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StoryScience & explainer

A century of great earthquakes

Every M7+ earthquake since 1900 from the USGS catalog: 1,618 events, 108 of them M8 or larger. Ring-of-fire choreography, per-chapter time windows, pulsing highlights on the four M9s (Kamchatka 1952, Valdivia 1960, Alaska 1964, Sumatra 2004, Tōhoku 2011) and a final chapter that extrudes magnitude into 3D columns.

Surface
Story
Region
World · Pacific rim
chapters
7
Data
snapshot
Theme
Dark · noir basemap
Cover beat
8.0000°N 160.0000°E · z 1.6 · ⟂ 0°
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A century of great earthquakes: story cover with 1,618 M7+ events on a dark basemap
8.0000°N 160.0000°E · z 1.6 · ⟂ 0°
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What is inside

7 chapters, every one a normal beat.

  1. 01A century in one view: 1,618 events, stat chips
  2. 02The Ring of Fire: Pacific-centred camera, scroll-tweened
  3. 031900 to 1950, per-beat time filter
  4. 041952 to 1965, the giants, M9+ pulsing
  5. 05Valdivia 1960, flown to the M9.5 with a callout
  6. 062004 · 2011, Sumatra and Tōhoku callouts
  7. 07Magnitude as height: 3D extrusion, pitch 58°
Data and sources

Real sources, kept live or frozen. Your call per layer.

  • USGS earthquake catalog, M7+, 1900 to today (1,618 events)
  • Derived 3D column footprints (one octagon per event)
Attribution
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A century of great earthquakes: chapter 4: 1952 to 1965: the giants
Chapter 04 · 1952 to 1965: the giants04
A century of great earthquakes: chapter 7: Magnitude as height
Chapter 07 · Magnitude as height07
A century of great earthquakes: on a phone (390 px)
Phone · 390 × 8448.0000°N 160.0000°E · z 1.6 · ⟂ 0°
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41.0082°N 28.9784°E · z 11.3 · ⟂ 0°