I have been thinking a lot about Michael Crichton's new book "State of Fear" and what would happen with a west coast tsunami. Ironically, I was thinking of these things at about the time the earthquake happened. I was spending the late afternoon Saturday at Garrapata State Park, south of Carmel. I hiked down to the rocks next to the ocean to relax and watch the gray whales migrating. I'm closer to the waves than I should be, but keep a careful eye of where the water is landing. I was thinking if a tsunami that the book mentioned--or even a rogue wave came ashore, I was toast. I had no idea there really was a huge earthquake on the other side of the world causing tsunamis.
I was in Phuket and Phi Phi last month, but the only worry I had was the Muslim insurgents from Southern Thailand striking the tourist areas as JI did in Bali. I certainly would not have imagined a quake and tsunami.
Mt. Pinatubo exploded after a quake in the Philippines in 1990. I wonder if any volcanoes will be cued up to erupt now.
The Earth's crust is doing some relaxing. For the next month to six weeks, there will be strong (6.0+) earthquakes at far flung places. If I could predict which far flung places, I'd be a wonder. I'd guess Peru, Chile, African Rift Valley, Israel, Seattle, Tokyo, New Delhi, San Jose, and New Madrid.
Volcanoes? You can bet on that, but you cannot tell which volcanoes will blow. New volcanoes just might form. Some established active volcanoes will erupt. It is likely that some old dormant volcano will awaken. It is easy to make accurate predictions like this that are far too broad to be useful.
These things do go in clusters, but no one can predict how many events in this cluster or where those events will be located.