February 27, 2008
by Holly Deyo
standeyo.com
Some of you are noticing a greater uptick in recent earthquake activity
and wondering if this is a real deal or just perception. It's not your
imagination.
Look at the earthquakes for 2007 (lavender column). Now look at the
darkest purple and darkest green columns. These show the average quake
counts for any year. Why two averages? In September 2003, the USGS
changed what they consider the 'annual average' - some up, some down -
but for continuity, I keep and compute both averages. Either one you
consult shows an elevated quake count.
Where it really becomes evident are the Richter 6 and above events.
Richter 6 is the magic number where elevated quake counts can't be
fobbed off onto having more seismic detection equipment in place or
that they're using more sensitive seismometers. At this magnitude,
their effect is too large to be missed by existing equipment. If you
were talking about relatively small events like 4's and below, or even
5's, yes, this argument could hold true.
Last year saw an impressive five Richter 8 - 9.9
events. Normally there is 1. Year 2000 saw four, but even so, all other
magnitudes except 7's were lower than 2007's. That 2007's mag. 7 and
6's were still near or above the yearly average speaks volumes plus 4's and 5's were really high.
It seems reasonable that all magnitudes below 7's for 2007 should have
fallen off significantly with the bigger quakes releasing such a
tremendous amount of energy.
Whether 2007 was a fluke remains to be seen; at least it was an
'interesting' year. What happens in 2008 will be very telling, but you
might ask yourself, is it time to prepare?
GLOBAL EARTHQUAKES JANUARY 1, 1992 - DECEMBER 31, 2007
http://standeyo.com/NEWS/08_Earth_Changes/080227.EQ.count.html
