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Major
Tectonic Compression Zones
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Summary Observations |
Table of Contents | Powerpoint
Review
The graphs for the major tectonic zones are arranged in two layers. One layer is composed only of graphs of Class 4+ quakes from 1973-2007. These graphs, with commentary, are housed on this webpage and are all listed below in the Table of Contents. They are the first item listed in the Table of Contents for any given area. Or, you can click next to the hemisphere name to [go to Class 4+ level only]. A Storyboard for these major quakes displays full size graphs for the various tectonic zones with brief discussion. Focusing on this layer permits a quick method of browsing a reasonably valid image of the world's largest earthquake events and trends. Keep in mind that these layers probably only describe, AT MOST, about 1% of the world's tectonic quake and motion activity. The vast majority of the motion, which occurs in microquakes or in slow motion shape-shifting waves, is not being recorded circa 2007. A second, deeper layer is composed of several graphs each for several of the major zones. Special database models were created for selected areas to analyze earthquake activity for Classes 2.5+, in some cases for quakes as small as 2.00. Because of various issues, most especially PC software limitations, generally these databases display a smaller time frame: 1991-2007. This layer for Tectonic Compression Zones is all catalogued on this web page below. The iconographic index (Table of Contents) provides links to the webpages which house the Storyboards for the various regions. As with the general Earthquake Gallery Index, you can click on each of these graph pix below to expand it up to its full size. Some are so large horizontally that the browser will shrink them to fit in one view window. This will result in an unreadable graph. Simply click on the shrunken graph to tell the browser to expand it back to full size. All compressed images in the Earthquake Gallery work the same way. The images which give you only blurry lines are graphs which are very wide on the horizontal scale to provide monthly or daily details. Be prepared to be stunned. You have never seen graphs like this before. The titles in the text block to the right of the compressed graphs are linked to a section in a web page which explains the graph and offers observations and analysis of what you are seeing. Most of the Earthquake Gallery unfolds this way. You can quickly browse through the miniatures to to find items which you want to read about.
Table of Contents for Compression Zones
Storyboard for 4+ Quakes In The Compression Zones
Compression Zones Eastern Hemisphere - [go to Class 4+ level only]
Compression Zones Western Hemisphere - [go to Class 4+ level only]
Important Note About Comparing Zones: Because of the complexity of some computer search algorithms, some zones may overlap slightly and some gaps may be present in coverage. The entire Earth is NOT covered, only the zones which regularly have earthquakes, as can be seen in the USGS NEIC maps of quake distribution. Accordingly, it is not possible to add or subtract chart numbers from other charts to analyze regional, hemispherical, or world totals. For Geophysical Definitions of the Tectonic Zones: To find them, go to the discussion panel for the graph or go to the webpage for the specific zone, or use "definition" as a search term on the entire site directory (Earth Changes Gallery). For Class 4+ quakes, go to Class 4+ Section below
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In Eurasia, South Pacific, & Western Hemisphere Summary Observations For Class 4+ Quakes You can quickly peruse the frequency of 4+ quakes around the world by clicking on the icons in the array above. In this selection of graphs for seismic activity in class 4+, there are many things to observe: (1) There is no useful "average" for quakes in class 4+. Levels of activity are widely different from zone to zone, continent to continent. Activity in almost all zones is up and down, sometimes deviating by up to 100% from one year to another year, typically deviating by 25-50% from year to year. And, through all the deviations, activity is clearly trending to higher levels in almost all zones. It is easy to see that a threefold gain in seismic activity since 1973 is typical in most zones. Of what use then is the concept "average" or "normal"? Such a concept for most of the world is an illusion. (2) There is one exception to the worldwide trends. Activity in Western North America has largely remained "average" on a long term plateau. In fact if appears to be on a trend of decreasing seismic activity for both class 4+ and class 2.5+ quakes since 1973. This decrease is in spite of the fact that quake levels in the remainder of the Western Hemisphere, including the Aleutians-Alaska, the Carib Plate, and South America have all increased by the same magnitudes as most of the zones related to Eurasia and the Western Pacific. (3) There is a definite, frequent, but not always consistent correlation between the size of the Wobble (indicated by the black line) and the sudden spikes in quake activity. Zones and time periods vary somewhat. But compare, for instance the period of 1994/95 in the various zones. Look for the very strong correlation between between the expanding Wobble in and the sudden increase in earthquake activity. I think you will find that some consistent connections in most of the charts in most of the zones, if not quite all. There are many asynchronous periods in the zones, not every period in a given zone mirrors the others, but frequently there is a strong match. For instance, all zones match up on the beat in 1994/95. There is also strong correlation in 1983 and 1990. (4) The only