A massive swarm of earthquakes discovered in Antarctica as an inactive volcano wakes up

A massive earthquake swarm has been detected in Antarctica, which researchers say is likely the result of a long dormant volcano awakening.

An earthquake swarm refers to incidents in which several seismic events occur in the same small area over a relatively short period of time without an accompanying major shock.

According to a study published in Nature Journal Communications Earth & Environment, the swarm impacted the Bransfield Strait – a body of water about 60 miles wide located between the northwest tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands.

Photo album showing an iceberg floating in the Bransfield Strait, a body of water located off the northwest tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. iStock

The swarm began in August 2020, with 128 earthquakes exceeding 4.0 on the magnitude scale (Mw) – a method for measuring the strength of earthquakes. The readings are generally similar to those on the Richter scale.

During the early phase of the swarm, 3,186 earthquakes were recorded – culminating with two major events on October 2 and November 6 of magnitudes 5.9 and 6.0 MW, respectively.

After these events, the study authors said, the swarm waned and by February 2021, seismic activity in the area had decreased significantly.

In total, about 85,000 earthquakes were recorded over the course of the swarm, which occurred near the underwater volcano Orca, which scientists previously considered inactive.

An underwater volcano (or seamount) consists of a roughly circular cone about 7 miles wide at the base and a crater about 2 miles wide, according to the study. It has a height of about 2,950 feet.

The international team of researchers said the swarm was the strongest earthquake activity ever recorded in the area.

“There have been similar intrusions elsewhere on Earth, but this is the first time we’ve observed them there,” study co-author Simon Cesca, a seismologist at Germany’s GFZ Research Center for Geosciences, told Live Science.

“These processes typically occur over geological timescales,” Cesca said, as opposed to over a few months. “So in a way, we’re lucky to see this.”

Scientists have used a variety of methods to track the swarm and its geophysical effects, including analyzing data from seismic stations in the area and Earth-orbiting satellites.

This data sheds light on the possible causes of the huge swarm. According to the researchers, the movement of magma in the crust could explain the seismic activity.

The researchers said an eruption of the sea-floor volcano was “likely” around the time of the 6.0-magnitude earthquake. But there is currently no direct evidence that this happens and more research will be needed to confirm this.

While Antarctica may seem completely devoid of volcanic activity, there is strong evidence for volcanoes beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, according to NASA’s Climate Change and Global Warming website. Some of them are currently active or were in the recent geological past.

The exact number of volcanoes in Antarctica remains a mystery, but one recent study identified 138 of them in West Antarctica alone. Despite this, it appears from the available evidence that there have been no dramatic volcanic eruptions in the area in the recent geological past.

It is important to note, however, that there is a lack of data on volcanoes in many parts of Antarctica because the continent is covered in ice and the remoteness of many volcanoes makes studying them a challenge.

The international team of researchers involved in the study comes from the German GFZ Geoscience Research Center Potsdam in Germany, the Italian National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics, the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Missouri University of Science and Technology. The German Aerospace Center.

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