According to this, the number of earthquakes so far this year is nothing unusual, but the number of deaths is extremely high. So far in 2010 an estimated 223,140 people have been killed, which is far, far more than any other year except 2004, which had an estimated 228,802 deaths for the whole year. (I only looked back to 1980).
If the OP is worried that the current earthquakes might be global-warming-related, it’s extremely unlikely. Geologists are looking into the question of whether future levels of warming might increase the frequency or severity of seismic events, but I don’t think anyone’s seriously arguing that earthquakes happening right now are detectably affected by climate change.
Here’s a rather sensationalistic newspaper article on last September’s London conference on Climate Forcing of Geological and Geomorphological Hazards. And here’s the actual program of the conference.
ETA: Oh, and here’s an abstract of one of the overview talks in the conference:
Also, the earthquakes we have had this year have been closer to population centers- when our allotment of large earthquakes happen in the ocean or in the middle of nowhere, they don’t get much press.
Agree. I would also differentiate between a meteorologist and a “weather man”.
If you’d gone back 4 more years to 1976, you’d have found the Tangshan earthquake which leveled the Chinese city of that name and caused at least 240,000 deaths.
I’m not sure it’s meaningful to compare the number of deaths due to earthquakes from year to year. Just looking at the numbers for the last 10 years (on that USGS page you linked to), there doesn’t seem to be any kind of pattern. There’s two very deadly years but also two years with less than 1000 deaths.
As a meteorologist, I agree 100%. 
Especially since the overwhelming majority of deaths were due to a single event: Indonesia in 2004, Haiti in 2010 (which rank among the top five deadliest quakes in all recorded history.) Similarly, the high death tolls in 2005 and 2008 were the result of major earthquakes in Kashmir and China.
On the other hand, it’s interesting to see that 2007 had significantly more earthquakes than average – including FOUR above mag 8.0 :eek: – but relatively few deaths (712).
HAARP - Just ask Hugo Chavez.
Increased testing, more earthquakes, coincidence? I think not! 
Notably, there was a largish earthquake near a population center that was not well-prepared for earthquakes. That’s going to cause an unusually high number of deaths, just like a tsunami in places that were not well-prepared for tsunamis did in 2004. The Tangshan earthquake was similar to this one in the lack of preparedness. Tangshan was not thought to be in a place where earthquakes were likely, so buildings weren’t built with seismic standards in mind. Poverty and the lack of government enforcement of building standards were behind the lack of them in Haiti, but the result was similar. Large population center + lack of seismic building standards = lots of deaths if an earthquake does happen there.
As I posted in the other front-page-of-GQ thread asking the same question …
Here http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/opinion/11musson.html is a New York Times guest editorial written by a seismologist on Apr 11th, i.e. 3 days ago.
And another large one today in China.
Your point being…?
Right, mentioning another large earthquakes in a discussion about the amount of large earthquakes is silly.
Yes, especially with no context or explanation involved.
All right, I’ll fix it for him.
Shit guys! There was another big quake! This time it was in China.
Here, take a look!
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/gallery?section=news/entertainment&id=7385506&photo=1
Better?
I don’t know whether there are more earthquakes this year or not, but this post made me audibly laugh at my monitor which does not happen often.
Are you asking me or Palo Verde?
AClockworkMelon, spreadin’ lulz and knowledge wherever he goes.