Why are fault lines and volcanoes all over North and South America suddenly waking up? Are we moving into a time when major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions will become much more common? For the past several decades, we have been extremely fortunate to have experienced a period of extremely low seismic activity along the west coast of the United States. You see, the west coast lies right along the infamous Ring of Fire. Approximately 75 percent of all the volcanoes in the world are on the Ring of Fire, and approximately 90 percent of all global earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. Scientists tell us that it is inevitable that “the Big One” will hit California someday, but people have gotten very apathetic about this because things have been so quiet out there for so many years. Well, now it appears that things are changing in a big way – and not just along the California coast. The following are 12 signs that something big is happening to the earth’s crust under North and South America…

#1 The 5.1 earthquake that shook Los Angeles on Friday was the worst earthquake that the city had seen in many years.

#2 Following that earthquake, there were more than 100 aftershocks.

#3 A 4.1 earthquake shook Los Angeles on Saturday. Scientists are hoping that this earthquake swarm in southern California will end soon.

#4 Earlier this month, a 4.4 earthquake rattled Los Angeles so badly that it caused news anchors to dive under their desks.

#5 A 6.9 earthquake just off the coast of northern California in early March was the largest earthquake to hit the west coast of the United States since 2010.

#6 Up in Oregon, Mt. Hood recently experienced more than 100 earthquakes over the course of just a few days.

#7 During the past month, there have also been some other very unusual geologic events that have been happening up in Oregon…

Two large landslides – one in the Columbia River Gorge dumped about 2,000 cubic yards of rock and debris on highway I84 just 3 miles west of the Hood River, and another blocked US30 near Portland.

Loud booms and ground shaking reported by people from Lincoln to Tillamook Counties; some reported hearing a rumble, as well (No earthquakes recorded by the USGS in the area at the time.)

A 20 ft. deep sinkhole swallowed a woman and her dog in her Portland backyard.

#8 A 4.8 earthquake rattled Yellowstone National Park on Sunday, and there have been at least 25 earthquakes at Yellowstone since Thursday.

#9 Scientists recently discovered that the Yellowstone supervolcano is now releasing far more helium gas than they had anticipated.

#10 Over the past month, there have been more than 130 earthquakes in the state of Oklahoma. This is highly unusual.

#11 There have been several dozen earthquakes in Peru over the past month, including a 6.3 earthquake that made headlines all over the globe.

#12 Earlier this month, the northern coast of Chile was hit by more than 300 earthquakes in a seven day stretch. 41 of those earthquakes were stronger than magnitude 4.5.

Fortunately, the quake that hit Los Angeles on Friday did not cause too much lasting injury. But it sure did shake people up. The following is how the Los Angeles Times described the damage…

The quake, centered near La Habra, caused furniture to tumble, pictures to fall off walls and glass to break. Merchandise fell off store shelves, and there were reports of plate glass windows shattered.

In Brea, several people suffered minor injuries during a rock slide that overturned their car. Fullerton reported seven water main breaks. Carbon Canyon Road was closed.

Residents across Orange and Los Angeles counties and the Inland Empire reported swinging chandeliers, fireplaces dislodging from walls and lots of rattled nerves. The shake caused a rock slide in Carbon Canyon, causing a car to overturn, according to the Brea Police Department.

Why this particular earthquake is of such concern is because it occurred along the Puente Hills fault line. According to one seismologist, this is the fault line that would be most likely to “eat L.A.”…

Experts said that the earthquakes occurred on the Puente Hills thrust fault, which stretches from the San Gabriel Valley to downtown Los Angeles.

Last night’s quake was shallow, which ‘means the shaking is very concentrated in a small area,’ said Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson.

Hauksson revealed that the earthquake was unusual because the 5.1 quake was preceded by the weaker foreshock.

Scientists such as Hauksson are very concerned about the Puente Hills fault because it runs directly under downtown Los Angeles.

‘This is the fault that could eat L.A.,’ seismologist Sue Hough told The LA Times in 2003.

The fact that this fault appears to be waking up is really bad news.

According to seismologists, a major earthquake along this fault line could cause hundreds of billions of dollars of damage…

Video simulations of a rupture on the Puente Hills fault system show how energy from a quake could erupt and be funneled toward L.A.’s densest neighborhoods, with the strongest waves rippling to the west and south across the Los Angeles Basin.

