Hi Lowell:

Nice post.

re:
"It is common folklore around the world that a total eclipse of
the sun is associated with catastrophe, often with a large or
destructive earthquake. This was reinforced when the massively
destructive earthquake in Turkey in 1999 followed only three days
after a total eclipse of the sun in the same area.
The eclipse today which passed along about 10-20S latitude was
not expected to be associated with any earthquakes of note, since
the area in totality is generally quite non-seismic. It came as
a surprise, then to see a Mb approximately 5.5 occur in the southern
mid-Atlantic Ocean at the height of totality today.
The eclipse area has experienced 56 recorded earthquakes of Mb>=5.5
in the past 100 years, about one every 2 years. The last was a Ms 6.4
in the same general region as today's earthquake.
Hard to disprove these old superstitions when these things
keep happening. Probably just coincidence, but quite an interesting
one."

+ Yes...very interesting. It may be that these events are directly linked. Furthermore that data has been laying around for years...but since there is a gap in science...no one has attempted to close the gap. This may be so because it "opens yet a bigger can of worms" and challenge to a wall of established science ...that only the bravest souls would dare take on the task...(though just such a challenged was posed by the data collectors).

So from the point of view of "most" scientists the linkage is only coincidence...but the "common folklore" identifies it for what it is... a truely linked phenomena....

Sorry about the vague details but I'm thinking about writing something up both on the data found and this linkage. Any article would also address the "science gap" situation ....

Do you have any ideas as to where to publish such an article (which could probably easily turn into a small book...) ?

mark