Most earthquakes tend to happen along where land, Asia, North America, and South America, meets the Pacific Ocean. I think this is because the plates meet at these points. Where the plates meet, faults form and earthquakes are created by the stress of the plates moving against each other. This area is called the Ring of Fire. The earthquake closest to Manitou was at Hahns Peak. The exact location was 40.953°N, 106.930°W. The earthquake occurred on Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 12:10:02 PM. This earthquake was probably not felt by people. The amount of ground shanking in this earthquake was about one hundred times the amount of ground shaking in a magnitude one earthquake. The amount of energy the earthquake released was about 32 tons. Compared to a magnitude one earthquake, which releases about 30 pounds, it was greater but not my that much.
On Friday, January 16 at 03:49:39 there was a 7.4 magnitude earthquake east of the Kuril Islands, which is near Russia. The exact location was at 46.862°N, 155.156°E. Large and great earthquakes are not uncommon in this region. The place of the earthquake is in the Ring of Fire. The event occurred near the outer-rise of the Pacific plate about 30 km to the east of where the Pacific plate subducts beneath the Okhotsk plate. The energy released by the earthquake was about 160 million tons, a lot compared to a magnitude 1 earthquake that releases 30 pounds.