According to estimates by the USGS and Southern California Earthquake Center, a massive quake on the Puente Hills fault could kill from 3,000 to 18,000 people and cause up to $250 billion in damage. Under this worst-case scenario, people in as many as three-quarters of a million households would be left homeless.

For years, we have watched as the rest of the Ring of Fire has been absolutely ravaged by major seismic events.

We all remember the earthquakes that caused the Indonesian tsunami of 2004 and the Japanese tsunami of 2011.

And the world mourned when major earthquakes devastated New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Japan and the Philippines.

Scientists assured us that it was only a matter of time before the west coast started to become seismically active again, and now it is happening.

Wow very informative, yes they have warned us about the west coast, very scary.

yellowstone as well, either will be very catastrophic...

The west coast has always been active.

New Madrid is the one to watch.

yea, Oklahoma has had quite a few earthquakes lately...

12 signs of the zodiac, twelve apostles, twelve eggs in a carton, twelve signs of something big...hmmmm....

Just heard the news that the people of south america are pretty much evacuating the coast of the entire continent.

maybe we'll finally find out why the mayans left their homes with fires burning and food cooking, just evacuated their land and turned up in the ohio river valley building burial mounds over a thousand years ago.

tighten up people...hunger and thirst are lurking...be ready to handle living by your own ability to provide for yourself.

this might help me get a date - my chubby ol belly becomes an asset overnight and makes me quite a catch because i'm plenty to eat in an emergency situation.

the first waves already hit, 6.5 feet, more and bigger are expected...

http://news.yahoo.com/magnitude-8-2-quake-strikes-northern-chile-010154283.html

i believe few realize that mankind has flourished and floundered, waxed and waned throughout existence. it seems hard to believe in this day and age of technology that anything catastrophic could befall us. however, it is that very dependence on technology and convenience that weaken a people to suffer greatly from even a small calamity. prepare for the worst and hope for the best? i do.

nature will always win....

Our modern lifestyle has produced indigestion to the extent that more people suffer from that then depression. Is it too far a reach to say that that our U.S. lifestyle is causing earths stomach to become upset?

probably, but not likely... just nature being nature

Why twelve different signs of little relation or interaction
There were/are 13 signs of the zodiac - why are only 4 of the twelve apostles taken seriously - holy writ malarkey

However you are kinda alluding to mother earth and meandering equilibriums of an eclectic mix, some related, others not, not even of the whole

Nothing you gave quoted makes much sense to I..it all seems a typical year or decade or era or epoch to me.

So I shall explain one I spose quiklyish.
Earthquakes, and analogy - is whence one does a jigsaw and hammers a piece bottom right hand corner and a piece 50 over to the left pops out

the earth is a jigsaw, a complicated one, there are many faults for many reasons plate tectonics major minor plates multi layered ancient (not sure they be dormant) and you have some isostatic rebound going on too - swarms are something different and bland...thence once has to add in convection and plumes to that mix, I guess.
Chile is the most geologically active region on earth, the now - the now could mean 10 years or 100 000 - not along time span. and has the best earthquakes, to coin a phrase - we have few here but we do get em...as we may well do tsunamis

So in summary the biggest earthquakes occurs where ancient (cooler oceanic crust meets warmer, less denser naughty land floaty stuff (thrust faults)

id be more worried about something like mammoth fissure eruptions of the Deccan, or Siberian traps

the two biggest earthquakes recorded were in chile and alaska, respectively... so your not far off on that...

Worry is subjective. The slip faults generally cause much more damage than thrust faults due to the transference of seismic shear (which is what the buildings are designed to resist). Thrust faults tend to be slow mountain builders like the Andes and the Himalayas. Slip faults like the San Andreas Fault, tend to build pressure in the rock, then "slip" suddenly, releasing enormous shear. Thrust faults, like the Cascadia, lying offshore create tsunami waves which can cause enormous damage also. The water can kill many more people than falling debris.

No need to "quote me" on here - I will get the gist that you are referring to I..feel free to put the boot in but I prefer one lobs in some good facts and a muffin – but you could have started 5 different good threads without the partridge in a pear tree

I kinda know what you’re trying to say but I can assure you thrust faults cause the most mayhem you are merely saturated with the ilk of San Andreas therefore without viewing your profile I presume thee to be American...hmm p waves and s waves and the other one i can never remember – was there another discovered - my mind kinda glazed over when I was watching something about this.

