All Major US fault zones overdue for quakes. Why?

While reading through some of the older 'quake "expectation" threads earlier, a different idea came to mind about why it seems that all of the major faultlines in the US ( Cascadia, New Madrid, San Andreas ) are overdue for a major quake. WARNING: lots of circumstancial evidence here, nothing concrete, but it does make for an interesting picture that MAY explain alot of things, including why some of the lesser known faults east of the Rockies are rupturing ( Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas ). This might also tie in the of the "tremors" that alot of people feel and sense.

I apologize ahead of time for not being able to post clearly, I have not figured out how to cut and paste articles correctly yet, so I will just link them for you all to follow at your leisure I have tried to limit links to "reputable" sites that lean more towards news and science than conspiricy. Facts only for this bit of conjecture

To start with, the past-due quake zones:

New Madrid
www.geology.siu.edu...

Cascadia
www.ooi.washington.edu...
news.discovery.com...

San Andreas
www.kpbs.org...

Alaska
www.livescience.com...

Now, with all of these MAJOR areas that are overdue for a large quake that could easily be a 8+, and in the Cascadia and Alaska areas 9+ potential, doesn't it seem odd that we are seeing many other older faultlines becoming active in a larger way in the Eastern US? I don't think I need to link to the info on the Virginia and Oklahoma quakes, as they are pretty current and should be fresh in everyones minds.

Here is where we leap off the known, and into the area of speculation! But if looked at correctly, there seems to be quite a bit of evidence for it.

What if.... HAARP isn't what we think it is. ( Yes I can hear it now.. OMG he said HAARP, stop reading! But please.. bear with me a moment. ) What if instead of being a trigger for earthquakes like many suspect that HAARP is, but instead, it is a way to help release the "pressure" as it were, of the large known quake zones. Take for instance the harmonic tremors that are quite evident here along the Cascadia zone.

www.ess.washington.edu...

There has been alot of discussion ( Thanks Westcoast! ) about the tremors in Washington and Oregon, and alot of ideas about what they are. I tend to agree that they are a release mechanism for stress in the subduction zone. What if HAARP is what is causing these "tremors"? What if, instead of HAARP being the doomsday device that everyone thinks it is, is instead a way to keep a major quake from happening in the densly populated west coast area? I find it hard to believe that HAARP could generate enough energy to CAUSE a large earthquake ( like Japan ), but enough energy to allow a slight constant slippage? Now that seems much much more likely.
If a major quake were to go off on the west coast, leaving out the loss of life, what would the economic impact be? What if a major port closed down, think SF, LA or Seattle. Those 3 are ALL major hubs for shipments from Asia. Do you think that would kill the economy pretty quickly? Wouldn't the government try to keep that from happening in the interest of "National Security"?

Now, what would the side affects of this be? If we allow tension to slowly ease, or stop it from easing all together in the major fault systems, the energy has to go somewhere. How about old faults activating? How about in the past 10 years we have had 3 MAJOR quakes on the Ring of Fire at 3 of the 4 corners of the Pacific plate ( Chile 8.8, Sumatra 9.1, Japan 9.0), but interstingly enough, NOT one in the PNW or Alaska area? So energy release on every part of the plates surrounding the major US faultlines, but none on the faultlines themselves...corelated with older faultlines producing record size earthquakes in previously unknown and low activity areas, makes for a pretty interesting picture in my mind. Admittedly this is conjecture, I really have no science to back me up that I have been able to find in a quick look, but "what if?"

Go easy on me

Danno

reply to post by MoparDanno

I live in San Andreas central for my whole life. There are two schools of thought amongst all the seismologists, geologists and any other "ists". It has been my observation that the one kind states that there could be a big one around the corner because all the data points to it being : a little (somewhat) or very overdue.
These are the ones usually seeking more grant money to continue their exhaustive studies of the past. They get interviews on TV news and science shows and money.

