Melting Ice Sheets Could Cause Earthquakes
17.03.2008 - Other
A new study which was conducted using a sophisticated computer model shows a link between seismic activity and the presence or absence of large ice sheets: seismicity levels are low in presence of large ice sheets but become higher as the ice melts. This research will be published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
Scientists already knew about a series of earthquakes having occurred in Scandinavia around 10 000 years ago, along faults that are now quiet. The timing and location coincided with the melting of thick ice sheets that dated back to the last ice age. This led scientists to suspect that it was the melting of the ice sheet that had triggered these earthquakes by releasing pressure that had built up in the Earth's crust.
The new model supports the idea that the low level of seismicity in currently glaciated regions like Greenland and Antarctica is caused by the presence of ice sheets. Scientists expect that the decay of the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets in the course of global warming will ultimately lead to an increase in earthquake frequency in these regions. Certain other results seem to be reinforce this hypothesis. Jeanne Sauber of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has led research showing a recent increase in earthquakes in Alaska when ice melts the most.
