lots of earthquakes have been happening lately, is the globe becoming more active?
Apr 25, 2010
in
Earthquake Questions
i have noticed that lately we have gotten the haiti earthquake, the chile earthquake, the china one, and not an earthquake but the big iceland volcano just blew. Is it common to get this much activity? and correct me if i missed any earthquakes.
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4 comments
Nicholas on April 25, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Not really. There are hundreds of thousands of earthquakes around the world every year. Now, many of them cannot be felt, but there are tens of thousands (maybe more) that can be felt, and there are probably only ten to twenty 7.0+ earthquakes in any given year. So far in 2010 we have had a handful of big quakes that are putting us above average for the year, but the trend may not continue. Even if it does, at the current rate, we are not dramatically above average for strong earthquakes.
As for volcanic eruptions, we usually have 50-60 of those per year. About half are non-explosive flows, but 20-30 are explosive eruptions. While I don’t actually know, I am pretty certain we are not above average in this department either.
With huge simplifications, here are some things to keep in mind:
1. These things happen more than most of us know. We just happen to be hearing about them recently because they have coincidentally occurred in places in which they effect great numbers of people.
2. It simply isn’t accurate to measure the frequency of these things in a short span of time. If there were two massive earthquakes in one week, it would make no sense to assume there will be 102 more for the year. A few months is simply too short of a span of time, unless of course we were actually having massive earthquakes on a weekly/daily basis.
3. Earthquakes, other earthquakes, and eruptions often go hand in hand. This is related to the last point because it basically says that for a period of time, there are likely to be dramatic increases in activity, but it doesn’t really last. These things may trigger one another, or they may both have the same underlying cause that we are not seeing. Eventually things settle down though (by the way, this is not to say that any of the earthquakes that have gotten a lot of coverage have necessarily had anything to do with one another or with the volcano in Iceland).
4. The earth is under constant activity, and while we may see varying degrees of frequency and magnitude from time to time, the earth ultimately has a pretty stable system. As odd as it may seem, and despite what we may personally experience, the reality is that without outside interference, the activity you are asking about is more likely to slow down (over a crazy amount of time though).
Alex on April 25, 2010 at 8:56 pm
GOD. IS. PISSED
Brandy on April 25, 2010 at 8:56 pm
there was one in So cal, turkey and indonesia
it’s like this
"Moreover, when YOU hear of wars and reports of wars, do not be terrified; [these things] must take place, but the end is not yet.
8 For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, there will be earthquakes in one place after another, there will be food shortages. These are a beginning of pangs of distress."
Mark 14:8
Vanessa on April 25, 2010 at 8:56 pm
When you consider that the earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old, the past few months is not even a blip on that scale, so in terms of geological time no, not enough time has passed to form any conclusions. Although theoretically the earth is loosing energy as time passes (heat is radiating out into space and radioactive material is being used up) which should mean that there is less energy going into driving these processes, but that would be on scale of millions of years not a few months.
However the energy from one earthquake may have triggered others (this is just a guess), I don’t really know on the more immediate scale (I’m not a seismologist).