(ORDO NEWS) — In a recent earthquake that hit villages in the French Rhone Valley, scientists have discovered an unusual reason for its occurrence. New research has shown that this quake was triggered by heavy rainfall, highlighting the link between human impact on climate and geological events.
Earthquakes usually occur along the boundaries of tectonic plates, but this event occurred inside the plate, which immediately attracted the special attention of seismologists.
An earthquake of magnitude 4.9 that struck on November 11, 2019 caused the partial collapse of hundreds of houses in the villages of Le Teil and Saint-Thomas in southwestern France. These houses have existed for centuries, and earlier earthquakes did not cause significant damage to them, which spoke of the exclusivity of what happened.
Initially, it was believed that the reason lies in a nearby quarry, but further research debunked this version. Scientists from the Bureau of Geological Research and Development conducted 3D modeling of the region around the epicenter and took into account rocks mined from the quarry since 1850. This made it possible to identify changes in the weight of the soil, however, such changes occur slowly and could not be the main cause.
Focusing on the heavy rains that hit a month earlier, the scientists found an interesting connection. Using data from the SMOS satellite, they determined high levels of soil moisture and groundwater intrusion into the similarity zone of the two fault lines.
The water pressure at a depth of 1.2 kilometers below the surface was estimated at 1 million pascals, which was much higher than the pressure created by the quarries.
Scientists believe that this additional pressure could have caused shallow fault lines to form in the region and cause an earthquake. A feature of this event was its close location to the surface – only 1 kilometer, which made its impact on the surrounding houses so destructive.
This case is a precedent and has worried scientists. Increasingly, there are hypotheses that climate change can not only cause floods, storms and droughts, but also directly affect geological processes, including earthquakes.
Of course, it is impossible to unequivocally link this earthquake with anthropogenic climate change, but scientists believe that such events will become more extreme and frequent in the future.
In addition, this study highlights the importance of looking more closely at the impact of human activities on natural processes. The pressure created by the extraction and disposal of wastewater from fossil fuel extraction has long been associated with earthquake surges in various places around the world.
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