EarthQuake Swarms

Interesting list of earthquakes over the last 4 days.

On the 27th, there were 7 recorded tremors in Mt. St. Helens area.

neic.usgs.gov...

On the 28th, there were 24 earthquakes in the Sumatra region.

On the 29th, there were 34 earthquakes in the Sumatra region.

On the 30th, there were 24 earthquakes in the Sumatra region.

Here is a satelite image of the area.

(A NASA satellite image of Sumatra, Indonesia. Image by Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC)

Here is a diagram of the plates with added arrows to show the general direction.


Hopefully, all these quakes will relieve some stress that's been building up. I would hate to see another large one but many scientists say that it's inevitable. The Sumatra Swarms are ranging in the 4 and 5 magnitudes. What does everyone think? These small quakes leading up to another 9.0+ soon? How long can this quantity of quakes continue? Will these events set off a chain reaction around the Ring of Fire? Is there something else going on that we don't know about? Theories and thoughts please.

Lots of people would say that global warming and other factors are to blame. then you have those who feel that he earth is just going through its natural defense mechanism. That is, acting like the body when foreign things enter it. So too does the earth when it's tolerance of bad ecological decsicions on our part reaches a boiling point. Then you have those that feel the powers that be are creating these global catastrophies, which I can believe to an extent. There are countless records of weather projects being played out as we speak. Then finally those who believe its a sign for the end of the world. That would coincide with the first group of people i mentioned. End of the world doesnt have to be biblical, it can just mean the end of the earths current cycle. Like in the bible , "in the begining"
It says God told Adam to REPLENISH the earth, which means there was life before Adam. The world always replenishes itself. I believe the cycle is somehting like every 2 thousand or 20 thousand years. But I think the weather phenomenon is a composite of all three types of beliefs i stated above. What we should be cocerned about is how to survive these disasters if at all possible.

The super-volcano Toba is in this region correct?

Originally posted by Lucid Lunacy
The super-volcano Toba is in this region correct?

Yes, last eruption roughly 75,000 yrs ago. It supposedly reduced the worldwide population of humans to 2,000 people.

I think there is too much sensationalism about these earthquakes. It is always a tragedy when people die from natural disasters, but that is a constant in our world that will never change and reading anything more into these natural disasters is fallacious. Fears about the end of the world from the action our planets natural forces, forces we CANNOT currently or ever hope to control, is a natural state of mind. Our minds do not handle such overwhelming concepts with great ease. It is difficult for us to subscribe to just how small and powerless we truly are. We like to think of ourselves as more refined and with a greater understanding of and control over the natural world then our ancestors. However, we still conjure up ghost stories about punishment for our sins or some equally baseless idea to explain why these natural events happen.
Take the cold & calculating scientific view for a second. This planet is in a constant state of flux and earthquakes are continuous; over a million happen in a year. While the vast majority are minor tremors or generally imperceptible to most instrumentation, every month there are three major earthquakes (see links at the bottom).
Again, we don't like to think of the world in such random and unsystematic terms. We find far more pleasant views in explanations that contend there is some balance of nature. But any knowledge of rudimentary physics tells that nature has never been and never will be in balance. Its the second law of thermodynamics, entropy(disorder) always wins out even when certain ordered systems, specifically life, temporarily stablize entropy. When the organism dies entropy wins.


earthquake.usgs.gov...
www.newton.dep.anl.gov...
www.ceri.memphis.edu...