Earthquake Weather
We had an earthquake today in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nothing too big (only M 4.3 – I didn’t even feel it!), but some of the crazy folks started appearing out of the woodwork, saying things such as, “it’s not surprising, this is earthquake weather.”
No.
If you’re thinking this, you should read up on some common earthquake myths.
Many people believe that earthquakes are more common in certain kinds of weather. In fact, no correlation with weather has been found. Earthquakes begin many kilometers (miles) below the region affected by surface weather. People tend to notice earthquakes that fit the pattern and forget the ones that don’t. Also, every region of the world has a story about earthquake weather, but the type of weather is whatever they had for their most memorable earthquake.
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Great Post: Here in Peru (A very active seismic zone!!!!) there is a myth that: “If you fell a very strong wind, there is going to be an earthquake” is very common here specially in the Andes zone.
Excellent blog.
Patricio
Thanks for the comments Patricio!
Yeah, the piece I quoted from the SCEC website is very apropos I think.
“[E]very region of the world has a story about earthquake weather, but the type of weather is whatever they had for their most memorable earthquake”
ohhh cool so this is not an Italian prerogative…here people think that if it too warm and hot it will be an earthquake…
Nice blog!!
What if there had been heavy rainfall over an extended period of time and floods of biblical proportions? Couldn’t the added weight of the water plus a possible lubricating effect of the water on the crust contribute to the onset of an earthquake?