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Scientists with the university's National Seismological Center
said the small quakes - including one stronger shake of
magnitude 6 - were detected in the Bransfield Strait, a 60-mile
wide (96-km) ocean channel between the South Shetland Islands
and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Several tectonic plates and microplates meet near the strait,
leading to frequent rumbling, but the past three months have
been unusual, according to the center.
"Most of the seismicity is concentrated at the beginning of the
sequence, mainly during the month of September, with more than a
thousand earthquakes a day," the center said.
The shakes have become so frequent that the strait itself, once
increasing in width at a rate of about 7 or 8 mm (0.30 inch) a
year is now expanding 15 cm (6 inches) a year, the center said.
"It's a 20-fold increase ... which suggests that right this
minute ... the Shetland Islands are separating more quickly from
the Antarctic peninsula," said Sergio Barrientos, the center's
director.
The peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth, and
scientists closely monitor the changing climate's impact on its
icebergs and glaciers.
But climate scientist Raul Cordero of the University of Santiago
said it was not yet clear how the tremors might be affecting the
region's ice.
"There's no evidence that this kind of seismic activity ... has
significant effects on the stability of polar ice caps," Cordero
told Reuters.
(Reporting by Fabian Cambero and Reuters TV; Writing by Dave
Sherwood; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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