SYDNEY (AFP) - Scientists have for the first time shown a link between intensifying climate events and tectonic plate movement in findings that could provide a valuable insight into why huge tremors occur. Understanding why plates change direction and speed is key to unlocking huge seismic events such as last months Japan earthquake, which shifted the Earths axis by several inches, or Februarys New Zealand quake. An Australian-led team of researchers from France and Germany found that the strengthening Indian monsoon had accelerated movement of the Indian plate over the past 10 million years by a factor of about 20 percent. Lead researcher Giampiero Iaffaldano said Wednesday that although scientists have long known that tectonic movements influence climate by creating new mountains and sea trenches, his study was the first to show the reverse. The closure or opening of new ocean basins or the build of large mountain bands like the Andes or Tibet itself, those are geological processes that affect the pattern of climate, said Iaffaldano, an earth scientist with the Australian National University.