A theory which appears to be popular both here and in notes posted to the Yahoo EarthWaves bulletin board proposes that geomagnetic storms can help trigger earthquakes. I have been proposing that people might want be wary of that theory. The situation could be more complex than that. And for some time now I have been suspicious that in at least some cases, the opposite might actually be the case.

On August 19, 2002 there were several fairly powerful earthquakes in the Fiji Islands area. And beginning around August 8 and continuing until about August 22, continuous fairly strong geomagnetic storm activity was recorded. Those and other data have me wondering if powerful approaching earthquakes might at times be either causing the Earth’s geomagnetic field to become charged or perhaps causing it to remain charged after a solar storm occurs.

Different materials can change their electromagnetic properties when they are subjected to high levels of stress. I believe that it is generally believed that this happens to the rock layers in fault zones before earthquakes occur. Perhaps that phenomenon is having some type of impact on the Earth’s magnetic field when sufficiently powerful earthquakes such as those recent ones in the Fiji area are approaching.