Does
climate change cause earthquakes?
Climate change itself does not directly cause earthquakes. The challenge with providing a definitive answer here is that there hasn’t been enough research establishing the connection between climate change and the frequency or severity of earthquakes. But scientists are not ruling out the possibility. Earthquakes are primarily caused by the movement of tectonic plates beneath the Earth’s surface. However, some scientists suggest that there could be an indirect relationship between climate change and seismic activity. For example, melting glaciers and ice sheets due to climate change may reduce the pressure on the Earth’s crust, potentially influencing seismic activity. Additionally, changes in the distribution of water on Earth’s surface, such as through the filling of reservoirs or changes in groundwater levels, could also affect the stress on faults and contribute to seismic events. However, the exact nature of the relationship between climate change and earthquakes is still an area of ongoing research and debate among scientists.
Humanity has long sought to understand and predict natural disasters like earthquakes. “From ancient beliefs about subterranean snakes and spiders, or mythology about giant feuding tortoises, to Aristotelian theory on supposed links between seismic activity and underground winds,” consider adding “and” before “mythology” for clarity: “From ancient beliefs about subterranean snakes and spiders, and mythology about giant feuding tortoises, to Aristotelian theory on supposed links between seismic activity and underground winds.” The desire to understand and forestall such disasters has been a common bond across many centuries. “That desire is no less salient today, especially in the aftermath of this year’s devastating quakes in Morocco, Turkey, Syria, and Afghanistan,” consider adding “the” before “devastating quakes” for specificity: “That desire is no less salient today, especially in the aftermath of this year’s devastating quakes in Morocco, Turkey, Syria, and Afghanistan.” As temperatures and sea levels continue to rise across our warming planet, scientists and researchers are taking a closer look at how climate change may be increasing the likelihood of earthquakes and exacerbating the disasters that they trigger. The advancement of seismology has allowed experts to dispel many of the previously held myths about the provenance of earthquakes, while also giving them a better understanding of how the movement of tectonic plates can cause seismic activity. According to geologists, changes in stress loads on a fault a fracture between pieces of the Earth’s crust-can trigger earthquakes. As climate change continues to warm the atmosphere-causing intensified precipitation in some areas, and prolonged droughts in others-unburdened faults once stabilized by water weight could conversely destabilize and lead to increased seismic activity.
Interestingly, geologists have long identified a relationship between rainfall rates and seismic activity. In the Himalayas, for example, the frequency of earthquakes is influenced by the annual rainfall cycle of the summer monsoon season. Research reveals that 48% of Himalayan earthquakes strike during the drier pre-monsoon months of March, April and May, while just 16% occur in the monsoon season. During the summer monsoon season, the weight of up to 4 metres of rainfall compresses the crust both vertically and horizontally, stabilising it. When this water disappears in the winter, the effective “rebound” destabilises the region and increases the number of earthquakes that occur.
In fact, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, the only correlation that’s been noted between earthquakes and weather is that large changes in atmospheric pressure caused by major storms like hurricanes have been shown to occasionally trigger what are known as “slow earthquakes,” which release energy over comparatively long periods of time and don’t result in ground shaking like traditional earthquakes do. They note that while such large low-pressure changes could potentially be a contributor to triggering a damaging earthquake, “the numbers are small and are not statistically significant.”