The other group, in my mind, remind everyone that geologic time is verrrrrrry lonnnnng and that there will be earthquakes. Sometimes little ones and very rarely, bell ringers. The more the faults move in little fits and starts, the less likely there will be big ones. I see a lot of movement all up an down the west coast, mid west and even east coast. That is a good thing. We can have a lot of little and mid range or just a couple of big ones. As long as the ground is moving a little bit little bit, then enjoy the ride.

Originally posted by intrptr
reply to post by MoparDanno

 

The other group, in my mind, remind everyone that geologic time is verrrrrrry lonnnnng and that there will be earthquakes. Sometimes little ones and very rarely, bell ringers. The more the faults move in little fits and starts, the less likely there will be big ones. I see a lot of movement all up an down the west coast, mid west and even east coast. That is a good thing. We can have a lot of little and mid range or just a couple of big ones. As long as the ground is moving a little bit little bit, then enjoy the ride.

I don't disagree one bit. A little bit of movement is a good thing, as it seems to release the pressures involved, or at least transfer it elsewhere in the system. That was the whole point of this thread

Danno

Oh dear...all building up to late 2012 me thinks with the sun going crazy and all that...

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Originally posted by CasiusIgnoranze
Oh dear...all building up to late 2012 me thinks with the sun going crazy and all that...

.

Hmmm....

I don't remember bringing the sun or 2012 into the equation, could you fill me in on how you think that is relevant?

Thank you

Danno

There could be a few reasons we are having a higher percentage of quakes lately:

1. The Pacific plate is twisting counter clockwise and east towards the north American plate. All these small 'pops' we're getting in rare areas are compression fractures... Put it this way, put a piece of rock in a vice.. add pressure (the pacific plate pressing on American plate-- and the rock begins to pop and crack and fracture..
It's like a domino effect. Pacific plate hits American plate, American plate moves causing pressure to another plate and on and on... bumper cars on a GRAND scale in a way.

2. The massive CME's that the sun slams the earths magnetic field with causes the atmosphere 'bubble' to compress, causing pressure on the planet maybe? Then expands again.. Much like cold weather on road systems in the north.. cold then hot.. contracting the ground then the heat expanding it.. cracking the ground.
Except this would be pressure related MAYBE. Just throwing this hypothesis out...

MAJOR danger areas in America in the next 3 years?

1. San Fransisco 89%
2. Los Angles 83%
3. Cascadia subduction zone (Vancouver, Washington State and Oregon's west side) 91%
4. Utah 62%
5. New Madrid zone 69%

Visited one site recently - see below - and considering how the Most powerful , Manmade, structure such as the Large Hadron Collider has been up and running for the past 3 years. How does it sound to you, for you know more than I, but IF the magnetic (Natural) field is being kicked off balance. Is it not time to question such a bit more???
www.cerntruth.com...

ld like to point out one of your flaws in making this thread.

quakes and volcanoes are two of my biggest hobbies .

first of all quakes esp large quakes if you go by mother nature her self is not on a timeclock which is set by humans ... so your claim that large quakes are overdue is just pure non sense .. because there is no way to predict a quake before it happens . quakes go by their own time clock and can happen at any given time ...


we man mkind have only been able to monitor quakes and their mags locations etc for a little over 100 years .... quakes have been hitting and happening for millions of years before mankind even walked the earth so how can we determine when a quake is over due ?
yet that does not mean that its over due ....
and the same can be said for volcanoes ...

Originally posted by alysha.angel

we man mkind have only been able to monitor quakes and their mags locations etc for a little over 100 years .... quakes have been hitting and happening for millions of years before mankind even walked the earth so how can we determine when a quake is over due ?
yet that does not mean that its over due ....
and the same can be said for volcanoes ...

Because we can look back in the strata and see the average timeframe of said events in history. There IS a historical record in the geology of the area that says a major quake occurs about every 500 years. If the last one was known to have happened 700 years ago, then techically, in the law of averages, we are overdue.

Eruptions are the same way, you can look at and date ash/lahar/and lava flows and know that they tend to occur, on average, every so often. So when we are past the date that on average it happens, that means that we are overdue for that particular event.

Danno