Silent earthquake
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
A silent earthquake is an earthquake whose energy release is so slow that it cannot be detected with seismology equipment but requires GPS receivers for measurement. The magnitude of a silent earthquake can be as large as a regular earthquake, since the duration is many times longer occurring over days, weeks or months. Silent earthquakes are associated with the creep or plastic flow of large pieces of a subducting plates ahead of a locked section ultimately causing the locked section to give way in a megathrust earthquake. It is believed by some that the study of silent earthquakes could lead to a prediction of the occurrence of a disastrous megathrust earthquake and the resulting tsunami.
