However, monstrous earthquakes like the one in Japan generate local aftershocks within a radius.

The study was published in the online edition of ‘Nature Geoscience.’ Dr. Tom Parsons was the leader of the study, and Aaron Velasco was the co author.

To collect enough proof for their theory, they looked at the earthquake records of around the world for the past 30 years, ending in 2009.

During this timeframe, there were 205 huge earthquakes with a magnitude of 7 or greater, and 25,222 moderate ones with magnitudes between 5 and 7.

In a news conference at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, NASA co-investigator Pete Schultz said, "We can see it in multiple images so I feel very confident that we actually did find the site."

The images were sent on Tuesday by the Stardust Next spacecraft, when it was within 110 miles of the comet Tempel 1.

This act of Stardust spacecraft was owed to the Valentine's Day meetings, as Stardust kept coming closer to the comet throughout Monday.

About the mission Deep Impact

The revolutionary study has been initiated by a team of researchers, headed by Martin Hilbert of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

"We live in a world where economies, political freedom and cultural growth increasingly depend on our technological capabilities. This is the first time-series study to quantify humankind's ability to handle information,” said the lead investigator.

The researchers found that 94 percent of the human memory capacity is in digital form and the rest is in analog form.