Can climate change influence earthquake activity?
Mario Picazo
Meteorologist, PhD

Thursday, September 2nd 2021, 10:10 am - Changes in the landscape are putting an increased stress load on the Earth’s crust, which scientists say has been correlated to seismic activity.


For thousands of years humans have tried to connect earthquake activity to a certain weather event, a scenario referred to as earthquake weather.

In the 4th century Aristotle hypothesized that small earthquakes were caused by winds in underground caves swirling around and pushing onto the cavern roofs, and larger quakes were caused by the winds breaking through the Earth’s surface.

While the latest seismic and meteorological technologies have confirmed that weather events are not capable of causing an earthquake, a number of studies have indicated that climate change has acted as a trigger for several quakes.

 Cracked soil due to earthquakes in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. (Fajrul Islam. Moment. Getty Images)

Paul Lundgren, a geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, states that precipitation and glacial melt are two of those changes that can lead to seismic activity.

Watch the video to learn more about how these processes are related to earthquakes.

Thumbnail credit: Simon McGill. Moment. Getty Images