Blog & knowledge
Earthquakes today: see the latest earthquakes live
Felt something? How to find out whether there was an earthquake today — and why the numbers can change during the first hour.
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What is an earthquake? A simple explanation
An earthquake is stress in the underground released all at once. Understand the epicentre, seismic waves — and why the ground moves somewhere on Earth every few minutes.
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What is magnitude? How earthquakes are measured
The scale is logarithmic: an M6 quake is not twice as strong as an M3 — it releases about 32,000 times more energy.
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What to do during an earthquake
The three key words are drop, cover, hold on: get down, get under something solid, and hold on until the shaking stops.
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Why earthquakes happen: plate tectonics explained
About 90% of all earthquakes occur along the plate boundaries — switch them on on EarthquakeIndex's map and the pattern leaps out.
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Aftershocks: why the ground keeps shaking
After a big quake the underground must find a new balance — producing hundreds of smaller quakes. Rule of thumb: the largest aftershock is about one magnitude below the mainshock.
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Tsunamis: when an earthquake strikes the sea
A tsunami can cross an entire ocean at airliner speed and is nearly invisible in open water. The warning signs: a long, strong quake at the coast — or the sea suddenly pulling back.
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The biggest earthquakes in recorded history
The record is Valdivia, Chile, 1960: magnitude 9.5. All of history's biggest quakes happened in the same kind of place — and an M10 has never been measured.
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Earthquakes in Denmark: do they really happen?
Yes — most recently a magnitude 3.9 quake shook Køge Bay in May 2026. Danish quakes are small, but they exist, and several are registered every year.
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