This show continued the topic of the unusually high number of
Earthquake & Volcanic Events
Along With
General Preparedness Lessons
So there has been an unusually high spike in the number of these event over the past few weeks.
To bring you up to speed a bit on the basics of seismology Will recommends that you visit our sister websites - PracticeSurvival.com under the Siesmic and Earthquake Section, there are buttons on the right column that cover easily digestable explainations of the terms and theories that you need to know and then watch this video from CalTech Entitled Seismology 101 . The "Ring of Fire" which accounts for roughly 90% of each year's seismic activity is no stranger to earthquakes. The quakes are commonly light to moderate in intensity ranging from 1.0 to 4.0. The damage caused by these quakes was minimal for years because the areas effected were sparsely polulated for the most part.
A new player in the "game" seismically speaking is the second earthquake in over 200 years along the east coast of the USA (Mineral, VA) the first in 2011 a 5.7 - 5.9 felt all the way to Canada and last week a moderate 2.0. Also an oldie but a badie returned the New Madrid Fault and a movement of the North American Craton whose eastern edge runs through the New Madrid fault.
There are some interesting ideas about animals and the role they play in warning of impending events. Animals are known to sense an impending seismic or volcanic event. The primary theories for the reason why snakes came out of the ground and froze to death in China shortly before a giant earthquake or why it is believed that dogs and cats runaway more often in the days prior to an event center around their high sensitivity to vibration, sound and also magnetite in their bodies that makes them sensitive to magnetic fields.
Helmut Tributsch published an exhaustive compilation of reports spanning the time from 373 BC to 1979 describing abnormal animal behavior immediately prior to large earthquakes. The book; When the Snakes Awake Animals and Earthquake Prediction available on the MIT Press is an interesting read. Whatever the actual cause, the fact is that for millennia humans have paid attention to animal behavior and used them like the canary in the coal mine to forewarn of dangers.