A Major Earthquake in North America Imminent?

  NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Boy oh, boy, just what Japan does not need. An imminent earthquake warning just issued for several regions of the country. On edge there, on edge here, because it really didn't start with Japan. Take a look at what experts are increasingly calling the so-called ring of fire that is encircling the entire Pacific Ocean. You remember Chile's massive earthquake about a year ago. Then we had that big one in New Zealand just last month. Then of course Japan. If this clockwise trend continues, my next guest says North America looks to be on tap next. Don't laugh. Geologist Jim Berkland is worried. When he worries, you should worry too. Jim accurately predicted, get this, the 1989 so-called World Series earthquake four days before it shook the San Francisco Bay Area. And Jim says this month is of particular concern. Why, Jim? JIM BERKLAND, GEOLOGIST: The month of October, March, and April are the three most devastating earthquakes in terms of damage in the San Francisco Bay Area in history. And we are having on the 19th of this month not only the full moon, but within an hour the closest approach of the moon to the earth until the year 2016. The next day is the equinoctial tides. So you're bringing together three of the maximum tide raising forces. We know about the ocean tides. But there is also an Earth tide. And there is a tide in the ground water. All of these help to release sudden, built up strain, and cause earthquakes. CAVUTO: But that would seem to imply that we could be looking at a very imminent event in the United States within the next week or two? Is that right? BERKLAND: Yes. My -- what I call a seismic window, this top seismic window in years is developing between the 19th and 26th of this month. And this was 7.0 monster and it says geologist had warned about it. And a week earlier, the they were talking about the tides, not to worry about the really tides coming up. I think there is worry here too. CAVUTO: So let me just understand. You're a genius. I'm not. I want to follow your fine brain on this. BERKLAND: Not a genius. CAVUTO: What you're saying is that there is certain order to this, even though it doesn't appear like order? For a lot of folks, it just seems like random events. But you're saying there is a process unfolding here? For California -- BERKLAND: Absolutely. CAVUTO: California, Oregon or whatever, would that mean? What type of quake or disturbance or disruption would that be? BERKLAND: Well, if it was, one in the northwest, in the Cascadia Trench, like we had in 1700, that would be a nine magnitude quake. I'm not predicting that. But I'm saying we just had a massive fish kill. Maybe a million fish died in Redondo Beach. They had a massive fish sweep in Mexico. We just had a bunch of whales come in close to San Diego. CAVUTO: What does that presage? When you have events like that, what does that generally mean? What's going on in the waters? BERKLAND: Changes -- changes in the magnetic field that off then precede larger earthquakes. Most animals have the mineral magnetite in their bodies, including people. But it causes homing pigeons to enable them to get home. Just before big quakes, they often can't get home. There is the delay factor. So we look for those kinds of things. Just before the World Series quake there was very unusual beaching of rare whales in the Ocean Beach, in San Francisco. Just after that, a equally rare pigmy sperm whale washed up at Santa Cruz, within about five miles of the epicenter of the World Series quake. That kind of beaching had never occurred before nor since. So we're looking for strange fish coming into from deepwater to the shallow water, wild animals coming into cities. I used to just scoff at these kinds of things, because I was a mainstream geologist until I found out that earthquakes are fitting a pattern. The big earthquake in the Indian Ocean followed massive beachings of whales in Taiwan -- not Taiwan, but New Zealand and Australia and Tasmania. And then within couple of days, they had a 8.3 in south of New Zealand, and then came the 9.1 in the Indian Ocean, with the big tsunami, on the very day of the fool moon. CAVUTO: Wow. BERKLAND: The previous big quake and tsunami was in Alaska, which is a 9.2 magnitude event, on the day off the full moon, on the 27th of March. CAVUTO: Jim, bottom line, we have a lot to watch. Believe me, you're track record compels us to watch it. Jim, thank you very much. I hope you're wrong, buddy. I really hope your wrong but your record -- BERKLAND: Especially at this time, world history, not good. CAVUTO: All right, sir. Thank you very much. Jim Berkland in San Francisco, pretty good geologist.   ADDITIONAL FEATURED INTERVIEWS FROM MARCH 14, 2011 Japan Earthquake: Tourism Aftershock?