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2011 earthquake in Spain was caused by groundwater extraction

Mihai AndreibyMihai Andrei
October 22, 2012
in Geology, Physics, Studies
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In 2011, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Spanish city of Lorca, resulting in the loss of 9 lives and the injury of over 100 people. Now, researchers studying the case believe groundwater extraction played a crucial role in triggering this earthquake.

A couple hugs in the aftermath of the 2011 Lorca earthquake.

A fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement along the fractures as a result of earth movement. Much like earthquakes take place at the boundary of tectonic plates, similar, smaller scale earthquakes are caused by faults; such earthquakes are greatly influenced by fault frictional properties and preseismic stress.

The study’s lead author, Pablo Gonzalez of the University of Western Ontario, said he and his colleagues had a hunch groundwater extraction had something to do with the earthquake, and they set out to verify their intuition – especially considering how measurements of human caused near-field, surface ground deformation are a rare sight.

They used satellite data to analyze how the terrain moved as a result of the earthquake, and then correlated these results with stress changes caused by groundwater extraction in a nearby basin aquifer. The results fitted in perfectly, and thus, the results are pretty clear: the Lorca earthquake was triggered, and probably amplified by human activity – specifically groundwater extraction. However, we have to keep in mind that Lorca is a seismically active region, and it is quite possible that the earthquake would have happened on itself sometime in the future.

“We cannot set up a rule just by studying a single particular case, but the evidence that we have collected in this study could be necessary to expand research in other future events that occur near … dams, aquifers and melting glaciers, where you have tectonic faults close to these sources,” Gonzalez said.

Still, this draws a big question mark regarding many geoengineering projects. It’s obvious we still don’t have a grasp on how human activity can cause or amplify earthquakes.

“For now, we should remain cautious … We know how to start earthquakes, but we are still far from being able to keep them under control,” Jean-Philippe Avouac of the California Institute of Technology wrote.

The full study was published in Nature

Tags: earthquakefaultgroundwater extractionlorca

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Mihai Andrei

Mihai Andrei

Dr. Andrei Mihai is a geophysicist and founder of ZME Science. He has a Ph.D. in geophysics and archaeology and has completed courses from prestigious universities (with programs ranging from climate and astronomy to chemistry and geology). He is passionate about making research more accessible to everyone and communicating news and features to a broad audience.

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