Last week, I was looking through my books for something to read -- came across "A Crack in the Edge of the World" (about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake) by Simon Winchester. I had bought it 5 years ago or so and started it at one time, but never finished it. Now that I have more time on my hands, I thought I'd try again. I re-read Chapter One and then went to bed early. The next morning I awoke to the news of the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Chapter One details the seismic events in 1906 leading up to and including the San Francisco earthquake on April 18. Winchester calls 1906 the most seismically dangerous of the 20th century - Ecuadoran-Colombian quake; St. Lucia quake in the Caribbean; Caucasus Mtns; Chiayi or Meishan quake on Formosa (Taiwan); eruption of Vesuvius; SF quake; and Valparaiso, Chile -- large quakes near large population centers.

He then mentions the year 2004 -- a similarly dangerous year of this new century - an immense quake in Iran; various quakes and volcano eruptions worldwide and then the Sumatran catastrophe the last day of that year.

The next is a direct quote from the book: "Geologists looking at the statistics have lately started to wonder if some cruel butterfly effect might be at work - a pattern that might permit a ferocious event on one side of the planet to trigger a similar disaster far away on the other. Those who believe in the ideas of Gaia think this might be so. As the plates shifting against one another are all interconnected, jostlings on one part of the planet's surface might well create sympathetic movements elsewhere. Thus far there is no firm evidence - only the numbers, and the anecdotes, that show incontrovertibly that some years are seismically very much more dangerous than others. And 1906, it appears, was one of the worst years of all time."

Okay, now I know I've read comments in the past by one or some of you that indicate that you believe that Chile, New Zealand, etc. are too far away to have influenced a quake in Japan -- you say it's just coincidental. But could there be something to this

Here are TV clips from Fox News with interviews with Jim Berkland (not one of your favorites I gather, especially Roger) and, the second link, with the author himself, Simon Winchester, concerning such a scenario - potentially striking California or somewhere on the West Coast of the U.S, like the Cascadia subduction zone.

Jim Berkland clip:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4586680/long-term-effects-of-radiation/?playlist_id=162726#/v/4586903/sign-of-california-quake-to-come/?playlist_id=87485

Simon Winchester clip:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4586680/long-term-effects-of-radiation/?playlist_id=162726#/v/4587432/could-similar-disaster-happen-here/?playlist_id=87937

Thought you might have missed these interviews on the Fox News Channel since some of you apparently are MSNBC viewers. Disclaimer: these interviews were done on OPINION shows (Cavuto and Hannity), not actual Fox News shows.

Comments on these interviews or on the butterfly effect?

Barbara

• Jim Berkland video clip