This week, in The True or False Junior, we answer students’ questions about the natural disasters which have particularly affected Morocco and Libya in recent weeks.
Is it true that there is a link between the earthquake in Morocco or the floods in Libya and global warming? Is it true that the earthquake in Morocco could cause a tsunami in Marseille? Students from the Sacré-Cœur college in Marseille and those from the Jules-Ferry college in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (Essonne) have questions and our specialists answer them.
Climate change linked to floods, but not earthquakes
Clémence wonders if it is true that “are earthquakes and floods due to global warming?“
According to Davide Faranda, researcher at CNRS, specialist in extreme climatic events, “Seismological disasters, i.e. earthquakes that occur beneath the Earth’s surface, are not impacted by climate change.“On the other hand, according to him,”floods like those which affected Libya are indeed caused by Mediterranean cyclones or very intense rains. And these are natural disasters that can be linked to climate change.”
Davide Faranda explains that it is greenhouse gas emissions, such as CO2 generated by the combustion of fossil fuels for example, which will heat the atmosphere, then the sea which will evaporate. All this water will accumulate in the atmosphere, then when there is a storm, torrential rains will fall on extremely dry land, again because of temperatures which continue to increase. This is what causes enormous flooding as observed in Libya.
It is very unlikely that such earthquakes will occur in France
Arellys wonders if it is true that there will be this same type of natural disaster in France.
Davide Faranda explains that the risk of seeing an earthquake like in Morocco is very slim in France where “seismicity is low or moderate.” On the other hand, that does not mean that it is impossible, there have already been earthquakes in France, such as in 2019 in the Rhône valley or even in 1909, in the Aix-en-Provence region.
With its fairly varied geography, France is more exposed to other types of disasters, specifies Davide Faranda, such as, “on the Mediterranean Sea, there can be very intense rains, storms, even Mediterranean cyclones; in the Alps, there can be disasters linked to melting ice and we can have avalanches. Finally, in the north of France, we can have storms, for example in Brittany or Normandy or even in Paris.”
No, there will not be a tsunami in Marseille caused by the earthquake in Morocco
Cham asks if it’s true “that the earthquakes in Morocco could cause a tsunami in Marseille?”
Yann Klinger is a CNRS researcher at the Institute of Globe Physics in Paris and directs the tectonics laboratory. He explains to Cham that “earthquakes in Morocco like the one we had recently, are very far from the coast, they are inland, in the Atlas mountain range, so this earthquake specifically cannot cause tsunami or earthquakes in Marseille.”