A large swath of earthquakes hit the Pacific's so-called Ring of Fire earlier this week, prompting some to wonder if it is a precursor to the oft-discussed massive earthquake, colloquially known as "the Big One."
Sixty-nine earthquakes, including 16 tremors registering 4.5 or above on the Richter scale, recently hit the area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which recorded the events but did not issue a warning.
Several of the quakes registered significant impacts, including one that hit 5.0 and shook the area on Tuesday morning. Fiji appeared to be the most impacted, as five tremors above a 4.5 magnitude hit the small island.
Luckily, the earthquakes did not reach the western coast of the U.S., which partially sits on the Cascadia subduction zone, a fault that stretches from mid-Vancouver Island to Northern California. The recent tremors have sparked concern that "the Big One" could be near, according to The Daily Mail, but the USGS has made no mention of this.
Of the 69 earthquakes, 53 hit the area on Sunday, followed by the 16 subsequent tremors, impacting Indonesia, Bolivia, Japan and the aforementioned Fiji.
"The Big One" is often described as an earthquake with a magnitude 8 or above, causing massive destruction to California, which some have said is overdue for an earthquake of this magnitude. California sits on the San Andreas fault, a 750-mile fault that has been responsible for some of the state's most devastating earthquakes.
The last earthquake that came close to a 8.0 magnitude in California was the great earthquake of 1906, which hit a magnitude of 7.9 and shook San Francisco to the ground, destroying 80 percent of the city and resulted in 3,000 deaths.
A massive earthquake registering 8.2 was registered on Sunday, hitting 174 miles north-northeast of Ndoi Island, Fiji, according to the the USGS. Luckily, the massive quake did not cause any significant damage, hitting at a depth of 347.7 miles, too deep to cause a tsunami.
“We are monitoring the situation and some places felt it, but it was a very deep earthquake,” Director Apete Soro told Reuters in an interview.
Venezuela was hit by its most powerful earthquake since 1900 on Tuesday night, adding to the turmoil wreaked by the country's economic crisis.
Cars were flattened by collapsing walls, supermarket shelves completely wiped out and gaping holes in the ground emerged all over the country as the tremors ripped through its major cities.
The earthquake's epicenter shook eastern Venezuela but also caused problems in Colombia and Trinidad, causing buildings to be evacuated as far away as Bogata.
The quake was placed at a 7.3 magnitude with its epicentre being 13 miles southwest of Irapa in the north of Venezuela, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Experts have long warned that Venezuela's cash-strapped government is ill-prepared to deal with a major natural disaster.
Hospitals have scant supplies, many ambulances are grounded and food and water are among goods that have disappeared in a country suffering from inflation estimated by the International Monetary Fund to reach 1 million percent this year.
In the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, office workers evacuated buildings and people fled homes in fear.
Residents and office workers in Caracas fled from their buildings and homes.
At a shopping center, a woman caught in the panic of people rushing out of the building fell on an escalator and injured herself.
In downtown Caracas, concrete from the unfinished Tower of David office building fell to the sidewalk, creating a potentially lethal hazard.
A block away, children wearing surgical masks stretched their neck toward the 620-foot building after having fled a nearby foundation for poor children suffering from cancer.
"We felt something strong and they told everyone to run,’ said Marisela Lopez, who was at the foundation with her 7-year-old daughter when the quake struck.
Venezuelan state media caught the confusion on camera as Diosdado Cabello, the head of the all-powerful constitutional assembly, was delivering a speech at a march.
Footage captured at the scene shows people shouting 'quake' as Cabello and others looked side-to-side for cover.
Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said that so far there were no reports of fatalities.
Shocks from the earthquake were felt as far away as Colombia's capital Bogotá, where authorities briefly closed the international airport to inspect for runway damage.
While videos from Trinidad showed terrified customers leaving stores as products fell from shelves.
The earthquake struck at 5:31pm local time on Tuesday and was 76 miles deep.
Something is getting very scary! A new strong earthquake hit off the coast of Oregon, today, August 22, 2018. This latest powerful quake raises fears among US west coast population, living in the densely populated areas on the Pacific coast. This latest strong earthquake may be a sign of the next Big One… which is overdue… And where is it going to strike? Along the Cascadia Fault Line or in California.
Another powerful M6.2 earthquake struck 200 kilometres off coastal Oregon on August 2018. The epicenter of the quake lies directly on the Cascadia Fault Line, which is part of the larger Ring of Fire – where more than 60 significant earthquakes have hit in the last few days.
Experts have warned of no damage to buildings, and there has been no tsunami warning issued for now.
Enhanced activity along the Ring of Fire is a sign of the Big One coming?
The Ring of Fire is the largest and most active fault line in the world, stretching from New Zealand, all around the east coast of Asia, over to Canada and the USA and all the way down to the southern tip of South America and causes more than 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes.
Experts know that the Ring of Fire has the potential to unleash some catastrophic quakes – and a spate in the last 24 hours has some concerned.
The strongest of which was a magnitude 8.2 which struck in the Pacific Ocean close to Fiji and Tonga but there have been many others, including a M7.3 earthquake in Venezuela, a M6.6 earthquake in Vanuatu and a deadly M6.9 earthquake in Lombok, Indonesia.
Seismologists believe that the unsettling of the Ring of Fire could lead to a catastrophic earthquake somewhere around the globe, and California or the Cascadia fault along the US west coast have been touted as possible epicenters.
Experts have been warning for some time that California is overdue a large earthquake, and shaking around the Ring of Fire could be a precursor to this.
California overdue for a large earthquake
Thomas Jordan, head of the Southern California Earthquake Center, told the Los Angeles Times last year, that any time there is seismic activity on a fault zone, “the probability of having a large earthquake goes up.”
And Richard Aster, Professor of Geophysics at Colorado State University wrote recently for the Conversation that the southwestern State is overdue an earthquake: “The earthquake situation in California is actually more dire than people who aren’t seismologists like myself may realise. Although many Californians can recount experiencing an earthquake, most have never personally experienced a strong one. For major events, with magnitudes of seven or greater, California is actually in an earthquake drought.”
The last time there was a magnitude seven quake or higher in California was in 1906 which struck San Francisco and ultimately killed around 3,000 people. But Prof Aster says the damage this time could be much worse as California’s population has grown more than 20-fold since the 1906 earthquake and currently is close to 40 million. As you understand, there could be serious devastation.
Cascadia overdue for a big earthquake
Experts fear a mega-tsunami could be headed to the west coast in the near future as the fault is ‘overdue’ for the big one. According to specialists, this earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest.
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