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21 December 2018
Landslide probability may depend more on riverside steepness than on hillsides above
On April 25, 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake stuck the Gorkha region of Nepal near the capital city of Kathmandu. Approximately 9,000 people died and more than 22,000 suffered injuries. The quake also triggered more than 20,000 landslides in the surrounding area. A team of scientists at the University of Southern California is studying how the topography of the Melamchi Valley in Gorkha affected the incidence of landslides after the 2015 earthquake.
19 November 2018
Oil extraction likely triggered mid-century earthquakes in Los Angeles
Six independent earthquakes and two aftershocks of magnitude 4.4 to 5.1 shook LA between 1935 and 1944, a rate of about one every two years. A new study re-examined historical information about the earthquakes from archived damage reports to refine the earthquake locations identified by early earth-motion sensors, placing them closer to many active oil fields.
22 October 2018
Quiescent British Columbia fault capable of producing large earthquakes
A Canadian fault scientists thought was inactive may actually be capable of producing large-magnitude earthquakes, a new study finds.
12 June 2018
South Napa Earthquake linked to summer groundwater dip
A summertime expansion in the Earth’s crust caused by changes in groundwater may have triggered the magnitude-6.0 earthquake in California’s wine country in 2014, according to a new study.
9 February 2018
Friday fold: Taiwanese metasediments
This Friday, in search of a Friday fold, we head to Taiwan, not far from the epicenter of this week’s destructive earthquake(s).
8 February 2018
New Hayward Fault earthquake simulations increase fidelity of ground motions
Scientists have used some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers to model ground shaking for a magnitude (M) 7.0 earthquake on the Hayward Fault and show more realistic motions than ever before.
5 December 2017
Dark fiber: Using sensors beneath our feet to tell us about earthquakes, water and other geophysical phenomena
Scientists have shown for the first time that dark fiber – the vast network of unused fiber-optic cables installed throughout the country and the world – can be used as sensors for detecting earthquakes, the presence of groundwater, changes in permafrost conditions, and a variety of other subsurface activity.
8 September 2017
Big earthquake in southwestern Mexico, M8.1
The M8.1 southwestern Mexico earthquake is discussed and placed in context.
30 August 2017
Computer earthquake prediction in lab shows promise
By listening to the acoustic signal emitted by a laboratory-created earthquake, a computer science approach using machine learning can predict the time remaining before the fault fails. Not only does the work have potential significance to earthquake forecasting, but the approach is far-reaching, applicable to potentially all failure scenarios, including avalanches and other events.
7 August 2017
New study details earthquake, flood risk for Eastern European, Central Asian countries
How will future disasters affect countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia? Researchers aiming to answer this question used projected changes in population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 33 countries, along with climate, flood and earthquake risk models, to estimate how each country is affected by flooding and earthquakes now and in the future. In addition, the earthquake model was used to estimate fatalities and capital losses from a strong quake.
19 May 2017
New technique provides earthquake risk for major cities worldwide
Scientists have developed snapshots of the likelihood of major earthquakes occurring in megacities around the world using a new statistical approach for estimating earthquake risk. The new technique, called seismic nowcasting, estimates the progress of a defined seismically-active geographic region through its repetitive cycle of major earthquakes.
1 May 2017
Study of historic Chilean quake warns of a future tsunami
The most populated central region of Chile could be vulnerable to large tsunamis generated by a deceptively moderate kind of earthquake that might be overdue, say scientists who have sorted out the source of an earthquake and tsunami that struck the area 287 years ago. The region is the same that trembled from a magnitude 6.9 earthquake on April 24.
2 March 2017
Historic earthquakes discovered along San Andreas Fault
A new U.S. Geological Survey study offers a view into the past behavior of large earthquakes along the southern San Andreas Fault. In the study, USGS geologist Kate Scharer and her team excavated trenches across the fault near Frazier Mountain in northeastern Ventura County. This section of the San Andreas previously had no long paleoearthquake record. The researchers found evidence of 10 ground-rupturing earthquakes on this section of the fault between 800 A.D. and the last rupture in 1857.
5 January 2017
What was that rumble? New research compares earthquakes to explosions
The earth shakes similarly after earthquakes and underground explosions, making it hard to distinguish between the two types of rumbling events. A new study aims to capture the subtle details of seismic signatures and ground deformation after an explosion to help scientists better differentiate between them.
30 December 2016
Gas released from rocks can predict impending breakage
Small amounts of helium and argon gas released from rocks under stress could be used to predict rock breakage before it occurs, such as during an earthquake or in an underground mine, according to new research. This kind of early-warning signal could be useful for keeping people safe in situations where rock is under high stress, like mining or construction operations, according to the study’s authors.
21 December 2016
New study differentiates between Utah’s natural and induced earthquakes
Mining activity caused nearly half of all earthquakes in Utah over the past three decades, according to a new study. By studying the epicenters of 6,846 earthquakes occurring in the state between 1982 and 2016, scientists at the University of Utah determined 3,957 of them occurred naturally and 2,889 were caused by coal mining.
21 September 2016
Human activities rattle natural rock of Utah’s Rainbow Bridge
Utah’s iconic Rainbow Bridge hums with natural and man-made vibrations, according to a new study accepted for publication today in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. The study found both natural waves in Lake Powell and induced earthquakes in Oklahoma cause the rock bridge to vibrate at different resonant frequencies.
29 August 2016
New study identifies next faults to fail along California-Nevada border
A handful of faults lining the border of California and Nevada may be near the point of rupture, according to a new study assessing earthquakes in the region as far back as 1,400 years ago. Scientists report that earthquakes in a fault network east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains are not random, but are likely triggered from stress bestowed by past earthquakes. This same type of stress has built up in six faults near Death Valley, California, and Reno, Nevada, according to the new research.
12 July 2016
Dormant volcano near Rome is waking up
A long-dormant volcano outside Italy’s capital is entering a new eruptive cycle, a recently published study finds. Scientists previously assumed Colli Albani, a 15-kilometer (9-mile) semicircle of hills outside Rome, was an extinct volcano. But in recent years, scientists have observed new steam vents, earthquakes and a rise in ground level in the hills and surrounding area.
