It's believed that several million earthquakes occur around the world every year, but fewer than 200,000 of them are felt at all. This is because the vast majority occur in remote areas or are so small that they are simply not felt.
More facts about earthquakes:
- The biggest recorded earthquake since 1900 took place in Chile on 22 May 1960. The quake was a 9.5 on the Richter scale and killed more than 1,500 people. An additional 3,000 people were injured, and more than 2 million people were left homeless.
- The most earthquake-prone states in the U.S. are Alaska and California.
- The country that has the most earthquakes a year is either Japan, Indonesia, Tonga or Fiji, depending on how you count it. Though Japan has the densest seismic network, Indonesia has more simply because it's larger. Tonga and Fiji are thought to have extremely frequent earthquakes, but there's not enough seismic equipment in place to tell.