Awesome Earthquakes

According to the National Earthquake Information Center, there are roughly 20,000 earthquakes around the Earth every year. This fascinating animation from the NOAA, NWS, and Pacific Tsunami Warning Center shows every earthquake and tsunami recorded from January 1901 through December 2020. There’s also a spherical version that ends in 2000.

Any earthquake above a magnitude 5 can do damage, and levels higher than that can turn serious or deadly. xkcd’s What If? ponders the question of what sort of horrible things would happen if something much more intense hit our planet, say a magnitude 15 or higher. Who knew that there were negative magnitude quakes?

Engineers need to simulate earthquakes to make buildings and other structures safer. Tom Scott headed to the University of Texas to check out the T-Rex, a mobile test rig that can produce massive vibrations in the ground. Combined with sensors, it can measure the stiffness of soil thousands of feet beneath the surface without digging.