[dolanbaker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sys1', 'S')eems there are more and more strong earthquakes and volcanoes eruptions. Or is it usual?

[dinopello]

In England when they got some unusual earthquake, they banned fracking.

[Timo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', '[')url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/small-earthquake-in-blackpool-major-shock-for-uks-energy-policy-2291597.html]In England when they got some unusual earthquake, they banned fracking.[/url]

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Timo', 'M')aking this planet uninhabitable is justified because it employs billions of people. What other species of life on this planet thinks in this fashion? We are created in God's image? I think not.

[rangerone314]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Timo', 'M')aking this planet uninhabitable is justified because it employs billions of people. What other species of life on this planet thinks in this fashion? We are created in God's image? I think not.

[Ferretlover]

Peru got shaken (not stirred) today, too. There are lots of places to follow earthquakes, one of them being: http://earthquake-report.com/
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Earthquakes list August 24, 2011
Not dangerous : Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Japan(aftershocks), Virginia
Earthquakes list August 23, 2011
Very dangerous : United States (Virginia)
Moderately dangerous : INDONESIA, COLORADO
Not dangerous : Japan (aftershocks), Fiji Islands, Kashmir India border, Sandwich Islands, Guatemala, USA (Colorado), Japan (Hokkaido), Colombia, Papua New Guinea
Earthquakes list August 22, 2011
Moderately dangerous : INDONESIA (Sumatra), USA (Colorado)
Not dangerous : Indonesia, New Zealand, Japan( aftershocks), Japan ( Hokkaido), Vanuatu, Greece, Tajikistan, Saint Martin / Leeward Islands, Alaska, USA (Colorado)
Earthquakes list August 21, 2011
Very dangerous : VANUATU
Not dangerous : Indonesia, Japan (aftershocks), Vanuatu (aftershocks), Solomon islands, United States, Russia (Kamchatka), Greece, Chile, Turkey, South Sandwich Islands, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Georgia, France

[dohboi]

It's hard for me to believe that any amount of drilling or mining could set off an earthquake that shakes the whole eastern seaboard.

[the48thronin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Timo', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', '[')url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/small-earthquake-in-blackpool-major-shock-for-uks-energy-policy-2291597.html]In England when they got some unusual earthquake, they banned fracking.[/url]

[dohboi]

Here's a somewhat broader perspective.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=are-larger-earthquakes-a-sign

It seems that some seismologists, at least, think that clusters of large earthquakes may be more than statistical flukes. I would think that large-ish earthquakes in otherwise non-earthquake prone locations might raise the same questions.

No seismologist is likely to stand up and say--"Hey, even though it is statistically extremely unlikely for these things to happen at the same time, our models for how these things happen don't give us any mechanism for them to be related, so that's what we have to tell you. The fact is, we really don't know."

From the article:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')the probability of another quake of magnitude 9 or larger striking in the next 6 years is about 63 per cent. "There's now an increased hazard situation for these very large earthquakes," he notes.

[ritter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dohboi', '
')So which is it, boys.

[rockdoc123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')o this suggests that large quakes can increase likelihood of other large quakes in completely different areas of the world over times spans of six years.

[dohboi]

Thanks for the insights, roc.

So you don't find it even a tiny bit strange that two major quakes happened on the same day in areas that hadn't seen anything close to that level of activity for over a hundred years in one case and fifty years in the other?

It doesn't strike you as a tad statistically improbable that the two are unrelated?

I know, and said as much, that the current level of our understanding of seismology seems to say that these can't be related. You affirmed this understanding. At some point, though, scientists have to re-examine their assumptions if 'coincidences' happen that their current theories can't account for.

"Fluid pressure can change in a given system for all sorts of reasons"

What kinds of reasons are relatively well known?

[rockdoc123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')o you don't find it even a tiny bit strange that two major quakes happened on the same day in areas that hadn't seen anything close to that level of activity for over a hundred years in one case and fifty years in the other?

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dohboi', 'I')t's hard for me to believe that any amount of drilling or mining could set off an earthquake that shakes the whole eastern seaboard.

[dohboi]

Thanks for the +1 oc, and for the clarifications, rd. So above-ground factors (flooding...) can have an affect on earthquakes. I wonder if the unusually large rains they have been having in the East could have played a roll, then. And perhaps also the drought and heat in the west?

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dohboi', 'T')hanks for the +1 oc, and for the clarifications, rd. So above-ground factors (flooding...) can have an affect on earthquakes. I wonder if the unusually large rains they have been having in the East could have played a roll, then. And perhaps also the drought and heat in the west?

[basil_hayden]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dohboi', 'T')hanks for the +1 oc, and for the clarifications, rd. So above-ground factors (flooding...) can have an affect on earthquakes. I wonder if the unusually large rains they have been having in the East could have played a roll, then. And perhaps also the drought and heat in the west?

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('basil_hayden', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dohboi', 'T')hanks for the +1 oc, and for the clarifications, rd. So above-ground factors (flooding...) can have an affect on earthquakes. I wonder if the unusually large rains they have been having in the East could have played a roll, then. And perhaps also the drought and heat in the west?

[dohboi]

Well, after engaging in many hours, weeks, years... of research (actually, I just googled 'dams earthquakes'), I came across this, which seems to confirm bh's statements--dams can cause earthquakes in the relatively short term: http://www.internationalrivers.org/node/3845

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'E')arthquakes Triggered by Dams

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', 'A')fter all, we are absolutely terrible at predicting earthquakes (aside from being able to say they will happen in certain areas periodically, and at VERY ROUGH (multi-decade) guesses, based on historical major quake frequencies.

Better than nothing but nothing CLOSE to enough information to do anything but know to, for example, invest in building very good structures in a known strong quake zone -- as that stringth WILL be needed - eventually.