Africa-Press – Cape verde. According to scholars, there is a 26 percent chance of a large earthquake in the next 50 years along the Hikurangi subduction zone near New Zealand – which may result in a massive tsunami. The culprit is ancient plankton, which were compressed into stone over millions of years.
Researchers from New Zealand published a new paper, suggesting that corpses of ancient marine organisms, accumulating over aeons, may be the reason for “megathrust earthquakes” – powerful tremors on the tectonic plate boundaries, which may reach a catastrophic 9.0-magnitude.
According to the study published in Lithos academic journal, calcite deposits left behind by tiny sea dwellers millions of years ago could impact the level of movement and friction between the Pacific plate and the Australia plate.
The key question is whether this calcite is able to dissolve – if it does, tectonic plates can slide past each other more easily. However, if this is not the case, and it does not dissolve – then the calcite would block the plate movement, locking up energy until a major burst is released. The scientist noted that behavior of calcite from these dead organisms “is a big piece of the puzzle of how large the next earthquake might be”.
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