Earthquakes Cause Over 1700 Deaths in 2009

At least 1783 deaths worldwide resulted from earthquake activity in 2009. The deadliest earthquake of the year was a magnitude 7.5 event that killed approximately 1117 people in southern Sumatra, Indonesia on Sept. 30, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and confirmed by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). However, the number of earthquake-related fatalities in 2009 was far less than the 2008 count of over 88,000. The high number of fatalities in 2008 was primarily due to the devastating magnitude 7.9 earthquake that occurred in Sichuan, China on May 12. Although unrelated, the Sept. 30 Indonesian earthquake occurred a day after the year’s strongest earthquake, a magnitude 8.1 on Sept. 29 in the Samoa Islands region. Tsunamis generated by that earthquake killed 192 people in American Samoa, Samoa and Tonga. A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit the medieval city of L’Aquila in central Italy on April 6, killing 295 people.

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It seems quite a shocking number that i wasnt aware of, I knew of some of the main Earthquakes but never thought the number of dead was so high.

What does 2010 have in store??

I am I the only one thats noticed the high volume of activity around the Soloman Islands?

reply to post by la2


I assumed the solomon islands were still going off after the Biggish one that they experienced last week sometime. That and those area's are always pretty much active in the ring of fire.

2009 was better in terms of deaths then 2008 with the sichuan EQ. apparently the # in deaths in 08' was well over 80,000.