exceptions to this correlation are North America, Western North America, and the Carib Plate. They are in an 180 degree phase difference with the rest of the Earth, including South America. Instead of the spike of seismic activity occurring during the largest expansion of the Wobble size (MAX phase, the largest spikes of seismic activity consistently occur during the smallest contraction of the Wobble size (MIN phase). How to explain this opposite behavior? I cannot except to point, axiomatically, to the possibility that North America is "locked" in a static tectonic condition and has been for some time. In a constantly changing world, this is not a good thing. Tectonic pressures on North America may eventually break the "lock" catastrophically, with Class 9 quakes along the lines of the large quakes and huge surge of daily activity in Indonesia during 2004/05 and Peru in 2007. (5) Look also for what happens in and after 1999. During 1999 and into 2000, the Wobble MIN phase had one of its longest duration anomalies, a partial phase shifting of the Wobble frequency created by a near cartoid moment with a lengthening of the periodicity. The landmass of Eurasia does not show this signal very well, but the entire Northern and Western Pacific Rim of Fire quite clearly shows a signal with a spurt in tectonic motion, then a quick but short decline. From 2000 onwards, BY FAR, THE MOST RAPID ACCELERATION OF SEISMIC ACTIVITY DURING THE ENTIRE 34 YEARS OCCURS IN MOST ZONES. (6) With the exception of North America, this huge spurt in growth is given major impetus once again in 2005/07 during the Wobble MIN phase. This huge wave of acceleration is anomalous, in fact is generally the opposite of the pattern which generally prevailed during the previous 30 years. The behavior of the Wobble might well be connected to this anomalous increase, probably is connected. The Wobble decayed into nearly a mathematically perfect cartoid moment, literally a 30 day period during which the Earth's Spin Axis was perfectly stable and showed almost no wander at all. Then a new Wobble spiral began to generate, producing a remarkable phase shift (shortening the typical time length) in what is normally a seven year year spiral (7) Most curiously, in fact quite oddly the more one tries to think about it, North America's pattern also contradicts its previous 30 year history. A major spike of activity should have occurred during 2006 in Western North America during the Wobble MIN phase. In fact, the graphs are flat line for 2005-07. (8) Noticeably absent from this are the Great Rifts of the Earth. Probably the greatest number of small quakes occur in the Great Rifts of the oceans (previously known as Mid-Ocean Rises). But most of this activity is not measurable from land stations and so is not recorded. Quake activity 4+ should be recordable from land stations but not much activity in the East Pacific and the Indian Ocean is being logged. Accordingly, graphs of this data are not useful. (9) With the single exception of Western North America, world quake activity class 4+ exactly matches the predictions of Edgar Cayce made during the 1930's. Exactly, plus or minus 2 years on a 75 year old prediction. I would never have found these simple, elegant, profoundly important truths about what is really happening in the Earth if I had merely worked with planetary level averages. Averages are illusions which defeat scientific realism and lead eventually to deluded thinking.
Eurasia 4+ 1973-2007
more graphs about Eurasia
East Bharati 4+ 1973-2007
there are no additional graphs about East Bharati This is a small zone which is an edge of the Eurasian and Bharatian (Indian) plates....It is here mainly out of curiosity and because I didn't know where else to categorize this zone. It is a type of transverse zone, a portion of the Earth along the western shores of Thailand and Myanmar against which the Indian Ocean bottom is sliding to the north. Because of the relatively small number of quakes which are logged for this area this model was not developed further. Phasing of quake spikes with the seven year Wobble MAX/MIN cycle is roughly parallel with the phasing which can be observed with Eurasia as a whole.
Western Pacific
Western Pacific Rim 4+ 1973-2007
there are
no more graphs about the entire zone of the Western Pacific; This zone encompasses all of the eastern edge of Eurasia. Or, another way of saying it, it encompasses the Northern and Western edges of the Pacific Plate, ranging from the active zone in Alaska through the Aleutians, Eastern Siberia, Japan, the Philippines and a portion of China, down into Southeast Asia and Indonesia and the entire Australian Tectonic Plate (excluding its southern edge adjacent to Antarctica but including New Zealand and several South Seas island groups. Collectively the activity of this zone is six times more active than Europe, the Middle East, the Himalayas, and the huge expanse of central Siberia and Asia combined. It is about 60 times more active than Western North America (excluding Alaska). This clearly is the area of the world which is "breaking up" at the greatest rate, and Japan is the top break-up point on this list along with certain areas to the north of Australia/New Zealand. Note the continuing run-away growth curve after the Wobble phase shift in 1999 and the cartoid pause in 2005/06. Unlike nearly all the other less active zones, there was no remission of tectonic activity during the first part of 2007, only a dampening of its growth curve. Note as well the rather precise correlation of tectonic upsurge with the growth of the Wobble Spiral during 1994/95, the small peaking during the phase shift of 1999, and then the continuing run-away growth curve in activity. Something here is definitely, UP, as they say on the street... Subsets of this half of the Pacific Rim of Fire are displayed below.
