Great Hanshin earthquake were from Kobe. Among major cities, Kobe, with its population of 1.5 million, was the closest to the epicenter and hit by the strongest tremors. This was Japan's worst earthquake in the 20th century after the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923, which claimed more than 105,000 lives. Most of the largest earthquakes in Japan are caused by subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate or Pacific Plate, with mechanisms that involve either energy released within the subducting plate or the accumulation and sudden release of stress in the overlying plate. Earthquakes of these types are especially frequent in the coastal regions
2011 Virginia earthquake damage was reported. Tremors from the earthquake were also felt in eastern Canada, mostly in Southern Ontario, as well as in parts of southern Quebec and the Maritime provinces. In Ontario, a few buildings in Toronto were evacuated, and roads were closed as a precautionary measure in case of building collapse in Sudbury and Windsor. The year 2011 is the second consecutive year in which an earthquake was widely felt in Southern Ontario and Quebec, the previous being the June 2010 Central Canada earthquake that also affected that region. The USGS "Did you feel it?" citizen-based earthquake intensity website received