Advancing earthquake science worldwide
28 April 2020–Hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas production can trigger earthquakes, large and small. A new approach to managing the risk from these quakes could help operators and regulators hit the brakes early enough to prevent nuisance and reduce the chance of property damage and injury. The approach, published … Continue Reading »
15 April 2020–Exploring planets other than the Earth was Hrvoje Tkalčić’s first love, he says. “Ever since I can remember I wanted to become an astronaut.” Tkalčić, now the head of seismology and mathematical geophysics at The Australian National University, was fascinated by the universe and adept in mathematics and … Continue Reading »
14 April 2020–At the regional level and worldwide, the occurrence of large shallow earthquakes appears to follow a mathematical pattern called the Devil’s Staircase, where clusters of earthquake events are separated by long but irregular intervals of seismic quiet. The finding published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of … Continue Reading »
7 April 2020–In complex fault zones, multiple seemingly disconnected faults can potentially rupture at once, increasing the chance of a large damaging earthquake. Recent earthquakes including the 1992 Landers, 1999 Hector Mine and 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes in California, among others, ruptured in this way. But how can seismologists predict whether … Continue Reading »
16 March 2020–There are two main pillars of seismology, Carl Tape says. “One is studying the structure of the earth or any medium—it could be a rock sample in the laboratory, he notes. “The other is studying source processes—an earthquake, a volcanic event, an event within a glacier, a nuclear … Continue Reading »
14 February 2020–As he pursued his master’s degree at Boise State University, Marlon Ramos was doing what he calls “traditional, active-source seismology,” interpreting seismic pictures of tsunami-producing faults near the Kodiak Island segment of the Alaska-Aleutian megathrust zone. “I had an interest in subduction zones and the very large earthquakes … Continue Reading »