March 29, 2016
Where fire freezes: All eyes, ears and instruments on Iceland's volatile volcanoes
With examples of every type of volcano on Earth, and about a third of the island’s more than 30 active volcanic systems buried under glacial ice, …
The EARTH archive
Earthquakes
Explore the archive by subject.
115 articles · Page 1 of 5
September 3, 2015
Vital seconds: The journey toward earthquake early warning for all
It is a cool foggy morning in San Mateo, Calif. A small ray of light has just peeked through my window. I listen to the birds chirping as I …
March 9, 2015
Small tremor could have triggered big Chilean quake
On April 1, 2014, a magnitude-8.2 earthquake shook the empty stretch of coast where Chile arcs into Peru, a region called the Iquique Gap. The …
January 30, 2015
March 29, 1936: Notes on Earth's Inner Core
On March 29, 1936, Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann wrote a letter to a colleague in which she argued that seismic waves — specifically P-waves — …
January 5, 2015
Tohoku tsunami may have gotten a boost from submarine slump
When the magnitude-9 Tohoku earthquake hit Japan on March 11, 2011, the mainshock triggered tsunami waves averaging about 10 meters in height by …
December 18, 2014
Down to Earth With: Brian Tucker
Some of the world’s most densely populated cities are at highest risk for earthquake-related disasters. Geophysicist Brian Tucker has spent the …
December 17, 2014
Hazard lingers after South Napa earthquake
San Francisco — The magnitude-6 earthquake that shook buildings and rattled wineries in California’s Napa Valley on Aug. 24, 2014, continues to …
December 9, 2014
Lead-up to Icelandic earthquakes seen in groundwater chemistry
Scientists tracking groundwater in Iceland have reported that significant shifts in the water’s chemistry occurred months prior to earthquakes in …
November 4, 2014
Snow triggers quakes on Mount Rainier
A new study indicates that more than 150,000 low-frequency earthquakes that occurred on Mount Rainier over the past decade were caused by …
November 3, 2014
Inland earthquake triggers distant tsunami
On Sept. 24, 2013, a magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck southern Pakistan, killing more than 800 people. The quake made global headlines in part due …
November 3, 2014
Benchmarks: December 26, 2004: Indian Ocean tsunami strikes
On Dec. 26, 2004, a magnitude-9.2 earthquake ruptured the seafloor off Indonesia, sending the most destructive tsunami in recorded history across …
October 6, 2014
Seismic friction causes fault iridescence
Although iridescent spots on rocks in Utah’s Wasatch Fault Zone were first recognized two decades ago, scientists haven’t understood their …
October 6, 2014
Russian earthquake ruptures superfast and deep
A “superfast” magnitude-6.7 earthquake was detected off the coast of Kamchatka, Russia, in May. The earthquake, called a “supershear” quake, is …
October 2, 2014
Casting a seismic shadow
In the week or two before the magnitude-8.6 Indian Ocean earthquake in 2012, Earth was unusually quiet, with few large quakes over magnitude 5. …
October 2, 2014
Triggered tremor along the San Andreas Fault
The San Andreas Fault (SAF) in California is one of the most active in the U.S., but the 1,300-kilometer-long strike-slip fault seems to only be …
October 2, 2014
Remote triggering of ice quakes
On Feb. 27, 2010, a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck the subduction zone off the coast of Chile. The resulting Rayleigh surface waves rippled …
October 2, 2014
We're all living in the global aftershock zone
When large back-to-back earthquakes hit Earth — and the headlines — many people wonder if the events are linked. Can one earthquake trigger …
September 3, 2014
Alaskan megathrust fault more active under Kodiak
In 1964, a magnitude-9.2 earthquake ruptured two segments of the Alaskan megathrust fault along more than 900 kilometers from Prince William …
August 21, 2014
Human-induced earthquakes shake less
Occurrences of earthquakes in the Central and Eastern United States have increased since 2009 — a phenomenon that many scientists attribute to …
August 19, 2014
In Turkey, the older the fault, the bigger the quake: Good news for Istanbul?
For decades, Istanbul has been bracing for a major earthquake from the dangerously active North Anatolian Fault, which passes just 20 kilometers …
August 7, 2014
The Bay Area's next 'big one' could strike as a series of quakes
Californians are bracing for when the San Andreas Fault unleashes the next “big one,” but a new study looking at the paleoseismic history of the …
July 28, 2014
Books: The once and future San Andreas Fault
One of the most famous pictures of the San Andreas Fault — taken by G.K. Gilbert, the pioneering geologist whose late-19th century insights into …
July 21, 2014
Are slow-slip earthquakes under Tokyo stressing faults?
To study plate movements under Tokyo, Shinzaburo Ozawa of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan in Tsukuba used GPS sensors to track the …
July 10, 2014
Striped pyrites link earthquakes to gold deposition
Pyrite, or “fool’s gold,” is an iron sulfide mineral commonly found in hydrothermal ore deposits. In such deposits, gold atoms can substitute for …