Earthquake Facts
What is an earthquake?
An earthquake is a trembling or shaking movement of the earth's surface.
An earthquake is a trembling or shaking movement of the earth's surface.
- Earthquakes kill approximately 8,000 people each year and have caused an estimated 13 million deaths in the past 4,000 years
- The average earthquake lasts around one minute
- The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake lasted nearly 10 minutes—the longest recorded earthquake
- The first recorded earthquake in California was in 1769 by Gaspar de Portola, an explorer and Spanish military officer.
- In 2010, an earthquake occurred in Haiti and killed an estimated 316,000 people.
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