Earthquakes today: New Zealand, Iran, USA, Canada HIT as 33 earthquakes strike in 24 hours

THE US Geological Survery (USGS) reported the massive Iran quake on Sunday. The major quake struck at a depth of 40 metres northwest of the city of Ilam in Iran’s Kermanshah province. No casualties have been reported, but more than 100 people have been seriously injured.

Pirhossein Koulivand, head of the state emergency services, told state TV: “No reports of any fatalities yet and most of the injured were hurt while fleeing, not due to quake damage.”

Ali Moradi, head of Iran’s seismology centre, told state TV “the quake was not near bigger cities.

“But it might have caused damage in villages and I hope not that many villages are located where it hit.”

READ MORE: 

Earthquakes struck in other parts of the globe over the past 24 hours too.

Here is a list of locations and magnitudes which corresponds with the map below:

  • Magnitude-4.9 266km SW of Riverton, New Zealand
  • Magnitude-2.9 17km NW of Coalgate, Oklahoma
  • Magnitude-2.5 90km WNW of Skagway, Alaska
  • Magnitude-3.5 31km NNE of Road Town, British Virgin Islands
  • Magnitude-4.5 35km SSE of Mountain, Colombia
  • Magnitude-3.1 31km NE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
  • Magnitude-4.6 67km S of Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia
  • Magnitude-4.7 39km ESE of Mountain, Colombia
  • Magnitude-4.4 25km SSE of Mountain, Colombia
  • Magnitude-4.4 31km S of Mountain, Colombia
  • Magnitude-4.9 24km SW of Sarpol-e Zahab, Iran
  • Magnitude-4.9 13km SW of Sarpol-e Zahab, Iran
  • Magnitude-5.3 Pacific-Antarctic Ridge
  • Magnitude-3.1 53km NNW of Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands
  • Magnitude-5.7 102km W of Ma-Kung, Taiwan
  • Magnitude-2.5 2km ENE of Medford, Oklahoma
  • Magnitude-4.1 39km ENE of Sary-Tash, Kyrgyzstan
  • Magnitude-5.0 31km SW of Sarpol-e Zahab, Iran
  • Magnitude-2.5 56km NNE of Otra Banda, Dominican Republic
  • Magnitude-4.1 46km WSW of Sarpol-e Zahab, Iran
  • Magnitude-4.4 40km ENE of Al Miqdadiyah, Iraq
  • Magnitude-5.6 41km ESE of Mountain, Colombia
  • Magnitude-4.3 40km NNE of Mandali, Iraq
  • Magnitude-4.6 46km E of Calama, Chile
  • Magnitude-3.4 40km SW of Homer, Alaska
  • Magnitude-2.6 50km WNW of Anchor Point, Alaska
  • Magnitude-4.9 141km NNW of Ile Hunter, New Caledonia
  • Magnitude-5.3 16km W of Sarpol-e Zahab, Iran
  • Magnitude-4.5 42km SSE of Mountain, Colombia
  • Magnitude-4.9 37km SSE of Mountain, Colombia
  • Magnitude-2.7 27km WNW of Puerto Real, Puerto Rico
  • Magnitude-4.6 78km E of Pagan, Northern Mariana Islands

Most of the areas struck form part of the infamous Pacific.

What is the Ring of Fire?

The Ring of Fire is a massive horseshoe-shaped ring encircling the Pacific basin made up of a string of volcanoes and seismic activity.

About 90 percent of all earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire, which is dotted with 75 percent of all the active volcanoes on earth.

A string of 452 volcanoes stretches from the southern tip of South America, up the coast of the Americas, across the Bering Strait, down through Japan and into New Zealand.

In total, the ring forms a 25,000 mile arc from the boundary of the Pacific Plate, to the Cocos and Nazca Plates that line the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

The ring is the result of tectonic plates – huge slabs of the earth’s crust which fit together like a puzzle to make up the earth’s surface.

The plates are not fixed, but constantly moving on top of a layer of solid and molten (liquid) rock, called the earth’s mantle.

Sometimes, these plates collide, move apart, or slide against each other, which results in an earthquake.

The volcanoes form when one plate is pushed under another into the mantle (through a process known as subduction), releasing pressure and causing the molten rock to push up through the earth.

The Ring of Fire is a result of the earth’s oceanic plates and continental plates interacting, which has led to the massive activity which is associated with the area.