Killer earthquakes shake scientific thought

11 Oct 2009, 2:59 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Destruction in Samoa following a massive earthquake and tsunami. (AAP)

Destruction in Samoa following a massive earthquake and tsunami. (AAP)

A sudden cluster of massive earthquakes which has shaken Asia-Pacific communities and likely left thousands dead has also jolted some scientists, who are starting to question conventional thought.

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A sudden cluster of massive earthquakes which has shaken Asia-Pacific communities and likely left thousands dead has also jolted some scientists, who are starting to question conventional thought.
  
Experts who dismissed notions that far-away quakes could be linked are beginning to think again after huge tremors rocked Samoa and Indonesia on the same day, followed by another major convulsion in Vanuatu.
  
Some 184 people died in the terrifying tsunami which smashed Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga on September 30, while thousands are feared dead after parts of Indonesia's Padang city were reduced to rubble just hours later.
  
On Thursday, thousands of panicked people fled the coast as a rapid succession of large quakes off Vanuatu set off a tsunami warning for much of the South Pacific.

Searching for a connection

The "remarkable" sequence has prompted veteran earthquake-watcher Gary Gibson to tear up his theory it was all down to chance and search for a possible connection.
  
"I can no longer keep using the response it's all a big coincidence, can I?" Gibson, senior seismologist at Environmental Systems and Services consulting group, told AFP.
  
"But what would the (link) mechanism be? Nobody has come up with a good story."
  
University of Queensland's Huilin Xing also challenged accepted science by proposing a possible link between the Samoan and Indonesian earthquakes – 6,000 miles (9,660 kilometres) apart.
  
Xing said the fast-moving Australian tectonic plate may have set off one quake, and then the other.
  
"From the observations, there were similar correlations of the quakes in the different places," Xing said.
  
"For two great earthquakes to occur within hours in such a way, it is abnormal."
  
Thursday's 7.6, 7.8 and 7.3 Vanuatu earthquakes also came just minutes after another large tremor shook the Philippines.
  
"It's remarkable. I've been working on this for 30 years and never seen it before," said Gibson.
  
"Many times it's chance but when you get this many large earthquakes on the Australian plate boundary it's stretching the concept of just coincidence. But nobody I know has published a link that will stand up in all cases.
  
"There's no mechanism to describe why it's happening that anybody's thought of. I personally think there may well be something else and I'm continuing to look for it."
  
Connection ideas rejected

Kevin McCue, president of the Australian Earthquake Engineering Society, rejected ideas of any connection between the Pacific and Indonesian quakes, but said the tremors in Samoa and Vanuatu had a historical precursor.
  
McCue said in 1917 a major earthquake rocked Samoa, followed three years later by another of similar size off Vanuatu, with both going off close to the recent quakes' epicentres.
  
But he said the high activity in different areas was simply part of the random nature of earthquakes.
  
"It's just the nature of the beast -- you have a cluster of events then you wait months without one," he said.
  
"(But) I don't deny that I don't know something. It is possible there's something more. We don't know what's happening down there, really."
 

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Your Comments

Mr

Chris - from Sydney, 3 years ago

I am concerned at the increasing frequency of earthquakes causing death and destruction. Our insurance policies call this type of thing an "act of God", needless to say we have no control over these events taking place. Science clearly needs to do more work in this area considering the massive destruction that earthquakes cause, but really no one but God can stop this sort of thing.. as well as figuring it out shouldn't we all start praying, what if this happened to your family?

Earthquake machine

Stuart - from Canberra , 3 years ago

Earthquakes have risen 3 fold since the 60's. can check that out on any nations meterological site. check out the H.A.A.R.P device situated in alaska. This device may be used to induce earthquakes at unstable plate boundaries, a so called "geological warfare weapon". This device sometimes produces colourful auroras near the surface called "earthquake lights", check that. Many former foreign ministers have testified in interview that their countries were threatned with an "earthquake machine"

corellation is not causation

gg allin - from brisbane, 3 years ago

Paul, correlation does not equal causation.

Simultaneous quakes

Dave Piggott - from Fremantle, 3 years ago

Any chance the planet may have passed thru a high "pressure" node in space in terms perhaps of gravitational forces not equal in all planes, thereby "squeezing" the earth like an orange? Prof David Blair here in WA is looking for gravity waves isn't he? Not being a physicist - who knows. Just a concept.

Coincidence?

Paul - from Chiang Rai, 3 years ago

At the end of the article, a scientist that thinks the two events aren't linked brings up another case (1917) when earthquakes happened both in Samoa and Vanuatu at almost the same time - he then says that shows the random nature of the events. ????? Wouldn't that actually be good evidence to show there may be a link between earthquakes in Samoa and Vanuatu?

Dr

Jefferson Brian Beder - from Sydney, Australia, 3 years ago

Often after one major earthquake it is following a few days later by an equally large quake on the opposite side of the world. This is possilby explained by convection currents travelling throught the earth's crust., causing a quake at the edge of a tectonic plate.

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