Earthquakes pose a significant risk to 75 million Americans in 39 states.—USGS Jan. 2004
| December 12, 2011, updated Dec. 14 © Holly Deyo standeyo.com / DareToPrepare.com
This recent Fox News/Live Science story says bigger quakes are NOT on the rise and that larger quakes don't trigger events on the opposite side of the planet. It states "On a local level, earthquakes do cluster and trigger one another, with a main shock often surrounded by fore- or aftershocks. But whether large earthquakes that occur thousands of miles across the globe from each other are related is a separate question."
$In fact, the first time I ever heard this phenomenon addressed was from Stan in 1995 and now many others report observing this 'seismic reaction'. The next time an 7.8 or larger quake strikes, check this antipodal map and see if an answering quake doesn't occur within 24 hours. It is not an 'always' event and it is usually somewhat smaller, but there's an interesting correlation that bears study. Now back to the discussion of whether or not the number of large quakes is growing. The Fox article goes on to say that in a study, USGS scientist Andrew Michael "used three statistical methods to find out if large earthquakes cluster together or if what looks like clusters is just random variability. A first glance at global earthquakes since 1900 does look very clustered, he said. But as soon as you remove aftershocks from the equation, that pattern disappears." First, numerous aftershocks can be nearly as strong as the earthquake itself, generally just 1 magnitude lower. Especially with larger events, aftershocks can be just as damaging. When looking at a Richter 7, of which there was 42 for 2010-2011, these can create havoc. Buildings and infrastructure, which took a beating from the main event, are now even more vulnerable to additional destructive shaking, slumping and sliding. Second, when it's your life, your home, your business or livelihood, you won't care if the earthquake was classified an earthquake or an aftershock. Nor does USGS distinguish the two when recording yearly temblors. A quake is a quake. By removing the aftershocks, USGS attempts to reign in its burgeoning statistics. This doesn't wash except to mute what must be their own growing concerns. According to USGS' figures, earthquakes are increasing and most alarmingly, in the higher magnitudes. See for yourself. How to Read the Chart Listed in the white columns on the left are the magnitudes and the average number of earthquakes that occur annually for each. For each year are 2 corresponding colored columns. The first lists the actual number of shakers that struck for each Richter and in the next column what percent it is compared to the norm. Now skip to the last 4 columns – 2 gray, 2 green. The gray columns add together the number of quakes for each Richter that occurred for 2008 and 2009. The green columns do the same thing for 2010 and 2011 combined. Red numbers show where magnitudes exceeded the norms. Not only did 2010/2011 exceed ALL of the norms for larger events, but the largest quakes, Richters 6, 7 and 8 - 9.9 gained significantly over 2008/2009. There are still two weeks to go... This is yet another sign of the End of this Age. |
