---
title: "Some Storms Are so Strong They Shake the Ocean Floor, Says Study"
description: "Severe storms can actually shake the ocean floor, causing \"stormquakes,\" according to a newly published study of seismic activity."
date: "2019-10-18"
modified: "2019-10-18"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/stormquakes-strong-shake-ocean-floor"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "earthquake"
  - "extreme weather"
  - "stormquake"
  - "the digest"
---

# Some Storms Are so Strong They Shake the Ocean Floor, Says Study

![Severe storms can actually shake the ocean floor, causing "stormquakes," according to a newly published study of seismic activity.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/clouds.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Image via Pixabay/Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Seismic Mystery

It's easy to see the impact an off-coast storm has on the water's surface. But according to a new study, severe storms can actually [shake the ocean floor](<https://www.sciencenews.org/article/storms-seismic-stormquakes-seafloor>) as well, causing "stormquakes" — a previously unknown phenomena that solves a seismic mystery.

Scientists already knew prior to this study that the ocean produces seismic signals. But while some of those signals could be explained by the ocean's waves, there was a band of signals that occurred at a frequency between 0.02 and 0.05 hertz that were seemingly inexplicable.

## Weather Connection

It was those signals that the U.S.-based researchers behind this new [study](<https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2019GL084217>), which was published in the journal *Geophysical Research Letters* on Monday, sought to explain — and after analyzing nearly 10 years' worth of seismic data, they noticed a strange pattern emerging.

"\[The signals\] were seasonal," researcher Wenyuan Fan [told *Science News*](<https://www.sciencenews.org/article/storms-seismic-stormquakes-seafloor>). "Earthquakes do not have seasonality. But weather does."

That led the team to the discovery that the shaking of the ocean floor coincided with the raging of a storm above it.

## Perfect Storm

However, a storm alone isn't enough to cause a stormquake — the seafloor below the storm has to be just the right shape, too.

"It's something about the shape — or the bathymetry — of the seafloor interacting with these big ocean waves that are produced during storms," researcher Wendy Bohon [told *Motherboard*](<https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evjk5e/scientists-discover-a-new-phenomena-called-stormquakes>). "You're getting some kind of energy relief that's beating on the seafloor in a particular way, and those waves are moving out in all directions as coherent packages which we’re then able to detect using seismometers."

**READ MORE:** [Scientists Discover a New Phenomena Called 'Stormquakes'](<https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evjk5e/scientists-discover-a-new-phenomena-called-stormquakes>) \[*Motherboard*\]

**More on earthquakes:** *[This "Peeling" Tectonic Plate Could Cause Catastrophic Earthquakes](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/peeling-tectonic-plate-earthquakes>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)