July 23, 2013

Devastating long-distance impact of earthquakes



Scientists at the University of Bonn simulate that seismic waves can be focused like in a parabolic reflector

In 2006 the island of Java, Indonesia was struck by a devastating earthquake followed by the onset of a mud eruption to the east, flooding villages over several square kilometers and that continues to erupt today. Until now, researchers believed the earthquake was too far from the mud volcano to trigger the eruption. Geophysicists at the University of Bonn, Germany and ETH Zurich, Switzerland use computer-based simulations to show that such triggering is possible over long distances. The results have been published in „Nature Geoscience“.