Scientists have rejected fears that a series of highly destructive large-scale earthquakes in the past few years, in countries bordering the Pacific Ocean, signal an increased global risk of these deadly events. Several vast earthquakes have taken place since 2004 — in Chile, Indonesia and Japan — leading some academics to express concern that they may be linked.
But a new study suggests that the pattern of earthquakes, although improbable, is likely to be random and that the risk of large earthquakes is no higher today than it was historically.
The conclusion of the study, published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month (19 December), challenges speculation that the above-average rate of earthquakes of magnitude 8 and above on the Richter scale in recent years reflects a change in the underlying rate of activity.
Source : scidev.net
