[ad_1]
SANTIAGO: More than 30,000 tremors have shaken Antarctica since late August, according to the University of Chile, an increase in seismic activity that has intrigued researchers studying the remote, snowy continent.
Scientists at the university’s National Seismological Center said small earthquakes, including a stronger one of magnitude 6, were detected in the Bransfield Strait, a 96-kilometer ocean channel between the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Several tectonic plates and microplates are located near the strait, causing frequent noises, but the last three months have been unusual, according to the Center.
“Most of the seismicity is concentrated at the beginning of the sequence, mainly during the month of September, with more than a thousand earthquakes a day,” said the Center.
The tremors have become so frequent that the strait itself, which once increased in width at a rate of about 7mm or 8mm per year, is now expanding 15cm per year, the Center said.
“It’s a 20-fold increase … which suggests that at this very moment … the Shetland Islands are separating more rapidly from the Antarctic Peninsula,” said Sergio Barrientos, director of the Center.
The peninsula is one of the fastest warming places on Earth, and scientists closely monitor the impact of climate change on its icebergs and glaciers.
But climate scientist Raúl Cordero from the University of Santiago said it was not yet clear how the tremors might be affecting the region’s ice.
“There is no evidence that this type of seismic activity … has significant effects on the stability of the polar ice caps,” Cordero told Reuters.
