38 ms·

I'm curious about possible coupling between the ongoing drought in the western US and seismic activity. There is published work indicating correlations between

I'm curious about possible coupling between the ongoing drought in the western US and seismic activity. There is published work indicating correlations between rainfall and seismicity (1) and rainfall and volcanic activity (2). There's other work relating seismicity to fracking, filling the Oroville reservoir, etc. A study (3) this week indicated a median land uplift of 4mm ranging up to 15mm uplift in some California mountains due to a mass deficit of 240Gt of missing rainfall since 2013. I wonder if the drought-related uplift could alter underground strain patterns enough to influence earthquake frequencies or magnitudes? Any geophysicists wanna weigh in? (1) http://www.geophysik.uni-muenchen.de/~igel/PDF/hainzletal_grl_2006.pdf http://www.geophysik.uni-muenchen.de/~igel/PDF/hainzletal_gr... (2) http://envam1.env.uea.ac.uk/matthewsetal2009.pdf http://envam1.env.uea.ac.uk/matthewsetal2009.pdf (3) http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/08/20/science.1260279 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/08/20/science.1...

001sky 12y ago
Suggesting this is caused or correlated with drought is not supported by any data.
- tptacek 12y ago
  This is a non-sequitur comment. The very comment you replied to provides sources.
  - 001sky 12y ago
    I wonder if x is correlated with y. Here are some citations on z and y. If that's what you mean, sure. You win. Here's some more data: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/historical_state.php#california http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/historical_sta... _____________ edit: Big quakes are at once relatively rare and over time quite common. The last one happened under the ocean... 0.652°N, 124.692°W 18.2 miles below the surface. in 2010
Houshalter 12y ago
See this post from a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8210235 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8210235 "Epic Drought in West Is Literally Moving Mountains "
dmaurath 12y ago
According to this article, the influence of the drought on seismic activity is very small: http://gizmodo.com/californias-drought-is-so-bad-the-mountains-rose-half-1626043465 http://gizmodo.com/californias-drought-is-so-bad-the-mountai...

001sky 12y ago

Suggesting this is caused or correlated with drought is not supported by any data.

tptacek 12y ago
This is a non-sequitur comment. The very comment you replied to provides sources.
- 001sky 12y ago
  I wonder if x is correlated with y. Here are some citations on z and y. If that's what you mean, sure. You win. Here's some more data: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/historical_state.php#california http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/historical_sta... _____________ edit: Big quakes are at once relatively rare and over time quite common. The last one happened under the ocean... 0.652°N, 124.692°W 18.2 miles below the surface. in 2010

Houshalter 12y ago

See this post from a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8210235 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8210235 "Epic Drought in West Is Literally Moving Mountains "

dmaurath 12y ago

According to this article, the influence of the drought on seismic activity is very small: http://gizmodo.com/californias-drought-is-so-bad-the-mountains-rose-half-1626043465 http://gizmodo.com/californias-drought-is-so-bad-the-mountai...