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Earthquakes behind Volcanic activity: Study

Earthquakes behind Volcanic activity

Earthquakes and Volcanoes are two sides of the same coin. That is, both are related to each other and one can trigger another. This recent find of the scientists at NASA was published in the latest edition of the American Geophysical Research Letters.

An earthquake occurs due to the movement of the lithospheric plates on the asthenosphere. The motion causes several movements inside the earth. When two plates converge it gives rise to mountains especially fold mountains, if plates diverge, the result is a volcanic eruption. If the eruption is inside the sea, it gives rise to island archs. The find says that a major earthquake can immediately increase volcanic activities in the same region.

Scientists monitored two ongoing eruptions on Indonesia’s Java Island in May 2006 after a powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked the region. It was then, that they found clear evidence that the earthquake caused both volcanoes to release greater amounts of heat, and lava emission surged to two to three times higher than prior to the tremor.

Even in the past we have had some instances when a devastating earthquake triggered an explosive eruption. For example, Andean volcano began erupting merely 2 days after the 1960 Chile earthquake of a magnitude reading 9.5 on Richter scale. Even the 2004 earthquake in the Indian Ocean has triggered a spell of volcanic activity in Indonesia.

Present technologies like Remote sensing can prove handy in finding solutions to some natural questions. Technique suggests monitoring very closely the changes caused by an earthquake to a volcano and also a hot spot. Maps of such hot spot activity are recorded worldwide with MODIS that point out where the surface temperature is hotter than their surroundings.

The researchers are currently assessing older Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) hot-spot data, which extends back to 2000, to expose additional earthquake-induced responses at erupting volcanoes. The scientists hope that this will help them identify patterns that might be used to build a model for forecasting earthquake-induced volcanic eruptions.

So, in the forthcoming times, it might just become possible to predict hot spot or volcanic activity after an earthquake. And as science progresses that time may not be far when even earthquakes will be predicted.

via: PEOPLE’S DAILY ONLINE

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