ARE ALL THESE EARTHQUAKES NORMAL?
Latest Earthquakes in the World - Past 7 days
Worldwide earthquakes with M4.5+ located by USGS and Contributing Agencies.
(Earthquakes with M2.5+ within the United States and adjacent areas.)
Written by: Brian Neudorff
Doesn't it feel like we can't go a week without some story of a major earthquake somewhere around the world. The most recent was a swarm of strong quakes occurring in China's Qinghai province near Tibet early this (Wednesday) morning. The strongest of these quakes was a 6.9 magnitude quake leaving hundreds dead and thousands injured. It's estimated that 85% of the homes in this poor rural location have been destroyed.
The China earthquake is the latest major quake (7.0 to 7.9) to grab attention so far this year. The first notable earthquake was the 7.0 that devastated Haiti on January 12th. Then there was the 8.8 magnitude quake off the shores of Chile on February 27. A relatively mild 4.4 quake that occurred in the early morning hours of Los Angeles on March 16th then followed by a 7.2 quake on April 4th near Baja California. These aren't even all of the significant earthquakes so far for 2010.
I know this has a lot of people asking, is this normal? What's going on something doesn't seem right? As we all know I'm not a seismologist and I don't try to pretend to be, but when I'm asked a question or I have one of my own I go and look find the answers. From all that I have read, it appears statistically, the planet is on track to have a near average year with the number of large quakes that occur annually.
According the the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Roughly 50 earthquakes are recorded every day. Each year it is estimated that several million earthquakes happen around the globe. Many are undetected because they occur in very remote locations or just to weak to register. Of those millions that occur annually, and average of 17 earthquakes will have a magnitude 7.0 or greater.
There are a couple of reasons I think it appears we are seeing more earthquakes. The first comes from the USGS, in the last 20 years the number of seismographs around the globe has increased dramatically. Right now, four thousand seismographs measure the Earth's movements. This has allowed the USGS to track more quakes and because of modern communications from the internet to social media they can receive and broadcast information quicker than ever. Which ties in with my number 2 reason. We can hear about earthquakes and see reports so much faster because of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. We have access to news 24/7 through cable and the internet. This wasn't the case just 10 years ago.
I hope this helped in answering some of the question you might have had and if there are anymore please feel free to ask. We will do our best to answer since this is touch outside of our expertise.
I don't entirely agree. You're data is telling me that a major earthquake nearly every week (which has been the reality lately) is normal? I doubt that.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's the tendency of agencies like the USGS and NASA to poo-poo events on earth or otherwise that have the potential to create hysteria.
Let's say that these events are connected to an imminent magnetic reversal that will have catastrophic impacts on the entire planet (not that unlikely, by the way. In fact some scientists have warned of a coming reversal, and an uptick of earthquakes are the first signs of it). Do you think the experts, after learning of this, would immediately come out and tell the concerned and questioning public? No. They would come out with well scripted statements and fuzzy data telling us that it's nothing unusual.
Here's the thing. It's easy to dismiss trends initially, and connect them with some mundane phenomenon on earth.
ReplyDeleteIt's even easier to dismiss the possiblity that it could be connected to a much more ominous threat down the road. We tend to believe that just because life has been so relatively stable in recent history (the last 500-1,000 years), that it will always be that way, because its all we know. Anything too "far fetched" seems purly fiction to us. But the fact is, we're living in an abnormal time. Why? Because the true "normal" for earth is great upheaval.
What i'm trying to get at here is this: We have to at least be open to the idea that a great change is coming soon. We are due for too many things all at once (for example: Polar reversal; geomagnetic reversal; little ice age; major ice age; super volcano etc).
I would suggest everybody reading this blog look up those five events listed above.
Lastly, let me be clear. I'm not a doomsdayer. I believe in living life and whatever happens, happens. But we also need to acknowledge that the end could be near. More than one ancient civilization already has. Coincidence?
Like I said in the post we are not Seismologist so when looking for information we have to go to the experts, and I consider the USGS experts. Many professors in this field are also saying the same thing.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I didn't mention in my post is that more and more people are living closer to fault lines and earthquake prone areas.
This is similar to what we are seeing in the plains & Midwest. It seems from reports that there are more tornadoes and more damage from tornadoes but in a lot of ways it is just more and more people living and building in places that used to be wide open prairies and farm fields. So when a tornado used to touchdown in these places it wouldn't do any damage and usually didn't get reported by news outlets or at least not splashed across the screen. If a tornado doesn't do any damage, no matter it's size or wind speed, it will only get an EF0 Brian
Speaking of tornados and population. Did you read about India? Apparently a rare tornado touched down today, killing around 50 people.
ReplyDeleteFrom what i've read, a tornado touches down in India once every three years.
The earthquakes are likely a case of statistical clustering. We have no evidence at this time to suggest otherwise.
ReplyDeleteIndia is having a tough time of it lately. Major heat wave in the Eastern part of that country. Two more days with 105 degree heat, 5 dead from it so far.
ReplyDeleteYay, did you up the temps to the low 70's tomorrow?
ReplyDeleteScott,
ReplyDeleteSince you've been here in Rochester, have you ever produced a forecast that included a possible 100 degree reading?
I ask because hitting 87 in early April got me thinking about what if the same exact scenerio happened, only in July instead of April. I wonder hat it would take to hit 100 in Monroe County.
Someone asked me if I have ever put a 100 degree forecast on the 7 day. The answer is no although I have put 97 and 98 degrees in the past. We'll see this Summer.
ReplyDelete