Can heavy snowfall trigger earthquakes? New study suggests a link.
Heavy snowfall could be a factor in triggering swarms of earthquakes, a study suggests, based on research into quakes that have rattled Japan’s Noto Peninsula.
A new theory suggests that heavy snowfall could be a factor in triggering swarms of earthquakes — evidence that what’s happening on and above the Earth’s surface may play a role in events underground.
That’s according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, which points to a potential link between heavy snowfall on Japan’s Noto Peninsula and thousands of quakes measured there since late 2020.
It’s one of the first studies to link changes in weather or climate to earthquake activity.
"Those big snowfall events seem to correlate well with the start of these big earthquake swarms," said William Frank, an author of the study and an assistant professor of Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We shouldn’t forget the climate itself can also play a role in changing the stress state at depth where earthquakes are happening."
The study does not say that changes in climate or weather are directly causing earthquakes. Instead, it suggests that the rate of earthquakes in a given area could increase or decrease because of changes in how water is moving beneath the surface and how much pressure the weight of the snow exerts.
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