More Quakes: Its not your imagination (Updated:4/14)

At least someone is noticing. The headline from the LA Times yesterday read as follows:

"More moving and shaking, but why?"

The number of earthquakes greater than magnitude 4.0 in Southern California and Baja California has increased significantly in 2010. Scientists are studying the uptick but cannot fully explain it.

If you've been feeling more shaking this year, it's not your imagination.

The number of earthquakes greater than magnitude 4.0 in Southern California and Baja California has increased significantly in 2010. There have been 70 such quakes so far this year, the most of any year in the last decade. And it's only April. There were 30 in 2009 and 29 in 2008.

The string of quakes this year raises the possibility that Southern California might again be entering a more active seismic period. Scientists said the increase does not mean the Big One is any more imminent, but it could mean more significant quakes are on the way.

Egill Hauksson, a geophysicist at Caltech, said the rate of quakes in the region is "probably . . . picking up again" after a relative lull that lasted more than a decade. "What it means is that we are going to have more earthquakes than in the average year. With more earthquakes, we're bound to have more bigger ones.

Beginning in the late 1990s, however, the number of memorably large quakes subsided. Experts are not sure about the reason for the cycles; they say one possibility is that the ups and downs are random. Another possibility: a "cascade effect" in which a quake on one fault changes the stresses on another.

Earthquakes have been in the public consciousness this year after January's devastating temblor in Haiti, which killed tens of thousands and was followed weeks later by another destructive quake in Chile. That was followed by the Mexicali quake, which was larger than the one in Haiti but much less destructive.

----------

Then we see this in today's news:

"Powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake rocks China"

Hours before the 6.9-magnitude earthquake, a moderate 5.0-magnitude earthquake rattled the same area.

The 6.9-magnitude earthquake at 7.49 a.m. local time was centered about 236 miles (380 kilometers) south-southeast of the city of Goldmud, or 149 miles (239 kilometers) north-northwest of Qamdo in Tibet. It struck about 29.1 miles (46.9 kilometers) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

----------

A quick look at the earthquake map reveals the activity over the last couple of days:

MAP

5.3 India
4.9 New Guinea
4.6 Alaska
4.9 Ryukyu Islands
5.0 Solomon Islands
4.6 Cuba Region
4.2 Argentina

----------

UPDATE 14 April '10:

5.0 Mexico
5.0 Japan
4.3 Haiti
5.6 Taiwan
4.5 Colombia
4.8 Chile
Aftershocks in China: 4.8, 5.8....

Follow-up article on China Quake:

Western China quakes kill at least 400"

A series of strong earthquakes struck a far western Tibetan area of China on Wednesday, killing at least 400 people and injuring thousands as houses made of mud and wood collapsed, trapping many more, officials said.

Paramilitary police were forced to use shovels to dig through the rubble in a Qinghai province township where most of the homes had been flattened, footage on state television showed. Officials said excavators were not available and with most of the roads leading to the nearest airport damaged, equipment and rescuers would have a hard time reaching the area.

The USGS recorded six temblors in less than three hours, all but one registered 5.0 or higher. The China Earthquake Networks Center measured the largest quake's magnitude at 7.1.

Additionally, there is a lot of buzz around Iceland right now and its volcano which is leading to the evacuation of hundreds:

"Iceland evacuates hundreds near volcano"

"Breaking News: New Eruption Starting in Iceland?"

"Whole Country (Iceland): earthquakes over last 48 hours"

----------



Again, the important aspect is not so much an apparent increase in earthquake activity, but the fact that earthquakes are in the "public consciousness" as the first article indicated - or, in other words, something noteworthy, and indeed that is the case now. Whether its from such large population based areas in which the earthquakes are hitting, or because of tsunamis which are generated, or simply because of the modern news cycle which posts headlines around the world on a minute to minute basis. Either way, earthquakes are very much in the public consciousness. Pretty much in the way that Jesus framed the signs that would appear in cycles - like birth pains. As the first article stated, "experts are not sure about the reason for the cycles", and it could be due to a "cascade effect" in which a quake on one fault stresses another.

Either way - its just another sign. Earthquakes in diverse places. Just as Jesus warned us.