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21 November 2019
Geoscientists develop technology to improve forecasting of earthquakes, tsunamis
University of South Florida geoscientists have successfully developed and tested a new high-tech shallow water buoy that can detect the small movements and changes in the Earth’s seafloor that are often a precursor to deadly natural hazards, like earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis.
6 September 2019
New research provides better look at ocean plate under Central America
Convection in Earth’s mantle is the “engine” driving plate tectonics. Hot material rises to the Earth’s surface from the boundary between the planet’s core and mantle, at a depth of about 3000 kilometers. Cold material then flows downward due to oceanic tectonic plates sinking into the mantle at subduction zones on the Earth’s surface.
8 August 2019
Ten Years of Icy Data Show the Flow of Heat from the Arctic Seafloor
Scientists have taken the temperature of a huge expanse of seafloor in the Arctic Ocean. The study is accompanied by the release of a large marine heat flow dataset collected by the USGS from an ice island drifting in the Arctic Ocean between 1963 and 1973. These never-before-published data greatly expand the number of marine heat flow measurements in the high Arctic Ocean.
16 May 2019
Earthquake in 2009 intensified American Samoa’s rising sea levels
The 2009, magnitude-8.1 Samoa earthquake dealt a great deal of damage to the Samoan Islands: Tsunami waves as high as 14 meters (46 feet) wiped out multiple villages, claiming nearly 200 lives and severely damaging water and electrical systems. New research reveals the damage is likely to continue in the island Tutuila, also known as American Samoa.
19 March 2019
Western droughts caused permanent loss to major California groundwater source
According to new research, the San Joaquin Valley aquifer in the Central Valley shrank permanently by up to 3 percent due to excess pumping during the sustained dry spell.
27 February 2019
Old stone walls record history of Earth’s magnetic wanderings
Some of the remnant walls snaking through the forests of New York and New England from long-abandoned early American farms can be used as references to deduce the position of Earth’s magnetic field in previous centuries.
28 November 2018
New automated volcano warning system forecasts imminent eruptions
Scientists have developed an automated early warning system for volcanic eruptions, according to a new study. The new system helped government officials warn the public of impending eruptions in Italy and could potentially do the same around the globe, according to the study’s authors. The new research details the new system that monitors volcanic noises and automatically alerts officials if an eruption is imminent. The study’s authors tested this system over a period of eight years on Mount Etna, a volcano on the island of Sicily. Using the new system, the Italian government activated an emergency plan about one hour prior to an eruption for the first time in late 2015.
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.
30 July 2018
Study reveals how sand dunes alter seismic waves
A new study finds that sand dunes act like seismic echo chambers and suggests new ways to filter out the noise they create in seismic surveys.
16 October 2017
Waves in lakes make waves in the Earth
Scientists at the University of Utah report that small seismic signals emanating from lakes can aid science. As a record of wave motion in a lake, they can reveal when a lake freezes over and when it thaws. And as a small, constant source of seismic energy in the surrounding earth, lake microseisms can shine a light on the geology surrounding a lake.
27 April 2017
Glass formed by volcanic lightning could be used to study eruptions
Researchers have developed a method to measure one of the most striking and difficult to measure volcanic features – volcanic lightning – using the tiny glass spheres formed by hot volcanic ash.
16 May 2016
New study maps rate of New Orleans sinking
New Orleans and surrounding areas continue to sink at highly variable rates due to a combination of natural geologic and human-induced processes, a new study finds. The observed rates of sinking, known as subsidence, were generally consistent with, but somewhat higher than, previous studies conducted using different data.
13 May 2016
New research estimates probability of mega-earthquake in the Aleutians
A new study estimates the probability of a Magnitude 9+ earthquake in the Aleutian Islands—an event with sufficient power to create a mega-tsunami especially threatening to Hawai‘i. In the next 50 years, there is a 9 percent chance of such an event, according to researchers from University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
3 May 2016
Scientists find likely cause for recent southeast U.S. earthquakes
The southeastern United States should has seen some notable seismic events – most recently, the 2011 magnitude-5.8 earthquake near Mineral, Virginia that shook the nation’s capital. Now, scientists report in a new study a likely explanation for this unusual activity: pieces of the mantle under this region have been periodically breaking off and sinking down into the Earth.
13 April 2016
2012 Texas earthquakes may have been man-made
Analysis of a series of earthquakes in East Texas in 2012 has found it plausible that the earthquakes were caused by wastewater injection. Previous studies relied on the timing and proximity of wastewater injection to earthquakes to decide if earthquakes were induced by human activity. This was the first to simulate the mechanics of an earthquake generated by water injection for this site.
29 October 2015
3D images of magma below Mono Craters
A new conceptual model of the magma system below Mono Lake and Mono Craters in eastern California gives scientists a more detailed understanding of volcanic processes at depth and a better model for forecasting volcanic unrest. The accuracy and high resolution of the new three-dimensional images of the magma chambers and volcanic “plumbing” below Mono Basin give scientists a better understanding of their size, shape and where the next eruption might occur.
