Earthquakes on the ocean floor show that the waves in the seas are becoming increasingly massive

The seabed is having a hard time. When waves weighing several tons crash onto the surface, the ground far below is also shaken. This in turn results in very small but measurable earthquakes. Research shows that these have increased in strength in recent years. According to the author of the study, this is a wake-up call.

In addition to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions the energy created by the waves of the oceanone of the dominant seismic signals in the Earth’s crust.

“The bigger the waves get, the more they push and pull on the ocean floor,” Rick Aster, a seismologist and lead author of the study, which was published on the website of the journal Nature, told the Washington Post. The study uses the light vibrations as a measure – that is, as an indicator – of the strength of the ‘near-shore waves’, as the authors write.

According to this study, the energy of the waves is 0.27 percent higher than in the 1980s, but has increased by 0.35 percent since 2000. What sounds like little means an increase of eight percent in thirty years.

The scientists evaluated data from 50 earthquake monitoring stations worldwide. The vibrations sometimes spread over large distances.

People don’t feel it, but they do feel it: surfers benefit from it – namely the big waves they can ride. These in turn come from large storms on the high seas. And the increase in strength measured in storm waves is an indicator of climate change. “It’s really a benchmark for what the big storms are doing around the world,” says study author Aster.

“Global warming is charging the atmosphere, leading to stronger storms with more intense winds that produce greater wave heights,” oceanographer Peter Bromirski, who was not involved in the study, told the Washington Post. For example, in a warmer atmosphere, more water evaporates and becomes fuel for storms.

The largest increase in wave energy in forty years was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean, where it was between 0.6 and 0.8 percent. Other climate records also come from this region, such as increasingly warmer sea water and heavier storms. What is especially surprising is that the phenomenon is observed worldwide.

Wave activity will likely continue to increase as long as temperatures continue to rise, said Bromirski, an oceanographer emeritus at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. This increase he documented in waves along the California coast has been observed since global warming peaked in the 1970s. While surfers prefer big waves, coastal residents are at risk.

“During extreme waves caused by storms such as extratropical cyclones, sediment transport can be significant, leading to erosion and affecting coastal infrastructure,” said Itxaso Odériz, a researcher at a Spanish institute that studies ocean currents. “Water levels could rise significantly, which could lead to coastal flooding.”

“This is another wake-up call for people to take serious care of coastal infrastructure and ecosystems as the average waves get higher,” Aster said. (lak/t-online)

Used sources: