Background
An earthquake occurs when there is a sudden release of energy from the earth's crust. This produces seismic waves which in turn cause the ground to shake. In the 20th century alone, over 1.8 million people were killed as a result of earthquakes (Doocy et al., 2013). Research on earthquakes can focus on a variety of topics, such as forecasting and prediction, design (e.g., of buildings), geographical region, and safety (Liu et al., 2012).
Open data
The National Centers for Environmental Information provides data through the Significant Earthquake Database. Data is available for destructive earthquakes from 2150 B.C. The criteria for including an earthquake in the database and an example of how to cite the database are shown at the top of the page. Use the options to refine your search. You can either view the data online, or download them as a TSV file, which can be opened in Microsoft Excel. To download, you need to select "Return All Selected Events in tab-delimited format for import into Excel" at the bottom of the search form. See this link for information on how to open a TSV file in Microsoft Excel.
Example research questions
Does the country in which an earthquake occurs affect the financial damage cause by the earthquake?
Do earthquakes that occur during the daytime cause more injuries?
What factors influence whether or not a tsunami occurs after an earthquake?
References
Doocy, S., Daniels, A., Packer, C., Dick, A., & Kirsch, T. D. (2013). The human impact of earthquakes: a historical review of events 1980-2009 and systematic literature review. PLoS currents, 5.
Liu, X., Zhan, F. B., Hong, S., Niu, B., & Liu, Y. (2012). A bibliometric study of earthquake research: 1900–2010. Scientometrics, 92(3), 747-765.