The last two months have witnessed unusually active seismic activities across the globe. A string of powerful earthquakes have jolted Ecuador, Japan, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Indonesia, and have killed dozens of people and also triggered several tsunami alerts. People all over the world are wondering whether it is just coincidence, or is the planet once again on a quake mode that is sure to trigger one major tremor after another. It is hard to judge whether the Earth is experiencing another seismic active period, said Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey. Even experts find it difficult to draw a quick conclusion, but it is a reassuring observation when they noted that both the magnitudes and frequencies of the recent quakes are still “within a normal range”. This was earlier quoted by Xinhua news agency.
According to the experts, the quake-prone zones around the world could see strong shocks coming at any time, but so far in history, there has been no sign of connections between seismic activities in different zones. While it seems too early to sound the alarm against a new wave of disastrous earthquakes, some scientists insist that certain “high risk zones” do require a close watch.
The belt, which extends all the way through the US Pacific coast through China’s Taiwan and the Philippines to New Zealand, releases about three quarters of quake-discharged energy from the interior of our planet. It has therefore earned a befitting name — the Pacific Ring of Fire. The causes of the earthquakes are complicated, experts opine, while pointing out that the geographic location of Japan and Indonesia, both of which sit right on the Circum-Pacific Seismic Belt, is the main factor behind their frequent quakes. Xu Xiwei, a researcher at the Institute of Geology under the China Earthquake Administration said, we have to make further studies to better understand the seismic trends in that region.
