Where will the next earthquake strike? How a chain of frightening quakes in the ‘Ring of Fire’ is terrorising the Pacific and leaves California on edge
Earthquakes struck NZ, Japan, Vanuatu, and Indonesia in less than 24 hours along the ‘Ring of Fire’
There was also a huge 7.1 magnitude quake in Mexico City on Tuesday – but experts ruled out a connection
Seismologists say they could be linked by seismic waves travelling along faults and spark a domino effect
The ‘Ring of Fire’ stretches from New Zealand to Chile through Indonesia, Japan, and California
By NIC WHITE
DAILYMAIL.COM
21 September 2017
A series of big earthquakes in less than 24 hours could have been caused by seismic waves travelling along fault lines and triggering ruptures.
A 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit New Zealand on Wednesday followed by others off the coasts of Japan (6.1), Vanuatu (6.4), and Indonesia (5.7) early Thursday morning.
All were along the ‘Ring of Fire’ that stretches around the Pacific from New Zealand to Chile through Indonesia, Japan, and California, across which 90 per cent of quakes happen.
There was also a big earthquake in Mexico City that killed more than 230, but despite the country falling in the ‘Ring’, experts ruled out a connection to the other quakes.
University of Melbourne’s Gary Gibson said that the 7.1 magnitude quake in Mexico was isolated thousands of miles away from the other seismic events and therefore unlikely to have triggered any cascade effect within the tectonic plates.
Seismologists admitted the cluster of quakes, along with others near Tonga (5.0), Taiwan (5.3), and Papua New Guinea (5.2), on the same day was ‘unusual’.
‘It is unusual, there’s no doubt about that, it’s been really busy,’ Dr. Gibson told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I must say these unusual clusters happen fairly often and it seems they are not totally random, we just don’t know why.’
Phil Cummins at Geoscience Australia and the Australian National University suggested seismic waves cascading along fault lines could be responsible.
He said waves could also jump between nearby fault lines and continue moving, triggering imminent earthquakes at rupture points.
‘The waves that are excited by the earthquakes might rattle or disturb some distant faults that are close to rupture already,’ he said.
Professor Cummins said seismic waves couldn’t create earthquakes by themselves, but could bring forward ones already about to happen.
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