Earthquakes News

July 8, 2016

Penguin Colonies at Risk from Erupting Volcano

What Can Giant Blobs Inside Earth Tell Us?

Mounting Tension in the Himalaya

Ancient Earth's Scars Affect Today's Earthquakes

Latest Headlines

updated 4:57am EDT

Understanding Tsunamis With EM Fields

July 7, 2016 — New research shows that important focal parameters of tsunamigenic earthquakes -- particularly fault dip direction -- can be extracted from tsunami-borne electromagnetic fields. Such details may ... read more

New Study Upends a Theory of How Earth's Mantle Flows

July 6, 2016 — A new study carried out on the floor of Pacific Ocean provides the most detailed view yet of how the earth's mantle flows beneath the ocean's tectonic plates. The findings appear to upend a common ... read more

Fukushima and the Oceans: What Do We Know, Five Years On?

June 30, 2016 — A major international review of the state of the oceans five years after the Fukushima disaster shows that radiation levels are decreasing rapidly except in the harbor area close to the nuclear plant ... read more

Plate Tectonics Without Jerking: Detailed Recordings of Earthquakes on Ultraslow Mid-Ocean Ridges

June 29, 2016 — The earthquake distribution on ultra-slow mid-ocean ridges differs fundamentally from other spreading zones. Water circulating at a depth of up to 15 ... read more

New Analysis Reveals Large-Scale Motion Around San Andreas Fault System

June 20, 2016 — By carefully analyzing the data recorded by the EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory's GPS array researchers discovered nearly 125 mile-wide 'lobes' of uplift and subsidence ... read more

Researcher Helps Break Ground on Forecasting Earthquakes

June 14, 2016 — Researchers are breaking ground on the complexity of earthquakes and the possibility to ... read more

Electrical Conductivity of Salt Water in Seismogenic Zones Theoretically Determined

June 13, 2016 — Scientists have succeeded in theoretically determining the electrical conductivity of NaCl solution (salt water) in a ... read more

Arc Volcano Releases Mix of Material from Earth's Mantle and Crust

June 13, 2016 — Basalt from a common type of volcano shows a surprising contribution from the descending oceanic plate. Analyses show that magnesium atoms are somehow drawn out of the crust, ... read more

A Warning System for Tsunamis

May 24, 2016 — Scientists have developed the Time Reverse Imaging Method to take real-time data from the ocean sensors and use that information to recreate what the tsunami looked like when it was born. Once ... read more

New Study Finds Major Earthquake Threat from the Riasi Fault in the Himalayas

May 18, 2016 — New geologic mapping in the Himalayan mountains of Kashmir between Pakistan and India suggests that the region is ripe for a ... read more

Drone Footage Shows Extent of Japan Quake Damage

Shell's Arctic Oil Exploration Was Always A Risk

Strong Tremors Felt in India as Massive Quake Hits Region

Seismic Activity Halts Recovery at Japan Volcano

Humans Have Been Causing Earthquakes in Texas Since the 1920s

May 17, 2016 — Earthquakes triggered by human activity have been happening in Texas since at least 1925, and they have been widespread throughout the state ever since, according to a new historical review of the ... read more

Clues to Ancient Giant Asteroid Found in Australia

May 16, 2016 — Scientists have found evidence of a huge asteroid that struck the Earth early in its life with an impact larger than anything humans have experienced. Tiny glass beads called spherules, found in ... read more

New Research Estimates Probability of Mega-Earthquake in the Aleutians

May 13, 2016 — A team of researchers have estimated the probability of a Magnitude 9+ earthquake in the Aleutian Islands -- an event with sufficient power to create a mega-tsunami especially threatening to ... read more

Map of Flow Within the Earth's Mantle Finds the Surface Moving Up and Down 'Like a Yo-Yo'

May 9, 2016 — Researchers have compiled the first global set of observations of flow within the Earth's mantle -- the layer between the crust and the core -- and found that it is moving much faster than has ... read more

