August 3, 2018
Gravity changes portended 2011 Tohoku earthquake
A new analysis of satellite data has revealed a distinct change in the gravity signal measured across the Japanese archipelago starting several …
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Tohoku
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November 21, 2017
Opportunist organisms rafted across the Pacific on plastic
Since World War II, fiberglass and plastic — which are stronger, lighter and require less maintenance than wood — have become the materials of …
November 9, 2017
Alaskan subduction zone mirrors Tohoku zone that unleashed tsunami
In 2011, a large swath of coastal Japan was devastated and more than 15,000 people were killed when the magnitude-9.1 Tohoku earthquake unleashed …
February 16, 2017
Gravity changes may warn of large earthquakes
Large earthquakes alter the planet’s gravitational field by displacing big portions of the crust. In a new study looking at earthquake-induced …
May 19, 2016
Surprise quake at Mount Fuji triggered by rising gases
On March 15, 2011, four days after the magnitude-9 Tohoku megathrust earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, a magnitude-5.9 earthquake shook the …
April 20, 2015
A decade of slow slip may have preceded Japan's 2011 earthquake
Everyone notices when a fault ruptures quickly — the ground shakes and shudders, and sometimes, the seas churn. However, tectonic plates can also …
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, …
February 12, 2013
Well-healed faults produce high-frequency earthquake waves
Much like our voices create sound waves with a variety of low and high pitches, or frequencies, earthquakes also produce seismic waves over a …
March 5, 2012
Voices: From Haiti to Japan: A tale of two disaster recoveries
A year ago this month, a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck northern Japan. Two years and two months earlier, on Jan. 12, 2010, a much …