Fears of 'THE BIG ONE' as SEVEN major earthquakes strike Pacific region in just 96 hours
http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/661052/SCIENTISTS-fear-the-Big-One-is-COMING-as-four-major-earthquakes-strike-in-48-hours
SCIENTISTS fear a monster earthquake could be about to strike after a seventh quake in just 96 hours struck region, killing over 100 people.
By Jon Austin
PUBLISHED: 04:00, Sun, Apr 17, 2016
Japan has been worst hit by the tremors.
The latest quake to hit the country yesterday, measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale, injured more than 1,000 and trapped people in collapsed buildings, only a day after a quake killed nine people in the same region.
Rescue crews searched for survivors of a magnitude 7.3 earthquake that struck Japan's Kyushu Island, the same region rattled by a 6.2 quake two days earlier.
Around 20,000 troops have had to be deployed following the latest 7.3 earthquake at 1.25am local time on Saturday.
Roads have also been damaged and big landslides have been reported, there are also 200,000 households without power.
The death toll in the latest Kyushu earthquake is 16 people and a previous earthquake that struck the area on Thursday had killed nine people.
There have been other large earthquakes recorded in recent days, including a major one in southern Japan which destroyed buildings and left at least 45 people injured, after Myanmar was rocked on Wednesday.
Tremors were also felt as far as 500 miles away at the national park in India where the Royal couple Kate and William were visiting....
Scientists say there has been an above average number of significant earthquakes across south Asia and the Pacific since the start of the year.
The increased frequency has sparked fears of a repeat of the Nepal quake of 2015, where 8,000 people died, or even worse.
Roger Bilham, seismologist of University of Colorado, said: "The current conditions might trigger at least four earthquakes greater than 8.0 in magnitude.
"And if they delay, the strain accumulated during the centuries provokes more catastrophic mega earthquakes."...
The latest earthquake to hit the Pacific region came this morning when Tonga suffered a 6.1 magnitude tremor.
That came just hours after scores of people were killed in Equador when a 7.8 magnitude quake hit the South American country.
Officials issued a tsunami warning in the wake of that devastation....
Thursday's quake in Japan was followed by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake which struck off the coast of the southern Philippines....
A 6.0 magnitude earthquake also hit on Friday off the coast of the Pacific island of Vanuatu, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
It was 53 miles from town Port Orly and the fourth one this week in the immediate area, after a 6.4-strength tremor hit a week earlier.
Vanuatu is on the "Pacific Ring of Fire," one of the most seismic parts of the globe and known for its earthquakes and volcanoes.
Seismologists say the Himalayan region is overdue for a tremor stronger than Nepal's 7.9 strength quake last year.
Friday's quakes take the total to nine across Asia in a period of just over three and a half months - nearly three every month.
Just six days ago, on April 10, six people died in Pakistan when a 6.6-magnitude quake hit Kabul with aftershocks in India
Two days before, on April 8, there was a magnitude 4.2 earthquake in Nepal.
Nepal had suffered a larger 5.5 magnitude one on February 22.
A month before, on January 20, there was a 6.1-magnitude earthquake in China, and 16 days earlier 11 people died when a 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit Manipur in India. ...
Tectonic plates west of the Nepal earthquake are still locked and scientists fear this is another trigger waiting to go off.
A scientific study published in Nature Geoscience said the Nepal quake: "Failed to rupture the locked portions of the Himalayan thrust beneath and west of the Kathmandu basin because of some persistent barrier of mechanical and structural origin."
Stresses locked in this area could be released, potentially causing a massive quake.
BK Rastogi, director general of the Ahmedabad-based Institute of Seismological Research, said: "An earthquake of the same magnitude is overdue. That may happen either today or 50 years from now in the region of the Kashmir, Himachal, Punjab and Uttrakhand Himalyas. "Seismic gaps have been identified in these regions.
"The accumulation of stress is going on everywhere. But where it will reach the elastic limit, we don't know nor also when. But what we do know is that it is happening everywhere."