Every day an earthquake happens somewhere in the world. Many are so light that they cannot be detected. Only a small proportion of the several million quakes that occur every year actually cause damage.

Scientists cannot predict when an earthquake will strike, but they have been able to map where earthquakes are most likely to happen.

Most of the largest earthquakes occur within the Pacific "Ring of Fire", a horseshoe-shaped band of volcanoes and fault lines circling the edges of the Pacific Ocean.

Tsunami are large water waves typically generated by underwater earthquakes or landslides triggered by seismic activity.

KEY FACTS:

The largest recorded earthquake in the world was magnitude 9.5 in Chile, May 22, 1960.

Most earthquakes occur at depths of less than 80 km (50 miles) from the Earth's surface.

The world's deadliest recorded earthquake occurred in 1556 in central China, where most people lived in caves carved from soft rock. An estimated 830,000 people died.

The earliest recorded evidence of an earthquake dates back to 1831 BC in China's Shandong province.

Source: The U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Facts page.

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