Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On: Busy Stretch for Large Earthquakes

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A Live Science analysis of U.S. Geological Survey data finds that April's first three weeks were the busiest stretch for earthquakes going back to at least the beginning of last year. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said April was a record month for warnings from the Alaska-based center

How about May? There were 17 magnitude-6 or larger earthquakes globally between May 1 and May 20, following a busy April that saw 26 temblors in that same magnitude range. By comparison, there were only six earthquakes this big in February, eight in January and just two in December.

The average monthly tally of these large earthquakes in 2013 was 11.8. But experts say there's nothing unusual about the recent spike. And while April's pace was high, its monthly total is not a record. You only need to go back to March 2011 — when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck the Tohoku region of Japan — for a higher count: 72. [7 Craziest Ways Japan's Earthquake Affected Earth]

Are you wondering if it's your imagination, or is there really an uptick in earthquakes? To find out, Live Science posed this question to seismologists, the scientists who study the trembling Earth, at their annual meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, last month. Not surprisingly, some had pithy responses.

Age of megaquakes?

"I've been answering that question for 34 years," said a smiling John Ebel, a professor at Boston College in Massachusetts. Translation: Nothing to see here. Move along.

But Thorne Lay, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, thinks there's something interesting happening with the world's great earthquakes.

Between 1900 and 2004, the average yearly rate of quakes of magnitude 8 and larger was 0.65, Lay told Live Science. In the past 10 years, that rate jumped to 1.8 — an increase of almost a factor of 3, he said. But only the biggest quakes are becoming more frequent. There isn't a similar rise in smaller earthquakes. [The 10 Biggest Earthquakes in History]

"There's a big mystery there," Lay said. Unfortunately, it's a tough one for researchers to solve. "The 110-year record is totally lacking," Lay said. "It's too short a window."

The short time window of instrumental records, since the first seismometers went into action, makes it hard to find patterns amid the statistical noise of earthquakes.

However, other seismologists have also analyzed the recent spate of great earthquakes and concluded it's totally random, according to several studies, including one published in the August 2012 Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

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http://news.yahoo.com/whole-lotta-shakin-goin-busy-stretch-large-earthquakes-165008401.html

Hey Valerie!

Please do check out my Even the earth seems to be spinning faster 'n' faster... thread!!!

There may be something to all these EQs from our old earth being spinned faster 'n' faster on its axis, probably by THE One who is anxious to come to take us on our 'Rapture Flight To Heaven'? Do you suppose!?

Maranatha!
Tammy

Yes I saw and responded to your post Tammy.

It does feel like time is going faster, and that's a good thing I'd say.

The reason I say this is, that the Rapture will be coming sooner than later.

Maranatha!

Valerie

A big Amen to that Valerie and Tammy!

Definitely sooner than later.

Maranatha,

Julie