Earthquakes caused by flooding?

Hi everyone!

After posting on the "rumbling noises around the world" thread, I thought I should ask you if you ever heard about earthquakes caused by flooding.

The situation: Slobozia Conachi, village in E Romania, is witnessing weird noises coming from the ground, and also shaking. It appears to have started this week. And 2 weeks ago the same area was affected by heavy flooding. In fact, here's my post from said thread:
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www.abovetopsecret.com...

Hey all!

Not a personal report, but definitely belongs here.

Eastern Romania - Slobozia Conachi village. This week people started hearing weird noises coming from the ground, seasoned with earth shaking up to 7 times a day. "It's like the ground is boiling, we can hear such loud booms it makes our food jump on the table. We need someone to come tell us what this means, we're afraid our houses will collapse on us and we're so frightened we can't sleep" one woman said.

Source (in Romanian): www.viata-libera.ro...

Worth mentioning that 2 weeks ago the same area suffered extensive flooding. So it could be an effect of all that water (?).

The "shakings" are actually recorded as earhquakes, with the latest (3.9) happening there just a couple of hours ago. Here's the "last 10 seism" list from RSOE: hisz.rsoe.hu...

Stay safe everyone!
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So is it really possible for the water to have caused 7 earthquakes (ranging from 2.7 to 3.9) in the last 4 days?
And what's that rumbling people report? Can flood-related land slides occur 2 weeks after the flooding? Is that the sound of the underground moving somehow? It is my personal belief those people have not seen the worst of it yet, but let's not talk about that for now.

To top it all, the same part of Romania that was flooded 2 weeks ago (thus including this "rumbling&shaking" village I mentioned) is going to get pounded hard again, with rains expecting to add up to +80 litres/sqm in just 2 days.

reply to post by negue


funny you should mention that, this is similar...I saw a show the other day talking about the "new madrid" fault in the usa, it changed the course of the mississippi river when there were 2 big +8.0 earthquakes in the 1800's.


the theory is that the ice from the last ice age held it down, when it all melted away, that weight wasn't holding it down anymore and it "popped up"

I know it it's not quite the same thing, but in the vein of what can cause an earthquake...thought it qwas interesting

reply to post by research100


Interesting, even if not the same thing indeed. But it's another theory as to how water can lead to earthquakes. Thank you for your input!
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I just watched some news, so here's a quick update: The people have witnessed vertical movements; some said they felt their house sinking, others said they first felt the ground moving up a little, followed by the sinking. I also saw cracks in the walls. And scared people.

reply to post by research100


Water is believed to be able to act something like a lubricant for a fault. There are quite a few known cases of movement along a fault shortly after water is injected.

The New Madrid fault is more complex than a single fault, it's a set of related faults. The main portion of it is actually a failed continental rift. The faults along that failed rift have been "reactivated" -- I believe only as a set of related faultlines and not as a rift. Millions of years will tell that story though!
New Madrid Fault

Post glacial rebound is well documented, especially around the Great Lakes. As the weight is removed when the ice melts and the water runs off, the weight over the area pushing it down disappears. Over thousands of years those areas can be said to rebound. "Popping up" would be correct in only geologic terms as it's pretty fast compared to processes which take millions of years.

reply to post by negue


Water causes intense pressures and is heavy. Recently in the states earth quakes were caused by pumping waste water into fracked wells. When they stopped the pumping the small quakes stopped, what does that tell you.

The Bot

Thank you for posting here.

dlbott, yes I have read about fracking-induced earthquakes.

In an interesting development, the earthquakes stopped. It was only one 2.8 yesterday Oct 1 and nothing since.

reply to post by negue


Not quiet anymore! October 3 witnessed SIX earthquakes (so far!) in said area, smallest 2.9 and strongest 3.8. Here's the latest 10 eqs for this area: hisz.rsoe.hu...

To me, that's impressing. And according to the news here, unprecented. Probabilities now indicate a good chance for a 5.0-6.0 earthquake in Romania in the next 24h.

Stay safe everyone!

reply to post by negue


Just a suggestion but you say the area in question recently had severe flooding? Then there is also the possibility it is sinkholes forming but not yet reaching the surface. Obviously, there would be factors indicating this as a possibility, for example the local geology of the area. Also, i noticed you said it is in Romania and that also made me think of the possibility it is floodwater compromising old mine workings, possibly even ancient mine workings (mining is very old in that part of the world!).

Just thought i would throw it out there as a possible alternative to an earthquake..........

Either way, i would be feeling slightly uneasy if i lived there at the moment!

reply to post by Flavian


No mines in that area, and yes, mining is pretty old here indeed, we still have mines that were hand-digged by our ancestors ~2.000 years ago.
Yes, flooding was quoted as a cause, but a google search for "earthquakes caused by flooding" did not lead to satisfactory results. So I thought I'd ask the knowledgeable people here on ATS. Sinkholes was what I thought too, although it's very rare here. But it might be part of the "new normal".

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News about this made it to a popular blog: theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com... boiling-water/

1 thing to mention is that oil extraction has been going on less than 15 miles away, and for more than 50 years. However it's the first time such an eq swarm (more than 100 in the last 2 weeks) is ever recorded in that area.

Researchers have filled the village with equipment trying to understand what's happening. They recorded the sound of such an earthquake. Click here to watch the 1min video: www.romaniatv.net... (on the grey menu bar with GALERIE FOTO VIDEO, click on VIDEO, than play it). Not impressive I know, but it would scare me to live there and witness something like this several times a day...

reply to post by negue


And then, a couple of hours ago after I posted that, this happened: hisz.rsoe.hu...

A 5.3 earthquake (the biggest in Romania since 2009) happened at less than 80 miles away from the "rumbling and shaking" Galati area.