Earthquakes Around the World was published in 2006. Since then, massive earthquakes have continued to occur around the world, affecting the lives of countless people both at home and abroad. Earthquake prediction is not easy and we have to accept the fact that another earthquake could occur at any time. We can do things in our daily lives to reduce immediate damage such as securing tall furniture to the wall, establishing an evacuation plan and putting emergency measures in place. Please take a look at Major Earthquakes 2009-2011 on the globe at the left, on which we have plotted six earthquakes that have caused major damage in the world between 2009 and 2011.
Sumatra Earthquake
Date: September 30, 2009
Magnitude: 7.6
The epicenter was estimated to be at a point 45 km west-northwest of the city of Padang, West Sumatra in Sumatra, Indonesia and occurred at a depth of 80 km below ground. It occurred within the Indo-Australian Plate that is being subducted beneath the Eurasian plate. More than 1,100 people died and more than 1,100 are missing. Large-scale earthquakes occurred in Italy in April 2009, in Honduras in May 2009 and in the Samoan Islands in September 2009. The 2009 Sumatra Earthquake has the same names as the large-scale earthquake disaster including a tsunami that occurred in 2004, but it is different in terms of scale and epicenter.
Haiti Earthquake
Date: January 12, 2010
Magnitude: 7.0
The epicenter of the earthquake was 25 km west-southwest of Port-au-Prince, the capital of the Republic of Haiti in the Caribbean Sea. It was an inland quake with a shallow epicenter that occurred at a depth of 13 km near the border between the North American and Caribbean Plates. Being close to the capital, it caused large-scale damage, killing 316,000 people.
The collapsed Presidential Palace in the capital, Port-au-Prince（Logan Abassi / UNDP Global）
Chile Earthquake
Date: February 27, 2010
Magnitude: 8.8
In this region, the oceanic Nazca Plate is being subducted under the continental part of the South American Plate, creating the conditions for large-scale earthquakes to occur. The fault that was the earthquake’s epicenter was 450-500 km long and 35 km deep. It was with the second largest earthquake after the Chilean earthquake of 1960, the largest recorded earthquake in Chile.
Qinghai Earthquake
Date: April 4, 2010
Magnitude: 6.9
The Qinghai earthquake occurred in a Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture several hundred kilometers north of the Indian-Eurasian Plate boundary. As the affected area was high-lying ground, it proved difficult to launch a rescue operation. Approximately 2,700 people died and 240,000 people were affected. It was the largest recorded earthquake that has occurred in this area. In an earthquake in 1738, more than 300 people died.
New Zealand Earthquake
Date: February 22, 2011
Magnitude: 6.3
The earthquake was a shallow inland quake, the epicenter near to Christchurch, the South Island's most populous city. The epicenter was a mere 5 km beneath the ground, causing significant damage that included partial collapse of Christchurch Cathedral, the city's tourism centerpiece. The CTV building that housed a local television station collapsed, killing a large number of people inside including English-language students from Japan.
Christchurch Cathedral, which partially collapsed in the earthquake.（New Zealand Defence Force）
East Japan Earthquake
Date: March 11, 2011
Magnitude: 9.0
The earthquake was a submarine trench earthquake occurring at a depth of approximately 24 km off the Sanriku coast of Japan on the boundary between the Pacific and North American Plates. The tsunami generated by the earthquake struck the Pacific coast of the Tohoku region, decimating many towns and cities in its wake. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake was the largest recorded earthquake in Japan. The earthquake and the ensuing tsunami caused the Tokyo Electric Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant to lose power and its core to melt. A major accident occurred when an explosion of steam caused the roof of the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors to collapse. The situation is still not under control.