You may have noticed a lot of news reports about earthquakes lately. People forget that earthquakes are actually very common.
The USGS (United States Geological Survey) estimates that several million earthquakes occur around the world each year. Many go undetected because they hit remote areas or have very small magnitudes. We just had a noticeable earthquake about two weeks ago around 35 miles from where I live. It was only about a 4.2 on the Richter scale – so it didn’t cause any significant damage but it was noticeable. If you want to see an explanation of the Richter scale look here.
As more and more seismographs are installed in the world, more earthquakes can be and have been located. However, the number of large earthquakes (magnitude 6.0 and greater) has stayed relatively constant each year.