With one possibly spurious exception, there is nothing in the article to support the title's claim that large quakes "Spark Jolts Worldwide," or that is even new.

The article does claim that the study has found a significant statistical rise in quake occurrence "even thousands of miles away," but that is not new - and the figure of "thousands" may only refer to the one disputable exception. The exception is the extraordinarily large 2004 Sumatra quake which supposedly "triggered quakes . . . on the opposite side of the Earth." But, though convincing statistics are supplied for the study's general conclusion that triggered quakes occur at some distance greater than 680 miles from the original event, no such statistics are supplied for the supposed triggering of events on the other side of the world by the 2004 quake.

In short, the article, taken alone, only states that remote triggering has been seen to occur at distances greater than 680 miles. This was new, what? Some nine or ten years ago? If it is eventually shown that the M9.2 2004 quake did, indeed produce some statistically significant triggering half-way around the world, this result could certainly not be translated to the other, vastly smaller, quakes mentioned in the article.

Mike Williams
Arroyo Grande, CA U.S.