SANTIAGO: More than 30,000 tremors have rocked Antarctica since the end of August, according to the University of Chile, a spike in seismic activity that has intrigued researchers who study the remote, snowbound continent.
Scientists with the university’s National Seismological Centre said the small quakes — including one stronger shake of magnitude 6 — were detected in the Bransfield Strait, a 96-km ocean channel between the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic peninsula.
The peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth, and scientists closely monitor the changing climate’s impact on its icebergs and glaciers.
Several tectonic plates and microplates meet near the strait, leading to frequent rumbling, but the past three months have been unusual, according to the centre.
“Most of the seismicity is concentrated at the beginning of the sequence, mainly during the month of September, with more than a thousand earthquakes a day,” the centre said.
The shakes have become so frequent that the strait itself, once increasing in width at a rate of about 7 or 8 mm (0.30 inch) a year is now expanding 15 cm (6 inches) a year, the centre said.
“It’s a 20-fold increase... which suggests that right this minute... the Shetland Islands are separating more quickly from the Antarctic peninsula,” said Sergio Barrientos, the centre’s director.
— Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
