A 7.0 -magnitude earthquake shook buildings in Peru’s capital city, Lima, on Wednesday, witnesses and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said. The quake was quickly followed by a 5.3 aftershock. The USGS said the epicenter of the quake was 82.07 kilometres north of Pucallpa, in the Peruvian Amazon forest close to the Brazilian border. The USGS said the quake, initially upgraded to a magnitude 6.9, was 145.2 km deep. –Globe and Mail

By the Numbers: For once, the low earthquake figure on the USGS global grid belies the disturbing fact of just how much the planet has been shaking in the month of August and the statistics are quite alarming. Typically, the worlds sees an average of fifteen 7.0+ magnitude earthquakes a year- we’ve already had three in the month of August- two in Vanuatu, and one in Peru. We’ve had seven earthquakes of the 6.0+ range in August and have seen more than 18 earthquakes in the upper 5.6 to 5.9 range. This includes four in Vanuatu, three in Japan, three in Papua New Guinea, two in the Sandwich Islands, one in Alaska, one in Kermadec, one in the Solomon Islands, one in Pakistan, one in Xinjiang, China,  one in Ecuador, and one in Virginia. We’re returning to a cluster period of very high seismic activity reminiscent of the 1960′s. This is particularly the case with large earthquake events but by 2012, if the current trend continues to escalate; we could go way beyond what we’re seeing now.