Can heavy snowfall and rain contribute to some earthquakes?
A recent study has found that episodes of heavy snowfall and rain likely contributed to a swarm of earthquakes.
Over the past several years in northern Japan.
This is the first time that climate conditions have been found to initiate some quakes.
The seismic activity in the region was surprisingly found to synchronise with certain changes in underground pressure.
Those changes were influenced by seasonal patterns of snowfall and precipitation.
Scientists suspect that this new connection between quakes and climate may not be unique to Japan.
Since late 2020, hundreds of small earthquakes — earthquake swarms — have shaken up Japan’s Noto Peninsula.
In 2020 changes in seismic velocity appeared to be synchronised with the seasons.
When it rains or snows, that adds weight, which increases pore pressure, which allows seismic waves to travel through slower.
When the seismic velocity observations and the model of excess pore pressure were overlapped, they fit extremely well.
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