Hi All,

Just a note here. A friend of mine who is a geophysist and knows more than one cares to about catalogs said the biggest problem occurs if you include a year where there was a major earthquake in the region. This doesn't necessarily apply here as I am thinking of Loma Prieta, but it does throw the averages way off.

Our scientists used to say the Bay Area had a 3.0 on average every 18 days. That trend has changed and its almost rare to see one inside the Bay. But at the time of Loma Prieta, a little before and some ways after, yes we did.

This is just a thought I thought I'd pass along as it was something I discussed a long time ago. He said if you are going to use the catalog for a period of years, then do not use the year in which the major quake occurred.

Petra