Watch 10 years of earthquakes go by in just under 3 minutes
Watch 10 years of earthquakes go by in just under 3 minutes Friday, January 2, 2015, 4:19 PM - It's estimated that millions of earthquakes go off under our feet every year, with only a fraction of those occurring where we or seismic sensors can feel them. This video, from NOAA's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) gives us a glimpse at 10 years worth - hundreds of thousands of them, of all magnitudes, including some of the most devastating of the past decade. The video goes by very quickly, but some key features are immediately apparent. 1) The 'Pacific Ring of Fire' The Pacific plate, the largest tectonic plate on the planet - at over 260 million square kilometres - stands out quite clearly as the large 'empty' area in the centre of the animation. Surrounding it on virtually all sides is the Pacific Ring of Fire - a nearly unbroken line of earthquakes that most times spans from central Argentina, north to Alaska, across to eastern Siberia and down t...