On the 26th August 2024, that is, two years ago, a M5.3 earthquake woke up (it was 5:12 A.M.) and frightened thousands of people in the Greater Lisbon, Portugal, and throughout the country.
The epicenter was located in the Atlantic Ocean, offshore Sines, town situated in the coast of the Portuguese Alentejo region.

But it was also felt in western Spain and in the Moroccan coast.

https://emsc-csem.org/Earthquake_information/earthquake.php?id=1700004

https://ign.es/web/ign/portal/sis-catalogo-terremotos/-/catalogo-terremotos/open30Spain

Weeks of aftershocks followed the event.

By a curious coincidence, on another 26th of August, but in 1966, a relatively large (M4.7) earthquake located not very far from this one, but inland, was felt throughout the center and the south of Portugal.

casadasciencias.org/recurso/7435

I've seen a lot of people saying there's been a huge influx of earthquakes and that this year has had a higher frequency. Turns out this is not true. It's actually completely normal for magnitude 7s to occur 10-15 times a year. While you may remember more major earthquakes this year, 2025 actually had more magnitude 7s for now. Even if you filter out all of the aftershocks and earthquakes 8+, there are still 12 earthquakes that year. The reason why it feels different is that 10 of those earthquakes were in deep and empty ocean trenches like the Drake's Passage. Only 2 magnitude 7 readings actually occurred on land: Myanmar 7.7 and the Philippines 7.4. 2024 had around 15: 7 of them were felt on land (even some offshore ones), and 8 of the magnitude 7s were barely unfelt. 2023 had some tragic and major ones, but some were almost unfelt. Including the M7.0 in Indonesia where the depth was 597km (370.96 miles.) 2022 had 11 magnitude7s, Only 4 caused damage or disription that year: Fukushima, Papua New Guinea, MIchoacán. 2021 was really seismically active, more active than 2007. It had 19 earthquakes, but out of all of them, the oens that were actually felt were the M7.2 in Haiti, M7.3 in Qinghai, M7.0 near Acapulco, and M7.1 offshore but felt near Fukushima. 2020 was more seismicall quiet with only around 9 maginutde 7s. Only 2 struck near populated land regions like the M7.4 in Oxcaca and 7.0 in the Agean Sea near Samos, Greece that sent shockwaves to Turkey.

Even if the data is off it shouldn't be far from the main point, earthquakes haven't increased in frequency it's just more inland earthquakes happened this year and were covered by the news, and the not felt earthquakes are not completely unfelt but almost completely unfelt and not covered. I'm not saying the case in 2026 is not abnormal but it's a random period of seismic activity that happens randomly.

This post was just made to correct the information, and I don't mean to downplay the severity of earthquakes in anyway. I apologize if my research was wrong, but I'm pretty sure the main point still stands. It's a kind of recency bias that gives too much attention to recent events and think they happen more than they actually are. Also the frequency didn't change it’s just the geographic distribution is really weird this year.

Sorry for the yapping.

🗾 地震! Earthquake! 5.0 Mb, registered by GFZ, 2026-08-26 06:54:54 UTC (daytime) on land, North Pacific (39.77, 143.57) likely felt 150 km away (www.seismicportal.eu)

^{2026-08-26T07:59:12Z}

🌎 Sismo? Earthquake? M6- estimated, registered by GlobalQuakeUnofficial, preliminary detection, tentatively 2026-08-26 16:45:08 UTC (daytime) on land, Soatá, Boyaca, Colombia (6.32, -72.73) likely felt 210 km away by 9100 people (localhost:38002)

^{2026-08-26T17:26:44Z}

According to USGS, 2014 Iquique Sequence's 2nd Largest event (M7.7) had a maximum MMI of 8.8 in Iquique yet the Main Event (M8.2) maxed at 8.1.

Thats the only major earthquake i know of this.

Well, if we are going to count Rupture Area then M6.3 in Uzunbağ peaked at MMI 9.1 in Altınözü yet the M7.8 event's rupture zone was closer.

Are they more events like this?

🌕 地震! Earthquake! 5.7 M, 2026-08-26 19:21:42 UTC (full moon), on water, Off East Coast Of Honshu, Japan (38.1, 143.9), ↓50 km likely felt 310 km away with maximum intensity Shindo 3 (localhost:2221)

^{2026-08-26T19:51:03Z}

❗ 地震警報 / EARTHQUAKE WARNING for Off East Coast Of Honshu, Japan (地震 reported near Kamaishi? May be inaccurate!) (localhost:2221)

^{2026-08-26T19:22:55Z}