A mystery unfolded in Alaska Earlier this summer when scientists at the Alaska Earthquake Center began monitoring a swarm of small earthquakes in an area about eight miles west of Mt. Spurr. According to State Seismologist Dr. Michael West, they probably aren’t earthquakes at all. So what exactly is going on?  According to reports from the region, Hundreds of small seismic events have been registered in the area since June 11, with almost 100 of the recordings exceeding magnitude 2.

Excerpt From 2KTUU:
“That catches our attention,” says West, “because magnitude 2 is big enough that you’re being recorded, you can see that signal a few hundred kilometers away.” The three possible sources of these seismic events, according to West, are standard earthquake activity, volcanic activity or glacial activity. “The patterns of all these little events didn’t fit the pattern of a classic earthquake swarm driven by stresses, tectonic pressures in the region,” says West. The Alaska Earthquake Center worked with the Alaska Volcano Observatory and largely ruled out volcanic activity. That left glaciers as the most likely explanation.


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