California Weather Rollercoaster from Historic Heat Wave, High Humidity, Thunderstorms: Now Experts Discuss "Earthquake Weather"

After a Californian summer marked by a historic heat wave, high humidity, and thunderstorms, concerns about potential "earthquake weather" are raised as tremors shake the ground.

The Bay Area has experienced an uptick in seismic activity over the past week.

Oakland experienced a 2.9-magnitude earthquake late on Sunday. On Tuesday night, two more powerful quakes with magnitudes 4.4 and 3.9 occurred close to Santa Rosa. Early on Thursday morning, Berkeley was the location of yet another earthquake that struck East Bay.

Weather - Earthquake Correlation

The question now is: Are these earthquakes being caused by the weather in some way?

Despite how much people would like there to be a connection between weather and earthquakes, according to Angie Lux, a seismologist with the Berkeley Seismology Lab, there is no connection between the two natural occurrences.

If there were, it would be much simpler to predict earthquakes.

ShakeAlert and other earthquake early warning systems do offer a heads-up that trembling is imminent. However, instead of foretelling an earthquake, these systems identify its initial waves and promptly notify nearby communities of impending tremors. There is currently no reliable way to monitor or identify warning signs of a seismic event before it occurs, including the weather.

California has experienced an unprecedented heat wave, very high humidity, rain, and sporadic thunderstorms over the past few weeks. There has been unusual weather.

However, Warren Blier, a science officer with the Bay Area National Weather Service, also asserted that there is no connection.

Whatever the past or even the present weather conditions, earthquakes still happen.

Drifting Slabs Beneath California

Two tectonic plates, which are vast chunks of the Earth's crust that are slowly drifting above the molten rock, meet in California. Over billions of years, as these plates slowly shifted, they gradually shaped the continents and oceans of our planet, and they're still doing so. Places, where plates contact each other, are ripe for seismic activity.

The San Andreas Fault, which runs directly through the Peninsula, is where the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate collide, making the Bay Area ready. Parallel faults are also present, including the Rodgers Creek Fault, which caused the earthquakes in Santa Rosa.

Plate motions are moving only a few inches per year, according to geophysicist Andy Michael of the US Geological Survey Earthquake Science Center.

However, these movements are not fluid. The plates may become stuck together due to friction.

Lux explained that The pressure increases when they are confined together. An earthquake occurs when something has to release in some way and slips.

A large portion of this movement takes place underground, away from the Earth's surface's heat waves and tropical storms.

According to Michael, earthquakes in California typically begin several miles below the surface of the earth, where weather patterns are unable to travel.

Study Says...

According to a 2018 study, Northern California experiences a very slight summertime expansion of the Earth's crust. Seasonal changes in groundwater, according to the researchers, may be a significant factor. The crust expansion causes additional stress when these underground water reserves are low, which may have contributed to the South Napa earthquake in 2014.

Michael explained that there is an increase in the frequency of earthquakes as droughts develop or as more water is used than is being replenished in aquifers. This effect mainly applies to smaller earthquakes.

These, however, are long-term trends rather than daily patterns. "Earthquake weather" not a thing in general. In contrast, when people attempt to link the trembling earth to the weather, it is because they are looking for order in a world full of erratic events like earthquakes.

Blier said there is something about how people think that causes them to constantly look for patterns.

Some people may believe that cloudy days herald earthquakes, while others may interpret wind as a bad omen. However, it is impossible to predict with certainty when a particular location will feel an earthquake.

An earthquake does increase the possibility of an aftershock, another earthquake. However, these are only probabilities, not promises. Earthquakes are frequently regarded as independent events, especially over extended periods.

Lux added that predicting the future would be nice, but it is not currently possible, San Francisco Chronicle reports.