Recently we have all been reading about Climate Change and the melting of polar ice caps. Some of the predictions in the next 150-years are dire indeed as scientist discuss anywhere from a 9 to 36 foot rise in sea level. Surely this is not a good thing for human cities and civilization and thus it has become a topic of conversation at a rather controversial online Think Tank.

Joe brings up a good point and I have always said that weight on the plates via water does affect plate tectonics. In fact with the recent Bay Area six inches of rain in 24-hours;

Christian Science Monitor says; Storms that dumped 6 inches of rain in the San Francisco Bay area during a 24-hour period and caused flooding and mudslides were expected to move down the coast and reach Southern California Friday. A second storm could arrive Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, which said the wet-weather pattern is expected to end thereafter.

I believe this indeed could be what is causing this:

http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/060413_earth_tremors.html

In fact I have been studying the Hurricanes in the Pacific by Mexico and Central America and see they seem to coincide with seismic and volcanic events. My theory being they are moved one way or the other and then slide back, thus anytime within the run off period or major storm surge you could get seismic events. There are some who do discuss this, but not is such matter of factly knowledge, because they admit they do not know. Although in a meeting in the not to distant past, at a Earthquake conference in Monterrey, CA, there was mention of this phenomena, as well as the lubrications issues. Could this increase and rising of the tides really hurt human civilizations, not only with flooding of coastal cities, but also with massive and very common large scale Earthquakes? Well consider all this in 2006.