Advancing earthquake science worldwide
This category is for the At Work column
11 April 2018–In 1994, Natalia Ruppert arrived at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to start graduate school, uncertain whether she would stay for more than one semester. Now, Ruppert has been studying earthquakes in her adopted state and country for almost 25 years, with no plans to leave Fairbanks in … Continue Reading »
13 March 2018–The way that soil and rock behave during and after an earthquake are studied not just by earth scientists, but by the engineers who must build against the next earthquake. It’s an aspect of seismology that isn’t always recognized by the public, says University of Texas at Austin … Continue Reading »
26 January 2018–Kevin Milner was studying computer programming and 3D animation at the University of Southern California as an undergraduate when he took a sophomore-year internship with the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC). SCEC was looking for help with 3D visualization software, “but I didn’t really know anything about earthquakes,” … Continue Reading »
27 December 2017–Xyoli Pérez-Campos was 11 years old when the magnitude 8.0 Michoacán earthquake struck the Mexico City region on 19 September 1985, collapsing buildings near her home. Her uncle survived the total collapse of the 13-story Nuevo León apartment building, in an area of the city devastated by the … Continue Reading »
17 November 2017–A magnitude 5.8 earthquake in western Montana and a swarm of more than 400 small earthquakes around Yellowstone National Park kept Mike Stickney busy this summer. As the director of the Earthquake Studies Office at the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, Stickney is the one-person seismology shop … Continue Reading »
9 October 2017–USGS research geologist Carol Prentice’s career path has been globe-trotting, taking her to field sites in Northern California, the Caribbean and Mongolia, among other places. “I really love the San Andreas fault, but I guess I don’t have a favorite place to work,” Prentice says. Prentice splits her … Continue Reading »