For those of you following the New Madrid zone, there was a Ml 2.7
today there. This follows the Ml 3.0-3.1 there on 7 July. These are the
largest earthquakes in the region in nearly two years. Some have claimed
that the New Madrid fault zone is especially prone to geomagnetic storm
triggering. As Don says, the activation today does not appear to be limited
to a specific location, but is more general in scope. Makes one wonder
if there is an external cause affecting all these areas simultaneously. The
largest solar flare (M1.0) since June 23 occurred about an hour before the
New Madrid earthquake today. Similarly, the events in New Madrid on June
23 were closely related to the last series of large solar flares (which occurred
a few hours earlier on June 23 as well).
Incidentally, a second flare occurred at 00:23 UT on July 15 (C8.2) a few minutes
ago.

New Madrid quake.