Antarctic icequakes can be triggered by earthquakes as far as way as Chile — 3,000 miles away — scientists have discovered.
Seismologists from Georgia Tech made their finding by looking at data gathered at 42 stations in the six hours before and after Chile's devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake in March of 2010, they reported in the journal Nature Geoscience as well as a
press release. Twelve of the 42 stations showed "clear evidence of high-frequency seismic signals as the surface-wave arrived on Antarctica."
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Antarctica experiences hundreds of micro-earthquakes an hour, also known as cryoseism or "icequakes."
According to Yahoo News, it was previously thought that these were caused only by local seismic events, as well as the formation and deformation of ice, however it is clear that non-local seismic events also come into play.
"Regular icequakes probably occur all the time in Antarctica and other polar regions," Zhigang Peng, the study's lead author. "What we found is that they occurred more during the seismic waves of the Maule event."
Dr. Jake Walter, co-author of the study, said, "This tells us something new about the way the Earth works, and potentially changes our understanding of the way earthquakes proliferate into ice fields."
Scientists now believe that non-local seismology exacerbates the cracking up of Antarctica's ice fields, which allows water to inundate the spaces, freeze, and expand the sheet.
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