Earthquakes and Icequakes...

[Rockhopper]

Chile's deadly 2010 earthquake triggered icequakes thousands of kilometres away in Antarctica, according to a new study.

The findings, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, are the first documented evidence of ice sheets being ruptured by a large distant quake.

Large earthquakes are known to trigger distant seismic activity in the Earth's crust.

These new findings highlight a previously little understood interaction between the solid Earth and the frozen liquid portion of the crust, say the researchers.

"I was surprised and we were all excited because no one had ever seen this before," says study co-author Dr Jake Walter, who was working with the Georgia Institute of Technology at the time of the research, and is now at the University of Texas.

"This tells us something new about the way the Earth works, and potentially changes our understanding of the way earthquakes proliferate into icefields."

The magnitude 8.8 earthquake, which rocked Maule in central Chile in late February 2010 killing over 700 people, lasted for three minutes. It was the sixth largest earthquake ever recorded by a seismograph.

Apparently a nearby earthquake can set off icequakes.

From Here.

Tim.

[Monk (in hiding)]

Makes sense.