Are any severe earthquakes associated with volcanic erruption?
Paruaba
Hi Paruabay,
Yes, there are often earthquakes associated with volcanic eruptions. The thing
that is tricky is that most places where large earthquakes occur also happen to
be places where there are lots of volcanoes. Even though seismologists can
usually tell if an earthquake is directly related to an eruption or not, the
general public can't. It turns out that most earthquakes that are directly
caused by eruptions tend to be relatively small. Most of these are caused by
magma breaking rocks as it works its way to the surface. In fact, these
earthquakes are extremely useful in trying to determine what is going on with
regard to impending earthquakes. If the seismologists notice that the
rock-breaking earthquakes are migrating towards the surface our out to the flank
of a volcano, then it is pretty certain that an eruption is immenent.
On the other hand, really great earthquakes are related directly to the movement
of the Earth's tectonic plates (and these are therefore called tectonic
earthquakes). As far as I know, nobody has yet managed to prove or disprove any
cause/effect relationship between these great earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland
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