In the past two weeks, more than 100 small earthquakes have hit Yellowstone National Park, putting seismologists on alert. During January, not only was Haiti hit by a devastating earthquake with significant tremors around the region, but the Solomon Islands suffered a tsunami wave, triggered by an earthquake (7.2 on the Richter scale) in the Pacific Ocean off Papua New Guinea. Also in January, the Sichuan province of China – which is still recovering from a devastating May 2008 earthquake (8.0) – was hit by an earthquake (5.2). An earthquake (5.1) in Tajikistan left 20,000 people homeless and another quake (5.1) off the coast of Guatemala caused no major damage on the mainland but sent people scurrying from their homes. (New York Times, 1/19/10 and 2/1/10; Australia Network News, 1/31/10; New Scientist, 1/9/10; Guardian Weekly, 1/8/10)
Is there a bigger story here?
Ken Hey