Aleutians-Alaska Tectonic Zone 4+
1973-2007
more graphs about Aleutians-Alaska Some definite correlations with the Wobble along with a fairly even progressive averaged growth trend.
Japan & East Asia Zone 4+ 1973-2007  more graphs about Japan & Northeast Asia Japan is obviously on a pretty rapid ride on an up escalator. Its growth curve appears to be just about the greatest of any region in the world. The phasing of activity with the Wobble appears to be halfway between the phasing which can be seen in North America and Eurasia.
Australian Tectonic Plate 4+ 1973-2007
there are no more graphs
about Australian Tectonic Plate This could just be called the South Pacific Tectonic Zone. It is clearly the most active zone. This zone includes all of Australia, New Zealand, and the entire active tectonic rim around the western, northern, and eastern edges of the Australian Tectonic Plate. It also includes all to the east of New Zealand to Longitude West 160 in order to encompass some of the South Pacific Island groups. Accordingly, most of the Indonesian Islands are also included. Like Japan, this area also is clearly riding up a fast escalator. Though far fewer fluctuations are evident from year to year than are experienced in Eurasia, the few peaks we can find seem to have phasing to the Wobble which is similar to Eurasia.
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Western Hemisphere Compression Zones
North America 4+ 1973-2007
there are
no more graphs about North America as a total The Earth Changes Plot Thickens. There is a growth curve here but it is obviously much slower than other zones. There is also a strong wobble correlation, but it is the opposite to the correlations found in Eurasia and the Western Pacific. In this chart, the peaks of quake activity tend to occur when Earth's Wobble is at its smallest size.
Western North America 4+ 1973-2007 This zone includes the Rocky Mountain Cordillera from Northern Mexico to the Yukon to the Pacific Coasts. Excluded are most of Alaska and the Aleutians, which are modeled separately as an independent plate fragment. since there is substantial reason to believe that this zone is an independent plate fragment which is moving independently of North America and may be colliding with North America.
No trend. But the two highest peaks correspond with the smallest sizes of the Wobble. The Rockies to the Pacific Coast, from the Arctic Circle to the Carib Plate Margin, excludes Alaska
Western North America 2.5-3.9 1973-2007 This is the same zone as the chart for 4+ quakes in Western North America.
more graphs in Western North America or Eastern North America What happens when we include the much more numerous smaller quakes? Still no trend of growth, but there could be a trend of decrease. We also can see that more of the peaks of quake activity occur when the wobble is at its smallest. This chart reveals an important truth. For the North American Tectonic Zone (as defined in the search algorhythm) there has been no "report inflation" since 1973. Look at the area 1992 to 1995, which contains two "dips in the Wobble size. The strongest correlation of peaks with the Wobble in Eurasia and the Western Pacific Rim of Fire was in 1994/1995 Wobble Min. Here an enormous spike of activity correlates with the Wobble Min of 1992. There are four peaks of quake activity, all small, which correlate with the smallest sizes of the Wobble. NOTICE HOWEVER THAT WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN ZONE APPEARS LOCKED. Unlike the previous 33 years, quake activity has not surged during the Wobble Min of 2006. It did in 1999, like most of the other zones, but activity has remained at low levels, even below the historical 33 year average. All the zones of Eurasia and the Western Rim of Fire responded to the Wobble Min of 2006 with a significant acceleration of quake activity in 2006, some of which is continuing. This acceleration was significantly larger than the peaks of 1999. Australia, for instance, is experiencing levels twice as high as during 1999. I think the plot has thickened even more. What does this lack of response mean? Very good question. If there were a table at Las Vegas which took bets on quakes, I would place a large sum of money on a major increase in average quake activity in the U.S. West Coast, most likely San Diego to San Francisco, during the last half of 2007. Southern California - go to separate web page
Caribbean Tectonic Plate 4+ 1973-2007
The Carib Plate looks a lot more like the Western Pacific. There is an obviously strong growth curve in activity. This profile also looks like Western North America. It correlates with the Wobble Size at the same moment in 1992. Activity increases dramatically with the Wobble Min of 1999. It tampers down slightly with the Wobble Max in 2003. But, very like Japan but very unlike Western North America, it rises dramatically again with the Wobble Min of 2006. Is the Carib/Cocos Plate releasing the tectonic tension off North America? Or is the western coast of North America just "locked" with the tension just building up?
South America 4+ 1973-2007
more graphs in South America Whatever is happening with the free-wheeling South American Tectonic Plate is obviously substantially different than with North America. A strong growth curve seems evident and the average biannual deviation is much greater. The correlation with the Wobble size is much more complex. The syncopation of activity is not similar, but the last two anomalous Wobble Mins both drew out substantial peaks in activity as in Eurasia and the Western Pacific.
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