So Much for Earthquake Independence

After April’s huge strike-slip earthquake, the USGS reiterated the one earthquake doesn’t jolt others (out of the region) into existence.

However Fred Pollitz of the U.S. Geological Survey is now reporting in the journal Nature that that is exactly what happened with last April’s record setting earthquake which did in fact spawn a series of other earthquakes around the globe. (Many were likely to have released before long, but this event was a fine trigger for them.)

April’s quake also appears to presage the appearance of a whole new tectonic plate under the earth’s surface!