Mysterious seismic waves shake the earth, scientists confused

KOMPAS.com – A mysterious seismic event rocked the Earth on November 11, 2018. This unusual wave was detected by seismic sensors around the world.

Strangely, scientists can not explain the mind. What is known is that this phenomenon is related to the seismic activity of the Mayotte Islands in the Indian Ocean in recent months.

However, beyond that, all that is indicated by this unusual vibration is not yet clear.

"I do not think I've seen (seismic waves) like this," said Goran Ekstrom, a seismologist at Columbia University, quoted in National GeographicOn Wednesday (28/11/2018).

Half a year before this wave of anomalies, the seismologists were also shocked by an abnormal seismic activity.

At that time, there were hundreds of small and frequent earthquakes from about 50 km from the east coast of Mayotte.

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On May 10, the region was shaken by an earthquake. The lava is also not alone, but is followed by hundreds of earthquakes.

The largest magnitude 5.8 earthquake occurred on May 15. Since then, the intensity of the shock has begun to decrease.

Until the moment the magnitude 5.1 earthquake reappeared on November 11th. Although it seemed alarming, the flock of earthquakes was not dangerous.

In this case, researchers from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris conducted an initial badysis of this swarm earthquake.

Swarms are a series of low magnitude and very high frequency seismic activities over a relatively long period.

According to the researchers, this incident can not be explained as a tectonic movement. In other words, volcanic activity in the region of Mayotte must also be involved.

The earthquake of the last 3 weeks was an anomaly because the swarm shock in the area had not been detected at all.

By launching Science Alert on Thursday (29.11.2018), the shock calls scientists, these are strange, long and flat vibrations that move steadily, without abrupt fluctuations that are a sign of seismic activity ordinary.

Quoting the Bureau of Geological Research of France (BRGM), this earthquake has "atypical frequency signals of very low frequency". Shocks are repeated in waves every 17 seconds and last 20 minutes.

"There are many things we do not know," said Nicolas Taillefer, head of BRGM's seismic and volcanic hazard unit.

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"It's something new in the signal at our station," he added.

Although little is known, this French team has a hypothesis.
The best hypothesis of the researchers is that the vibration of this anomaly is related to volcanic activity.

The possibility of this strange phenomenon is due to the very large movement of magma in the Indian Ocean.

If this hypothesis is correct, it explains some phenomena of displacement of the islands of Mayotte.

In GPS reading, since last July (after a series of mysterious earthquakes), the Mayotte islands have moved about 60 mm to the east and 30 mm to the south.

According to the badysis, the movement was caused by the emptying of the magma reservoir located nearby. Even then, additional research is needed to verify it.

"Therefore, this observation supports the hypothesis of a combination of tectonics and volcanic effects explaining the geological phenomena involving seismic sequences and volcanic phenomena," explained the BRGM.

"This hypothesis must be confirmed by scientific research in the future," they said.