January 27, 2013– SOUTH POLE– Today, three earthquakes struck along the southernmost region of the planet, known as the Southern East Pacific Rise. The SEPR lies north of Antarctica. The SEPR quakes occurred in succession, following two moderate 4.7 magnitude earthquakes, which struck east of Bristol Island, near the Sandwich Islands- also north of Antarctica. The East Pacific Rise is a mid-oceanic ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Pacific Ocean. It separates the Pacific Plate to the west from (north to south) the North American Plate, the Rivera Plate, the Cocos Plate, the Nazca Plate, and the Antarctic Plate. It runs from an undefined point near Antarctica in the south northward to its termination at the northern end of the Gulf of California in the Salton Sea basin in southern California. The oceanic crust is moving away from the East Pacific Rise to either side…