Alaska earthquake WARNING: Scientists find pre-quake activity in huge US fault line
EARTHQUAKE experts searching for tremors deep beneath central Alaska may have stumbled upon warning signs of pre-quake activity, a shocking new study has found.
By SEBASTIAN KETTLEY
Express.co.uk
Wed, Jun 6, 2018
Researchers from the University of Alaska claim to have found evidence of slow geological processes which transform into full-blown earthquakes.
Typically earthquakes erupt spontaneously but the new study suggests precursor events deep underground could signal incoming tremors.
Lead scientist professor Carl Tape, Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, said the findings present an “interesting sequence of events”.
Dr Tape and his colleagues found evidence of accelerating earthquake activity across a fault line in central Alaska, just before a 2016 earthquake.
The scientists stumbled up so-called low frequency earthquakes – low magnitude tremors between 20 and 45km below the surface.
Luciana Astiz, program director at the National Science Foundation’s Division of Earth Sciences, said: “Most earthquakes start abruptly, but not always.
“A fault zone in central Alaska monitored by new scientific instruments offers a look at a more complex process.
“This study reports the first observations of a slow process that transitions into an earthquake—something previously observed only in laboratory experiments.
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