Ring of Fire subduction of the Pacific Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate. As many as 1,500 earthquakes are recorded yearly, and magnitudes of 4 to 6 are not uncommon. Minor tremors occur almost daily in one part of the country or another, causing some slight shaking of buildings. Major earthquakes occur infrequently; the most famous in the 20th century were: the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923, in which 130,000 people died; and the Great Hanshin earthquake of 17 January 1995, in which 6,434 people died. On March 11, 2011 a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit Japan, the country's biggest ever and the fifth
2011 Colorado earthquake 2011 Colorado earthquake The 2011 Colorado earthquake occurred on August 22 at with a moment magnitude of 5.3 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of V ("Moderate"). The epicenter of the intraplate earthquake was west northwest of Trinidad, Colorado, and south of Denver, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It was the largest natural earthquake to affect Colorado for more than a hundred years. The earthquake occurred as part of a swarm of smaller quakes that started the previous day. The last time the Colorado region received a series of earthquakes was in 2001, when about a dozen smaller-sized