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With all the tectonic activity going on around the world in the past few years-and it seems it is intensifying-is the USA next?

I've seen quite a few warnings about the New Madrid fault line in the US under a massive strain and could "go" at any time, the east coast is also under risk.

There was also an earthquake in Mexico yesterday, and another big quake (7.4 downgraded to 7.1...i think) hit Japan again yesterday.




Discuss please.

Hundreds of minor quakes every day.. nothing to worry about.

Very true, however...minor quakes is not what the discussion is about

[KMA]Avenger wrote:Very true, however...minor quakes is not what the discussion is about

You're talking about increasing tectonic activity. Minor quakes is very much what the discussion is about. Minor quakes relieve the tension on the fault line; making the chance of a 'Big One' decrease a little. These minor quakes don't keep up with actual tectonic movement completely, resulting in a net increase in tension (and likelihood of major quakes).

There is not that much more tectonic activity as there was, say, 10,000 years ago. We just have far better equipment to detect them.. and the longer we keep recording, the bigger the chance we'll eventually record that big '10' (which would be a pretty huge thing, actually). Surely you see the train of thought? Record more, and outliers are more likely to exist with more extreme values within your dataset.


I actually studied the 'plate tectonics' subject for a bit. ^_^

I understand all of the above BUT, the minor quakes are not what wish to discuss because lets face it, minor quakes are not that much of a problem, and as you stated about relieving plate stress/pressure can be a good thing, they can also be a precursor or gauge as to just how much pressure there is in any given fault line.
So no argument from me on that front


However, we have had some major quakes in the past 10+ years and they seem to be coming with ever more regularity, and as i stated above, some real experts are saying that the New Madrid quake is under enormous pressure and it's just a matter of time-that time being sooner rather than later.
Said earthquake specialist (i forget his name) also said that he was pissed at the Obama administration for taking 2 satellites off-line which were being used for earthquake monitoring and that those satellites are key...but we wont go down that road, i simply mention it because there are scientists/people out there who are very worried.

Removed

Kit-Fox wrote:Seismologists have for some time now been prediucting that the west coast line of the Americas is due a big quake, and by some time I mean for like the last 20/30 years at least as I recall.

In that time there have been a few sizable quakes (reaching 6/7 on the scale as I recall) which they dismissed as this supposed apocalyptic quake due to come.

Don't forget the big quake they had in San Francisco 89. but that quake aside, yep, there have been many "predictions" for the San Andreas fault over the past couple decades.

Kit-Fox wrote:And again as I recall from high school geography class, the SA fault line while under major stress, is 'locked' in place at the moment by two out croppings from each plate that have met each other, making movement of those two plates unlikely until something happens to damage/destroy/remove at least one of these outcroppings.

I wasn't aware of that.


Probably just as well they didn't set of the nuke to stop the gulf oil spill, who knows what that might or might not have done (low yield nuke i know, but still you would have to be mad to take the chance), especially seeing how the New Madrid fault line is not that far from the gulf and cuts fairly deep into the central states.