According to usgs archives it looks like magnitude 8.0 earthquakes have been increasing since the 1970's. http://neic.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/epic/epic.c…
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No.
1) Today there is more awareness and more news coverage of them, so it seems that way.
2) Today there are more (and better) seismic monitoring stations around the world, so more available data (e.g., 20 years ago, we might not have even heard about an 8.5 in Sumatra)
3) If you go back to the 60's the two biggest earthquakes in modern Earth history occurred in 1960 and 1964, so you are looking at a time range that hides a decade with even larger ones.
1) Today there is more awareness and more news coverage of them, so it seems that way.
2) Today there are more (and better) seismic monitoring stations around the world, so more available data (e.g., 20 years ago, we might not have even heard about an 8.5 in Sumatra)
3) If you go back to the 60's the two biggest earthquakes in modern Earth history occurred in 1960 and 1964, so you are looking at a time range that hides a decade with even larger ones.
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well in reality, they just seem like they are increasing because the news and reporters have been paying more attention to them. They just need something juicy to write about. In a way they are but not much.