Dennis RomeroOne man caused a lot of fright in California in recent days, and we're not talking about Gov. Jerry Brown.
No, he's journalist Simon Winchester, who wrote in Newsweek that the Japanese 9.0 earthquake March 11 paired with other Pacific Rim shakers could help trigger the big one right here in California.
Well, before you go calling him crazy, which many have, consider that he has a point:
The Pacific Plate that was part of the subduction zone rocker that devastated northern Japan (more via tsunami than quakery) leads right to California.
And while scientists don't have enough evidence yet to suggest cause and effect, the system of plates along the Pacific is interconnected, and the rupture of one fault can cause pressure on another.
After the Japan temblor we talked to USC's Jean-Pierre Bardet, a professor of civil engineering and a foremost expert on quakes.
He told us this:
“When you have big quakes like that they do effect the global equilibrium the global balance,” he said. “Will they effect us California? I don't know.”
Now that's far from triggering the big one, but let's not be so quick to debunk the idea that a big shaker in one part of the world could put pressure on faults in another. It's not without logic.
Still, Winchester was widely debunked this week.
Nathan Bangs, a University of Texas geophysicist, told LiveScience.com, via Yahoo:
There is no evidence for a connection between all of the Pacific Rim earthquakes. I don't know what the basis is for the statements and implications in the Newsweek article, but there is no evidence that there is a link.
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