Big tides could help push small earthquakes to grow into very large temblors, a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience said Monday. But this study is the first to show a statistical connection that there are more powerful earthquakes than small earthquakes during periods of strong tides, said Satoshi Ide, professor of seismology at the Univeristy of Tokyo and the lead author of the study. “When tides are very large, small earthquakes tend to grow a little larger,” Ide said. “Personally, I hope that this observation does pan out and is reproducable,” Van der Elst said. “The tides just add a little — 1% or less — additional push on top of that tectonic loading,” Van der Elst said.

Source: Los Angeles Times September 12, 2016 15:00 UTC