Hurricane Irma is predicated on being so powerful it is showing up on seismometers -- the equipment designed to measure earthquakes.
"What we are seeing in the seismogram are low-pitched hums that slowly become more powerful as the storm gets nearer to the seismometer on the island of Guadeloupe," stated Stephen Hicks, a seismologist from the University of Southampton. Due to Irma's size and power, quite dangerous weather may also occur up to 200 miles away in the eyewall, the most catastrophic area of a hurricane.
The sound is likely due to high winds -- that trigger small motions on the floor -- and also by trees swaying in the wind, which also transport energy into the floor, he later said. The seismometer is located near the sea, so waves crashing along the shore reverberate around the island, also generating seismic energy, Hicks added.
The hurricane is not creating earthquakes, he said. "Earthquakes occur tens of (kilometers) deep within the planet's crust, a very long way from the influence of weather events, and there isn't any evidence to suggest that storms and hurricanes directly wreak havoc," Hicks said. It's not uncommon for large storms to enroll on seismometers for hours to days as they pass over.
Irma, which is already the most powerful hurricane ever recorded outside the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, is very likely to make landfall somewhere in Florida over the weekend. Rick Scott, the governor of Florida, has said Irma's exact path is unknown, but that the storm could impact "countless Floridians". Florida, Puerto Rico along with US Virgin Islands have declared state of emergency