Nearly 2,000 earthquakes rocked an area off the coast of Canada in just one day earlier this month a possible sign that a new ocean lining is about to be born through a deep-sea magma fracture Live Science reported.
Earthquakes are not a threat to humans. They are relatively small and center in a location called Endeavor, about 240 km from the coast of Vancouver Island. This location has many hot springs and is located on the slopes of Juan de Fuca mountain, where the ocean floor is separating far apart.
Zoe Krauss, a doctoral student in marine geophysics at the University of Washington, said the area is more isolated from subduction near the coast and could produce large, destructive earthquakes. Subduction is an area where a tectonic plate is sinking into the substrate of another layer.
"The mid-ocean ridges are not really likely to produce such a large earthquake, not exceeding 5 degrees," said Zoe Krauss. This will not cause major earthquakes in the subduction zone".
Krauss said that the earthquakes were very interesting in science because they could reveal details about how the ocean bottom separated and formed a new shell. At the Endeavor location, the Pacific Ocean array and the Juan de Fuca array are separate. This separation creates long linear lines and thinning the crust, enabling Magma to rise. When Magma touches the surface, it cools down and hardens, becoming a new ocean shell.
The Endeavor location is being continuously monitored as part of the NEPTUNE Underwater Network Connectivity Testing tool, operated by Ocean Networks Canada.
Krauss said that since 2018, the area has seen more and more seismic activity. However, on March 6, geological activity took place in adense manner with at least 200 small earthquakes shaking the seabed every hour. In total, the researchers detected about 1,850 earthquakes in just one day.
Krauss said: Most earthquakes have a smaller intensity than 1. But its quite interesting because it helps us keep track of where things are going, where they break down and where they move around.
Krauss said that the possible reason for the earthquakes is because the seabed is stretched to the maximum level and creates a lot of pressure. At the Endeavor location, this happens when the patches separate for about 1 meter, and the final pressure decreases as the magma rises into a thin and cooling shell.
That happens on a cycle of about 20 years. The last time the area was shaken by such an earthquake was in 2005.
Krauss said that since March 6, seismic activity has calmed down, although at slightly high ground levels. She and her colleagues are closely monitoring.
Continuous monitoring of the Endeavor site began in 2011. The group raised many questions, from the impact on the hydrothermal mouth imprint system to the magma source that will eventually form a new shell.
Most of them are basic scientific questions about how the Earths crust forms, why do these events start from where they started, and exactly what factors have put magma in? - Krauss said. Currently, her group is waiting to see what happens next.
