FOR SALLY: 9 Mag-5 (Avg) Quakes In 17 Hours At Same Depth/Location

Thomas - not that unusual. I have been tracking for 3 years. Actually the average for 5 mags since 1990 is 1317 per year and we are under that now. Around plate edges - especially subduction zones we have bizarre amounts of seismic activity at times. I still wonder how it is that Indonesia hasn't just been shaken to pieces yet. What is more relevant and crucial to us above ground is not the magnitude but the depth - shallow quakes do more damage than those underneath the crust. A mag 4 at one km depth will cause more turmoil than a mag 6 at a few hundred kms depth.

All is normal - and even subnormal right now Tommy - other than mag 6's which we've experienced in above average (the post 1990 averages, that is - which are high anway) most quake levels are down this year.

Sam - the cascadia subduction zone is overdue for one and that area produces mag 8-9 quakes historically. It was one of those which caused the disastrous tsunami that racked Japan in the early 1700's. Not only is Seattle right on the edge of that subduction zone - it has a major fault line that runs through the middle of it to the subduction zone AND - it's sitting on sediment. That whole area is f***ed to the extreme if that area heaves.

All the way to SW Idaho the crustal blocks are unique to anywhere else on earth and are lined with hundreds and possibly thousands of faults. Many are below the crust so can't be found until they shake. Now usually a quake is contained to the general area of the quake - you get a bit of it radiating outward from ground zero -- but if faultlines are hooked up to the actual quake zone you can get some chain effect. What will happen if we experience a mag 9 or larger on the cascadia subduction zone? LOL - you don't even want to think about it.

Noticed there was also a little shaking going on south of New Madrid, AR