Following a Mb 5.8 earthquake on the South Atlantic mid-ocean
ridge an unusual swarm of mid-Ocean ridge events has occurred.
These events have occurred south of Panama (Mb 4.8); in the
Central and Northern North Atlantic Ridge (Mb 5.5, 4.7, 4.8);
the Reykjanes Ridge (Mb 5.0); and the Macquarie Island ridge (Mb 4.8).
This pattern is often seen following strong geomagnetic storms
or gamma ray bursters. There have been no major geomagnetic storms
recently and the observations of the BASTE gamma ray system was
discontinued last year with the loss of the satellite, so the
cause of this activity along the ocean ridges is not known at
this time. Earthquakes along the mid-Atlantic ridge are lying
in areas where far-field aftershocks from Peru were expected,
so this may be one source.