an interactive time-lapse of reported tsunami events since 1850, with identified cause, recorded observations, known deaths, and other information available for each.

Only 40% of city-destroying asteroids have been detected

Statistical modeling shows that while we have identified the majority of extinction-level asteroids, smaller asteroids that can cause significant damage remain elusive. Some asteroids, like the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk in 2013, can't be detected ahead of time since they come from the sun's direction.