Ice Caps keep a Lid on Earthquakes
A new study by German scientists says that earthquakes happen less often in areas covered by ice caps. The story can be found here from NewScientist.
The massive Alaska earthquake of 1964. Damage in Anchorage. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
Using a computer model to test how geological faults respond when buried beneath several hundred metres of ice, the team found that the vertical stress placed on the earth's crust by a heavy ice sheet can supress many types of fault from slipping. Unfortunately, with the faults pinned down for a long period of time, stresses in the crust grow, so if the ice does melt due to global warming they conclude that earthquakes will occur more strongly and more frequently. Lead author of the study, Andrea Hampel says that Alaska is already starting to experience more earthquakes.
