Following my piece about the end of the world the other day, a friend has pointed out that the earthquake count so far this year is much higher than the four I mentioned –  according to her it's nine, in fact, with the day before yesterday’s one in Papua New Guinea, and the one in southern Spain a week ago.

However, if you look at the USGS website (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/) you’ll see that the tally is much higher even than nine!  Just looking at quakes measuring above 6 on the Richter Scale, there have been a staggering 21 since the start of the year!

Jan 3-5: three in the Solomon Islands (6.6, 7.1 and 6.8 respectively)
Jan 10: offshore Northern California (6.5)
Jan 12: Haiti (7.0)
Feb 1: Papua New Guinea (6.2)
Feb 10: China-Russia-North Korea border region (6.9)
Feb 26: Japan (7.0)
Feb 27: Chile (8.8)
Mar 5: Southern Sumatra (6.8)
Mar  5: Chile (6.6)
Mar 8: Turkey (6.1)
Mar 11: Chile (6.9)
Mar 14: Japan (6.5)
Mar 16: Chile (6.7)
Apr 4: Mexico (7.2)
Apr 6: Northern Sumatra (7.7)
Apr 11: Solomon Islands (6.8)
Apr 11: Spain (6.3)
Apr 13: China (6.9)
Apr 17: Papua New Guinea (6.2)

Out of interest the quake in Spain a week ago occurred 25 km (15 miles) south east of Granada, 90 km (55 miles) east north east of Malaga, 100 km (60 miles) west north west of Almeria,  and 375 km (235 miles) south of Madrid.

©  Paul Whitelock