although the 2011 earthquake Catastrophe was the largest on record , the usgs reported Reporting that the central and eastern u.s. ( ceus ) has undergone Bodily_harm the most dramatic increase Cause_change_of_position_on_a_scale in seismic Catastrophe activity in the united states since 2009 with an average of 318 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 a year up from 24 a year from 1973 to 2008 .