As the earthquakes thread has disappeared into the ether I thought I'd start another one for discussion on recent seismic activity.

Some useful links include:

http://quake.usgs.gov/ - US Geological Survey Earthquakes Hazards web site

http://www.emsc-csem.org/index.php?page=home European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/ The British Geological Survey earthquakes website

A good day to ressurect the thread, as Britain practices its emergency response to a major earthquake. The exercise scenario is that of a major earthquake with the epicentre in Lincoln, the idea seems to be to practice and refine techniques for response both nationally and internationally. Earthquakes are rarely out of the news, but often hidden by bigger stories - an earthquake in Kyrgyzstan on Sunday killed at least 75 people and at least 10 people died in an earthquake in central Tibet yesterday.

I see there was a magnitude 3.4 quake at Glenfinnan (in the Highlands this morning):

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/recent_events/uk_special/alert_info_uk.htm

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/recent_events/uk_special/glenfinnan_10_oct_2008.pdf

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7663054.stm

What are the chances of earthquakes happening in "new" areas? We hear a lot that earthquakes do not happen in certain areas, but I get the impression this is more due to low risk rather than impossible risk.

Earthquake strikes east of Tonga

A strong earthquake has hit a remote area of the South Pacific ocean, about 150km (95 miles) east of the island nation of Tonga. The US Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 7.1. It struck at a depth of 14.9 km (9.3 miles). No tsunami warning has been issued. There are no reports of any casualties or damage to Tonga. The island is situated in the Pacific "ring of fire", where volcanoes and earthquakes are relatively common.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7678453.stm

More info from the USGS here: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/eqinthenews/2008/us2008yiap/

I see there's just been an earthquake of 7.5 magnitude in Indonesia:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2008zlbn.php