There’s No Such Thing As ‘Earthquake Weather’...Right?

Key Takeaways

hey guys Matt here for science or fiction don't you just get tired of seeing pseudoscience plastered all over the Internet like it's actually true storms triggering earthquakes that's so dumb what a crackpot Flat Earth non-scientific headline what kind of bargain-basement blog would concerting weather really cause earthquakes is there such a thing as earthquake weather CBS SF Bay Area reported no on the other hand the California Department of Conservation said well also know and the expanded by saying earthquake weather is a common misconception dating back to ancient Greece nice jobs Socrates and the US Geological Survey said earthquakes are statistically as likely to occur in hot weather as cold or rainy weather so basically no no and no so guess that settles it short video this time there are no legitimate sources claiming weather effects earthquakes except this New York Times article nature Newsweek and National Geographic what's going on well first a little middle-school refresher on earthquakes earthquakes are caused from the slowly moving tectonic plates that cover the earth shift to the point that the rocks between them known as a fault break and caused seismic waves that ripple across the ground which we feel as an earthquake now what about those headlines in the whole weather connection well the New York Times reported that the sudden plummeting of air pressure which can happen when a storm quickly moves in causes underground water and air to rush towards the surface this potentially reduces friction between tectonic plates possibly making an earthquake more likely the New York Times points to part of a study done in Taiwan which is one of the most seismically active regions in the world the researchers found a very strong correlation between typhoons and tiny miniature earthquakes called slow quakes which may have a role in reducing the grinding pressure between tectonic plates you know like a chaperone between high schoolers at a prom keep it clean you two anyway the pressure from the typhoons appeared to be enough to trigger a fault that was already under strain resulting in a tiny slow quick in addition a researcher who studied the past 50 years of taiwan's weather and earthquake records found that earthquakes of a magnitude six are higher were five times more likely to occur within four years of a major storm this is possibly in part because storm caused erosion removes pressure from atop faults and allows the faults to shift faster so weather may actually affect earthquakes it's so crazy that it's not crazy kind of cool now it's important to note that there doesn't appear to be more or fewer earthquakes because of weather weather can only possibly shift the earthquake timeline a little at most not nearly enough to be predictive of future earthquakes and these studies so far are not conclusive sorry Socrates but if they were that would truly be groundbreaking stand by this pond now if you're someone who's unhappy that science is still perfecting how to predict earthquakes maybe please to watch this video on new methods for predicting volcanic eruptions don't forget to subscribe before you split and be sure to keep coming back to seeker for more videos [Music]