5 ms·
Very ignorant question, but could it be possible to artificially start an earthquake in order to prevent "power build-up" ? Like many small man-made earthquakes
by Faaak 9y ago
Very ignorant question, but could it be possible to artificially start an earthquake in order to prevent "power build-up" ? Like many small man-made earthquakes spread over a decade instead of a big natural one.
It's how it's done with avalanches: you start them before they get too big and dangerous.
- nordsieck 9y ago> could it be possible to artificially start an earthquake in order to prevent "power build-up" Look up the research around hydraulic fracturing (specifically, waste water injection). It appears that there isn't much consensus around whether or not this is beneficial.
- randyrand 9y agoIt obvious that it is beneficial (at least for areas that have large earthquakes), but because it has to do with oil and GW many researches don't want to admit there are side-benefits.
- Keyframe 9y agoThink of the scale you would need to operate in (and safely so).
- dkasper 9y agoIn general the answer is no. The gist seems to be that because the richter scale for magnitude is logarithmic is would take thousands of 3.0 quakes to equal a 6.0. More info here in "Common Myths and Misconceptions" http://seismo.berkeley.edu/outreach/faq.html http://seismo.berkeley.edu/outreach/faq.html
- m_mueller 9y agoFrom my understanding the energies involved are so large that once you have that technology you‘d be more likely to extinguish all life than do any good. Significant earthquakes move landmasses by half a meter or so, and they influence earth rotation and inclination measurably. If that kinda energy was coupled to our atmosphere thermally you‘d have a global killer very quickly. A 9.0 quake is 476M tons of TNT and a 9.5 one would be 2682M tons - I wouldn‘t mess with that ;).