Big Hurricanes Beget Big Earthquakes?


Where most people are of risk related to seismic activity. Click for larger image.: Credit: Benjamin D. Hennig, Sashi Research Group, University of Sheffield.A visualization of all major earthquakes compiled in the Global Significant Earthquake Database, showing where most people are at risk related to seismic activity. Click for larger image. Credit: Benjamin D. Hennig, Sasi Research Group, University of Sheffield.

A new study suggests that earthquakes, including the big temblors in Haiti and Taiwan in 2010, might have been triggered by tropical cyclones.

Researchers analyzed data from quakes of magnitude-6 and above in Taiwan and Haiti and found a strong relationship between the two, with large earthquakes occurring within a four-year window following a very wet tropical cyclone season.

In Taiwan, these extremely wet tropical cyclones possibly triggered these major earthquakes:

  • Typhoon Morakot in 2009: a 6.2 temblor in 2009 and a 6.4 in 2010

  • Typhoon Herb in 1996: a 6.2 quake in 1998 and a 7.6 in 1999

  • Typhoon Flossie: a 6.2 quake in 1972

In Haiti, the 7.0 earthquake of 2010 struck 1.5 years after a 25-day deluge when the island was drenched by two hurricanes and two tropical storms.

Tracks of all tropical cyclones worldwide from 1985 to 2005. : Credit: NASA, Nilfanion, via Wikimedia Commons.Tracks of all tropical cyclones worldwide from 1985 to 2005.  Credit: NASA, Nilfanion, via Wikimedia Commons.

So what’s the mechanism? Possibly that rain and rain-induced landslides rapidly erode the Earth’s surface above the fault, lessening its load and priming it for a release. The research, led by Shimon Wdowinski at the University of Miami, is being presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting underway in San Francisco.

Since current climate models call for the possibility of stronger tropical cyclones (and possibly more of them as well), then we might expect more big quakes where cyclones and seismic faults intersect.

Other research suggests the frequency of earthquakes increases where glaciers are rapidly melting and similarly unloading faults. So it seems our warming, stormier, and less icy world might be a shakier world too.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate