Earthquakes in 2017 Mexico Italy China and Iran a look at the devastations

Mexico earthquake: Rescuers and residents look for victims amid the ruins of a destroyed building.

The year 2017 have seen some of the most devastating earthquakes of the decade mostly shaking the Western Hemisphere. In simple words an earthquake is the shaking of the surface of the earth as a result of the release of energy in the earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. The intensity of an earthquake is measured in Mercalli intensity scale which measures the effects of the quake based on empirical and observed data. The magnitude of earthquake is measured by Richter scale which assigns a number to quantify the size of an earthquake. It is a base 10 logarithmic scale invented by Charles Richter in 1930s. It was replaced by the moment magnitude scale in 1970, that is currently being used by the US Geological survey.

Residents take out an injured victim of the earthquake

Mexico was hit by two earthquakes on September 8 and 19 respectively which claimed a total of 468 lives.

Images of ruins caused in Italy earthquake

On August 24, an earthquake of the magnitude of 6.2 hit Central Italy, epicentre close to Accumoli.

China earthquake 2017 killed 25 people

August 8 2017, saw the Zhangzha town hit by a very strong earthquake of 7.2 magnitude.

537 killed, thousands injured in deadly Iraq-Iran earthquake of 7.3 magnitude (Pic Ctsy: Twitter handle @TruTawar)

On November 12, 2017 an earthquake of the magnitude of 7.3 on the moments scale at the Iran-Iraq border in the Kermanshah province.