Back to Blog
Earthquakes in california5/17/2023 Predicting the next eruption at Yellowstone volcanoįilling reservoirs may also be at risk of this, as this leads to additional load on the subsurface, Miller said.Yellowstone eruption simulation report to reveal plan if volcano blows.California's Cascadia earthquakes a stark reminder of future devastation.In this case, the high fluid pressure at the base of the water column can be transmitted to depth and induce earthquakes from increasing fluid pressures." "Heavy rains can fill these networks, resulting in large increases in the hydraulic head-the height of the water column. Miller, a professor at the Centre for Hydrogeology and Geothermics at the University in Neuchâtel, Switzerland told Newsweek. "Rain itself has little impact on earthquake genesis, unless it is karstified limestone (which carbonates)," Stephen A. If there were hypothetically an increase in the seismicity in California due to these heavy rains, it would only be in certain areas where there is karstified limestone. A decrease in the normal stress across the fault could lead to failure and seismic slip if the fault is primed and ready to go anyway," Russo said. "A viable scenario is when rainwater infiltrates into a fault zone that is close to failure and decreases the normal stress on the fault. But there are situations where it could occur. Raymond Russo, an Associate Professor at the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Florida, told Newsweek that the risk of an earthquake due to heavy rains is very small. If rainfall is heavy enough that it begins to erode a fault, these faults could loosen, subsequently causing an earthquake. The main risk linked to rainfall and earthquakes is erosion. SteveCollender / BiancaGrueneberg Will Heavy Rainfall Trigger an Earthquake? Newsweek spoke to experts about whether the heavy California rainfall could cause earthquakes in the region. So, while rain has triggered earthquakes elsewhere in the world, could it happen in California?Ī side by side image shows the earth cracking due to earthquake and heavy rainfall. It found that 74.9 percent of earthquakes in China where accompanied with rainfall.īut Wdowinski told Newsweek, that while "heavy rain can trigger earthquake activity," this only occurs "in certain tectonic environments, not anywhere." This interest was prompted following an incredibly destructive magnitude 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010-about 18 months after torrential rainfall hit the region during a procession of hurricanes and prolonged heavy rain.Ī similar situation occurred in Taiwan in 2009, when a magnitude 6.4 earthquake occurred seven months after a typhoon.įocusing on Taiwan, Wdowinski's research concluded that large earthquakes were five times more likely to happen following severe storms.Ī study published in 2021, by scientists at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, also found a strong correlation between earthquakes over a magnitude of 6, and rainfall. Shimon Wdowinski, a professor at the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University, has studied the topic extensively after assessing links between storms and earthquakes in 2010. These plates remain relatively static, meaning large pressures build up over time, sometime leading to highly destructive earthquakes.Īnd, intense rain has triggered earthquakes in the past, in other parts of the world. The state is extremely tectonically active due to the San Andreas Fault-the border section between two massive tectonic plates under the Earth's surface. Parts of the state have seen one of the wettest periods since the 1800s.Īnd, some of the other regions, such as San Francisco, have received over 12 inches of rain in the past 15 days, the National Weather Service reported.īut, could this heavy rain cause an earthquake? California has experienced torrential rainfall in recent days.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |