What Gives?

Over the past few days I've been wondering if the devastation caused by earthquakes has dramatically increased over the past decade or if I'm now just more aware of these horrific tragedies.

I crunched a few numbers this morning using data from the US Geological Survey (USGS) and it's clear I didn't have my head stuck in the sand.

The estimated deaths from earthquakes since 1/1/01 total approximately 687,000, not including the fatalities from the current disaster in Japan.

You have to go back about 50 more years to 1949 to come close to the same number of aggregate fatalities.

Population growth, increased urban density, and data quality and access likely explain some of the difference but to experience more fatalities in the past 10 years than occurred in the preceding 50 is stunning.