Fig. 4: Schematic representation of earthquake-surface hazards interaction.

Previous studies5,6,13,16 had shown that earthquakes can trigger landslides which can block rivers and form landslide-dammed lakes. We show that direct gravitational loading and pore pressure diffusion from landslide-dammed lakes can in turn increase stresses on surrounding faults and trigger earthquakes. The interaction between these hazards is thus bidirectional.