A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Mexico around 1 p.m. local time on September 19 and around 5 a.m. Australian time. So far, 273 people have been killed by the massive earthquake in Mexico.
What is even more terrifying, however, is that on the same day, this Wednesday, less than 24 hours, the Earth seems to have started shaking mode!
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake occurred in New Zealand; a 6.1 magnitude earthquake occurred in the offshore waters of Japan; a 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurred in Waruatu; a 5.7 magnitude earthquake occurred in Indonesia; a 5.0 magnitude earthquake occurred near Tonga; A magnitude 5.3 earthquake occurred in Taiwan and a magnitude 5.2 earthquake occurred in Papua New Guinea.
The series of earthquakes happened on the same day, which is hardly a coincidence. And what links these places together is a concept called Ring of Fire. What does that mean? The so-called Ring of Fire, is translated as: the Pacific Volcano Belt, also literally translated as the "Ring of Fire".
The diagram is as follows:
The region began in New Zealand, circled, passed Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, and ended in Chile.
This ring of fire is really not peaceful: it is 40,000 kilometers long, horseshoe-shaped, with a series of trenches, volcanic arcs and volcanic belts, and often plate movements.
There are also 452 volcanoes on the ring, accounting for more than 75% of the active and dormant volcanoes in the world. Even worse, 90% of the earthquakes on Earth, and 81% of the strongest earthquakes, occur in this area!
Christopher Pluhar, an earthquake expert at the University of California, said: "the plate on the Ring of Fire is always in one building and can move between 1 and 10 centimeters a year," said Christopher Pluhar, an earthquake expert at the University of California.
Such movements may trigger earthquakes, but humans are often unable to sense them.
"the earthquake was happening all the time, but it didn't cause damage, so we didn't notice."
"there is no doubt that this is unusual, too often," said Gary Gibson, an earthquake expert at the University of Melbourne on Wednesday.
It is also not uncommon to have these abnormal ring shocks, but they are not entirely immediate, but we do not yet know the reasons behind them.
Faced with the cause of the earthquake, some scholars have also made scientific speculation.
Phil Cummins of the Australian National University said the reason could be that seismic waves propagated along the fault line (fault lines) and triggered an earthquake at the fracture point (rupture points).
"earthquake-induced seismic waves can trigger or interfere with nearby faults that may be close to rupture."
According to Professor Cummins, seismic waves themselves do not produce earthquakes, but they can advance the time of those that are about to occur.
But pinching, after all, whether this pot to the back of the fire ring, it is still open to discussion. Because many scholars believe that despite the largest earthquake in Mexico, the serial earthquake on the ring of fire may not be related to the major earthquake in Mexico.
In theory, Mexico's earthquake will create a stress field that triggers a series of earthquakes, but can only trigger an earthquake within 200 kilometers.
Having said so much, do experts have any way to predict such natural disasters in advance?
According to sources, the scientists concerned have been predicting! The next possible place for a strong earthquake, hin, could be California.
Professor Pluhar said: in the next 30 years, the likelihood of a strong earthquake in California is 60%, and the magnitude of Ken is as high as 8 or more. "We are lucky because California has had relatively weak seismic activity over the past century. But a major earthquake in California is inevitable. "
Well, after all that, you know, right now, earthquakes can't be predicted accurately. In other words, scientists can't predict exactly how big an earthquake might be somewhere tomorrow. But it seems that earthquakes can be speculated on a large time scale.
Finally, BTW, Australia is also on the ring of fire. Well, pay attention, fellas.
