Two major earthquakes have struck the Atlantic Ocean, prompting an expert to warn that a wider seismic “chain reaction” could eventually reach fault lines near the United States.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) recorded a magnitude 6.9 earthquake along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the undersea boundary between Africa and South America, at 8:23 a.m. ET.
The tremor followed a magnitude 6.7 earthquake at 1:44 a.m., less than seven hours earlier and roughly 50 miles to the north. Both earthquakes struck along the same seafloor fault system, where the ocean floor is gradually pulling apart.
Geophysicist Stefan Burns told the Daily Mail that the closely spaced earthquakes were unusually powerful for the region and could form part of a seismic “chain reaction” unfolding in 2026 as activity shifts toward fault lines closer to North America.
Burns, who says he successfully forecast several earthquakes months before they occurred this year, warned: “If there is going to be fallout close to land, it would be like something big happening in North America.”
The earthquake analyst said the Caribbean plate has already experienced a series of major seismic events in 2026, including devastating earthquakes in Colombia, Venezuela and Panama.
In Burns’ assessment, Tuesday’s Atlantic earthquakes show that stress accumulated along the Caribbean plate may now be influencing the neighboring South American and African plates. He described the development as a seismic “knock-on effect” that could transmit energy through connected plate boundaries, with the North American plate potentially next.
Research has documented how major earthquakes can influence faults thousands of miles away, offering a possible scientific explanation for the distant triggering mechanism Burns described.
Two powerful earthquakes struck the Mid-Atlantic Ridge on October 13, 2026
Geophysicist Stefan Burns has predicted multiple major seismic disasters in 2026 and warned that earthquake activity is moving closer to the US (Source: Stefan Burns / X)
A study published in the journal Nature found that powerful earthquakes can generate seismic activity thousands of miles from the original rupture.
Researchers from UC Berkeley and the USGS reported that a magnitude 8.6 earthquake in the Indian Ocean in 2012 triggered tremors around the world, including a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Baja California. In some cases, faults ruptured as long as six days after the initial event.
Roland Bürgmann, a co-author of the study, said seismic waves can sometimes set off a sequence of smaller earthquakes that ultimately leads to larger ruptures. He characterized distant triggering as extremely rare, but said it remains “a real possibility if the right kind of earthquake happens.”
“Until now, we seismologists have always said, ‘Don’t worry about distant earthquakes triggering local quakes,’” said Bürgmann, a professor of earth and planetary science at Berkeley.
Burns said the Mid-Atlantic Ridge “doublet”—two strong earthquakes occurring near one another within a short period—signals substantial movement between the South American and African plates. He linked the activity to more than a year of seismic unrest along the nearby Caribbean plate.
He also pointed to a series of powerful South American earthquakes, all exceeding magnitude 7.0, and said the broader sequence can be traced back to a magnitude 7.6 earthquake that struck the Cayman Islands in February 2025.
Burns said Tuesday’s Atlantic earthquakes were among the strongest recorded along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the past five decades. The magnitude 6.9 event was the third most powerful earthquake documented there since 1976.
“Generally, anything close to magnitude 7.0 on a mid-ocean ridge is incredible,” he said.
Geophysicist Stefan Burns has forecast multiple major earthquakes in recent months, citing seismic movement patterns and the influence of solar activity in his analysis
Burns wrote on X that he would not be surprised if the apparent progression of major earthquakes along the tectonic plates surrounding the Americas produced another significant seismic event before the end of the week.
Although USGS scientists have argued that geological events like earthquakes cannot be predicted well in advance, Burns has gone on the record repeatedly this year, warning of major earthquakes in South America weeks and even months before they took place.
The popular YouTube commentator who focuses on earthquake science first predicted that a major earthquake could strike Colombia on June 24, nearly two months before the magnitude 7.4 disaster in the city of San José del Palmar on August 10, 2026.
He said in a YouTube livestream that the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes in Venezuela that same day would be sending out waves of seismic energy that could cause another fault to rupture several weeks or months later.
The scientist also noted at the time that these massive seismic events appeared to be moving north towards Panama, Mexico and the US.
Burns told the Daily Mail that October 9’s magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Panama was ‘exactly’ what recent seismic trends had been showing, adding that the pattern continued to show movement towards a major disaster hitting vulnerable fault lines in California.
Burns also theorized that the sun plays a major role in causing earthquakes.
On October 10, he predicted that a high-speed solar impact would set off a major quake within one to three days after the doublet erupted along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.