This animation shows all earthquakes on earth so far this year in sequence as recorded in the USGS's NEIC database
Earthquakes happen every day, and as this animation shows, small ones happen more frequently than once per hour. Moderate-to-large earthquakes are less common, however, perhaps 1-2 per month on a long-term average. Therefore April 2014 was unusual not in the total number of earthquakes that occurred but in how many moderate and large ones happened, and PTWC had to issue official message products for 13 different earthquakes in that month for earthquakes with magnitudes of 6.5 or higher, easily a record for this institution. Of those 13, PTWC issued tsunami warnings for 5:
1 April, M8.2, northern Chile
3 April, M7.8, northern Chile
12 April, M7.6, Solomon Islands
13 April, M7.7, Solomon Islands
19 April, M7.8, Solomon Islands
PUT FULL SCREEN ... hypnotic :-)
Earthquakes happen every day, and as this animation shows, small ones happen more frequently than once per hour. Moderate-to-large earthquakes are less common, however, perhaps 1-2 per month on a long-term average. Therefore April 2014 was unusual not in the total number of earthquakes that occurred but in how many moderate and large ones happened, and PTWC had to issue official message products for 13 different earthquakes in that month for earthquakes with magnitudes of 6.5 or higher, easily a record for this institution. Of those 13, PTWC issued tsunami warnings for 5:
1 April, M8.2, northern Chile
3 April, M7.8, northern Chile
12 April, M7.6, Solomon Islands
13 April, M7.7, Solomon Islands
19 April, M7.8, Solomon Islands
PUT FULL SCREEN ... hypnotic :-)