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Bubbles are sustained only by ever increasing amounts of Credit. The most pernicious Bubbles are those fueled by “money” – perceived safe and liquid Credit instruments. Bubbles are mechanisms of wealth redistribution and destruction. Structural impairment caused by Bubble excess escalates over the life of the boom. The pain and dislocation unleashed during the bust is proportional to the excesses of the preceding boom. Though we’re in uncharted waters when it comes to global Bubble Dynamics, I’ll suggest that geopolitical risks expand exponentially over time. My thesis holds that 2022 is a pivotal year for a historic multi-decade Bubble period....

Roger Bilham, a seismologist at the University of Colorado, told The Daily Express: 'The current conditions might trigger at least four earthquakes greater than 8.0 in magnitude. 'And if they delay, the strain accumulated during the centuries provokes more catastrophic mega earthquakes.' In addition to the four major earthquakes to have struck since Thursday, last week there were also shakes in the Philippines, Vanuatu and Myanmar. All of the earthquakes have occurred in countries straddling the so-called Ring of Fire. This is a horseshoe-shaped series of trenches spanning the Pacific Ocean where tectonic plates are shifting and seismic and volcanic...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Scientists are virtually certain that California will be rocked by a strong earthquake in the next 30 years. Now they say the risk of a mega-quake is more likely than previously thought. The chance of a magnitude-8 quake striking the state in the next three decades jumped to 7 percent from 4.7 percent, mainly because scientists took into account the possibility that several faults can shake at once, releasing seismic energy that results in greater destruction. While the risk of a mega-quake is higher than past estimates, it's more likely — greater than 99 percent chance...

As cities grow and technology evolves, the increasing level of complexity enhances vulnerability to earthquakes. It’s not a question of if the San Andreas fault ruptures in Southern California, but when. […] Seismologists at the US Geological Survey have simulated the effects of the next big Californian earthquake in a program of study called ShakeOut. One of their computer models assumes that the next big event on the San Andreas fault will be magnitude 7.8, with a single event in which a rupture starts in Southern California near the Salton Sea and then shoots north along the fault to hit...

For decades, scientists have assumed the central portion of California’s San Andreas fault acts as a barrier that prevents a big quake in the southern part of the state from spreading to the north, and vice versa. As a result, a mega-quake that could be felt from San Diego to San Francisco was widely considered impossible. But that key fault segment might not serve as a barrier in all cases, researchers wrote Wednesday in the online edition of the journal Nature. Using a combination of laboratory measurements and computer simulations, the two scientists showed how so-called creeping segments in a...

EARTHQUAKE WARNING FROM RUSSIAN INSTITUTE of PHYSICS of the EARTH A new report released today in the Kremlin prepared for Prime Minister Putin by the Institute of Physics of the Earth, in Moscow, is warning that the America’s are in danger of suffering a mega-quake of catastrophic proportions during the next fortnight (14 days) with a specific emphasis being placed on the United States, Mexico, Central America and South American west coast regions along with the New Madrid Fault Zone region. This report further warns that catastrophic earthquakes in Asia and the sub-continent are, also, “more than likely to occur”...

Just 50 miles off the Pacific Northwest coast is an earthquake hotspot that threatens to unleash on Seattle, Portland and Vancouver the kind of damage that has shattered Chile. The fault has been dormant for more than 300 years, but when it awakens — tomorrow or decades from now — the consequences could be devastating.

WASHINGTON — Using sophisticated seismometers and GPS devices, scientists have been able to track minute movements along two massive tectonic plates colliding 25 miles or so underneath Washington state's Puget Sound basin. --------------- By comparison, the largest earthquake ever recorded was 9.5 on the Richter scale, in Chile in 1960. The largest in North America was the 9.2 Great Alaska Earthquake in 1964, which killed nine people and spawned a tsunami that struck the Northwest coast. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which killed 750 to 2,500 people, was estimated to be an 8.2.

Virtual Mega-quake Shows Earthquake Could Inflict Major Damage On Pacific Northwest USScientists used a supercomputer-driven "virtual earthquake" to explore likely ground shaking in a magnitude 9.0 megathrust earthquake in the Pacific Northwest. Peak ground velocities are displayed in yellow and red. The legend represents speed in meters per second (m/s) with red equaling 2.3 m/s. Although the largest ground motions occur offshore near the fault and decrease eastward, sedimentary basins lying beneath some cities amplify the shaking in Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and Vancouver, increasing the risk of damage. (Credit: Kim Olsen, SDSU) ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2008) — On January 26,...

Himalaya mega-quakes likely every 1000 years 13:08 09 November 2006 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic A colossal reservoir of energy stored up under the Tibetan plateau has been discovered ? and it can only be fully released by mega-earthquakes striking about every 1000 years, researchers have found. The study suggests that earthquakes in the past 200 years in the central Himalaya, while catastrophic, are small in comparison to what the region has seen in the past - and will see again. The energy builds up as the result of the collision between the Indian subcontinent and Asia, and the movement...

Indian scientists recently found a scientific method of predicting earthquakes quite accurately. The great quake of Sumatra along Andaman fault line on December 26th, could have been predicted if the world would have taken these scientists seriously. If this theory is true, we are in for many mega earthquakes soon. When two or more planets, moon and earth and sun come in one line, these mega earthquakes happen. The sun influences the rotation of earth. Now imagine you are in a train or bus. If all on a sudden the driver pushes the brake, you tend to move forward...