The 352-event earthquake storm that hit Southern California last week failed to cause appropriate concern due to the magnitude 7.1-magnitude monster that killed 295 in Mexico City.
The Southern California quakes ranged from magnitude 0.30 to 3.65 on the Richter Scale, according to the Caltech Seismological Laboratory. Although most of the “storm” quakes were small, 18 were large enough to make the Felt Report, which tracks noticeable events over a 2.0 magnitude.
Elevated earthquake activity seemed spread across the Pacific coasts, with big quakes recorded in New Zealand, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan — and lots of after-shocks in Mexico.
A 3.4 magnitude quake in North Korea, while the U.S. Air Force was buzzing its airspace with a fleet of B-1 nuclear-capable bombers and a large number of F-15 escorts, was thought to have been another nuclear test by the North Koreans. But world tensions subsided after the BBC reported that atomic energy experts labeled it just an earthquake.
Breitbart News reported in December that the Pacific Ring of Fire, which runs like a 25,000-mile-long upside-down horseshoe-shaped ring from the Polynesian Islands, along the East Coast of Asia, and the West Coasts of North and South America, had entered a 60-year elevated activity cycle in 2012. Caltech scientists have warned that California could be vulnerable to volcanic activity and the risk of super earthquakes of up to 9.6 magnitude.
The Ring of Fire is caused by the youngest parts of the 100-million-year old Pacific Plate cooling and shrinking faster than the older parts, which drives much of the tectonic activity. As a result, about 75 percent of the world’s volcanoes and 81 percent of its earthquakes happen along the edges of the Pacific Ocean. The fastest cooling is found in its northern and western parts — most heavily impacting Mexico and Southern California.
The press has been almost oblivious to the heightened threat to California from Mother Nature. But insurance industry actuaries, who have a clear interest in the size and duration of volcanic cycles, are raising earthquake coverage rates, given that about one-third of the world’s population is living along the Ring. They project volcanic activity in L.A., Shanghai, or Tokyo could cost a trillion dollars in damages and lost commerce.
A recent survey found that a stunning 36 percent of all Americans believe that an increase in natural disasters from volcanoes and earthquakes is an indication we are in the Biblical End Times. Residents along the Pacific Rim can look forward to another six decades of learning about all the exciting natural wonders of the Ring of Fire that has cyclically raged hell on the earth over the millenniums.