WBRZ - Baton Rouge

NEW YORK- Here's some good news in the wake of Japan's disaster: A new study says big earthquakes don't set off other dangerous ones around the globe.

Big quakes do trigger local aftershocks. But researchers found no sign of setting off moderate-sized events at great distances. The finding basically confirms what most experts thought.

The research was based on 30 years of earthquake records. It included 205 big earthquakes, with a magnitude of 7 or more. The scientists studied what happened in the 24 hours after the big quakes. They found no increase in the number of medium-size quakes more than 600 miles away.

The results were published online Sunday by the journal Nature Geoscience.