I found my question of the week ...

Interesting theory he has.

I always thought earthquakes were caused by the titan Altas giggling at something funny.
 
It's actually turned into a serious discussion now.

Geography's one of my major subjects, so I've decided to dig into it a bit.
 
Murph said:
You think it was an honest question though? You seem to have had your doubts there .
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Actually, to be honest. I did.

But then, having dug around a bit - it seems he's not the first one to come up with the idea - it's been floating around for a while now. Thing is, somewhere along the line someone noticed a similarity in patterns, and decided to hypothesize.

Now, I'll admit there is some correlation, but correlation isn't causation; the forces involved are massive. And while a solar flare activity can mess with the Earth's magnetic field a bit, it lasts a couple of hours maybe, and that's not going to be enough to shift mantle currents. It's akin to trying to turn a moving oil-tanker by swimming up and pushing it from the side.

I think people are looking at it from the wrong side. The earth's magnetic field is caused by the spinning of the core - not vice versa - its much more likely that the planets themselves are, via gravity, affecting the sun's magnetic fields and those disruptions result in flares.
 
I'm not the most well versed/expert in the subject, but solar flares etc are caused by the sun itself.

IIRC, the sun's core rotates at a different speed than the corona, or something, but the difference in speeds causes the magnetic field lines to bend and stretch, and eventually snap, like an elastic band. The "snapping" causes the flares and possibly sunspots. A NatGeo article gives some depth to it.

I even saw the moon being used as a cause, which is not true. Even during perigee, the closest the moon orbits to the Earth, scientists have found no direct effect on the plates. Otherwise we'd be having major earthquakes every month! The moon simply doesn't have enough gravity to affect the land in a significant way, only the water of the oceans.

And, of course, correlation doesn't imply causation. Hope that helps :)
 
Well, yes. Neither theory's been proved ... but I find the idea of the sun moving the plates the least likely of the lot.

You're right about the moon of course - it shifts water around but not a lot else.
 
The supper massive black hole in the middle fo the galaxy has more impact in the earth's core than the sun and will cause the 2012 disater! :trollface:
 
A few days ago I had a customer who kept telling me earthquakes are the earth way of feeding its core, and that they could happen anywhere, wish I could have told him what an idiot he is...
 
tpex said:
A few days ago I had a customer who kept telling me earthquakes are the earth way of feeding its core, and that they could happen anywhere, wish I could have told him what an idiot he is...
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No ... he's completely wrong ... earthquakes are because the earth's stomach is grumbling from hunger, and it was a signal for the natives to toss people into volcanoes :p
 
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