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Scientists scour 'Mexico's Galapagos' for quake, volcano clues

Could a volcanic eruption off Mexico's coast unleash a tsunami like the one that devastated Tonga? What really causes tectonic plates to shift and trigger earthquakes? Scientists visited a remote archipelago in search of answers.

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The worry is that something similar to the cataclysmic eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano in January could send a tsunami hurtling towards Mexico's Pacific Coast. "Whenever there are active island volcanos, there are always possibilities of generating tsunamis," said Pablo Davila Harris, a geologist at Mexico's Institute for Scientific and Technological Research of San Luis Potosi. "What we volcanologists are looking for is when the next eruption is going to happen," using modeling based on previous volcanic activity, he added. The team also hopes that its analysis of minerals brought up by past eruptions will help to understand the motion of tectonic plates, which cause earthquakes and volcanic activity.