A Destructive Typhoon That Hit Taiwan Caused a Spate of Earthquakes, New Study Shows

A powerful typhoon that hit Taiwan more than a decade ago caused an increase in earthquakes in the years immediately after the storm, according to a new study.

Typhoon Morakot slammed into Taiwan in 2009, causing extensive flooding, massive landslides and hundreds of deaths.

The study, recently published by a group of international researchers in the journal Scientific Reports, looked at a spate of small magnitude, shallow earthquakes in the 2.5 years after the typhoon. Morakot brought nearly 10 feet of rain over three days and caused some of the most intense erosion ever recorded, according to a summary of the study from the University of Rennes in France, where some of the researchers work. More than 10,000 landslides were recorded.

The quakes were clustered in areas where some of the most extensive slides occurred. The study concluded that the massive weight of the rocks moved by the landslides changed the load on the shallow part of the earth's crust, which created a more favorable environment for earthquakes.

"These observations suggest that the progressive removal of landslide debris by rivers from southern Taiwan has acted to increase the crustal stress rate to the extent that earthquake activity was demonstrably affected," the researchers wrote in the paper.

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While earthquakes often cause landslides, the research showed the opposite effect.

Orelon Sidney, a weather.com meteorologist who has studied and reported on numerous earthquakes, explained that temblors similar to those that occurred after Morakot are known as "rebound quakes."

"When a heavy enough load is lifted off an area/region, the earth's crust springs back, kind of like when you push a finger into a wet sponge," Sidney said. "When you remove your finger, the sponge springs back."

The phenomenon was also blamed for a series of the quakes in the central U.S. in the 1800s called the New Madrid Sequence, she said, although that series was not connected to a single weather event.

Sidney pointed out that the this type of research is very new, and the conclusions could change as more is learned.

The study noted that the Taiwan sits on one of the most tectonically active mountain ranges on the planet, so it's important to study the causes and effects of quakes there.

"Earthquakes are among the most dangerous and destructive natural hazards," according to the summary "Better understanding earthquake triggering by tectonics and by external processes is crucial for a more realistic assessment of earthquake hazards, especially in densely populated regions such as the west coast of Taiwan."

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