The Sky Caused It

If yesterday’s post about fracking and earthquakes got you thinking, check this out:

A new study suggests that at least some earthquakes may be caused by large tropical storms such as hurricanes and typhoons.

Presented at the American Geophysical Union’s annual fall conference in San Francisco last year, the study by University of Miami scientist Shimon Wdowinski shows an apparent correlation between tropical cyclones striking a particular region followed, up to four years later, by large-magnitude earthquakes.

“Very wet rain events are the trigger,” said Wdowinski, associate research professor of marine geology and geophysics at the UM Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. “The heavy rain induces thousands of landslides and severe erosion, which removes ground material from the Earth’s surface, releasing the stress load and encouraging movement along faults.”

Working with a colleague from Florida International University, Wdowinski analyzed data from magnitude-6 or higher earthquakes in Taiwan and Haiti and found a direct relationship with tropical storms that struck the same regions four years earlier.

Specifically, Wdowinski looked at three tropical cyclone events of the past 50 years that resulted in large volumes of rain: Typhoons Morakot, Herb and Flossie. The results from all three storms:

• Typhoon Morakot 2009  was followed by an M-6.2 earthquake in 2009 and an M-6.4 temblor in 2010.
• Typhoon Herb in 1996 was followed by an M-6.2 in 1998 and an M-7.6 quake in 1999.
• Typhoon Flossie in 1969 was followed by an M-6.2 in 1972.

Similarly, the study notes that the M-7 earthquake that devastated Haiti’s Port-au-Prince area in 2010 struck within 18 months of two hurricanes and two tropical storms saturating the island.

Okay, not necessarily proof, but the anecdotal evidence carries some weight, and does seem to show some correlation.  If you want something really far out, read this:

Not so long ago it would have seemed strange to turn our gaze toward the heavens to decipher what might be going on beneath the surface of the earth. No more, however, as a growing number of scientists are recognizing – and speaking out – about peculiar anomalies in the upper atmosphere in the days before major earthquakes.

These changes in the ionosphere lie at the heart of Earthquake Warnings Inc.’s QuakeCasts earthquake forecasting system, so  research is beginning to confirm similar such ionospheric perturbations before recent large earthquakes in Chile, Taiwan, and Alaska.

The latest to confirm such peculiar atmospheric changes is NASA Goddard’s Dimitar Ouzounov, who recently reported that the Total Electron Count (TEC) of the ionosphere intensified dramatically in the days before Japan’s devastating megathrust earthquake. The March 11, 2011 earthquake registered 9 on the Richter scale and sent a massive tsunami crashing ashore, leaving nearly 30,000 dead or missing.