I am not a scientist; nor am I a pseudo-scientist or an amateur scientist. I am merely intrigued by earthquakes ever since 1971 when I experienced the Sylmar earthquake (lived in Granada Hills, near the epicenter - considerable damage to our house, plus lived below the Van Norman Dam and had to evacuate.)

But Berkland and Winchester are geologists. Winchester has an M.A. in geology from St. Catherine's College, Oxford University. He worked in the field for awhile before turning to writing. They have opinions that were expressed in these interviews that may go against the norm, but are, as yet, unproven.

So I found these of interest and posted them here to prompt discussion.

BTW, in my post I did qualify that the Fox News Channel shows these two men were on were evening OPINION shows (Neil Cavuto and Sean Hannity), NOT FNC's regular news programming -- so, glad that you didn't make any cracks about FNC's reporting. They are the number one cable news station for a reason.

As for USGS and NOAA and similar organizations being funded by "big government," I have no problem with that -- I'm all for it. There are certain things that the government must do because the private sector cannot afford to, plus it must be constitutional. For example, our interstate highway system would never have been built if it had been up to the private sector and private funding to make it happen. Government co-ordination and gov't funding made it happen and we all benefit from it.

But when the private sector can do something better and at less cost, then the government should step out of the way (read: Post Office); or when the government gets involved in something that it has no constitutional right to do so (read: Obamacare).

Barbara