Earthquakes News

July 19, 2024

Top Headlines

Iceland's Volcano Eruptions May Last Decades

June 26, 2024 — Scientists predict from geochemical data that Iceland is entering a new volcanic era that will last for decades, possibly centuries. Under an hour's drive from the country's capital city, the ongoing eruptions pose considerable risks for economic ...

An Earthquake Changed the Course of the Ganges: Could It Happen Again?

June 17, 2024 — A major earthquake 2,500 years ago caused one of the largest rivers on Earth to abruptly change course, according to a new study. The previously undocumented quake rerouted the main channel of the Ganges River in what is now densely populated ...

The Rotation of Earth's Inner Core Has Slowed, New Study Confirms

June 13, 2024 — The new study provides unambiguous evidence that the inner core began to decrease its speed around 2010, moving slower than the Earth's ...

Cascadia Subduction Zone, One of Earth's Top Hazards, Comes Into Sharper Focus

June 7, 2024 — A new study has produced the first comprehensive survey of the many complex structures beneath the seafloor in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, off British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California. ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:14pm EDT

Estimating the Energy of Past Earthquakes from Brecciation in a Fault Zone

June 13, 2024 — In the same way that the number of rings in a tree can tell us its age, the characteristics of rocks such as breccia can tell us about the history of a region. The breccia around Ichinokawa Mine ...

Breaking Ground: Could Geometry Offer a New Explanation for Why Earthquakes Happen?

June 5, 2024 — Researchers are adding a new wrinkle to a long-held belief about what causes earthquakes in the first ...

Understanding the Mechanisms for Local Amplification of 2024 Tsunamis in Iida Bay

May 28, 2024 — Researchers uncover the unique mechanisms that resulted in severe tsunamis in Iida Bay caused by the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake. The recent ...

Safeguarding Urban Infrastructure from Subsidence and Liquefaction Risks

May 30, 2024 — During an earthquake, soil can weaken through subsidence and liquefaction. These processes can cause buildings to collapse as the soil becomes unable to support their weight. Researchers have now ...

'Fossilizing' Cracks in Infrastructure Creates Sealing That Can Even Survive Earthquakes

May 22, 2024 — In a new study, a team of researchers used research on fossilizing techniques to create a new method for sealing cracks and fractures in rocks and ...

Highly Sensitive Fiber Optic Gyroscope Senses Rotational Ground Motion Around Active Volcano

May 21, 2024 — Researchers have built a prototype fiber optic gyroscope for high resolution, real-time monitoring of ground rotations caused by earthquakes in the ...

Subduction Zone Splay Faults Compound Hazards of Great Earthquakes

May 20, 2024 — Groundbreaking research has provided new insight into the tectonic plate shifts that create some of the Earth's largest earthquakes and ...

Heavy Snowfall and Rain May Contribute to Some Earthquakes

May 8, 2024 — Episodes of heavy snowfall and rain likely contributed to a swarm of earthquakes over the past several years in northern Japan, researchers find. Their study shows climate conditions could initiate ...

Pore Pressure Diffusion Led to Microseismicity at Illinois Basin Carbon Sequestration Site

May 8, 2024 — Pore pressure diffusion generated by carbon dioxide injected underground at a carbon storage site in the Illinois Basin is the likely cause of ...

Researchers Show That Slow-Moving Earthquakes Are Controlled by Rock Permeability

May 7, 2024 — A research group explores how the makeup of rocks, specifically their permeability -- or how easily fluids can flow through them -- affects the ...

Earlier Headlines

Do Earthquake Hazard Maps Predict Higher Shaking Than Actually Occurred?

May 1, 2024 — A research team studied earthquake hazard maps from five countries and found that all the maps seemed to overpredict the historically observed earthquake shaking intensities. In analyzing the ...

Scientists Trigger Mini-Earthquakes in the Lab

Apr. 19, 2024 — Earthquakes and landslides are famously difficult to predict and prepare for. By studying a miniature version of the ground in the lab, scientists have demonstrated how these events can be triggered ...

Rock Permeability, Microquakes Link May Be a Boon for Geothermal Energy

Apr. 11, 2024 — Using machine learning, researchers have tied low-magnitude microearthquakes to the permeability of subsurface rocks beneath the Earth, a discovery that could have implications for improving ...

