Could sunspots be linked to Earthquakes?

[Keeper]

Sunspot 1166 Launches a Massive Flare - March 10 2011
http://astroblogger.blogspot.com/2011/03/sunspot-1166-launches-massive-flare.html

Japan Earthquake - March 11 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_earthquake_2011

Is this just a co-incidence, or could it possibly be linked?

 

[shadowfox]

Errr ...

*checks date*

Is that a serious question?

 

[Happy Camper]

I think they are related for sure.

 

[shadowfox]

No they are not. (I'm just going to assume Happy Camper was joking .... I hope)

The only thing the sun would be able to do that would have a direct effect on the planet's tectonics is friggin explode, and then an earthquake is going to be the least of our worries, I can assure you. Solar flares will release a lot of extra radiation; there's no measurable gravitaional effect, certainly not enough to make a tectonic plate of several trillion tons do more of what it's been doing for the past 4 billion years or so.

It's coincidental ... now please go read up on plate tectonics, while I go and tell the aliens to stop horsing around at the poles and making people believe in auroras. Pay close attention to the section called "Driving forces of plate motion" - I don't recall sunspots being mentioned in there.

 

[Keeper]

Some scientists have become aware of a correlation between sunspots and Earthquakes and want to use the sunspot data to help predict earthquakes. The theory is that an intensification of the magnetic field can cause changes in the geo-sphere. The NASA and the European Geosciences Union have already put their stamp of approval on the sunspot hypothesis, which suggests that changes in the sun-earth environment affects the magnetic field of the earth that can trigger earthquakes in areas prone to it. It is not clear how such a trigger might work.

http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/051221earthquake.htm

this is a very old article, but still?

 

[Happy Camper]

Were sunspots even brought into that study?

It's an interesting theory and i think it deserves more attention. The natural rhythms of the earth could all just be responses to the suns natural rhythms. Not so far fetched, to me! I mean the entire solar system revolves around the sun, we are intricately linked to it.

Not wanting to start an argument about how ridiculous it may be, I just think it deserves more study. There does seem to have been some studies done already between earthquakes and the moon (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126946.200-moon-linked-to-earthquakes-at-last.html) so perhaps another study may reveal the sun earthquake connection, perhaps volcanic activity too?

 

[Techne]

Here is how active the sun was with regards to sunspots.

You can use this graph to plot the occurrence of earthquakes in the past and see of there is a correlation.

List of 20th-century earthquakes
List of 21st-century earthquakes

Doesn't look like there is after having a quick glance.

 

[shadowfox]

Okay ... you've piqued my interest enough that I feel like looking into this ...

There seem to be two sides - the side that thinks the sun is influencing the earth, and another side which feels that the planets in the solar system are responsible for the sun's sunspot cycle (a cycle of 11 years). The article you link to concerns the formulation of a hypothesis - whether its been worked into a comprehensible theory I have no idea.

There's some correlation, but correlation isn't causation. If you look at the following two links - 2009 sunspot activity vs 2009 earthquakes there doesn't seem to be a matching trend.

ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/STP/SOLAR_DATA/SUNSPOT_NUMBERS/AMERICAN_NUMBERS/2009 - sunspots
http://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/geosciences/seismic_center/2009_eq/index.cfm - Earthquakes

Personally I feel that the forces involved are much too large to be affected by sunspot activity - even if a full solar storm has the ability to affect the planet's magnetic field. But ... while Geography is one of my university subjects, I'm no expert, and I'm almost definitely not a science-type - so I'm not going to go digging around in an effort to prove it one way or another.

Not wanting to start an argument about how ridiculous it may be, I just think it deserves more study. There does seem to have been some studies done already between earthquakes and the moon (http://www.newscientist.com/article/...s-at-last.html) so perhaps another study may reveal the sun earthquake connection, perhaps volcanic activity too?

See my remark in my first paragraph.

I'd be a lot more inclined to believe the moon has an effect on the crust due to its proximity. But the theory has been floating around for a while now - and it still hasn't been proven.

 

[Keeper]

Yes, but i'm not talking about "number of sunspots", there are many (just like quakes) - i'm talking about the big flares and the Big quakes

"Earth-orbiting satellites detected an X1.5-class explosion from behemoth sunspot 1166"

An X-class flare is the biggest of the 3 (C-class, M-class and X-class)
X-class flares can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms apparently.

 

[Keeper]

some more data i've found:

"The 2010 Chile earthquake occurred off the coast of either the Maule Region[2] or the Biobío Region[1] of Chile[5] on February 27" (8.8 magnitude)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Chile_earthquake

"February 2010 is on the verge of a three-year "first." It's the first month since January 2007
with sunspots every single day."
http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?month=02&day=26&year=2010&view=view


i'm not stating anything, but I find this pretty odd

 

[grok]

Some eggs pop or crack when you boil them, what's to say the sun doesn't have any boiling effect on the earth?

 

[Rosaudio]

Coincidence. Otherwise write to your local University.

 

[Techne]

Here is a list of X-class flares:
http://www.spaceweather.com/solarflares/topflares.html

Maybe there is a stronger correlation?

And here is the activity of the sun related to flare strength:

 

[bubbatentoe]

IMHO: sun spots have only been linked to local weather and electromagnetic interference (GPS, cellphones, radios etc)

There was a guy in the UK who predicted the weather 10 times better than the UK MET office (he based his predictions on sun spots and the position of the earth (UK) during said sun spots)
He beat the MET office at predicting UK weather 9 out of 10 times.

 

[shadowfox]

Some eggs pop or crack when you boil them, what's to say the sun doesn't have any boiling effect on the earth?

Quite frankly, if the sun released enough energy to boil the Earth, we would get fried first.

People seem to think that, given the fact that flares can alter or affect the planet's magnetic field this would be enough to alter the flow of magma streams and cause earthquakes. The idea is ridiculous, quite simple because of the magnitude of the forces involved. If you want to understand, try swimming out to sea and pushing against a moving oil-tanker.

The Earth's magnetic field is a result of the spinning of the planet's iron core, and that spinning core also affects the flow of magma in the mantle. The core spins on an axis that isn't aligned with the planet's axis, which is why the magnetic north pole and the real north pole are in two different places. If solar flares were going to have any lasting effect, the poles would shift every time we saw a solar storm. They don't. The movement is constant.

If you're wondering where I'm going with this? The movement of the tectonic plates (which I just mentioned) is pretty much constant as well. Japan sits on a subduction zone - a subduction zone I would like to point out has been there for several million years. Those plates are moving towards each other and have been doing so for some time - those earthquakes are always waiting to happen. The big March 11 quake was preceded by a magnitude 7.2 on the 9th of March - 2 days before the big flare. There was another 7.1 quake on the Ibaraki coast yesterday (with a 0.5m tsunami), but no associated flare.

In the end, its a complete coincidence. Solar Flares happen all the time. Earthquakes happen all the time as well. There are approximately 500k earthquakes each year, of which about 100k can actually be felt. Basically, 300+ earthquakes per day. The USGC estimates that there are approx 18 - 20 major (7.0+) earthquakes per year on average.

If you're going to be looking at sun vs planet effects on each other - it's actually much more likely that the planets in the solar system are involved in causing the solar flares (which are a result of disruptions in the sun's magnetic field). If you're going to be looking at possible gravitational causes, need I point to a damn big rock floating 300,000km away? That actually has a noticeable effect on the Earth, which to this point seems limited to tides. Hasn't ripped up any plates yet.