Solar Flares and Earthquakes?

[fadedrose]

Put "solar flares" in DU Search and you'll find a few threads about the big ones that occurred in February. Some good films too.

I'm wondering if they're the cause of this big earthquake. I saw a picture of it on TV and wondered at the time if a big earthquake was coming.

[Godhumor]

1. ...And what would be the link between solar flares and earthquakes, exactly?

Are you implying flares are strong enough to push the plates in such a way that they get stuck?

[Boswell]

5. just Blue Sky thinking here

with absolutly no reason to think it is correct, but possibly by effeting the magnetic field that could effect a part of the crust that has a high iron or other magnetic mineral content? just a tiny bit, but enough to build up a shock like this? that is the only way I can think of that might be realistic.

[Ilsa]

7. I think the theory is that a flare strong enough to cause

A coronal mass ejection could create a geomagnetic storm. We know that the earth's magnetosphere can be affected (the Aurora borealis), but I guess some people wonder if the Earth's magnetic core (or tectonic plates) is affected. I haven't read of anything to that effect, though. I am not a scientist or geologist, so what do I know? We have had higher solar flare activity this year, though, IIRC.

[Common Sense Party]

8. "A coronal mass ejection" IBTL.

Sex threads get locked, dontcha know.

[Boswell]

9. Hey! keep your hadrons to yourself big boy!

[Ilsa]

10. Haaaa!!!! Hahahahaha. I love it! nt

[damntexdem]

11. Solar flares excite the gremlins who cause quakes?

;-)

[uppityperson]

2. ARGH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[FSogol]

3. Solar Flares? Maybe they were caused by cell phone radiation?

:facepalm:

[Ilsa]

4. This is from 2007:

We present the study of 682 earthquakes of ¡Ý4.0 magnitude observed during January 1991 to January 2007 in the light of solar flares observed by GOES and SOXS missions in order to explore the possibility of any association between solar flares and earthquakes. Our investigation preliminarily shows that each earthquake under study was preceded by a solar flare of GOES importance B to X class by 10-100 hrs. However, each flare was not found followed by earthquake of magnitude ¡Ý4.0. We classified the earthquake events with respect to their magnitude and further attempted to look for their correlation with GOES importance class and delay time. We found that with the increasing importance of flares the delay in the onset of earthquake reduces. The critical X-ray intensity of the flare to be associated with earthquake is found to be ~10-6 Watts/m2. On the other hand no clear evidence could be established that higher importance flares precede high magnitude earthquakes. Our detailed study of 50 earthquakes associated with solar flares observed by SOXS mission and other wavebands revealed many interesting results such as the location of the flare on the Sun and the delay time in the earthquake and its magnitude. We propose a model explaining the charged particles accelerated during the solar flare and released in the space that undergone further acceleration by interplanetary shocks and produce the ring current in the earth's magnetosphere, which may enhance the process of tectonics plates motion abruptly at fault zones. It is further proposed that such sudden enhancement in the process of tectonic motion of plates in fault zones may increase abruptly the heat gradients on spatial (dT/dx) and temporal (dT/dt) scales responsible for earthquakes.

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUSMIN33A..03J

[fadedrose]

15. Thank you for posting this...

I'm no scientist, but to me this thingy from Harvard sounds a little like a "maybe:"


We propose a model explaining the charged particles accelerated during the solar flare and released in the space that undergone further acceleration by interplanetary shocks and produce the ring current in the earth's magnetosphere, which may enhance the process of tectonics plates motion abruptly at fault zones. It is further proposed that such sudden enhancement in the process of tectonic motion of plates in fault zones may increase abruptly the heat gradients on spatial (dT/dx) and temporal (dT/dt) scales responsible for earthquakes.

[NeedleCast]

6. Hahaha

This is just becoming absurd.

What else can we possibly link to the earthquake? Its chaos theory at it's best. A butterfly flaps its wings in Spain and it triggered the earthquake!

In all seriousness, other than "you saw a picture of it on TV" what evidence do you have to support your hypothisis?

[hatrack]

14. It's the Giant Catfish, damnit!

Listen to MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fadedrose]

12. Link to awesome video showing flares 3/9/11

Maybe it doesnt' have a dam thing to do with earthquakes, but wow, these things are HUGE....

[Pisces]

13. Dec. 21, 2012

[Ilsa]

16. A friend sent me this relevant link:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/753717276h869880/
Abstract:
Results of studying the character and possible succession of cause-effect relations (in going from a disturbance source on the Sun to a response in the lithosphere in the range of periods from several days to the 11 year solar cycle) have been presented. It has been indicated that the maximum of seismic energy, released from earthquake sources in the 11 year cycle of sunspots, is observed during the phase of cyclic decline and lags 2 years behind the solar cycle maximum. It has been established that the maximum in the number of earthquakes directly correlates with the instant of a sudden increase in the solar wind velocity.