In the 4th Century B.C., Aristotle proposed that earthquakes were
caused by winds trapped in subterranean caves. Small tremors were
thought to have been caused by air pushing on the cavern roofs, and
large ones by the air breaking the surface. This theory lead to a
belief in earthquake weather, that because a large amount of air was
trapped underground, the weather would be hot and calm before an
earthquake. A later theory stated that earthquakes occurred in calm,
cloudy conditions, and were usually preceded by strong winds,
fireballs, and meteors.
However, there is no connection between weather and earthquakes.
They are the result of geologic processes within the earth and can
happen in any weather and at any time during the year. Earthquakes
originate miles underground. Wind, precipitation, temperature, and
barometric pressure changes affect only the surface and shallow
subsurface of the Earth. Earthquakes are focused at depths well out of
the reach of weather, and the forces that cause earthquakes are much
larger than the weather forces. Earthquakes occur in all types of
weather, in all climate zones, in all seasons of the year, and at any
time of day. Sometimes, we are asked: "Do earthquakes change the
weather in any way? Earthquakes themselves do not cause weather to
change. Earthquakes, however, are a part of global tectonics, a process
that often changes the elevation of the land and its morphology.
Tectonics can cause inland areas to become coastal or vice versa.
Changes significant enough to alter the climate occur over millions of
years.