*shrug*

The last time there was a major earthquake like that in Turkey there was an accompanying earthquake in Greece a month or so later. I remember this because I was there. That was the first time (and only time I think) I witnessed something on CNN and in real life at the same time. Anyway, strong earthquakes are common in that area and don't be surprised if there's one in Greece some time soon - which is of course all they need right now (and by that I mean, natural disaster relief from the EU of course ).

Ask Al Gore... I'm sure he can explain it.

Regards,
Ltstanfo

You know, the thing about Turkey is that the are always getting earthquakes and yet all their buildings are always falling down - and a 6 isn't really that big. Haiti's earthquake was about 100 times stronger and Chile's was 1000 time stronger. Chile builds for earthquakes because they know they are in an active region.

As to clusters... I'm not surprised though it still seems to be the established lore in the science that earthquakes are generally wholly separate events. In that they are unpredictable and you can't say when and where they are going to occur then it's true enough to say that but whenever you get a big quake it's plain to see from the seismic activity that it takes a while for the ringing to stop and all the stresses to settle out.

Each fault or plate boundary builds up it's own stresses over time and the closer they are to critical, the less perturbation it takes to set them off. A strong quake somewhere in the world could be enough to tip the scales, however, it's not cut and dried. At considerable distances local effects tend to be dominant, so immediate triggering isn't likely but as the relieved stress redistributes itself. It's like dropping sand grains onto a pile. Sometimes nothing happens, sometimes some sand slips, sometimes a lot.

Earthquake Density Maps for the World

Earthquake Facts and Statistics

The Turkey quake was a magnitude 5.9-6.0, there are on average 1319 magnitude 5 to 5.9 earth quakes per year

There are about 50 earthquakes per day detected, or about 20,000 a year.

Won't the Greek disaster relief union then just go on strike until they get a raise??

No.

Suppose you're thinking about a plate of shrimp. Suddenly somebody will say like 'plate' or 'shrimp' or 'plate of shrimp', out of the blue, no explanation. No point in looking for one either; it's all part of the cosmic unconsciousness.

Greece: 4.3 magnitude earthquake off the island of Evia

This was a small one, but it seems the plate is active. A bigger one may be on the way.

Past, Present & Future Plate Tectonics
Earth's crust: moving around at a snail’s pace - or one monster earthquake at a time


& some 2012 discussion at "Worlds Collide!" subheader near bottom of the link

Thanks Metalman

As the continential mass apart and back together the rotation of the earth has to change. Perhaps even the location of the magnetic pole.

With the recent Chilean superquake one scientist concluded the length of the day has become shorter by a billionth of a second. Unfortunately, our sensors only only good to about 20 billionth of a second, 20 times larger, so there's no way to emperically verify this.

More on West Coast Megathrust potential.

Earthquake activity has been elevated around the Pacific since the big Chile quake.
Live quake map
(obviously, if you are not looking at the map on the 13, Mar, 2010 then you will not be seeing what I saw )

Here is a very short video involving work being done on the studies of stress and earthquake triggers.

quake movie

While poking around for more quake info I came across these two really cool visualizations of earthquake waves.

5.6 magnitude quake hits Cuba.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/20/1 ... ke-in.html

Volcano erupts near Eyjafjallajoekull in south Iceland:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8578576.stm

First time in 200 years.


BTW you do know global warming makes tectonic activity more likely since melting ice moves downforces from land to sea.