Central Australia is hardly known as a seismic hotspot, sitting smack bang in the middle of the Indo-Australian tectonic plate. Despite this, a discovery has been made by a research team near Alice Springs that shows a natural pumping process taking place 15km below the Earth’s surface. It appears this could be a missing link in being able to recognise where and when an earthquake will be triggered.
The team comprised of scientists from the University of Western Australia and CSIRO have examined tiny 1 millimetre samples of exposed rock with a specific type of advanced X-ray electron microscope. Their results show that fluid is being pumped through pores in deformed rock in the mid-crustal sheer zones in a process called ‘creep cavitation’.
These rock samples, deformed approximately 320 million years ago, have led research leader Dr Florian Fusseis and his team to conclude that the pores in this deep rock open and close, essentially working like a pump.
The relevance of this phenomenon is that fluid transfer down in the middle crust serves a major role in tectonic plate movement, which in turn causes the continental grind that leads to earthquakes.
This discovery has provided insights into recognising structures that show where seismic failure planes will form. This now brings scientists closer to being able to recognise the most likely locations where something is going to give. The benefits to public safety are obvious and far reaching. Instead of waiting for the next ‘big one’, folks in LA may instead count down the days and plan to be out of town.
It seems somewhat fitting that a finding in one of the safest places on Earth in terms earthquake activity could hold the answer to bringing peace of mind to those daring enough to knowingly live on a fault line.
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I always thought that earthquakes were simply the result of shifting tectonic plates. Now that they've discovered the supposed driving force behind the plates moving, it would make things a whole lot more predictable. But I wonder how fluid flow in Australia has an effect on plates in America or anywhere else for that matter?
Same here, I thought earthquakes were just induced by moving tectonic plates. Funny to think that a flow of liquid could be behind the movement and buckling that shakes our surface lives!
However, if proven accurate, then it could safeguard many lives which are lost to earthquakes each year. This could also be used to predict tsunamis since they are triggered by deep ocean earthquakes.
whose idea was it to build a city on a fault line?