Palghar Earthquake Swarm

My article on Palghar's mystery earthquakes has been published in The Wire Science. The article is an explanation of a recent paper that was published in the journal Tectonophysics. It favors the view that groundwater circulation is causing slippage along faults. According to the scientists involved the earthquakes are due to these very local processes.

One important point is that a link between groundwater and these tremors, even if it does exist here, represents a tipping point in a longer buildup of stress due to tectonic forces. The western margin of India is riddled by large fracture zones and faults. These structures haven't formed by groundwater movement. They are a legacy of earlier and ongoing crustal deformation due to regional and continent wide geological forces.  Groundwater flow or a build up of pore pressure cannot by itself generate enough stress to develop a fault de novo.

Dhundhalwadi is experiencing what is known as an earthquake swarm, a sequence of seismic activity with no clear peak (mainshock), and which is localised to one area. A recent study by researchers around India, including the National Institute of Seismology, has found one potential explanation for the swarm that draws a link between the monsoons, groundwater circulation and rock deformation...

Read more here.