The past week has seen a significant level of seismic unrest across the globe.
In Iceland, the volcano Bárðarbunga hit the headlines worldwide but so far only a minor eruption of lava has taken place; however earthquake activity around the site continues.
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It’s been a shaky 2014 so far across America, with a series of fairly major earthquakes rocking several regions of the continent from North to South.
As Californians were gently shaken from their slumber this morning by a 2.7 magnitude earthquake just after 5:21 AM PST today, we ask whether the "Big One" is looming.
This tremor follows the previous shake-ups that Californians suffered last month, when a chain of seismic events and aftershocks registering up to 5.1 magnitude reminded residents that they live atop some of the world’s most volatile faults, and caused many to stock up on supplies in preparation for the massive earthquakes that geologists have been predicting for some years.
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There is earthquake activity around two supervolcanoes, one in North Korea and the other in the United States. Earthquake swarms in such areas can indicate magma movement, and scientists are studying both volcanoes. A thousand years ago the eruption of Mount Paektu in what is now North Korea was probably the largest in human history. The eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano would devastate the United States. In addition to these two restless supervolcanoes, large-scale earthquake activity is continuing. Like the meteor count Unknowncountry reported on earlier this week, the earthquake count has been rising worldwide for a number of years.
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Unexpectedly rapid melting of polar ice and glaciers between 2005 and 2011 caused a rise in global sea levels of another 2/3rds of an inch, according to a study just published in Nature Geoscience. Increased water pressure against continental shelves is known to lead to destabilization of faults as well as compression of magma deposits under volcanoes, and is related to increased seismic and volcanic activity. So far, sea levels have now risen 8 1/3rd inches worldwide since 1870, with the rate of annual increase steadily rising. At the same time, the amount of volcanic and earthquake activity around the Pacific Rim appears to have begun to increase as well. As ice melts, the balance of weight on the earth changes, releasing weight from melt areas and moving it into the oceans.read more