No tsunami needed for horrific death tolls - Uk - Scotland we rarely get them - but we get them due to many complex factors
However thrust faults cause carnage, not so much isotatic rebound – well as time progresses after the last glacial maximum thingy (hmm is there not a rock tsunami in Sweden I think – impressive)
Hmm good slip faults LA Istanbul – heavily populated.
You will find eg you quoted cascadia will reverberate a lot long than SA (bless Brian Atwater – I think his name was – and old Indian legends – that did not refer to glacial lake outpourings – must have been about the same time too)

Tsunami (incidentally I doubt thurso oh wait its dounrey atomic plant is designed to withstand a tsunami Storegga Slide landslide yadda yadda bloody vikings and whatever englerlund - Lisbon 1755 – and yes that one is overdue – cascadia perhaps

Volcanism as you also mention that – what makes the best volcanoes – hmmm –alleged lava plumes or are they hot spots – I have quote the two most destructive that I know off = fissure eruptions

Now, I did like all your thread but twere 5 good threads in there

Earthquakes are they related yup – jigsaw analogy – anyone did a spherical jigsaw on here will know even better what I meant
Swarms are something meh

At the time of replying Chile aftershocks from their 8.3 was it – was it 7.3 and bested that 5.1 how many times – LA is overdue too hmm 

Now, outwith plumes(age) you will also find that eg Anak (son or child erm) Krakatau to be the bested volcanoes – thrust.

Anyhow you raise to many points I hate typing more than a few lines – or id writey a book – but better minds than mines have

Mother earth, now I am all for that smoting us humans but again that is a different topic which I felt your twelve signs of witchcraft did not adequately embrace before thee envoked Malleus Maleficarum (hammer of the witches)

... I hope so... as I climb into my survival . outfit.
. put provisions in my Hummer.
. load all my weapons.. bring it on Mother earth..

Jk... great now I gotta look for a bolt of lightning all day..lol

Now I know why no one ever invented pork jerky!

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/jamaican-jerk-pork-tenderloin-10000000226513/

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Series_of_small_earthquakes_rock_Oklahoma_in_record_seismic_activity.html?cid=38325682

April 5, 2014 - 18:32

By Carey Gillam

(Reuters) - Earthquakes rattled residents in Oklahoma on Saturday, the latest in a series that have put the state on track for record quake activity this year, which some seismologists say may be tied to oil and gas exploration.

One earthquake recorded at 3.8 magnitude by the U.S. Geological Survey rocked houses in several communities around central Oklahoma at 7:42 a.m. local time. Another about two hours earlier in the same part of the state, north of Oklahoma City, was recorded at 2.9 magnitude, USGS said.

Those two were preceded by two more, at 2.6 magnitude, and 2.5 magnitude, that also rolled the landscape in central Oklahoma early Saturday morning. A 3.0 magnitude tremor struck late Friday night in that area as well, following a 3.4 magnitude hit Friday afternoon.

Austin Holland, a seismologist with the Oklahoma Geological Survey who tracks earthquake activity for the USGS, said the earthquake activity in the state is soaring.

"We have had almost as many magnitude 3 and greater already in 2014 than we did for all of 2013," Holland said.

Last year's number of "felt" earthquakes - those strong enough to rattle items on a shelf - hit a record 222 in the state. This year, less than four months into the year, the state has recorded 253 such tremors, according to state seismic data.

"We have already crushed last year's record for number of earthquakes," Holland said.

Most earthquakes occur naturally. But scientists have long linked some small earthquakes to oil and gas work underground, which can alter pressure points and cause shifts in the earth.

Oil and gas exploration has increased in recent years across the country, spurred by U.S. efforts for energy independence. Modern hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is one particularly controversial technique.

For bigger quakes, so far this year the state has recorded 106 at 3.0 magnitude and above, according to Holland. For all of last year the state had 109 at 3.0 and above.

In November 2011, Oklahoma suffered a 5.6 magnitude quake that damaged more than a dozen homes and several businesses.

Wastewater disposal related to the fracking is suspected by many scientists to contribute to the earthquake activity. Millions of gallons of wastewater are typically trucked from a fracking site to wells where the water is injected thousands of feet underground into porous rock layers. That work, if done near a fault, can trigger larger quakes, according to several recent scientific studies.

Oklahoma recorded 278 earthquakes from 2008 through 2013 that have registered on the Richter scale at a magnitude of 3.0 or greater, a level that can shake objects inside a home.

Before that, from 1975-2008, the state on average recorded less than six earthquakes a year.

(Reporting by Carey Gillam; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Reuters

You're not likely!