The earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people in Iran was part of a normal pattern that included quakes in California, New Caledonia, Panama, Mexico and Indonesia in the last two weeks, the US Geological Survey said on Friday.
"We are in the norm of earthquake activity," seismologist Jim Devine said at the US agency that monitors earthquakes.
"We would need several more large earthquakes before we start considering something unusual," he said.
Asked whether any of these quakes were related, Devine said, "The short answer is, no they're not. The long answer is, of course, the entire Earth is always in some state of energy release. There are periods when there is more energy release than other times."
The Earth is made up of almost a dozen plates that can collide and release energy, and it is this energy release that creates the earthquake, Devine said. But he stressed that a quake on one side of the Earth does not trigger one on the other side.
"Ninety-five percent of the time they appear to be quite random," Devine said.
"I haven't seen anything in this current pattern that would indicate that it's out of the ordinary," he said.
Seismologists do not understand why there are times when the Earth appears to be in a more active mode, which results in more earthquakes, Devine said.
Between 1890 and 1906, there were an unusually high number of large earthquakes, including temblors in California and Chile that were higher than 8 on the Richter scale.
By contrast, in the 1980s, "We were `energy deficient,'" Devine said.
"We can tell you where they're likely to occur, how large they are likely to be, how often they occur and how the ground will respond around it. But we cannot tell you just when it's going to hit," he said.
Seismologists did not predict the earthquake in the Iranian town of Bam, but knew that the whole country was in an active area.
On a relative scale, the 6.8-magnitude earthquake in Bam was a small one, approximately the same size as the California earthquake that killed two people on Dec. 22.
But Bam's buildings, many of which were made of mud and straw, were not as earthquake-resistant as the structures in California.
The largest earthquake in the series occurred southeast of the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, on Dec. 27, with a magnitude of 7.3.
Other earthquakes erupted in Indonesia on Friday (6.1 magnitude) and Mexico on Thursday (6.3 magnitude).
A Christmas Day earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 struck in a remote region close to the border of Panama and Costa Rica, killing at least one person.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in