Abstract
This paper presents a hypothesis of compressed methane gas expansion and migration in crustal rocks and faults for the cause of earthquakes. An earth quaking is an adiabatic process of kinetic interaction between rapid upward expansion and migration of compressed natural gas and its surrounding crustal rocks and ground soils. The natural gas is produced in core and/or mantle. It is escaped from its traps in deep fault zones of the lower crustal rocks. The interaction is instantaneous and flashing, can be complete within few to tens and to hundreds seconds. The gas expansion and migration are confined and constrained by the inward gravity, the tectonic stresses and the rigidness and strengths of the crustal rocks. The kinetic energy of earth quaking is mainly the physical expansion energy of the highly compressed methane gas. The gas expansion work causing the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake and the 2011 Off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake are estimated. THE PROBLEM Earthquakes occur every day. Damaging earthquakes occur every month and/or every year. An earthquake suddenly releases a large to extremely large amount of kinetic energy in the Earth's crust and on ground surface within a few to two hundreds seconds, and generates seismic waves in rock crust and on the ground surface. However, such vast, dramatic and devastating kinetic actions in the Earth's crustal rocks and on the ground soils cannot be known or predicted by people at few weeks/days/hours/minutes/seconds before they happen. Seismologists can develop and use seismometers to report the locations and magnitudes of earthquakes within minutes of their occurrence. But, they cannot predict earthquakes at present. Therefore, damage earthquakes have caused and would continue to cause huge disasters, fatalities and injuries to our human beings, which is a problem. Therefore, we may have to ask the following two answers: Why do we have the problem? Can we solve the problem?
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