October 5, 2014
Benchmarks: November 8, 2013: Super-typhoon Haiyan tests Philippines warning protocols
Should we rethink our warning terminology? On the morning of Nov. 8, 2013, Super-Typhoon Haiyan struck the east-central Philippines with …
The EARTH archive
November 2014
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41 articles · Page 2 of 2
October 5, 2014
Geologic Column: Geography as destiny: How glaciation led to the Civil War
It intrigues me how geography — a product of dynamic processes shaping Earth’s surface — influences our lives, culture and even plays a hand in …
October 3, 2014
Comment: IPCC faces challenges in communicating climate science
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released piecemeal over the last year, reports “unequivocal” warming …
October 3, 2014
Energy notes: May 2013-2014
U.S. Oil & Petroleum Imports (million of barrels per day) Oil and petroleum imports data are preliminary numbers taken from the American …
October 3, 2014
Mineral Resource of the Month: Zeolites
Robert Virta, a mineral commodity specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey, prepared the following information about the zeolite industry. …
October 3, 2014
Down to Earth With: Molecular biologist Sarah L. Anzick
In May 1968, when Sarah L. Anzick was 2 years old, the 12,600-year-old remains of a male toddler were discovered at the base of a bluff on her …
October 3, 2014
Getting there and getting around Bali
Visitors to Bali arrive at the Ngurah Rai International Airport on the island’s southern side. No direct flights are available from the U.S.; …
October 3, 2014
Travels in Geology: Bali beckons
In Indonesia — a vast archipelago of more than 18,000 islands stretching more than 5,000 kilometers between the Indian and Pacific oceans — Bali …
October 2, 2014
Solar storms cause spike in electrical insurance claims
On March 13, 1989, a geomagnetic storm spawned by a solar outburst struck Earth, triggering instabilities in the electric power grid that serves …
October 2, 2014
Tiny ants are heroic weathering agents
Over geologic timescales, weathering of silicate minerals — which account for more than 90 percent of all crustal rocks on Earth — plays a …
October 2, 2014
Can renewable energy and desalination tackle two problems at once?
Over the past four years, a record-setting drought has impacted Texas, the second-most populous state in the U.S. The drought started in October …
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 2, 2014
Calculating America's energy landscape
Studying the landscape-scale impact of energy development, especially renewable energies, requires working at the interface where policy, …
August 12, 2014
Geomedia: 'Dinosaur 13' chisels away at the story behind discovery of Sue
As the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found, “Sue” is an icon. She even has her own logo and her own Twitter account. Sue made …