EARTHQUAKES THAT TALK TO EACH OTHER

[Judi Lynn]

Two earthquakes in Victoria seven years ago tell us a lot about how fault lines can ‘talk to each other’ to generate further seismic shocks

By Dr Januka Attanayake, University of Melbourne

On 19th June 2012 at 8:53 pm local time, a moment magnitude-4.9 earthquake rattled the residents in and around the small town of Thorpdale in eastern Victoria. Moment magnitude measures the size or strength of an earthquake based on how much energy is released, which differs from the better known Richter scale.

The quake was felt more than 100 kilometres away in Melbourne’s CBD and in other parts of the state.

Then, nearly a month later, on 20th July at 7:11 pm, another magnitude-4.3 seismic shock jolted the region.

A second earthquake like this is normal because, usually, the release of residue stress on a fault produces smaller aftershocks in the days following a mainshock.

But, in fact, our new research suggests that these earthquakes broke not one, but two adjacent faults. And it’s likely that the seismic slip on the first fault activated the second one; which means that the first earthquake communicated with the second one in a language that only the Earth understands.

More:
https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/earthquakes-that-talk-to-each-other

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

1. My first thought was I can't wait to see the seismograph traces

I was hoping they'd find something along the lines of:

"Anything you can quake I can quake better.
Anything you can shake I can shake too."