There is also another interesting article in the June issue of the New Concepts in Global Tectonics journal (page 233) (www.ncgt.org) … 'Migrations of foreshocks and/or volcanic eruptions' (from Blot's migration law) by Giovanni Gregori. Blot claimed that one earthquake can migrate and spark another earthquake elsewhere, or even a volcano. They are capable of chasing each other which is fundamentally what Claude Schaeffer theorised in his 'Chronologie Comparie' (1948) as closing markers during the Bronze Ages. Blot was writing in the 1960s so he is not that far away from Schaeffer. Amos Nur in his book 'Apocalypse: earthquakes, archaeology and the wrath of God' spoke of earthquake storms – a running series of earthquakes, one following the other.
On page 238 Gregori says that Blot and Choi (2004) said the devastating earthquakes in the Indonesia-Nicobar-Andaman Island arc as well as the Japanese earthquakes are amply explained by this process. Numerous cases of successful application of this concept has proved its validity – but it is little appreciated. Because the concept is based on upward movement of energy it is ignored as it is contrary to the downward moving energy involved in the subduction process (and the process of moving plate slabs as in Plate Tectonics, the consensus model of such earthquake activity). The Blot concept has thus been suppressed and neglected by the powerful dominant Plate Tectonics people ever since it was first proposed by Blot in the 1960s.
However, looking at it from an historical angle we know that low growth tree ring events appear to coincide with acid signals in ice cores. The latter are associated in mainstream with volcanic eruptions – and on that basis, as we have lots of historical documents from the period, it is worthwhile looking at the 536-45AD event (which involved two volcanoes according to the current paradigm, at 535 and 541). Earthquakes obviously do not occur in the ice cores (or in tree rings from around the world) but it is notable that in the period leading up to 535 (and afterwards) there was an awful lot of earthquake activity recorded in the Roman world (around the eastern Mediterranean). For example, the city of Antioch was totally destroyed – not once but on a couple of occasions. In 518 there arose a comet in the east which sent out a beam pointing downwards and in 520 a great conflagration occurred in Antioch attributed to God's anger, and a city in the province of Nova Epirus also suffered from earthquake, and the city of Corinth. A great flood overwhelmed the city of Edessa, striking in the night and killing many inhabitants (their houses were washed away). In AD526 Antioch suffered a fifth calamity, an earthquake that apparently incinerated buildings and people with sparks of fire seen in the air that burn anyone they struck like lightning. Not sure what that was all about but the surface of the earth was said to have boiled and thunderbolts in association with earthquake led to many dwellings burnt to ashes by the fire it provoked. It is described as a marvel with rain belching out fire, rain falling from tremendous furnaces, flame dissolving into showers, and showers kindling like flames that consumed even those in the earth that were trapped by the earthquake. As a result Antioch became desolate, nothing remained apart from some buildings near the mountain. No chapel or monastery survived – everything was utterly destroyed. However, the emperor provided money to rebuild Antioch.
In 526 earthquake also struck Leodikeia – half the city was brought low. Thousands perished.
In AD530 there appeared a tremendous great star in the western regions (comet Halley) sending a white beam upwards and its surface emitted flashes of lightning. Some people called it Firebrand as it continued to shine for 20 days. In that same year there was widespread earthquakes while in 531 there appeared a great shower of stars from dusk to dawn (a meteoric shower of debris in the wake of the comet, the trail of dust particles probably skirting across the top of the atmosphere). In 532 an earthquake struck Byzantium, and there was another one at the recently raised but now small city of Antioch. In 541 we have the first mention of plague – beginning in Egypt (developing into the Justinian Plague). Earthquakes continued to be a problem in 546 and 547, and unusual outbreaks of lightning. In 550 a serious earthquake struck Palestine, and Arabia and Mesopotamia were also affected. It was especially destructive in the Phoenician ports of Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, Tripoli, Byblos, Botrys etc. In 554 Byzantium was again struck by earthquake but the city of Nikmedeia was severely damaged. The earthquake was said to rumble on for 40 days. And so on (taken from the Chronicle of John Malalas). We may infer from this, and bearing in mind what Schaeffer had deduced in 1948, that a similar situation prevailed at the boundaries of the Early Bronze period (coinciding with the First Intermediate Period in Egypt), the end of Middle Bronze period and the end of Late Bronze period (which involved the Star of Anat, possibly implying a meteor moving through the upper atmosphere of the earth). The interesting thing here is that the same region affected in the 6th century AD was roughly that region affected during the Bronze Age destructions. It may be that these are the areas that archaeologists have looked at (and defined the destruction levels) or written evidence has survived (from Egypt and the Near East) so we have no way of knowing how much of the rest of the world was affected. It certainly did involve what is now modern Pakistan and northern India (the Indus civilisation) then and in the 6th century AD (the fall of the Gupta period) and almost likely China as well. It is also interesting that it involved the appearance of comets in relatively close proximity to the region of space visible clearly from the surface of the earth – and meteoric activity with an origin in the passage of said comet.
Blot's scenario, and that of Gregori, may be worth taking onboard as a way of explaining how so many major earthquakes could occur in a short space of time. Another question we might ask ourselves is – does Plate Tectonics and subduction really occur as in the mainstream model. Subduction is part of the furniture – but should it be discarded in favour of a new model, one that also involves plasma and electro-magnetism as one of the drivers of earthquakes. Plate Tectonics is embedded within the uniformitarian system and world view (gradualism) so it is unlikely anything much will happen in the near future – but as long as there are people such as Gregori to keep it all chugging along mainstream won't have things entirely their own way.