 northeast of the capital city of Tandag, Surigao del Sur.
This list is in chronological order and is neither exhaustive nor definitive; it describes events where there is plenty of historic evidence and research rather than for magnitude size or human loss.
Where possible I have used the Moment Magnitude scale (MMS) to give a destructive measure with seismic maps from Wikipedia; where no seismic map is available a general map of the area has been used. I have used various geology resources to update my own knowledge of specifics as it was 10 years out of date.
Historic earthquakes are actually very important to determine the likelihood of a massive natural disaster occurring in the same region again and under what sort of timeframe. Unfortunately it seems that the human mind tends to forget quite quickly about a destructive event such as an earthquake or simply manages to put it out of mind, this will be demonstrated in this and subsequent lists where natural disasters that are still fresh in our minds occurred in the same vicinity on several previous occasions. Even after many years of study I still find it incredulous that we rebuild our cities in seismically active areas after such a destructive event. Click here for the list of the top 10 historic earthquakes.
Sandy Caught on Earthquake Monitor
As heavy surf hammered the Northeast Monday afternoon before Hurricane Sandy's landfall, the weather was peaceful in northern Pennsylvania.
At Keystone College, in the small town of La Plume, a seismometer scratched out a warning. Even more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) inland, the instrument picked up the power of waves churned by Sandy's winds.
While seismometers are meant to measure earthquakes, the instruments, which detect very subtle movements in the Earth's crust, also commonly record explosions, trucks on the highway and ocean waves crashing on the beach, said Ian Saginor, a professor and volcanologist at Keystone College who monitors the seismometer. Link no longer available.
Super Storm is ready to Hit East Coast
Sandy, an ordinary late summer hurricane from the tropics, moving north up the East Coast. Bring in a high pressure ridge of air centered around Greenland that blocks the hurricane's normal out-to-sea path and steers it west toward land.
Add a wintry cold front moving in from the west that helps pull Sandy inland and mix in a blast of Arctic air from the north for one big collision. Add a full moon and its usual effect, driving high tides. Factor in immense waves commonly thrashed up by a huge hurricane plus massive gale-force winds.
Do all that and you get a stitched-together weather monster expected to unleash its power over 800 miles, with predictions in some areas of 12 inches of rain, 2 feet of snow and sustained 40- to 50 mph winds.
"The total is greater than the sum of the individual parts" said Louis Uccellini, the environmental prediction chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologists. "That is exactly what's going on here."
This storm is so dangerous and so unusual because it is coming at the tail end of hurricane season and beginning of winter storm season, "so it's kind of taking something from both — part hurricane, part nor'easter, all trouble," Jeff Masters, director of the private service Weather Underground, said Saturday. Read more.
Iceland Prepares for the Big One
Icelandic authorities warned people in the north of the island on Thursday to prepare for a possible big earthquake after the biggest tremors in the area for 20 years.
The north Atlantic island, where almost 320,000 people live, is a hotspot of volcanic and seismic activity as it straddles a fault in the earth's surface.
The Civil Protection Department said in a statement that recent small quakes in an area under the
sea about 20 km (12 miles) off the north of Iceland had prompted it to issue a warning to local
people. Read more.
Woolly Warm Predicts Cold and Snowy Winter
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- The word from a woolly worm named Lickety Split is that western North Carolina should break out the wint