Posted inSci/Tech

Hidden Microearthquakes Illuminate Large Earthquake-Hosting Faults in Oklahoma and Kansas

Using machine learning to sift through a decade’s worth of seismic data, researchers have identified hundreds of thousands of microearthquakes along some previously unknown fault structures in Oklahoma and Kansas. The newly identified microearthquakes allowed the seismologists to map and measure earthquake clusters in the region, which has experienced unusual levels of seismicity due to […]

Posted inSci/Tech

When It Comes to Eyewitness Accounts of Earthquake Shaking, Representation Matters

As scientists increasingly rely on eyewitness accounts of earthquake shaking reported through online systems, they should consider whether those accounts are societally and spatially representative for an event, according to a new paper published in Seismological Research Letters. Socioeconomic factors can play a significant if complex role in limiting who uses systems such as the […]

Posted inSci/Tech

Hawai’i Researchers Kept the Data Flowing During Crisis Response on Kīlauea

December 9, 2020 – The summer 2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano on the Island of Hawai’i was one of the most significant in the volcano’s history, collapsing a large portion of the summit caldera, erupting massively from its flank and triggering a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the process. Through it all, scientists at the Hawaiian […]

Posted inCalifornia

Smaller Earthquakes “With Ambition” Produce the Most Ground Shaking

November 4, 2020 – An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 or larger will almost always cause strong shaking, but a new study suggests that smaller earthquakes—those around magnitude 5.5 or so–are the cause of most occurrences of strong shaking at a 60-kilometer (37-mile) distance. Small earthquakes are expected to produce relatively weak shaking, and for the most part […]

Posted inCalifornia

Earthquake Catalog Shows Complex Rupturing During 2019 Ridgecrest Sequence

January 22, 2020 – The 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence, which startled nearby California residents over the 4 July holiday with magnitude 6.4 and magnitude 7.1 earthquakes, included 34,091 earthquakes overall, detailed in a high-resolution catalog created for the sequence. The catalog, developed by David Shelly at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, was published […]

Posted inSci/Tech

3-D Models of Cascadia Megathrust Events Match Coastal Changes from 1700 Earthquake

October 29, 2019 – By combining models of magnitude 9 to 9.2 earthquakes on the Cascadia Subduction Zone with geological evidence of past coastal changes, researchers have a better idea of what kind of megathrust seismic activity was behind the 1700 Cascadia earthquake. The analysis by Erin Wirth and Arthur Frankel of the U.S. Geological […]

Posted inSci/Tech

Catalog of North Texas Earthquakes Confirms Continuing Effects of Wastewater Disposal

June 11, 2019 – A comprehensive catalog of earthquake sequences in Texas’s Fort Worth Basin, from 2008 to 2018, provides a closer look at how wastewater disposal from oil and gas exploration has changed the seismic landscape in the basin. In their report published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Louis Quinones […]

Posted inSci/Tech

Snowmelt Causes Seismic Swarm Near California’s Long Valley Caldera

April 25, 2019 – A spring surge of meltwater, seeping through vertically tilted layers of rock, caused a seismic swarm near California’s Long Valley Caldera in 2017, according to research presented at the 2019 SSA Annual Meeting. The unusual event prompted U.S. Geological Survey researcher Emily Montgomery-Brown and her colleagues to look back through 33 […]

Posted inSci/Tech

Damaging Sichuan Earthquakes Linked to Fracking Operations

April 5, 2019 – Two moderate-sized earthquakes that struck the southern Sichuan Province of China last December and January were probably caused by nearby fracking operations, according to a new study published in Seismological Research Letters. The December 2018 magnitude 5.7 and the January 2019 magnitude 5.3 earthquakes in the South Sichuan Basin caused extensive […]

Sign In

We've recently sent you an authentication link. Please, check your inbox!

Sign in with a password below, or sign in using your email.

Get a code sent to your email to sign in, or sign in using a password.

Enter the code you received via email to sign in, or sign in using a password.

Subscribe to our newsletters:

OR

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Service.