What creates a huge earthquake? Scientists investigate phenomenon behind big tremors
CTV
Scientists have made further strides toward identifying the key circumstances for catastrophic earthquakes, according to a new study.
Scientists have made further strides toward identifying the key circumstances for catastrophic earthquakes, according to researchers.
What separates a region prone to mild earthquakes compared to those that could see earth-shattering quakes in the future could come down to a principle of friction, according to a new study published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Science.
Friction describes the force of resistance when two materials are sliding against each other. One specific frictional phenomenon that dictates how quickly faults heal after an earthquake may also be key to identifying if they will be at risk of a greater earthquake in the future, according to researchers.
Essentially, faults that heal faster after an earthquake may produce more rigid foundations that are more likely to split dramatically at some point in the future, while faults that heal more slowly allow for more continuous, harmless movement along the fault.
It could allow researchers to begin to zero in on danger zones.
"The same physics and logic should apply to all different kinds of faults around the world," Demian Saffer, director of the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics at the Jackson School of Geosciences and the study's co-lead author, said in a press release. "With the right samples and field observations, we can now start to make testable predictions about how big and how often large seismic slip events might occur on other major faults like Cascadia in the Pacific Northwest."
The reason that earthquakes happen at all is because the earth’s crust is not one solid, unmoving piece. Instead, it’s made up of numerous tectonic plates that move very slowly as the earth’s molten core continues to move. This is the reason that continents have drifted over the earth’s lifespan.
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