The Weather Is Causing Earthquakes?

It is. On a scale of millions of years, anyway.

We should back up and explain a little bit: we’ve known for years that the movement of tectonic plates can affect the weather. Scientists at Australian National University wondered if the reverse was also true, so they compared monsoon patterns with the movement of the India Plate, which, obviously, is located in Luxembourg. (That was a joke, pedants.)

They found that, over time, the monsoons were somehow accelerating the movement of the plate; 20% over the last ten million years. Yes, that’s a long time frame, but this is geology we’re talking about. It’s not a fast science.

Next up, determining where else this phenomenon applies. Also, figuring out how to live millions of years so this is a problem in the first place.

[ via the tectonic plate spinners at Discovery ]

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