YOU:
Traditionally, scientists have thought that earthquakes do not trigger =
other earthquakes more than one rupture length away from the fault =
rupture. That is, if the part of the fault that slipped in the 1906 =
earthquake was 250 miles long, the earthquake would not trigger other =
earthquakes more than 250 miles away from that part of the fault.

ME:
I think this all comes down to the Clinton Principal:-) What does one mean by the word trigger? What is the definition of trigger?

Where I part ways with the narrow version of trigger, I add to my ever growing list of "the real web". What we do to a certain part of the web we do to all. This is quite old Taoist thinking--it has been expanded on in the past few years with "Butterflies Wings" and "Cow Farts", both of which give a good example of how all things are inter-connected....at least IMHO.
Bob