Faraway Earthquake Triggered Antarctica Icequakes

[ehsan217]

 Antarctica's ice snapped and popped because of a major earthquake in Maule, Chile, halfway around the world, a new study reports.

Antarctica has been touched by great earthquakes before. In March 2011, Japan's Tohoku tsunami tore off two Manhattan-size icebergs from the Sulzberger Ice Shelf, more than 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) south. Sailors also reported a massive Antarctica iceberg-calving event after Chile's 1868 great earthquake.

But this is the first evidence that distant earthquakes can trigger icequakes in Antarctica. Icequakes are seismic tremblings caused by sudden movement within a glacier or ice sheet, such as from a fracturing crevasse. (Anyone who has dropped an ice cube into a glass of water knows ice snaps under stress.)