Swarm of big quakes across the globe

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Jordan Hartley

Several large earthquakes have struck the western pacific, middle east, and the caribbean over the last week or so. Most of the quakes happened away from heavily populated areas.

Iran: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/usc0000rak/#details

Puerto Rico:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/pr10358004/#details

Western Pacific:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/usc0000rxc/#details

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/usc0000usf/

Several other 5.0 or greater quakes have occured along active fault lines across the planet including two in Alaska that were around 6.0. Typical for that region, the quakes listed in the above links just caught my eye as these occured in 'less active' areas within a small time frame.
 
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Precursors? Haven't scientists been studying earthquakes moving in a pattern as a precurser to a big quake at the last epicenter of the group? I think I read about that somewhere.
 
I dont buy into the doomsday theory. But I do buy into increased activity. Regardless of opinions this was an active period that is still going on. There have been over a 100 more earthquakes in the last 7 days than the previous week. A lot of that has to do with these big quakes setting off dozens of aftershocks. Very interesting to watch the animation page on the usgs website for the last 7 days. After coming to the site for nearly 10 years daily I can say this is an active time for earthquakes. Check it out for those who dont normally visit the site it'll be a treat!

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsanim/world/

Leading up to this "event" for months earthquake numbers hovered around the 200 mark for a given 7 day period. Currently were at 337.
 
Well yes. Didnt say non-active. Look at places such as Alaska, Southern California, and Indonesia where 5.0 or greater quakes occur quite frequently and thats what I was talking about. Of course quakes happen a lot in the listed regions over a long period of time but these quakes are widely spread out and rarely big. To put my comment into context it would be like saying tornadoes happen in canada but its a less active area than say Oklahoma. Does that help?
 
How come everyone always looks at these things like it's the end of the world. Does anyone just look at these things as nature. How come swarms of quakes and people are screaming the end. Does no one have hope for the future any more?:confused:
 
Japan is VERY active. They experience many many earthquakes there. You don't ever hear about it because they are such a reality for them that their buildings can withstand all but the most powerful quakes (7.5+). They happen often enough there that when an earthquake happens, they flash an alert on the tv screen much like we do for tornadoes.

Vanuatu, like Japan also lies on the Ring of Fire, and is therefore very active.

Iran is known to have larger quakes fairly often, as it also lies at the intersection of several plates.

Alaska same as above

Puerto Rico is located near the Puerto Rico trench, which is an active subduction zone. Quakes in this region are usually smaller than other regions but they can occasionally get larger, as the Haitian quake showed us.

I would hardly categorize magnitude 5-6 quakes as "big", more like "moderate". In terms of force and/or damage, I'd compare them to EF-1 tornadoes. Big enough to send you to cover, but not big enough to cause significant damage except in poorly constructed areas (mobile homes, mud shacks, shanty towns, etc). Well constructed areas barely even notice them. Every year there is an average of 1400 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or larger. This means that on average there are 4 such quakes every day. Keeping in mind that this is an average rate, there could potentially be several days or even weeks when no such quakes happen at all, but there could also be several days or weeks where they happen very often. That's just how probability and statistics work.

Some of the increased activity in the last few years is probably still associated with the quake that caused the indian ocean tsunami. If you move a 900mile+ long slab of earth 30 feet in a few minutes, it's gonna take a while for things to settle :)
 
And WOW and quake in Argentina is deep! 362miles is well into the mantle. People in Argentina have reported barely any shaking at all, even near the epicenter.

Speaking of quake swarms though, I noticed that the Bonin Islands south of Japan above the Mariana Trench had over 50 quakes of around magnitude 5 over a 4 day period. At a depth of 10km or so, I'd imagine there's a little bit of magma shifting around down there.
 
Looked back as far as 2002 for an annual count on the number of 7.0 or greater quakes.
2002 12
2003 14
2004 12
2005 10
2006 10
2007 17
2008 12
2009 17
2010 22
2011 is on a pace to have 365. (That's the accuracy of 1 data point). :)
 
James Siler said:
How come everyone always looks at these things like it's the end of the world. Does anyone just look at these things as nature. How come swarms of quakes and people are screaming the end. Does no one have hope for the future any more?:confused:
Click to expand...

No one gets out of here alive anyway...
 
One thing I wanted to point out, the amount of quakes across the planet has dropped from over 300 to now 181 in just the last 7 days. Ive seen this time and time again over the years. But these big quakes just dont happen at the rate they have been all the time. They dont come in waves like this so there is something to it. At least not since ive been watching them via usgs.gov. I am not screaming end of the world or anything like that. Just simply wanted to bring the issue up since the numbers are there.
 
This increase in activity has me wondering if the New Madrid fault line is going to be popping something loose anytime soon. That could really cause some problems
 
Well, two hours to go and we may have our first day (UTC) of 2011 without a Mag. 7 or larger quake. (In fact there has been only one Mag. 5 or greater quake in the world today!) :)
 
John Begler said:
This increase in activity has me wondering if the New Madrid fault line is going to be popping something loose anytime soon. That could really cause some problems
Click to expand...

I've been wondering the same thing. It seems that the New Madrid fault keeps pressure relieved with a bunch of small quakes, but you seldom see many of those small one's extend far from the main faulting area in Ark/MoBoothill region, so pressure could be building along the northern fault sections.
 
Ya feel the same way Keith and so do others, more qualified people in this field. What I also find interesting is all the activity that has been occurring in the Rockie Mountains. Lots of small quakes have been occurring over the past couple of years and I can remember for a long time that area having no activity at all.
 
The area around Yellowstone may be worth watching. They have had big quakes before.
 
Earthquake lake in wyoming was caused by one. I assume you were smarting off. I'm not offended or mad. You may want to look it up though. Thanks for your reply to the other guy Darrin.
 
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