A groundbreaking study has found that certain
These quakes occurred in Japan's
Surprisingly enough, the researchers found that these quakes often coincided with heavy precipitation events, particularly when there was intense snowfall activity. This prompted the authors to look into a potential link between the two phenomena.
To get to the bottom of this mystery, the scientists simulated how seasonal precipitation alters pore fluid pressure within the Earth's bedrock.
"When it rains or snows, that adds weight, which increases pore pressure, which allows
They found that pore pressure within these Nota Peninsular rocks were being supercharged at some seasonal point, usually during extreme snowfall events. These moments of excess pressure often coincided with the earthquake swarms, meaning that they could be contributing to the tremors.
"When we first want to understand how earthquakes work, we look to plate tectonics, because that is and will always be the number one reason why an earthquake happens," Frank says. "But, what are the other things that could affect when and how an earthquake happens? That's when you start to go to second-order controlling factors, and the climate is obviously one of those."
As Earth's climate evolves, with projections of more extreme weather events due to
The findings of this research have been published in Science Advances and can be accessed here.