The Earth Shook: the Most Significant Earthquakes of the Past Month

Every day, the planet logs thousands of small tremors that barely register on instruments and go unnoticed by the billions of people living above them. But a few times each month, the Earth moves in ways that cannot be ignored — when tectonic plates that have been locked together for centuries suddenly slip, releasing energy equivalent to thousands of nuclear weapons in a matter of seconds. This list gathers the most significant earthquakes of the past month as ranked by the USGS Significance Score — a composite metric that weighs magnitude, felt reports, shaking intensity, and community impact to give a fuller picture of which events mattered most to the people who experienced them.