Science & Technology

Scientists discover new type of earthquake

By T.K. Randall
October 13, 2016 ·  12 comments

Earthquakes can occur much deeper than anyone had realized. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 hanonimas Conventionally, earthquakes are understood to occur up to a maximum of 24km below the Earth's surface and are caused by continental plates building up tension as they rub against one another.

Now though, by using powerful seismic sensors, scientists in Southern California have been able to measure small earthquakes taking place along the Newport-Inglewood fault line at depths which exceed the 24km record and even reach as far down as the Earth's upper mantle.

While these deep earthquakes don't appear to be particularly large, the researchers believe that they could have the potential to increase the magnitude of other quakes occurring in the future."If earthquakes want to get big, one way of achieving that is by penetrating deep," said researcher Jean Paul Ampuero. "The big question is: If the next, larger earthquake happens, if it manages to penetrate deeper than we think, it may be bigger than we expect."

The race is now on to learn as much as possible about this new type of earthquake including where they occur, how frequent they are and what processes are responsible for producing them.

"It's worth further investigation, on multiple fronts, to look at what the physics of the Newport-Inglewood really are," said geophysicist Brad Aagaard.

Source: Science Alert | Comments (12)

Tags: Earthquake