Research published in Nature shows theoretical feasibility of quake forecasting
Earthquakes along a set of fault lines in the Pacific Ocean emit small “foreshocks” that can be used to forecast the main tremor, according to research in the March 24 issue of Nature. It is the first demonstration that some types of large imminent earthquakes may be systematically predictable on time scales of hours or less. Statistically reliable forecasting of imminent quakes has been an elusive goal f
Rising sea levels 20,000 years ago, as the last ice age was beginning to wane, often are attributed in part to melting in West Antarctica.
But in a new study led by University of Washington researchers, an ice core of 1,000 meters was used as a sort of dipstick to show that a key section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet probably never contained as much ice as scientists originally thought it did. That means it couldn’t have contributed as much to the higher sea level. In an area c
British researchers have launched urgent research programmes in order to learn lessons from the recent Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster. Such knowledge is relevant to both UK, and overseas disaster assessment and prevention programmes.
Funded by grants from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), teams from the University of Cambridge, the University of Newcastle, and University College London have looked at differing aspects of the tsunami’s effects. Their o
Since they began clearing valleys and slopes for agriculture more than 9,000 years ago, and continuing with the construction of roads, buildings and cities, people have been altering landscapes. UVM geologists explore the link between human actions and landscape–and reach some important conclusions–in the cover article of the April/May issue of GSA Today. Produced by the Geological Society of America, the prestigious monthly journal goes to more than 20,000 geologists and libraries worldwid
Envisat radar imagery confirms that the B-15A iceberg – the world’s largest floating object – is adrift once more after two months aground on a shallow seamount. This latest development poses a renewed threat to the nearby pier of land-attached ice known as the Drygalski ice tongue.
The sheer scale of B-15A is best appreciated from space. The bottle-shaped Antarctic iceberg is around 120 kilometres long, with an area exceeding 2500 square kilometres, making it about as larg
The stresses in the earth’s crust which have resulted from the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake have significantly increased the risk of another large earthquake in the already-devastated Indonesian island of Sumatra, according to new research findings by scientists from the University of Ulster’s School of Environmental Sciences.
According to their calculations, published in this week’s edition of leading scientific journal Nature, the Christmas 2004 earthquake which generated the m
Mars isn’t as sleepy as scientists suspected. An international research team, which includes Brown University planetary geologist James Head, has found evidence of recent glacial movement and volcanic eruptions in 3-D images from the Mars Express mission. The team’s latest work, laid out in three Nature papers, also includes evidence of a frozen sea close to the equator. These and other Mars Express findings are stoking debate about the possibility of life on the Red Planet.
Shi
A different style of coastal barrier islands that forms under lower-energy conditions than classic ocean-facing barriers, such as North Carolina’s Outer Banks, has been identified by coastal geological researchers at Duke University and the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. The new style of islands is typically found in protected bays and lagoons.
“This is a major and important recognition,” said Orrin Pilkey, a geology professor emeritus at Duke’s Nicholas
Over 35 million could be affected
The potential for devastating tsunamis in the northern Caribbean is high, say marine scientists, based on their analysis of historical data since the arrival of Columbus. Several natural phenomena could trigger giant tsunamis, they say, with effects felt in the islands of the Greater and Lesser Antilles and along the east and Gulf coasts of the United States.
Nancy Grindlay and Meghan Hearne of the University of North Carolina Wilmingto
The highest levels of silver contamination ever observed in the open ocean turned up in samples collected during a survey of the North Pacific in 2002. Researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, measured silver concentrations 50 times greater than the natural background level. Though still well below levels that would be toxic to marine life, this contamination of what had been considered relatively pristine waters highlights the increasingly global impact of industrial emission
A recent international scientific study on Russian soils raises concerns that acid rain may have serious implications for forest growth in the U.S., particularly in eastern areas such as the Adirondack and Catskill regions of New York according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“We’ve known that acid rain acidifies surface waters, but this is the first time we’ve been able to compare and track tree growth in forests that include soil changes due to acid rain,” said USGS s
Acquired from orbit 800 kilometres away, this Envisat image shows two volcanoes erupting simultaneously on Russia’s snowy Kamchatka Peninsula this week.
Located in the Russian Far East, the Kamchatka Peninsula is a landscape covered with volcanoes, part of the Pacific ’Ring of Fire’. Two stratovolcanoes, Kliuchevskoi and Shiveluch are currently erupting simultaneously.
The more southerly 4835-metre-high Kliuchevskoi volcano began its latest eruption on 17 January 2005.
Seismologists have long relied on earthquakes or expensive tools like explosives to help create images of Earth’s interior, but a new method created by University of Colorado at Boulder researchers will produce quicker, cheaper and clearer images.
Rather than waiting for earthquakes, the researchers have now recovered surface wave information from ambient seismic noise that is constantly produced by fluctuations in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Measuring surface wa
Frees seismologists from ’tyranny’ of waiting for earthquakes
Seismologists have long relied on earthquakes or expensive tools like explosives to help create images of Earth’s interior, but a new method created by University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) researchers will produce quicker, cheaper and clearer images.
Rather than waiting for earthquakes, the researchers have recovered surface-wave information from normal seismic noise that is constantly produc
Scientists have discovered why there isn’t much impact-melted rock at Meteor Crater in northern Arizona. The iron meteorite that blasted out Meteor Crater almost 50,000 years ago was traveling much slower than has been assumed, University of Arizona Regents’ Professor H. Jay Melosh and Gareth Collins of the Imperial College London report in the cover article of Nature (March 10).
“Meteor Crater was the first terrestrial crater identified as a meteorite impact scar, and it’s proba
Earth’s ice-covered polar regions help to keep our climate cool and hold tremendous amounts of fresh water locked up in their glaciers, ice caps, and ice sheets. The ice contained in these vast freshwater reservoirs is the equivalent of nearly 220 feet of sea level. However, when most people think of polar ice, they usually do not think of Canada, the location of only a small percentage of the Arctic’s polar land ice.
Recent research conducted by NASA scientists has reve
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