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Earthquakes and Volcanoes 3

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msquared48

Structural
Aug 7, 2007
14,745
I pose a question - sort of a survey per se - to all Engineers and Geologists participating in this forum:

Is the activity of Earthquakes and Volcanoes related or not?

I am speaking not only on a local, but a global perspective here.

[atom]

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
 
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Mike,

I'm glad you clarified that. But if you had been around since 1872, it might explain a few things.

(I should include one of those smiley things, but forget how).
 
ErnestoD:

The highlighted words cited from your response answered the question posted by Mike - both events are interrelated, but not necessarily the sole cause for each to occur.

"if that's the case, why did the geologists differentiate volcanic earthquakes with tectonic earthquakes?"
 
A very interesting article related to our topic please read.


excerpt from the article....

David Booth, a researcher seismologist at the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, agrees:

"My understanding is that volcanoes cause earthquakes, not the other way round. Volcanic activity causes stresses in the Earth crust and an active movement of fluid that creates pressure."
 
As with most volcanic eruptions, they are preceeded by earthquake swarms - mostly small ones, but sometimes large ones, one, of which may trigger the actual eruption. Such was the case with Mt. St. Helens. These earthquakes are the direct result of lava moving up into the lava chamber from the reservoir below. They are also in the general vicinity of the volcano and most are at a certain depth dictated by the geologic structure under the volcano.

The movement in tectonic plates is due, in part, to the circulation of the fluid below - lava - causing friction on the underside of the plates, causing continental drift or movement, subduction, shear, etc. The earth's magnetic field plays a very large part in the circulation pattern of this lava.

Both types of earthquakes then are related by the circulation of the lava and energy dissipation. As pointed out with the series of local earthquakes here, the major quakes listed were not part of the series of earthquake swarms, but a geologic earthquake event gap in time did occur when Mt. St Helens erupted.

It would be interesting to compare this region with what's going on off the northern coast of Australia through Indonesia to see if a similar pattern exists. One, too, could look at the eruptions of Mt. Redoubt in Alaska to see if a similar pattern exists. I do not know about these areas, but they seem like good candidates for study.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
 
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