Where Will the Next Mega Earthquake Strike?

A series of big earthquakes in less than 24 hours could have been caused by seismic waves travelling along fault lines and triggering ruptures.

A 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit New Zealand on Wednesday followed by others off the coasts of Japan (6.1), Vanuatu (6.4), and Indonesia (5.7) early Thursday morning.

All were along the ‘Ring of Fire’ that stretches around the Pacific from New Zealand to Chile through Indonesia, Japan, and California, in which 90 per cent of quakes happen.

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Earthquakes in New Zealand, Japan, Vanuatu, Indonesia, Tonga, Taiwan, and Papua New Guinea over past 24 hours could be caused by seismic waves travelling along fault lines

There was also a big earthquake in Mexico that killed more than 230, but despite the country falling in the ‘Ring’, experts ruled out a connection to the other quakes.

Seismologists admitted the cluster of quakes, along with others near Tonga (5.0), Taiwan (5.3), and Papua New Guinea (5.2), on the same day was ‘unusual’.

‘It is unusual, there’s no doubt about that, it’s been really busy,’ University of Melbourne’s Gary Gibson told Daily Mail Australia.

‘I must say these unusual clusters happen fairly often and it seems they are not totally random, we just don’t know why.’

Phil Cummins at Geoscience Australia and the Australian National University suggested seismic waves cascading along fault lines could be responsible.

He said waves could also jump between nearby fault lines and continue moving, triggering imminent earthquakes at rupture points.

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