I was mostly joking last time I posted this (and as perhaps should have been, was downvoted) but this is the third or fourth major earthquake on the pacific rim in the last month or so. Couldn't these be signs of a very strong earthquake to come?
What scares me is how it's been mostly the western Pacific Rim (Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia) getting quakes. That tells me that things might be getting a little unstable on the eastern Pacific Rim, assuming the Earth keeps things "balanced".
Well, an earthquake relives stress along a fault. It's not like there's some feedback effect where the shocks before, during, and after a quake cause further instability on the other side of the planet just because they share a tectonic plate.
I started noticing this and did a bit if research. These are fairly significant size earthquakes and since measurement there are not very many >8 in magnitude.
I also have this picture in my mind of the pacific plates slowly twisting progressively clockwise... not that I know a whole lot about how this all works.
That... Doesn't seem likely. I've only taken a few geology classes during my undergrad, but considering these are earthquakes in a subduction zone, it doesn't seem possible that some lateral forces would be causing these quakes.
