July 10, 2014
People's earthquake reports influenced more by locomotion than location
Intensity scales like the Modified Mercalli scale, used in the U.S., and the European Macroseismic scale measure the strength of shaking produced …
The EARTH archive
Earthquakes
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115 articles · Page 2 of 5
June 23, 2014
San Andreas Fault shook Bay Area three times in a century
“This project took a lot of footwork,” says Ashley Streig, a paleoseismologist at the University of Oregon and lead author of the new study, …
May 15, 2014
Longmenshan fault zone in the spotlight after two major quakes in five years
In May 2008, a magnitude-7.9 earthquake struck near Wenchuan, China, killing more than 80,000 people in the country’s biggest quake since 1950. …
May 14, 2014
Humans causing California's mountains to grow
Humankind has proven time and again that it can reshape mountains, or even tear them down. Now, it appears, we can make them rise as well. …
April 11, 2014
Faking quakes at full scale: Giant shake tables simulate earthquakes to make buildings safer
On a muggy day in mid-July 2009, a lone seven-story condominium complex northwest of Kobe, Japan, was violently shaken by seismic forces similar …
April 2, 2014
Massive earthquake strikes Chile
Update (April 2, 2014 9:49 a.m. EDT): As of Wednesday morning, many of the more than 900,000 people who evacuated from coastal areas of northern …
February 20, 2014
Seattle's landslide risk greater than thought
Landslides have been part of Seattle’s history “from a time to which the memory of man runneth not back,” wrote famed city engineer Reginald …
February 20, 2014
Benchmarks: March 27, 1964: The Good Friday Alaska Earthquake and Tsunamis
During the Cold War, many Americans lived in fear of the day their town would be shaken by an atomic bomb blast. On Good Friday 1964, some …
December 10, 2013
Hazards abroad: Sent home
On May 19, 2012, seismologist Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado at Boulder landed at the airport in Delhi, India, on his way to Bhutan. …
November 20, 2013
Giant quake sloshed fjords half a world away
On the morning of March 11, 2011, Leif Hus and his wife Gry Melas Hus were having breakfast in their kitchen overlooking Sognefjord in Leikanger, …
November 20, 2013
Old photos help scientists relocate 1906 San Francisco quake rupture point
Portola Valley, just south of San Francisco, is famous for its progressive approach to geology. The town was the subject of the first geologic …
November 18, 2013
A public service announcement: Improve geologic literacy starting on the home front
Earlier this fall, I took a paddleboarding tour along the Willamette River to Willamette Falls near Oregon City, Ore., a Portland suburb famous …
November 8, 2013
Slab tear explains perplexing Colombian earthquake activity
Colombia sits atop a restless intersection of tectonic plates: The Caribbean Plate is subducting along the country’s northern coast while the …
October 29, 2013
World's largest deep earthquake recorded
The seismology world may have a new leader in superlatives: On May 24, 2013, the largest, deep earthquake ever recorded struck beneath the Sea of …
September 9, 2013
Scientists demonstrate strengths and shortcomings of method for determining ancient earthquake size
“A giant Cascadia earthquake, with its accompanying tsunami, has the potential to be the biggest natural disaster in this history of the U.S.,” …
July 16, 2013
Alaskan volcano doesn't just huff and puff, it screams
In March 2009, Alaska’s Mount Redoubt awoke from two decades of silence with something to say: A series of small earthquakes leading up to the …
March 15, 2013
Big quakes topple traditional views of fault behavior
If rules are made to be broken, then perhaps conventional wisdom is made to be overturned. The spate of large earthquakes in recent years — the …
February 11, 2013
Setting sail on unknown seas: The past, present and future of species rafting
On June 5, 2012, several thousand castaways rode a massive boxcar-sized dock to landfall on Oregon’s Agate Beach, just north of Newport. A plaque …
December 3, 2012
Superquakes, supercycles, and global earthquake clustering: Recent research and recent quakes reveal surprises in major fault systems
A number of recent big earthquakes around the world have humbled many earthquake researchers. The March 2011 magnitude-9 superquake off Tohoku, …
October 26, 2012
Voices: Judged unfairly in L'Aquila - roles and responsibilities should have been considered
Earlier this week, an Italian judge summarily convicted seven participants in a meeting of the Italian Serious Risks Commission who evaluated the …
October 22, 2012
Hazardous Living: Italian seismologists tragically convicted of manslaughter
Today, six seismologists and one government official were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison. The seismologists and …
October 16, 2012
Blame it on the rain: The proposed links between severe storms and earthquakes
The U.S. Geological Survey’s website states it in no uncertain terms: “There is no such thing as ’earthquake weather.'” Not too surprising, …
September 27, 2012
Risky business: Modeling catastrophes
Natural hazards — earthquakes, tropical cyclones and thunderstorms, for example — occur with considerable frequency around the world. …
July 23, 2012
On the web: Shake, rattle and roll: What does an earthquake sound like?
The sounds we associate with earthquakes tend to be those induced aboveground. Low-pitched rumbles, rattling windows and car alarms might be …