Were Monday\u2019s earthquakes caused by climate change? At least one internet personality seems to think so.<\/p>\n
In a video viewed 92,000 times since Monday, Youtuber \u201cMrMBB333\u201d claims that the earthquakes were due to what\u2019s called \u201cpostglacial rebound,\u201d a naturally-occurring process by which lands, once depressed by the weight of a glacier, slowly rise after glaciers recede.<\/p>\n
The \u201cunweighting\u201d of the lands can complicate how plates interact, which, according to MrMBB333, caused Monday\u2019s quakes, the highest of which was initially measure at a 6.3 magnitude.<\/p>\n
Researchers and scientists can\u2019t endorse MrMBB333\u2019s theory and none suggested relying on Youtube for scientific information, but neither could they write the theory off completely.<\/p>\n
There is some evidence that shifts in the weight on a land mass can affect earthquakes \u2014 and glaciers are receding around the world \u2014 but seismologists and glaciologists simply cannot \u201cconnect the dots\u201d between the two happenings.<\/p>\n
What scientists do know<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Monday\u2019s quakes occurred<\/a> in a southern extension of the Denali fault system, near the Haines Highway in Northern British Columbia. One of the largest fault systems in North America, the Denali fault system curves in a semicircle from central interior Alaska to Northwest British Columbia.<\/p>\n Over 600 earthquakes of various sizes have occurred in the area over the course of the week, nearly all of them too small to feel, according to seismologist Michael West with the Alaska Earthquake Center.<\/p>\n At this point, West and his colleagues are still \u201cskimming the cream\u201d of the data they\u2019ve accumulated over the last four days. They\u2019re combing through their data, starting with the biggest earthquakes and working down.<\/p>\n Many of the 600 quakes are horizontal \u201cstrike slip\u201d earthquakes which took place close to the surface, though scientists haven\u2019t yet found a surface break related to the quake.<\/p>\n West said it\u2019s typical of the area to see this kind of geologic activity. The Denali fault system is an \u201cactive\u201d fault system, meaning scientists expect to see seismic activity receding.<\/p>\n In addition to a lot of seismic activity, Southeast has the highest rate of postglacial rebound in the world, according to a 2003 paper. <\/a><\/p>\n Because Southern Alaska\u2019s 75,000 square kilometers of glacier are melting at a rapid rate, some regions of Southeast are rising by a rate of 25 millimeters a year. This is a breakneck speed, in geologic terms.<\/p>\n Picture a sponge, or tennis ball: the outer layer is elastic, meaning it will recover its shape after being squeezed. Heavy glaciers \u201csqueeze\u201d the land over time, and as they recede, the land retakes its form.<\/p>\n Just because the region has plenty of seismic activity and postglacial rebound, doesn\u2019t mean the two are necessarily related, West said.<\/p>\n Southeasts complicated natural processes make it hard to draw any conclusions.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many different things going on: earthquakes, glaciology, climate change, ocean temperatures and erosion,\u201d West said. \u201cYou have so many things going on you are bound to have coincidence\u201d between natural occurrences.<\/p>\n In other words, glacial melt and earthquake activity could be taking place at the same time and not affecting each other.<\/p>\n But though scientists and researchers wouldn\u2019t endorse MrMBB333\u2019s theory, neither would they outright deny it. There simply isn\u2019t enough data to say either way.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea is not preposterous at all but whether or not it can be linked, it\u2019s way too soon to conclude that,” University of Alaska Southeast\u2019s Dr. Sonia Nagorski said.<\/p>\n Nagorski pointed out that scientists in Iceland have reason to believe glacial melt may have something to do with a recent increase of vulcanism on the island.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also evidence to believe that a deadly 2009 earthquake in Sichuan Province, <\/a>China<\/a>, was intensified by the dam\u2019s redistribution of water weight, West pointed out, though scientists are still divided on the issue.<\/p>\n At any rate, each cautioned for restraint when drawing scientific conclusions from Youtube videos.<\/p>\n The Juneau Icefield Research Program\u2019s Dr. Brian Beedle said MrMBB333\u2019s ideas are still \u201cspeculative, at best.\u201d<\/p>\n Why it matters<\/span><\/p>\n Southern Alaska\u2019s 75,000 square kilometers of glacier are melting at an historic rate, undoubtedly changing the landscape. But the pace of science can be slow and there are still many unanswered questions about just how glacial melt will affect Southeast\u2019s future. Jumping to conclusions based off of popular theories can be tempting, especially when explanations for earthquakes and other natural disasters are inconclusive. Pointing out the flaws and merits of popular scientific notions can increase scientific literacy, a crucial component in dealing with climate change.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Were Monday\u2019s earthquakes caused by climate change? At least one internet personality seems to think so. In a video viewed 92,000 times since Monday, Youtuber \u201cMrMBB333\u201d claims that the earthquakes were due to what\u2019s called \u201cpostglacial rebound,\u201d a naturally-occurring process by which lands, once depressed by the weight of a glacier, slowly rise after glaciers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":8754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-8753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8753"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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