04/03/2024
Whenever there's an earthquake, I tend to think of weird theoretical earthquake-related things. One of my theories was that, as the glacial ice melted, it would remove weight from the tectonic plates that would otherwise deform the plates and create drag. Thus, as the ice sheets melt, the plates would become more mobile (and if nothing else, the deformation flattening out would cause a few quakes all by itself), float more freely on the molten core. They would then theoretically rotate faster increasing the friction against neighboring plates, which would likely increase the frequency and/or the severity of earthquakes on the affected plates. I've been wondering this for a while now, but never got a decent answer in my searches. Well, I just asked it of Chrome and that new fangled AI engine (which is much better at searching than I am) came up with an answer. I'm tempted to say it actually agreed with me but decide for yourself.
"Yes, the melting of polar ice can cause some tectonic plates
to move faster. As the ice melts, the land mass rises, which can cause the mantel to become more fluid. This can lead to some plates moving faster. For example, melting ice from Greenland and Arctic glaciers has caused the ground to shift horizontally across much of the Northern Hemisphere, up to 3 centimeters per decade in Europe, Canada, and the US."
