Dangerous and Natural Energy - Essay Example

According to the earthquake patterns in the USGS interactive map, it is evident that most of the seismic hazard areas in the United States are distributed along the Pacific Coast from the North Western states such as the coast of Washington, Oregon, and California, as well as in the regions of Alaska and Hawaii. Generally, the USGS interactive map suggests that earthquakes are mostly concentrated along the shorelines of California and the seismic activity gradually reduces towards the South (Frankel and Barnhard, 1996).

I live in Texas, a region that is largely indicated by color white. This means that my home region is one of the areas with the least seismic hazard risk according to the information provided by the USGS interactive map. When matched against a scale of % seismic activity, the region around my home is indicated as having between 0% to 4% seismic activity and therefore, one of the least seismic hazardous areas in the United States. Upon visiting the interactive map that shows the latest data regarding the global seismic activity for the last 7 days, I have also noted that my home region has not experienced any seismic activity within the last week.

From the information available in the interactive map that shows the latest data regarding the global seismic activity for the last 7 days, it is evident that most of the earthquake-prone areas of the world are found along the Pacific coasts as well as on some islands within the Pacific Ocean. These areas have formed an almost circular oceanic belt of seismic hazard areas which is popularly known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. The region that I clicked was Maharashtra, India (17.29 0 N, 73.56 0 E), and the latest seismic magnitude of the area was 4.3. According to the interactive global earthquake data map, this seismic activity was recorded on Saturday, April, 14.