08-27-2014, 01:13 PM
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#7
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CNN 8/26
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/25/us/cal...one/index.html
Quote:
Peru, California, Chile and Iceland have all been hit by notable earthquakes in 2014, which has some wondering whether there have been an unusually large amount of strong earthquakes this year.
The rate of major earthquakes -- those with a magnitude higher than 7.0 -- more than doubled in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the average since 1979, according to a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters in June by Tom Parsons and Eric L. Geist of the U.S. Geological Survey.
But a time period of fewer than 50 years isn't a large enough sample size to definitively say whether this year has had an abnormal number of quakes. It could be a statistical anomaly, according to CNN meteorologist Sean Morris.
"It's such a small sample and short time frame; let's not get alarmed," Myers said.
The Geological Survey notes that many earthquakes go undetected "because they hit remote areas or have very small magnitudes."
There has been a greater amount of smaller temblors in the central United States, especially in Oklahoma, which experts say could be a result of fracking in the area.
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