Mutley and I have exchanged PMs about the earthquake thing before. It's also something G and I talked about when there seemed to be a spike in the numbers cropping up in the news. We dug out this link showinf earthquake numbers over the past lot of years:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/.....qstats.php

They take the stance that we have got better at locating earthquakes, specifically the smaller ones, thanks to changes in technology. They also say that the numbers of higher magnitude earthquakes has remained more or less constant.

This doesn't mean I discount the gloom forecasters. Technology has made the world a smaller place and we've grown used to supplies travelling distances that would once have been unthinkable for a basic consumable. Living in Norn Iron I've seen the impact the volcanic ash cloud has had on sandwich supplies in M&S and Boots; and a similar impact on some supermarket foodstuffs too.

With some food scares on the mainland last year we learnt that "Northern Ireland Beef/ Lamb/ Chicken/ Pork" sold in Tesco was actually shipped to the mainland for processing and packaging before being shipped back to us. So our food supplies were affected again because our supply chains are too long and vulnerable.

There is a balance to be sought between the "end of the world" folk (I'm thinking about a chap in another online place I belong to, who has taken such a gloomy view of society's future that we've taken to sticking Nostra in front of his name in honour of Nostradamus!) and the people who think we can go on thoughtlessly consuming resources indefinitely.

It's late and I'm rambling - sorry folks. The point I'm trying to get to has already been best summed up earlier in the thread by Michelle from Oregon: hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. We've got too good at taking things for granted.