Earthquakes Moving North?

Earthquake hits Antarctic island southeast of Australia

SYDNEY, Australia - An earthquake strong enough to destroy a city rocked a remote stretch of ocean floor between Australia and the Antarctic early Friday, shaking buildings in the southern island state of Tasmania but causing no injuries, seismologists said.

The 8.1-magnitude quake hit 495 kilometers (305 miles) north of Macquarie Island just before 2 a.m. (1500 GMT), according to the U.S. Geological Survey's Web site.

This was followed 3 days later by the undersea earthquake which caused the catastrophic tsunami now affecting many of the countries on the Indian ocean.

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake happened just off the coast of the large Indonesian island of Sumatra early on Sunday, and set off huge waves that reached as far as Africa.

Aid is being rushed to the regions affected, with many countries donating.

However, the sudden tectonic shift on the antarctic plate clearly transferred massive stresses onto adjacent tectonic neighbours. These ripples are being felt as far north as Alaska and all around the Pacific basin, especially in Japan and also some recent seismic swarms along the San Andreas fault-line.

This seems to indicate a larger than normal shift in the pacific plate, probably as a result of the sudden violent movement of the antarctic tectonic plate, however, the real thrust of movement seems to have been north westwards.

At a magnitude 9.0, the undersea earthquake has transferred huge stresses north-eastwards and westwards. The energy involved is incomprehensible.