Researchers writing in Nature have stated that quartz deposits may be a prediction tool for earthquakes. Along with earthquakes, underground quartz deposits worldwide may also be behind mountain building and other continental tectonics, they say.
The researchers examined temperature and gravity across the Western United States using seismic instruments to describe the geological properties of the earth's crust and found that quartz crystal deposits are found wherever mountains or fault lines occur in states like California, Idaho, Nevada and Utah.
They say quartz indicates a weakness in the earth's crust likely to spawn a geologic event such as an earthquake or a volcano.
Quartz contains trapped water that is released when heated under stress, allowing rocks to slide and flow in what they termed a 'viscous cycle'.
"We're groping around the elephant at the moment," Utah State University geophysicist Anthony Lowry told Reuters journalist Laura Zuckerman. "We're basically seeing a different piece of information and this piece is going to be really key to understanding what's going on."
