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14 December 2015
ACME solution to gas leaks
Stanford University’s Miles Traer, once again, is cartooning from the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco.
1 December 2015
Seismic risk in eastern Mediterranean higher than previously estimated
The eastern Mediterranean is more seismically active than previously assumed, a new study finds. On a geological time scale, seismic activity around the island of Crete has generated large earthquakes in bursts, potentially increasing the future risk for earthquakes and tsunamis in the region.
3 September 2015
New research calls for rethinking of New Zealand’s Alpine Fault
New research could prompt a shift in thinking about New Zealand’s Alpine Fault.
7 August 2015
Natural arches hum their health and scientists are listening
Natural arches ring like guitar strings, plucked by seismic energy and the wind. New research shows how those seismic chords can be used to determine whether the arches are in danger of collapsing.
17 February 2015
Earthquake faults identified in surge of Oklahoma quakes
New research has revealed the faults associated with more than 3,600 earthquakes that have been recorded in Oklahoma since 2009. The study also finds that recently reactivated ancient faults in the center of the state could generate higher-magnitude and more destructive earthquakes than the region has experienced since earthquake activity picked up there five years ago.
22 December 2014
Picture Perfect and Water Wise: Images May Someday Predict the Hazards of Volcanic Gas
Earlier this year, superheated water within Japan’s Mount Ontake triggered a hydrothermal explosion. Scientists monitoring the volcano had seen no signs of impending danger. The resulting steam-triggered eruption killed 57 people. Clusters of earthquakes often precede major eruptions of lava and ash. The same is not true for smaller steam-triggered eruptions of gas like the Ontake event. But those are the sorts of events that Társilo Girona would like to predict, and he believes that cameras may be the key.
18 December 2014
Heaven Above and Earth Below: Scientists Track Atmospheric Disturbances to Gather Earthquake Data
Earthquakes generate seismic waves that propagate through earth, water, and air. Generations of geologists have used ground-based seismometers to decipher information about earthquakes, including magnitude, epicenter, depth and tsunami danger. But more recently some researchers have wondered if seismic waves traveling through the air also carry traceable information about the earthquake that generated them. If so, measuring seismic waves in the atmosphere could potentially speed up earthquake reporting systems and improve the accuracy of tsunami alerts.
16 December 2014
Scientists use satellites to monitor volcano risks
A NASA team utilized satellite data to create a map of past volcanic deposits and modeled the risk to nearby towns. They found one town on a potential lava flow path and a second town at risk for mud flows. The results were presented at Monday’s poster session at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting. The group’s methodology using satellite images can serve as a template for remotely assessing volcano risk, according to the researchers.
13 November 2014
Satellite nightlight images show flood exposure increasing worldwide
More people around the world live in flood-prone regions than did 20 years ago, increasing death tolls and economic damage from floods and the chances that flooding will cause similar losses in the future, a new study finds. The increased concentration of human populations in flood-risk zones could exacerbate an already expected upsurge in flood-related destruction in a warming climate, the researchers report.
The study has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. Its authors used satellite images to show that a widely used proxy for population—the number of lights seen at night—increased globally along rivers by an average of 1.2 percent each year between 1992 and 2012.
24 October 2014
Hurricane Sandy restoration saves shorebirds, ‘living fossils’ they rely on
When Hurricane Sandy hit the U.S. East Coast two years ago, it threatened the survival of a 400-million-year-old crab species and about a million shorebirds that rely on the crabs’ eggs for nourishment during long migrations. Retreating storm waters took with them 60 to 90 centimeters (two to three feet) of sand from the Delaware Bay beaches where horseshoe crabs lay eggs and left behind piles of debris, destroying 70 percent of the crab’s prime nesting zones in the area.
GeoSpace is a blog on Earth and space science, managed by AGU’s Public Information staff. The blog features posts by AGU writers and guest contributors on all sorts of relevant science topics, but with a focus on new research and geo and space sciences-related stories that are currently in the news.