For the past 80 years, the energy released in great strike-slip and th
rust earthquakes has occurred in alternating cycles of 20 to 30 years.
This pattern suggests that a global transfer mechanism from poloidal
to toroidal components of tectonic plate motions is operating on time
scales of several decades. The increase in seismic activity in Califor
nia in recent years may be related to an acceleration of global strike
-slip moment release, as regions of shear deformation mature after bei
ng reached by stresses that have propagated away from regions of great
subduction decoupling earthquakes in the 1960s.