Potjeh wrote:I think the weight of a couple of inches of water on a couple of miles of rock is negligible. The thing with explosions and fracking is that they're very sudden, while any weight changes from rain would be very gradual.
I'm not familiar with the geology of that area, but fault lines can be found at meters below the surface to tens of kilometers below. The pressure change needed to set off a quake varies based on rock composition and depth.
To note, large nuclear explosions (in the megaton+ range) are enough even at the surface to set off quakes. While that's a lot of energy, a storm surge can certainly contain that much pressure in the water being moved, but it's not likely to be concentrated into one area enough.
Fracking is adding pressure over time via volume of water and the pressure. Add in that the whole object is to break apart rocks leaving the section of ground being pumped for fossil fuels unstable. Major storms can do similar to unstable surfaces by eroding a lot of soil.
Is it possible? I think so. Plausible? Probably not. At least not with the storms we've seen in recorded history. Anyway... the quakes caused by a storm would be during or after the storm, not before.
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