Two million hidden earthquakes occurred between 2008 and 2017!

April 21: As per an article published in the Journal of Science in Washington, it was revealed that scientists have identified nearly two million unidentified tiny earthquakes that occurred between 2008 and 2017. Though the figure sounds strange, but scientists claimed that new data reveals that there are about 495 earthquakes occurring at an average of roughly three minutes apart.

Now, the question which would go around in the mind of the readers is that is this really possible? If earthquakes occur at so less intervals than why can people don not feel it? In reply to these queries, the scientists wrote: “These quakes are so small that they can be difficult to spot amid the background noise that appears in seismic data, such as shaking from automobile traffic or building construction.”

The expanded earthquake catalog reveals previously undetected foreshocks that precede major earthquakes as well as the evolution of swarms of earthquakes. The richer data set will allow scientists to gain a clearer picture of how seismic events affect and move through the region. To overcome the low signal-to-noise ratio, the team turned to a technique known as “template matching,” Slightly larger and more easily identifiable earthquakes are used as templates to illustrate what an earthquake’s signal at a given location should, in general, look like.

As per a report published in Deccan Chronice on 21 April, it was stated that when a likely candidate with the matching waveform was identified, the researchers then scanned records from nearby seismometers to see whether the earthquake’s signal had been recorded elsewhere and could be independently verified.