Scientists Track Greenland's Ice Melt With Seismic Waves

May 6, 2016 — Researchers have developed a new technique to monitor the seasonal changes in Greenland's ice sheet, using seismic vibrations generated by crashing ocean waves. The results may help scientists ... read more

Seismic Response of Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Coupled Walls

May 6, 2016 — Use of Fiber-Reinforced Concrete in construction will allow for the use of less and simpler steel reinforcement while maintaining good structural behavior and potentially reducing the amount of ... read more

Tsunami Risk: World's Shallowest Slow-Motion Earthquakes Detected Offshore of New Zealand

May 5, 2016 — New research indicates that slow-motion earthquakes or 'slow-slip events' can rupture the shallow portion of a fault that also moves in large, tsunami-generating earthquakes. The finding ... read more

Likely Cause for Recent Southeast US Earthquakes: Underside of the North American Plate Peeling Off

May 3, 2016 — The southeastern United States should, by all means, be relatively quiet in terms of seismic activity. It's located in the interior of the North American Plate, far away from plate boundaries ... read more

Speedy Bridge Repair

Apr. 28, 2016 — Normally, it takes weeks to repair the cracking or spalling of columns on just one bridge damaged in an earthquake. Now a team of researchers has developed a new process of fixing damaged bridge ... read more

Rainwater May Play an Important Role in Process That Triggers Earthquakes

Apr. 27, 2016 — Rainwater may play an important role in the process that triggers earthquakes, according to new research. Researchers have identified the sources and fluxes of the geothermal fluids and mineral veins ... read more

Chile Quake at Epicenter of Expanding Disaster, Failure Data Repository

Apr. 26, 2016 — A research team has made available a comprehensive set of data from the 2010 Chile earthquake to provide researchers, engineers, codemakers and others in quake-prone areas worldwide a powerful tool ... read more

Landslide Risk Remains High a Year After Magnitude-7.8 Nepal Earthquake

Apr. 25, 2016 — With the monsoon fast approaching, the landslide risk in Nepal remains high a year after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake that killed more than 8,000 people, according to a research ... read more

Preparations for a US West Coast Tsunami Look to the Past and Future

Apr. 21, 2016 — Plans for managing tsunami risk on the West Coast are evolving, said scientists. These plans include everything from tsunami hazard maps that guide the development of personal and community ... read more

Induced Earthquakes Come Under Closer Scrutiny

Apr. 20, 2016 — On March 28, the US Geological Survey issued a one-year seismic forecast for the United States that for the first time includes ground-shaking hazards from both natural and human-induced ... read more

Natural Disasters Since 1900: Over 8 Million Deaths, 7 Trillion US Dollars

Apr. 18, 2016 — More than seven trillion US dollars economic damage and eight million deaths via natural disasters since the start of the 20th century. These figures have been calculated using a database called ... read more

Earthquake May Have Been Humanmade, but More Data Needed to Assess Hazards in Texas

Apr. 13, 2016 — The most comprehensive analysis to date of a series of earthquakes that included a 4.8 magnitude event in East Texas in 2012 has found it plausible that the earthquakes were caused by wastewater ... read more

Hi-Tech Opens Up Earth's Secrets

Apr. 11, 2016 — A scientist has developed a hi-tech animation of millions of years of tectonic plate movements that could lead to new mineral discoveries and help predict volcanic ... read more

Slow Fault Movements May Indicate Impending Earthquakes

Apr. 5, 2016 — Scientists have discovered a way to forecast earthquakes based on slow fault movements caused by moving sub-layers of the Earth. The study may have major significance on the prediction of ... read more

Researchers Reproduce Mechanism of Slow Earthquakes

Mar. 31, 2016 — Up until now, catching lightning in a bottle has been easier than reproducing a range of earthquakes in the laboratory, according to a team of seismologists who can now duplicate the range of fault ... read more

Fracking -- Not Wastewater Disposal -- Linked to Most Induced Earthquakes in Western Canada

Mar. 29, 2016 — A survey of a major oil and natural gas-producing region in Western Canada suggests a link between hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking' and induced earthquakes in the ... read more

Tuesday, May 17, 2016