A Hole Found At The Bottom Of The Ocean Could Trigger Major Earthquakes
Scientists have found a leak at the bottom of the ocean. This particular hole is bad news, they say. The next big earthquake could take place in the Pacific Northwest owing to this hole in the bottom of the sea.
In a press release, researchers from the University of Washington said that the ocean hole is situated off the coast of US state of Oregon, atop the Cascadia Subduction Zone fault. The leakage that is happening might not be a good sign for impending earthquakes in the region, scientists say.
Ocean hole could trigger earthquakes
The ocean hole is called "Pythias' Oasis" after an oracle who gave prophecies while sitting on a hot spring in the Pacific Northwest seafloor that was found only as recently as 2015, Futurism reported. The new research was published in the the journal Science Advances this year, and suggests that the water, that is almost freshwater-like in nature, could be a sort of tectonic lubricant.
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Once this so-called lubricant leaves the ocean floor, the plate could be in danger of shifting in a giant way. This discovery happened when scientists saw "unexpected plumes of bubbles about three-quarters of a mile beneath the ocean’s surface," the press release notes.
The team used a seafloor-exploring robot to discover that the bubbles "were just a minor component of warm, chemically distinct fluid gushing from the seafloor sediment."
"They explored in that direction and what they saw was not just methane bubbles, but water coming out of the seafloor like a firehose," Evan Solomon, an associate professor of oceanography and seafloor geology specialist, said in the school's statement. "That’s something that I’ve never seen, and to my knowledge has not been observed before."
What's the earthquake connect?
The team found that the fluid leaking out of the spring is warmer than the water that surrounds it by -8.8 degree Celsius. The implication of this is that "the fluid is coming straight from the Cascadia megathrust, where temperatures are an estimated 150 to 250 degrees Celsius."
How does this increase the risk of earthquakes, you wonder? Scientists say that the "loss of fluid" is important because "it lowers the fluid pressure between the sediment particles and hence increases the friction between the oceanic and continental plates."
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As Solomon explained it, "megathrust fault zone is like an air hockey table." Essentially, if the fluid pressure is high, "it's like the air is turned on, meaning there’s less friction and the two plates can slip."?It also means that if the fluid pressure is lower, the two plates will most likely lock and that's when stress can build up.
Researchers say this is the first seafloor leak of its kind, but others could exist nearby and has just not been detected yet.
What do you think about this dangerous opening on the seafloor? Let us know in the comments below.?For more in the world of?technology?and?science, keep reading?Indiatimes.com.
