A poetic depiction of chaos theory says that the fluttering of a butterfly's wings in the Amazon can cause a typhoon in Tokyo. But it was much more than the flapping of a fragile wing that caused the immense ice sheet that covers the Antarctic continent to shift. According to a study just published in the journal Nature Geoscience, a 2010 earthquake in Chile - among the strongest ever recorded: 8,8 on the Richter scale - disturbed that mantle: the Antarctic "ice sheet" contains 90% of the ice and the 60% of the planet's fresh water.
Sensors at Antarctic research stations had recorded some tremors, but those data - is the conclusion of the study - did not indicate repercussions in the bedrock that is under an ice sheet a mile thick on average (and three miles in some regions). Today that seismic data is interpreted as coming from tremors in the ice sheet. Scientists had long wondered whether earthquakes could cause, even at a distance (the earthquake in Chile also had repercussions in North America), tremors not only in the tectonic plates but also in the ice sheet. Today we know that there can also be "icequakes".
Attachments: China Post
