18 significant earthquakes in November 2022; should we be worried?

Over the past 24 hours, Maharashtra’s Nashik, Turkey’s Duzce province, the coast of Baja California in Mexico, and Malango in the Solomon Islands reported earthquakes. Over the past week, more earthquakes were reported including two major ones in Indonesia, one in Greece that resulted in a tsunami scare, along with others in different parts of the world.

As a result of these earthquakes, hundreds have been killed and thousands injured. Many would be wondering whether the frequency of earthquakes has been increasing in recent months.

The data from the United States Geological Survey’s Earthquake Hazards Program showed that there were 12 ‘significant’ earthquakes in November 2021. The survey designates ‘significant’ earthquakes as those “determined by a combination of magnitude, number of Did You Feel It responses, and PAGER alert level.”

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Comparing this data with the number of significant earthquakes in November 2022 so far, 18 significant earthquakes have been recorded so far including the Duzce and Indonesian earthquakes. This list, however, doesn’t include the many minor or mild earthquakes including the latest earthquakes in Nashik, Mexico or the recent earthquakes in Nepal and Northwest India.

With the increasing number of earthquakes, is there any cause for concern?

For the most part, no. While there can be variance in the frequency, strength and location of earthquakes a year to year, when seen over a longer period of time there are little to no changes in the frequency, location or strength of earthquakes.

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Earthquakes happen due to energy being released due to the collision of tectonic plates. As these tectonic plates interact with each other over boundaries known as fault lines, earthquakes around these fault lines are more common. These areas are known as seismic zones. Some of the most active seismic zones include the Northern Himalayas, almost the entire west coast of North and South America, areas around Japan, Indonesia, Greece and Turkey, and areas of Central Asia around Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkmenistan among others.