Thoughts on recent seismic events and solar activity

I've heard in passing about the solar flare on February 19th and March 9th this year and it struck me that the recent Haiti, Chile, New Zealand and Japan earthquakes have occurred around the same time plus a few days. It got me thinking. I read other people's similar ideas online and put the few brain cells I have to work to find out if there is anything to it. I used wikipedia and spaceweather.com to create a very rough summary of a sample of earthquakes and their related solar events- which follow below.

Now, this may all be unsubstantiated speculation and I'm sure if you pick a random date there will be an earthquake and very likely some form of a solar event. There are small gaps but as a first pass and without sophisticated instruments- I believe there may be something linking the two phenomena. I'm sure others have already made this connection and have published their findings! As a scientist however, I need to remain objective (it's hard because this is such  an interesting observation especially for a nerd like me) and try debunk the hypothesis- 'That solar activity does have an effect on seismic activity of the Earth'.


Anyway here's the table you make your own conclusions.

Location	Date	Event
		Earthquake Magnitude	Solar Flare	Solar Prominence	Solar wind	Magnetic Filament	Coronal Mass Ejection	Geomagnetic storms	Coronal holes
Tōhoku region	11/03/2011	9			300km/s		Y	Y	Y
Japan	9/03/3011		X1.6
Christchurch	22/02/2011	6.3
New Zealand	19/02/2011		M6.6		490km/s			Y	Y
Kraljevo	3/11/2010	5.3
Serbia	1/11/2010		C		312km/s			Y	Y
Sumatra	25/10/2010	7.7
Indonesia	17/10/2010		C		608km/s	Y		Y	Y
Canterbury	4/09/2010	7.1
New Zealand	1/09/2010		C		352km/s			Y	Y
Maule/Biobío Region	27/02/2010	8.8
Chile	24/02/2010		N		396km/s	Y	Y		N
Port Au Prince	12/01/2010	7
Haiti	10/01/2010		Y		298km/s				Y
Sumatra	30/09/2009	7.6
Indonesia	26/09/2009		N	Y	319km/s				N
Sixuan Province	12/05/2008	8
China	10/05/2008		N	Y	363km/s				N
San Martin region	25/09/2005	7.5
Peru	20/09/2005		C	Y	406km/s			Y
Sumatra	28/03/2005	8.3
Indonesia	25/03/2005		C	Y	669km/s			Y	Y
Sumatra	26/12/2004	9.1
Indian Ocean	24-25/12/2004		C1		400km/s			Y	Y
Bam	26/12/2003	6.6
Iran	23/12/2003		C6		488km/s			Y	Y
Hokkaido	25/09/2003	8.3
Japan	23/09/2003		C1		518km/s			Y	Y
Kunlun	14/11/2001	7.8
Tibet	13/11/2001		C8		364km/s			Y
San Salvador	13/02/2001	6.6
El Salvador	10-11/02/2001		C3		395km/s			Y	Y
San Miguel	13/01/2001	7.6
El Salvador	10/01/2001		M2		430km/s			Y	Y

UPDATE: The evidence in the above table does not implicate solar flares. It suggests they may be involved. It suggests coronal holes and subsequent geomagnetic storms in which solar wind is blasted to Earth are the culprits behind seismic events.

Of course this idea is nothing new, however I'm having trouble locating similar literature or finding it as accepted idea. I'll keep looking...

 

2007 Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Physics

Volume 71, Number 4, 593-595, DOI: 10.3103/S1062873807040466

 

From the Proceedings of the XXIX All-Russia Conference on Cosmic Rays

Solar activity and global seismicity of the earth

S. D. Odintsov, G. S. Ivanov-Kholodnyi and K. Georgieva

Abstract

Results of studying the character and possible succession of cause-effect relations (in going from a disturbance source on the Sun to a response in the lithosphere in the range of periods from several days to the 11-year solar cycle) have been presented. It has been indicated that the maximum of seismic energy, released from earthquake sources in the 11-yr cycle of sunspots, is observed during the phase of cycle decline and lags 2 yr behind the solar cycle maximum. It has been established that the maximum in the number of earthquakes directly correlates with the instant of a sudden increase in the solar wind velocity. 

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This is my own (scant/incorrect) analysis and thought processes so these observations need to be confirmed, however if you see something worthwhile in following up- please contact me regarding using any this information, however inaccurate it may be. Thank you

MORE UPDATE: 20TH March 2011 Have continued to come across more literature online which uses more sophisticated methods of analysis to show the relationship between geomagnetic storms and seismic events. For more detailed information check out: M.A. Vukcevic's post on Tallblokes talkshop.