Modern Mysteries

Mystery seismic event leaves scientists baffled

By T.K. Randall
November 29, 2018 ·  18 comments

Scientists have been struggling to make sense of the phenomenon. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 NikoLang The event, which originated in the Indian Ocean off the island of Mayotte on November 11th, lasted 20 minutes and was picked up thousands of miles away in Chile, Hawaii, New Zealand and Canada.

"I don't think I've seen anything like it," said seismologist Goran Ekstrom from Columbia University.

Determining what was responsible has since proven something of a challenge and so far the only thing we do know for sure is that there was no corresponding earthquake.It has been speculated that underwater volcanism or even a meteorite impact could be responsible.

"It is very difficult, really, to say what the cause is and whether anyone's theories are correct," said Helen Robinson from the University of Glasgow.

Here is a plot of the November 11 "mystery waves" (bottom trace) recorded at Victoria, BC compared to recordings of M5 - 5.8 earthquakes (all from the Mayotte region between Africa and Madagascar). All traces are plotted at the same scale for comparison.https://t.co/UCHAj8zdat pic.twitter.com/Ft1eKkI3zV

— John Cassidy (@earthquakeguy) November 28, 2018

Source: National Geographic | Comments (18)

Tags: Seismic Waves