Do you know how much property damage and loss of lives is caused by earthquakes every year?
No idea? Consider this – An earthquake in Japan in 2011 caused an estimated property loss of US$ 235 billion. The deadliest earthquake in recorded history (in terms of loss of lives) occurred in Shaanxi (China) killing more than 800,000 people.
According to one study, annual average losses from earthquakes range from US$ 1.3 to 5.7 billion. That’s loss per year because of all the earthquakes. This is quite huge, considering that it’s caused by an event which we have no control over.
These statistics show that when mother nature’s fury is unleashed, even the modern society with all its technology and resources, finds itself helpless.
Now another question. What do you think is the average loss caused by an earthquake, in terms of dollars per earthquake? Let’s do a quick back of the envelope calculation. So yearly loss of US$ 5.7 billion divided by number of earthquakes per year. How much would that be? Take a guess.
Probably that number would be couple of million dollars per earthquake. Right?
It’s actually little over US$ 10,000. That’s it! How come?
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