620 earthquakes shook the planet in 30 days. One of them did 78% of the work.
Every magnitude 4.5 or larger quake recorded by the USGS from 18 September to 18 October 2026. Most were barely news. The 9 October Panama earthquake was not.
01 Guess first
Add up the energy radiated by all 620 quakes. What share came from the single biggest one?
50%
78%
Each sliver is one quake, biggest first. The red block is the M7.7. Everything else, all 620 minus one, shares the grey.
02 The trace
Each stem is one quake, placed by time. Switch what the height means and watch the month change shape.
03 Where it shook
Slide the minimum magnitude. Tap a dot to read it.
4.5
shallow, under 70 km70 to 300 kmdeep, over 300 km
04 Rarer, and far mightier
Quakes at or above each magnitude: how many there were, and how much of the month's energy they carried.
Magnitude
Quakes
Count (log scale)
Energy share
All 620 quakes, newest first
UTC time
M
Depth km
Place
05 Sources and method
Quakes: USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, M4.5+ past 30 days feed, retrieved 18 October 2026 (07:35 CEST). Magnitudes are as published by the USGS and can be revised.
Energy: radiated seismic energy scales as 101.5 M (Gutenberg and Richter), so one magnitude step is about 32 times the energy. Shares here are relative to the sum over this catalog, which only holds quakes of M4.5 and above.