Ring of Fire Acting Up?

The zone around the Pacific Rim known as the "Rim of Fire" seems to be entering a more active phase. Mount St. Helens is preparing to blow it's top, there was a magnitude 6 earthquake in California yesterday, last week there was an earthquake in Japan, and in the last two days there have been swarms of magnitude 3 earthquakes on the Alaskan part of the Rim. In addition to the magnitude 6 quake shaking California, they have had well over a thousand aftershocks, which is normal for a major earthquake.

In addition to the aftershocks, there have been over a thousand earthquakes in California, Nevada, the Pacific Northwest, Montana (from Mount St. Helens) and Baja California, Mexico. Hawaii has seen some earthquakes in the last week as well.

The debate has started up again whether all of these events are interconnected. I'm no expert on earthquake prediction, nor on earthquakes, nor on plate tectonics, but something's up. The expected Mount Saint Helens eruption is expected to be smaller than the 1980 explosion that leveled and buried communities for miles around the mountain and blew volcanic ca-ca (ash) all over the country.

The government is tracking the increase in activity at their web site. It's updated once every five minutes.

It should be interesting to see what develops.