Ionosphere Linked to Earthquakes

Could ionospheric disturbances influence earthquakes?

Researchers at Kyoto University explored how disturbances in the ionosphere exert electrostatic forces within Earth’s crust. They found that such forces potentially contribute to the initiation of large earthquakes under specific conditions.

The coincidence of strong solar flare activity with the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake supports the hypothesis that ionospheric charge variations may contribute to earthquake initiation.

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ionospheric-disturbances-earthquakes.html

“Estimates indicate that ionospheric disturbances… can produce pressures … within crustal voids, (which are) comparable to gravitational and tidal forces.”

Authors Akira Mizuno, Minghui Kao, Ken Umeno. Applied Mathematics and Physics, Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Japan

https://ijpest.com/Contents/20/1/e01003.html

In the proposed model, fractured zones within Earth’s crust are assumed to contain high-temperature, high-pressure water, potentially in a supercritical state. These zones behave electrically like capacitors and are capacitively coupled with both the ground surface and the lower ionosphere, forming a large-scale electrostatic system.