Boobquake: Tight shirts triumph over geological forces

We in the land of Things That Go Pop! typically concern ourselves with entertainment, but sometimes a seemingly non-artistic gesture is so momentous - so, if not artistic, certainly artful - it becomes a pop culture event.

"Boobquake" was such moment.

Back on Apr. 16, a senior Iranian cleric suggested that earthquakes are a direct effect of female immodesty. (The full equation: immodesty + male desire = infidelity = QUAAAKE!) I suppose he thought it had a ring of truthiness to it. Yesterday, women around the world were encouraged to take part in a 24-hour protest by displaying their cleavage (and other provocative body parts).

This gesture was the brainchild of Jen McCreight, a student at Purdue University in Indiana. On her blog this morning, McCreight is not only reveling in the cheeky success of her stunt, but suggesting that this global display of décolletage may have actually decreased earthquake activity.

It should be noted that earthquakes happen every day. Taiwan actually experienced a 6.5 magnitude yesterday - but as McCreight points out, earthquakes in the 6.0-6.9 range occur, on average, over 130 times a year.

Citing data collected by the United States Geological Survey, McCreight noted that the quakes that happened yesterday were all within the typical range - but that the mean magnitude had dropped slightly. The graph is here. (The red point represents Boobquake.)

The findings are a bit of a stretch, even to an ignoramus like myself. But then as McCreight admits, it's unlikely that people would object to more "research" into the effects of tank tops on tectonic cleavages.