I have watched the ongoing earthquakes on EarthquakeWatch via iGoogle over a few years & I believe that the recent Japan quake was a rebalancing or settling of the tectonic plate after the Christchurch quake which was a re-settling of the Ecuador/Peruvian quake in August 2010. The Solomon Islands has had several quakes from 6 & up to just above 7 over the last year alone, Sumatra had a 7.7 quake in October & these have also been a settling of the plate. I believe that there will be another re-settling on the American Western side. Whether that is down near Peru or up near the San Andreas fault waits to be seen. I have a feeling it will be in the latter of the two. The amount of movement on the various edges of the plate, at every major edge of the plate, other than the San Francisco/Los Angeles area means there has been a huge amount of pressure build-up in that area & the likelihood that the resultant earthquake is a high number like an 8 or more is fairly likely.
The land doesn\'t just fall in one area without affecting the other sides, especially when it is up to 30 miles deep. It doesn\'t necessarily react immediately because 30 miles of land is a lot of resistance & the buckling takes time to occur. Eventually the stresses created will give way & we are talking about a 25 to 30 mile deep raft that is pushing up against another raft of similar depth. Understand that they all edge onto the Pacific plate except Peru where the Pacific plate runs directly into the Nazca plate, the fractures that have occurred in Japan, following Christchurch, encompassing the ongoing Solomon Islands\' quakes which occurred either side of the Indonesian quakes & following the major Ecuador/Peruvian quake. Realise that the Solomon Islands are kind of in the middle of the plate, well close & so it teeters around that space & so their quakes may rarely become massive, rather they get the shift in several directions consequently getting more of them but the places on the longer edges, like Peru, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand & North America are destined to be hit hard.
I don\'t want to be wrong but I also would rather not be right. The problem here is that the signs are that the USA will be hit by the build-up of all these large earthquakes & being the last to release the stresses, may mean that the largest is yet to come because the stresses are being pushed back now from every other direction.

I\'ve read a lot of articles that have described monumental wastes of time, but this one takes the cake. First, this guy says the the Japan earthquake affected the earths rotation by 1.8 billionth of a second and then goes on to say that his calculations will change as more data is received. Then, as if that isn\'t bad enough, he says, \"Earth\'s rotation changes all the time as a result of not only earthquakes, but also the much larger effects of changes in atmospheric winds and oceanic currents,\" he said. \"Over the course of a year, the length of the day increases and decreases by about a millisecond, or about 550 times larger than the change caused by the Japanese earthquake. The position of Earth\'s figure axis also changes all the time, by about one meter (3.3 feet) over the course of a year, or about six times more than the change that should have been caused by the Japan quake.\"

So, with that magnanimus statement. he admits that his efforts are a complete waste of time, and no doubt someone\'s money. I am totally amazed at the number of these so called scientific studies that have little or no effect on our daily lives, and yet someone is paying big money to these people to do it. Don\'t you wonder where the money comes from ?

I don\'t \'feel\' older...

First Daylight Savings Time and now this?

On the bright side, consider this a short term hedge against entropy.

Let\'s see.... 1.8 milliseconds x 40 years (give or take) = .25 seconds less left in my projected lifespan. Can I deduct that from my income tax?

I feel it is indeed premature to record any scientific explanation at this juncture when Japan is craving for humanatarian support. Let us not forget that our understanding of nature - whether it atmospheric OR subterranean - falls short of explaining events convincingly.

Some scientist believe that there will soon be a large earthquake in California as a result of the recent series of earthquakes in Japan and other locations. The earthquake in Japan seems to be related to recent sun flare activity. We are probably in for natural catastrophes through 2012. This Solar Cycle of sun flares has begun. It has been predicted by NASA, NOAA and ESA to be up to 50% stronger than its \'record breaking\' previous Cycle. The Sun will reach its \'apex\' (maximum) in late 2011 into 2012. The recent series of earthquakes from Christchurch to Japan means that there has been a significant amount of movement on the various edges of the Pacific tectonic plate at every major edge of the plate, other than the San Francisco/Los Angeles area. This means there has been a huge amount of pressure build-up in that area & the likelihood that the a resultant earthquake in California is significantly increased.

This is correct, get ready Bay Area & LA, estimated by our computer models to occur in 3 to 4 weeks

If this keeps going then we can eliminate Leap year right? lol