I started noticing about two weeks ago, I think, maybe longer, that there was a lot of unusual earthquake activity in central and southern Taiwan and off the southeast coast in the 3.0 - 4.5 range. Normally, most quakes are centered around the NE quadrant of Taiwan, but over the last couple of weeks there were numerous small quakes scattered around the island, which is quite unusual.

So you raise the $10,000 question - was today's quake a culminating event or just one in a series of something still moving. Of course, if one were to get philosophical, one could argue that of course it's an 'ongoing event', but you get my drift.

I think a lot of this goes back to the Indonesian tsunami, however many years ago that was now. That was an enormous event, and it had to set some things in motion. Then of course more recently there was Japan, not to mention a number of 7+ quakes in SE Asia in the meantime. These were huge events, even from a geological perspective, and it would seem to make sense that that instability did not just settle all of the sudden. I think we're in a cycle of increased seismic activity.

I'm going to have more time on my hands after tomorrow afternoon, so I think I'll look up some of the readily available data on the subject. It's fascinating, and it's a great adrenalin rush... unless of course you get buried in rubble and die a slow, agonizing death.