“Modern global warming, according to the prevailing view, is linked to human activity.
The main cause is the carbon footprint left by industry, transport, and other sectors. However, in recent years, alongside the anthropogenic concept, alternative approaches have emerged. In particular, Russian geophysicists believe that the catastrophic earthquakes contributed to the sharp warming recorded in the Arctic in the late 1970s.
Currently, the connection between climate and seismic activity in the Mont Blanc region (the highest peak of the Alps, at 4,806 meters) has been recorded by the Swiss Seismological Service and their French colleagues. However, in this case, they believe the opposite — that warming is the main cause of earthquakes.
European seismologists analyzed data from a high-precision seismometer installed south of the Mont Blanc massif in 2006 and discovered more than 12,000 minor underground tremors previously unrecorded. The sharp increase in activity began in 2015, as a result of anomalous heat, which caused intense glacier melt. The study showed that the increase in the number of earthquakes was also accompanied by a rise in their magnitude.
According to scientists, meltwater penetrated deep into the mountain rocks and reactivated previously stable faults. Weather data analysis revealed that severe heat waves lead to increased seismic activity with a certain time lag — about one year in the case of shallow earthquakes and up to two years for deeper ones. Earlier, seismologists had found that the number of small tremors increases in the Mont Blanc area during summer and decreases in spring. However, the new study allows this seasonal trend to be linked to long-term climate change.
Scientists emphasize that this process is similar to other well-known mechanisms, in which water under pressure induces movements along fractures. Such phenomena are observed, for example, during hydraulic fracturing (fracking), geothermal projects, and water injection underground. In their view, the current seismic activity in the Alps poses no danger to the Mont Blanc tunnel and nearby settlements. However, similar processes may also occur in other mountainous regions where glaciers are actively melting, including the Himalayas.”
This was reported by Levon Azizyan, Director of the Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center SNCO of the Ministry of Environment.
