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 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami it is also assessed that a tsunami-earthquake with a tsunami magnitude scales (Mt) between 8.6 and 9.0 (Similar to 1896 Sanriku earthquake, the Mt for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake is 9.1–9.4) will have a 30% chance to occur within 30 years. The quake gave scientists the opportunity to collect a large amount of data so as to model in great detail the seismic events that took place. This data is expected to be used in a variety of ways, providing as it does unprecedented information about how buildings respond to shaking, and other effects. Gravimetric data from the quake has