Water extraction triggers quake

[parijataka]

This happened in Spain where a large aquifer was over-exploited between 1960-2010. I wonder if some of the quakes being reported over the last couple of years could be due to similar effects of human interference in the Earth's crust.

Water extraction triggers quake

Massive extraction of groundwater helped unleash an earthquake in southeastern Spain last year that killed nine people, injured at least 100 and left thousands homeless, geologists said on Sunday.

The finding adds a powerful piece of evidence to theories that some earthquakes are human-induced, they said.

Seismologists were surprised by the May 11, 2011 earthquake which happened two kilometres (1.2 miles) northeast of the city of Lorca.

The quake struck in the Eastern Betics Shear Zone, one of Spain's most seismically active regions, where there has been a large number of moderate-to-large temblors over the last 500 years. But the May event was unusual because it was so devastating and yet so mild -- only 5.1 magnitude — in terms of energy release.

Researchers led by Pablo Gonzalez of the University of Western Ontario in Canada probed the mystery.

Reporting in the journal Nature Geoscience, they found that the quake occurred at a very shallow depth, of just three kilometres (1.8 miles), so the shockwave swiftly reached the surface with little to dampen it on the way.

The quake also happened on a complex but dormant fault that ripped open after water had been extensively pumped out of a neighbouring aquifer, causing a domino effect of subterranean stresses, they said.

Gonzalez' team first used ground-radar imaging by the European satellite Envisat to build a map of how terrain around Lorca changed before and after the quake.

The picture confirmed that the event had occurred on the so-called Alhama de Murcia fault, which slipped between five and 15 centimetres (two and six inches).

They then investigated the Alto Guadalentin Basin, an aquifer lying just five kms (three miles) south of the fault, where they found widespread evidence of subterranean subsidence from water extraction.

Between 1960 and 2010, the level of groundwater from this aquifer fell by at least 250 metres (812 feet), according to records from local wells.

A computer model put together by the team suggests what happens: lowering of the water table caused part of the crust, located next to the Alhama de Murcia fault, to break.

This led to an "elastic rebound" of the crust that in turn cranked up horizontal pressure on the fault, bringing it that much closer to rupture.

The investigation adds to anecdotal evidence that human activities, ranging from exploration for shale gas, quarrying and even water reservoirs, can cause quakes.

 

[Ray]

I presume any action that causes natural imbalance will find an equal and opposite reaction.