Yet another mega quake

[memphis]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/06/usgs-earthquake-strikes-northern-sumatra/?hpt=T2

[k-onmmunist]

What the hell is going on?

[John Dibble]

What the hell is going on?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

[Ban my account ffs!]

What the hell is going on?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

Yes... but the number of 7.0+ earth quakes has risen dramatically in the past 10 years.  Can anybody explain why?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Tectonic activity just increases every now and again. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think it's mostly related to the pattern of plate movements.

[Marokai Backbeat]

What the hell is going on?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

Yes... but the number of 7.0+ earth quakes has risen dramatically in the past 10 years.  Can anybody explain why?

End of days, obv.

[Lief 🗽]

The frequency and size of earthquakes will likely continue to increase as we near December 2012 and the end of the world.

[Hash]

It would not be a bad thing if Toulon, Nice, the bourgeois fascist crapholes and coastal Languedoc-Roussillon got wiped off the map.

[J. J.]

The frequency and size of earthquakes will likely continue to increase as we near December 2012 and the end of the world.

I'm waiting for A Gore to say it's because of global warming.

[phk]

What the hell is going on?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

Yes... but the number of 7.0+ earth quakes has risen dramatically in the past 10 years.  Can anybody explain why?

End of days, obv.

Since 1990, globally I found the amount of earthquakes 8.0+ and 7.0-7.9

For the 1990s
Average 8.0+: 0.6 earthquakes per year
Average 7.0-7.9: 14.7 earthquakes per year
Max: 20 in 1995
Min: 12 (in 1993 and 1998)
Total 7.0+: 153 earthquakes per decade

For the 2000s
Average 8.0+: 1.4 earthquakes per year
Average 7.0-7.9: 10.9 earthquakes per year
Max: 18 in 2007
Min: 11 (in both 2005 and 2006)
Total 7.0+: 142 earthquakes per decade

2010 thus far
8.0+: 1
7.0-7.9: 4

Now per year since 1990.

1990
8.0+: 0
7.0-7.9: 18

1991
8.0+: 0
7.0-7.9: 16

1992
8.0+: 0
7.0-7.9: 13

1993
8.0+: 0
7.0-7.9: 12

1994
8.0+: 2
7.0-7.9: 11

1995
8.0+: 2
7.0-7.9: 18

1996
8.0+: 1
7.0-7.9: 14

1997
8.0+: 0
7.0-7.9: 16

1998
8.0+: 1
7.0-7.9: 11

1999
8.0+: 0
7.0-7.9: 18

2000
8.0+: 1
7.0-7.9: 14

2001
8.0+: 1
7.0-7.9: 15

2002
8.0+: 0
7.0-7.9: 13

2003
8.0+: 1
7.0-7.9: 14

2004
8.0+: 2
7.0-7.9: 10

2005
8.0+: 1
7.0-7.9: 9

2006
8.0+: 2
7.0-7.9: 14

2007
8.0+: 4
7.0-7.9: 12

2008
8.0+: 0
7.0-7.9: 16

2009
8.0+: 1
7.0-7.9: 4

2010
8.0+: 1
7.0-7.9: 4

Conclusion
8.0+ Earthquakes have gone up, by about 1 per year from the 1990s to the 2000s.
While 7.0-7.9 have gone down, by about 4 per year from the 1990s to the 2000s.

[John Dibble]

What the hell is going on?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

Yes... but the number of 7.0+ earth quakes has risen dramatically in the past 10 years.  Can anybody explain why?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

Seriously though, I wouldn't be sure if there's an actual trend. Phknrocket is only reporting data over a two decade period, and frankly from it I'm not actually seeing anything I'd be sure constitutes a long term trend - throw a few more decades worth of data on there and we might actually see that there's been no significant change at all.

I think what we're actually seeing is an increase in the reporting of these quakes since that big tsunami, so it only seems like there are more to the casual observer.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I doubt there's any sort of trend.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The frequency and size of earthquakes will likely continue to increase as we near December 2012 and the end of the world.

I'm waiting for A Gore to say it's because of global warming.

Some people have suggested increases of earthquake activity and global cooling.. but I think this is mostly in correlation with increased volcanic activity which can increase atmospheric aerosols which block sunlight and cool the planet's surface.

Most recently, in 1991, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines caused the earth to cool 0.5˚C for about 2 years... two of the coldest summers for the U.S. occurred in 1992 and 1993, the two years after the eruption of Pinatubo.  The dust veil was visible and the sunsets were pretty amazing globally.