Mathematical Innovations Enable Advances in Seismic Activity Detection

Mar. 26, 2024 — Scientists successfully addressed mathematical challenges in conventional Spectral Matrix analysis, used to analyze three-component seismic signals, by introducing time-delay components. The new ...

What Kinds of Seismic Signals Did Swifties Send at LA Concert?

Mar. 13, 2024 — Seattle may have experienced its own Swift Quake last July, but at an August 2023 concert Taylor Swift's fans in Los Angeles gave scientists a lot of shaking to ponder. After some debate, a ...

Biggest Holocene Volcano Eruption Found by Seabed Survey

Feb. 22, 2024 — A detailed survey of the volcanic underwater deposits around the Kikai caldera in Japan clarified the deposition mechanisms as well as the event's magnitude. As a result, the research team found ...

New Detection Method Aims to Warn of Landslide Tsunamis

Feb. 21, 2024 — Researchers have devised a way to remotely detect large landslides within minutes of occurrence and to quickly determine whether they are close to open water and present a tsunami ...

Earthquake Fatality Measure Offers New Way to Estimate Impact on Countries

Feb. 16, 2024 — A new measure that compares earthquake-related fatalities to a country's population size concludes that Ecuador, Lebanon, Haiti, Turkmenistan, Iran and Portugal have experienced the greatest ...

Early-Stage Subduction Invasion

Feb. 15, 2024 — Our planet's lithosphere is broken into several tectonic plates. Their configuration is ever-shifting, as supercontinents are assembled and broken up, and oceans form, grow, and then start to ...

Ancient Rocks Improve Understanding of Tectonic Activity Between Earthquakes

Feb. 7, 2024 — Rocks once buried deep in ancient subduction zones -- where tectonic plates collide -- could help scientists make better predictions of how these zones behave during the years between major ...

New Method to More Accurately Spot Underground Nuclear Tests

Feb. 7, 2024 — A more accurate way of identifying underground nuclear tests, including those conducted in secret, has been ...

A New Origin Story for Deadly Seattle Fault

Feb. 6, 2024 — The Seattle fault zone is a network of shallow faults slicing through the lowlands of Puget Sound, threatening to create damaging earthquakes for the more than four million people who live there. A ...

Key Factors in Human-Made Earthquakes

Jan. 18, 2024 — Researchers report that the roughness of pre-existing faults and associated stress heterogeneity in geological reservoirs play a key role for causing human-made earthquakes, so-called runaway events. ...

New Map Shows Where Damaging Earthquakes Are Most Likely to Occur in US

Jan. 16, 2024 — Scientists recently revealed the latest National Seismic Hazard Model, showing that nearly 75% of the United States could experience a damaging earthquake, emphasizing seismic hazards span a ...

Is Natural Spa Water a Fossil of Water? Uncover the Real Ultra-Deep Water Cycles

Jan. 9, 2024 — Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery regarding the origins of non-meteoric water in natural spa waters located in central Japan. Based on numerical modeling, their results suggest that ...

Seismic and Infrasonic Signals Used to Characterize Nord Stream Pipeline Events

Jan. 3, 2024 — A new study provides further evidence that the Nord Stream seismic signals came from a complex source. The signals lasted longer than would be expected from a single explosive source, the researchers ...

Morocco Earthquake Had Unusual Deep Slip, According to New Modeling

Dec. 15, 2023 — In their rapid characterization of the magnitude 6.8 Al Haouz earthquake in Morocco, researchers suggest that the earthquake ruptured roughly 25 kilometers deep beneath the ...

Was the Earthquake Induced or Natural? New Study Tests Frameworks to Answer the Question

Dec. 13, 2023 — Using questionnaires created to determine whether a particular earthquake is natural or induced by human activity, a panel of experts concluded that the November 2022 magnitude 5.2 Peace River ...

New Geophysical Technique Enhances Imaging of Fluid-Filled Rocks Finding Connections With Microearthquakes

Dec. 11, 2023 — Scientists have recently introduced a new method called ambient noise differential adjoint tomography, which allows researchers to visualise rocks with fluids better, leading to potential ...

Recycling Concrete Using Carbon Can Reduce Emissions and Waste

Dec. 4, 2023 — Amid the rubble of large-sale earthquake, war or other disaster -- and as ageing buildings and infrastructure are replaced -- mountains of concrete are often taken to landfill or pounded into rubble ...