Are we experiencing an abnormal amount of large earthquakes?
Or does it just appear that way? Is it normal for earthquakes to happen in series like this?
I’ve looked on the USGS site and I can see that earthquakes happen every day but how does this year (and last year) stand up to past years?
I haven’t always been up on world news but now I am very into the news…so I’m not sure if it’s just that I didn’t notice it in the past.
BTW, I know there are other places to ask this but I normally get good activity/answers here. 
I think it is easier to blow this off because there is nothing anyone can do to stop an earthquake or tsunami. I discovered after the earthquake in Haiti (right after the earthquake in Eureka) by looking through the earthquake reports that earthquakes do happen everyday. However, I also feel that this is something that you would have to calculate. The information is there for the public, it’s just a matter of who is willing to sort through it and compare it previous years. I don’t have time to do that because I only have a computer at work.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.html
I don’t think it’s the end of the world but I do think our Earth is shifting and changing. Those of us who are fortunate to survive this shifting are going to really enjoy the new Earth.
I am not a "gloom and doom" kind of person but I live in SF, it is very realistic that a big one might hit here in the near future. I feel that something is up with the world.
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13 comments
Maggie W. on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
YES! It may seem that there are many things like this going on these days. Please be calm and try not to panic. Just try to do the very best you can with every day that you have. There is a tumultuous time coming and this is predestine. Please know that this has happened before and it will change things drastically but life will go on. Blessed be…~M~
Hoppelemine on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
No, we’ve just had 2 news worthy ones recently. There is not a higher level of seismic activity at the moment, just a faster, better equipped and more sensationalist media to report them
Jarrett Beasley on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Well true this year we have more NOTICABLE earthquakes. Its normal to have alot of them but recently the earth has been shifting more than normal. This is of course wierd because past years are showing a lot less plat tectonic movement. People say it is a sign of an apocoliptic event. I do not have a clue to as if that is the case. I do know that nasa has predicted a large sloar storm to hit earth 12,21,12. That can mess with our magnetic fields and eletronical devices leaveing many coutries powerless or the storm can pretty much blow up your body from partilces entering the body. killing many poeple.
sheepsaymoo on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Earthquake activity is random, it happens whenever the pressure on the plates builds up enough to need to release that energy.
The Chile and Haiti earthquakes are correlated, they are along the same plate. The Pacific Rim is extremely active because it is a small plate grating against a HUGE ones (Caribbean Plate, a small one, stuck between the North and South American plates that are huge).
The earthquake in Afghanistan is not that rare – matter of fact, it is a pretty much every day occurrence. This one was just a bigger one due to the high energy release from a really sticky plates suddenly moving. Again, the Arabian plate (small one!) is stick between the Eurasian and African plate.
It’s the same thing in China. The Eurasian plate is hitting the North American plate that puts pressure on the Philippine plate (a small one!)
See the pattern?
seahag on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Here’s part of the reason-the 500 million tons of AA batteries dumped into the earth each year now add up the other acid batteries like the c,d,aaa,lap top, cell phone batteries and of course it makes the core of the earth shift causing quakes
wushuboy001 on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
I don’t know if its more, but we have been getting more destructive ones this year.
I think another person has already pointed out that the Haiti and Chili quakes are connected. I am told a big series quakes along the San Andreas Fault Line is expected every decade or so, but I don’t have any stats on it. Haiti was mostly destroyed because their buildings were not built to withstand earthquakes. Chili has been updating their earthquake resistant architecture, so there was a lot less destruction there than there could have been.
I think this past decade we have seen a lot of destruction, with hurricanes, tsunamis and other natural disasters, but I am not sure statistically if its unusually high.
Zadok on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
The Haitian earthquake might have indirectly triggered the Chilean earthquake.
Ashley , and Clothing <3 on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
the world will end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :00
Ash C on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
It’s a sign that the world is gonna end soon. Human species can’t get anymore promiscuous and screwed up than we already are… we could, but imagine the amount of corruption we’ll have. The world is ending!
General D. Ypsilanti on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
A geologist told me that there are earthquakes somewhere in the world most
every day. Most are small tremors, but quakes are not rare.
Some countries have instituted building codes that resist quake damage
such as Japan and Chili. Haiti has not.
I am not certain that the increase in big storms and big quakes has any
meaning. Before we were born, we viewed the future to see what we would encounter,
then we came anyway.
Neil on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
drilling in south america caused that earth quake as like the last one where the french were doing nuclear testing under ground /and ocean
it disturbs the underground fault line/s
Jibster K on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
2012 is upon us…..
Pascha on May 20, 2010 at 3:16 pm
I asked a similar question in the earth sciences and geology section. You got many more answers.
We are not the only ones who have been asking this question. It appears to be on a lot of people’s minds these days.
To me it seems that there is an increase of activity, not just in our perception of it. I don’t think we have the same amount every year.