Earthquakes- Week 3
Since South Korea is located in a less seismically active region earthquakes are not as common, but this doesn't mean that they are free from ever experiencing them. Despite being on the Eurasian plate South Korea is located far away from active plate boundaries which is able to reduce the regularity of earthquakes. The second largest earthquake to happen in modern South Korea occurred in 2017 with a magnitude of 5.5 and happened in Pohang. The Pohang earthquake unfortunately injured 90 people and caused $52 million in damage. Pohang is known to be in an area where an earthquake may less likely occur. But the reason why the event happened wasn't exactly caused by nature itself. It was caused by the operations of an enhanced geothermal system project. Their plan was to harvest energy by injecting high-pressure water into the subsurface. Apparently, the high-pressure water injection activated a previously unknown fault line which led to the earthquake. The first largest earthqua...