Last week the Benfield Hazard Research Centre made a presentation, Climate Forcing of Geological and Geomorphological Hazards.
This presentation discusses a whole range of possible seismic and geological events due to climate change. However, I want to focus on one working hypothesis. It holds that glaciers and polar ice caps hold tectonic plates into place. As the ice melts, these plates begin to move around more freely, causing more and more earthquakes.
I first saw this suggestion making the rounds of the environmental websites after the May 2008 earthquake in China. The epicenter was located just over the mountains from the glaciers of the Tibetan Plateau, glaciers that are rapidly disappearing.
What's interesting is that this presentation is not made by a bunch of treehugging hippies or conspiracy theorists. The Benfield Hazard Research Centre is an academic consortium that examines possible risks and income losses for the insurance industry. Chicken Littles and bleeding hearts they are not.
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