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Categories: Geoscience: Earthquakes, Geoscience: Landslides
Published Study explores uncertainties in flood risk estimates


Flood frequency analysis is a technique used to estimate flood risk, providing statistics such as the '100-year flood' or '500-year flood' that are critical to infrastructure design, dam safety analysis, and flood mapping in flood-prone areas. But the method used to calculate these flood frequencies is due for an update, according to a new study.
Published The Earth moves far under our feet: A new study shows the inner core oscillates


Scientists have found evidence that the Earth's inner core oscillates, contradicting previously accepted models that posited it consistently rotates at a faster rate than the planet's surface.
Published Updating our understanding of Earth's architecture


New models that show how the continents were assembled are providing fresh insights into the history of the Earth and will help provide a better understanding of natural hazards like earthquakes and volcanoes.
Published Lab earthquakes show how grains at fault boundaries lead to major quakes


In a 'seismological wind tunnel,' engineers demonstrate the impact of rock gouge -- ground-up rock along a fault boundary -- on earthquake propogation.
Published The link between temperature, dehydration and tectonic tremors in Alaska


No one is at their best when they are dehydrated and that goes for tectonic plates too. Researchers using a thermomechanical model of the Alaska subduction zone indicates that plate dehydration is at its highest in the region where low-frequency tremors occur, suggesting that the expelled water contributes towards these seimic events. This improved understanding will contribute to better predictions of future earthquakes.
Published A 3400-year-old city emerges from the Tigris River


Archaeologists have uncovered a 3400-year-old Mittani Empire-era city once located on the Tigris River. The settlement emerged from the waters of the Mosul reservoir early this year as water levels fell rapidly due to extreme drought in Iraq. The extensive city with a palace and several large buildings could be ancient Zakhiku -- believed to have been an important center in the Mittani Empire (ca. 1550-1350 BC).
Published The history of Lake Cahuilla before the Salton Sea


Lake Cahuilla went through many cycles of filling and drying out over thousands of years. A new study used radiocarbon dating to determine the timing of the last seven periods of filling during the Late Holocene. The research sheds light on both the history of human occupation in the area and its seismic past.
Published Arc volcanoes are wetter than previously thought, with scientific and economic implications


The percentage of water in arc volcanoes, which form above subduction zones, may be far more than many previous studies have calculated. This increased amount of water has broad implications for understanding how Earth's lower crust forms, how magma erupts through the crust, and how economically important mineral ore deposits form, according to a new article.
Published Tsunami threats underestimated in current models


USC researchers have found a correlation between tsunami severity and the width of the outer wedge -- the area between the continental shelf and deep trenches where large tsunamis emerge -- that helps explain how underwater seismic events generate large tsunamis.
Published Puzzling features deep in Earth's interior illuminated


New research examines an unusual pocket of rock at the boundary layer with Earth's core, some three thousand kilometers beneath the surface.
Published Hunga volcano eruption provides an explosion of data


The massive Jan. 15, 2022, eruption of the Hunga submarine volcano in the South Pacific Ocean created a variety of atmospheric wave types, including booms heard 6,200 miles away in Alaska. It also created an atmospheric pulse that caused an unusual tsunami-like disturbance that arrived at Pacific shores sooner than the actual tsunami.
Published New research could provide earlier warning of tsunamis


A new method of detecting mega earthquakes, which picks up on the gravity waves they generate by using deep-learning models, can estimate earthquake magnitude in real time and provide earlier warning of tsunamis.
Published Lake Erie quakes triggered by shifting water levels? Study finds no smoking gun, urges further research


In June 2019, a magnitude 4.0 earthquake occurred beneath Lake Erie just off the shoreline of Ohio, about 20 miles northeast of Cleveland.
Published Major 2020 Alaska quake triggered neighboring 2021 temblor


A study of two powerful earthquakes in adjacent areas off the Alaska Peninsula in 2020 and 2021 shows a connection between the two. It also suggests they may be a part of an 80-year rupture cascade along the fault.
Published Landslides can have a major impact on glacier melt and movement


Using satellite imagery to study the effects of a 2019 landslide on the Amalia Glacier in Patagonia, a research team found the landslide helped stabilize the glacier and caused it to grow by about 1,000 meters over the last three years.
Published Space-based system using GPS satellites could warn of incoming tsunamis


A new method for detecting tsunamis using existing GPS satellites orbiting Earth could serve as an effective warning system for countries worldwide, according to a new study.
Published Volcanoes at fault if the Earth slips


A new study has attributed the root cause of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes to specific geological damage. A relatively large dip-slip displacement was discovered at the site. The Futagawa strike-slip fault is a vertical break in the ground tracing a line southwest originating from Mount Aso.
Published Earliest geochemical evidence of plate tectonics found in 3.8-billion-year-old crystal



Plate tectonics may be unique to Earth and may be an essential characteristic of habitable planets. Estimates for its onset range from over 4 billion years ago to just 800 million years ago. A new study reports evidence of a transition in multiple locations around the world, 3.8-3.6 billion years ago, from stable 'protocrust' to pressures and processes that look a lot like modern subduction, suggesting a time when plates first got moving.
Published Neural network model helps predict site-specific impacts of earthquakes



In disaster mitigation planning for future large earthquakes, seismic ground motion predictions are a crucial part of early warning systems. The way the ground moves depends on how the soil layers amplify the seismic waves (described in a mathematical site 'amplification factor'). However, geophysical explorations to understand soil conditions are costly, limiting characterization of site amplification factors to date. Using data on microtremors in Japan, a neural network model can estimate site-specific responses to earthquakes based on subsurface soil conditions.
Published A swarm of 85,000 earthquakes at the Antarctic Orca submarine volcano


In a remote area, a mix of geophysical methods identifies magma transfer below the seafloor as the cause.