While the nation is talking about the “Earthquake In DC,” and the now estimated at 5.8 earthquake that hit three cities in Northern Virginia, next to the Nations’s Capital, no one is talking about the fact that America has had three earthquakes of “significant” size in just two days.
Virginia Earthquake Felt in Georgia (Video)
This is an unusual development, and one that should be watched as the year progresses. But according to the “2011 Significant Earthquake and News Archives” web page of the US Geological Survey website, this is what happened over the past two days, Monday, August 22nd, and Tuesday, August 23rd:
Magnitude 5.8 VIRGINIA August 23, 2011
Magnitude 5.3 COLORADO August 23, 2011
Magnitude 4.6 COLORADO August 22, 2011
And if you’re keeping watch on such things, as I do, that makes 42 earthquakes of this “significant” type already for 2011, and it’s just near the tail end of August. Counting the USGS website information, last year there were 68; 72 in 2009, 58 in 2008, and 54 in 2007. Does that mean there has been an increase in such earthquakes types overall since 2007?
Yes.
I would not bother to find someone to quote who’s going to just water-down what’s happening. The numbers on the USGS website tell the story. There is a problem.
The last time I looked at this issue was in April of 2010, after a horrifying series of earthquakes in Haiti and other countries, all on a weekly basis for a time it seemed. At that point, the data pointed to a projected increase in “significant” earthquakes for that year over 2009. While that didn’t happen, the difference was just by 4 of them – that’s it.
It’s time to ask the question again: why are there so many large earthquakes? Last year the Wall Street Journal asked the question, Business Insider echoed it, and other publications just plain came out and said “The end is nigh!”
I hope not.
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll