CATnews: Earthquake in 2020 (as of 4 Sept. 2020)

In the first eight months of 2020, more than 200 damaging earthquakes have occurred in the world. These affected 47 countries and lead to at least 82 casualties and more than 2300 injuries. About 80.000 buildings suffered damage to various degree.
Even if these numbers look huge, global earthquake activity in 2020 has been quite low. Only few large quakes have happened, mostly with only limited effects to land. Most damaging earthquakes can be considered as moderate (around Magnitude 5), occurring near the surface in more or less densely populated areas. Only 10% of all damaging quakes were larger then Magnitude 6, but lead to 57% of all losses.