One earthquake released 62% of the past month's seismic energy. It was 1 of 748.
Every extra magnitude point means about 32 times more energy, so big quakes drown out everything else. Flip the trace below and watch a month of real earthquakes change shape.
62%
of all energy in 748 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more came from a single event.
Tap or hover a bar to read the quake.
Your turn: guess the energy ratio
Five pairs of real quakes from this month. Drag the slider (each notch is 10 times more) to guess how many times more energy the bigger one released.