We stand in awe of the centuried Redwoods of the Pacific coast and the twisted, giant Saguaros of the high desert, but compared to the Chaparral bush they are mere infants.
One explanation is that a virus possibly worsened by ocean warming events like El Nino has been ravaging sunflower stars along North America's Pacific coast.
And observers believe that Ecuador's now suffering from these same kind of problems, particularly the pacific-coast provinces of Ecuador where most of the violence is happening.
Nearly 700 miles long, the earthquake zone is located by the North American Plate off the coast of Pacific British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
The value of homes in four cities on the Pacific—San Francisco, Vancouver, Sydney and Shanghai—has increased by 12% a year over the past three years, twice the average national pace.