John, part of the alignment is gone-the 4.6 way offshore must have been a mislocation. I was wondering how a seismologist could confirm it within an hour after it (did not) happened. So, I guess the first question is whether there are alignments of seismicity that light up at a particular time and that cut across structure. I think my past impression from watching these maps was that they exist, but I guess I better be cautious....As with most of the "out there" ideas that I am interested in this comes from Lowell Whiteside, but there was some Soviet and other literature that he used -migrating strain waves...that sort of thing.

From a little more mainstream perspective, large chunks of California are probably underlain by regional detachments/decollements and it may not be unreasonable for some kind of creep event to show up above it......

I suppose the simple answer would be-I don't know if these exist in a significant form and if they do exist, I don't know what causes them....
Chris