Is the world experiencing more earthquakes now than before?

In the past month, three earthquakes of magnitude 7 or above have struck Indonesia, Colombia and Mexico, killing hundreds of people. In June, two powerful quakes seconds apart levelled swaths of northern Venezuela.The run of disasters has prompted a question asked after every cluster of big earthquakes: Is the Earth shaking more than it used to?In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera examines a decade of earthquake data to see how 2026 compares and explains how and where earthquakes strike.The 10 largest earthquakes of 2026According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), there are about 20,000 earthquakes recorded globally each year, roughly 55 a day. However, most of these are too weak to be noticed by people.It is when earthquakes reach magnitude 6 and above that large-scale damage tends to occur.The map below shows 2026’s 10 largest earthquakes. The Philippines recorded the strongest, a magnitude 7.8 off Mindanao in June that killed more than 100 people. Venezuela’s 7.2 and 7.5 quakes, also in June, killed more than 6,300 people. The most recent quakes, in Mexico in July and Colombia and Indonesia in August, were all magnitude 7.4 or higher.Ten years of earthquakes and wher...