Pacific Rim earthquake FEARS: Huge seismic swarm hits off the coast of Australia

Pacific Rim earthquake FEARS: Huge seismic swarm hits off the coast of Australia

FEARS are growing a huge earthquake could be set to hit the Pacific after 11 struck off the coast of Australia in one day.

By Joey Millar

PUBLISHED: 11:58, Thu, Nov 2, 2017 | UPDATED: 13:10, Thu, Nov 2, 2017

A series of earthquakes have struck the Pacific in the last day

The Pacific Ring of Fire has been peppered with earthquakes over the past 24 hours with the region surrounding Australia particularly active.

A swarm of seven earthquakes measuring between 4.5 and 5.1 on the Richter Scale struck a small area in the Coral Sea near New Caledonia.

Two measuring 4.7 and 4.9 hit Indonesia, to the north of Australia, with another measuring 4.4 struck Fiji.

Across other parts of the Pacific Rim, three earthquakes hit near Guam, one struck Japan and two were recorded in Alaska.
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Italy - Central Italy was struck by a powerful, 6.2-magnitude earthquake in the early hours of 24th August 2016, which killed 297 people
Turkey - In 2011, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit eastern Turkey killing over 600 people and leaving up to 40,000 people homeless
Nepal is one of the most active regions and has witnessed many major events. In 2015, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake killed 9,000 people
Japan was hit by a megathrust earthquake in 2011 which reached 9.0 on the richter scale and is one of the top five largest earthquakes in the world since record keeping began
Indonesia - Sumatra was the epicentre for the 2004 undersea megathrust earthquake that killed over 230,000 people in 14 countries. It had a 9.3 magnitude and is one of the most deadly disasters in history
New Zealand is struck by about 14,000 earthquakes each year, of which 150 are big enough to be felt. This is because it is situated in the collision zone between the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates

One earthquake was also struck on the west coast of America, one in Mexico and a final in Argentina - all over the past day.

It increases fears ‘the Big One’ could be about to strike the Pacific Ring of Fire - although, as with all geological events, it is impossible to predict exactly when or where this will occur.

However, geologists claim new research which they say show it is now possible to get a “five-years heads-up” on future earthquakes.

The team at the University of Colorado and the University of Montana claim fluctuations in the Earth’s core may be linked to an increased in the number of earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.0 or higher.
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Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado said: “The Earth offers us a 5-years heads up on future earthquakes, which is remarkable.

“Calculations show the asthenosphere to have an appropriate viscosity to account for the delay between deceleration and subduction zone seismicity.

"However, a geodetic test of the anticipated westward overshoot would be of utility.

earthquakeUSGS
The Pacific Rim has been struck by several earthquakes over the past 24 hours

earthquakeUSGS
A swarm of seven earthquakes struck near New Caledonia

“Whatever the mechanism, the 5-6 year advanced warning of increased seismic hazards afforded by the first derivative of the LoD is fortuitous, and has utility in disaster planning.

“The year 2017 marks six years following a deceleration episode that commenced in 2011.

"This suggests the world has now entered a period of enhanced global seismic productivity with a duration of at least five years.”