Hi All,
It has been a while since I posted, but have not forgotten you.
There was an interesting earthquake in the region of Guam, Mariana Islands this morning. This Ms 6.5 is one of only 16 events ever recorded in the Guam area of
Mw>=6.5. Of these nearly 1/3rd have occurred in the past 10 years.
While I am prohibited from discussing various topics on this forum, it is permissible to provide references which might be of interest to forum readers.
In this case, there are several unusual events which were associated with this earthquake.
The first was a highly unusual earthquake in the Caroline Islands of Ms 6.2 which occurred about half an hour prior to the Guam earthquake. This was also the strongest event in the Caroline Islands since Sept. 26, 1993, an earthquake which may have been triggered by the Mw 8.2 in Guam on August 8, 1993.
The second was the passage of Typhoon Phanfone whose perimeter was passing over the epicenter at the time of the earthquake. For information on Typhoon Phanfone please see:

http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/

or

http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/Tropical/GifArchive/PHANFONE-02.gif

The subject of weather-related seismicity has been discussed on this forum in the past. For a more detailed discussion of effects of Typhoons on seismicity in the region of Guam you may want to read portions of the following web-document:

“The Tsunami History of Guam – 1849-1993” by James F. Lander and Lowell S. Whiteside. Published by the Tsunami Society in the Science of Tsunami Hazards.

You can reach this paper on the web at:

http://www.sthjournal.org//sth2.htm

Go down to Volumne 20 Number 3. and click on the title above. You will need a PDF reader to see the document, but this can be downloaded off the web. While the entire paper is useful in describing the seismicity and tsunami hazard of Guam, you may find the section title: “The Typhoon Connection” of particular interest in light of today’s event.

There is also a short section relating hurricanes to tsunamis in the Caribbean in Volume 20 No. 2 – above that in the paper entitled: “A Brief History of Tsunamis in the Caribbean Sea” by Lander, Whiteside and Lockridge.

• Science of Tsunami Hazards