climate change
Aaaahhhh it is really hard to watch my totally-not-disaster-prepped family down in LA deal with a tropical storm from afar with no way to help them and then text me that they just had an earthquake too?? That is not fair, Earth.
Stay safe, Californians! Stay home!
climate change
@sundogplanets The tropical storm is a threat. A 5.5 earthquake, with California building codes, not a threat (other than local damage from things falling off shelves right at the epicenter). Doesn't mean that bigger quakes won't be more serious.
climate change
@not2b @sundogplanets One thing that not many people seem to want to think about is that melting polar ice and rising seas shifts the tectonic load. I'm neither a seismologist nor geologist but it seems reasonable to expect increase in earthquakes and perhaps vulcanism at the boundaries.
climate change
@pieist @not2b This looks like a good article on this topic that I'll read more carefully when I'm less frazzled: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2926/can-climate-affect-earthquakes-or-are-the-connections-shaky/
climate change
The article seems (conscientiously) inconclusive. The examples they give are related to monsoons and aquifer depletion, which basically refer to quantities of water borne on the land, amounts which must be some several orders of magnitude smaller than oceans rapidly taking on the burden what formerly was miles-deep ice covering continental sized areas.
I make no claims; I am as I said incompetent to make them. But I have often thought about it.
climate change
@pieist @sundogplanets Not sure if that is right, might be interesting to hear from an expert. I suspect that the effects would only be at the margins, perhaps speeding up a quake on a fault that is already stressed.