Tag Archive for 'Earthquake'

The Sun as seen by Solar Orbiter in extreme ultraviolet light from a distance of roughly 75 million km. The image is a mosaic of 25 individual images taken on March 7, 2022 by the high resolution telescope of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument. Taken at a wavelength of 17 nanometers, in the extreme ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum, this image reveals the Sun’s upper atmosphere, the corona, which has a temperature of around a million degrees Celsius. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Solar Orbiter / EUI Team / E. Kraaikamp, ROB.

Solar Heat May Play Role in Seismic Activity on Earth

Mar 4, 2025 by News Staff

Heat from our Sun drives atmospheric temperature changes on Earth, which in turn can affect things like rock properties and underground water movement,...

The Earth’s inner core was previously considered to be solid. Image credit: USC Graphic / Edward Sotelo.

Surface of Earth’s Inner Core May Be Changing, Scientists Say

Feb 11, 2025 by News Staff

Geoscientists from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Cornell...

Energy dispersive spectroscopic map of the sample studied by Voisey et al. Image credit: Chris Voisey.

Earthquake-Induced Piezoelectricity Plays Key Role in Formation of Large Gold Nuggets: Study

Sep 2, 2024 by News Staff

Gold nuggets occur predominantly in quartz veins, and the current paradigm posits that gold precipitates from hot water and carbon dioxide-rich fluids...

An artist’s impression of a magnetar eruption. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Seismic Activity in Crust of Neutron Stars Could Explain Repeating Fast Radio Bursts

Oct 12, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Fast radio bursts are extragalactic transient phenomena that shine in radio wavelengths for short durations lasting only 1-10 milliseconds. Some sources...

3D seismic imaging and ocean drilling at the Hikurangi margin reveal a widespread and previously unknown fluid reservoir within the extensively hydrated (up to 47 vol % water) volcanic upper crust of the subducting Hikurangi Plateau large igneous province. Image credit: Gase et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adh0150.

Geoscientists Discover Massive Undersea Water Reservoir Off New Zealand’s Coast

Oct 4, 2023 by News Staff

Revealed by 3D seismic imaging, the newly-discovered water reservoir lies 3.2 km (2 miles) under the ocean floor off the coast of New Zealand, where it...

Earth’s internal structure: dense solid metallic core, viscous metallic outer core, mantle and silicate based crust. Image credit: NASA.

Study: Changes in Rotation of Earth’s Inner Core Occur on Decadal Scale

Jan 24, 2023 by News Staff

The rotation of the Earth’s inner core may have recently paused and could be reversing, according to new research by geoscientists from Peking University. Yang...

Artwork depicting one dinosaur’s experience of the Chicxulub impact. Image credit: Hermann Bermúdez.

Seismic Activity after Dinosaur-Killing Chicxulub Impact Lasted Weeks to Months: Study

Oct 7, 2022 by News Staff

About 66 million years ago, a massive asteroid crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in what is now Mexico. This impact coincides...

$Study area and hybrid-frequency waveform earthquakes (EHWs): (a) hydraulic fracturing activity and seismicity in northeast British Columbia, Canada; the top-right inset shows the geographic location of the study area (red rectangle); blue diamonds: hydraulic fracturing injection wells between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2016, reported by the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission; yellow dots: earthquakes during the same period; stars: 10 M 4-5 earthquakes since 2008; black rectangle: study area in which EHWs occurred; (b, c) comparison between representative examples of a typical induced event (black trace) and an EHW (purple trace); both waveforms are from the vertical component of station MG03 with comparable source-station distance (1.32 km vs. 1.65 km) and magnitudes (MW1.5); manually picked P/S-arrivals are marked; the comparison of P/S-pulse shape demonstrates the relatively wider pulses for EHWs; (d, e) the same as (b) and (c) but for waveforms recorded at station MG02; both events show longer coda durations with slightly larger epicentral distances; note that although both types of events have extended coda durations, the EHW contains a relatively larger proportion of lower-frequency energy in the coda. Image credit: Yu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-26961-x.$

Scientists Detect New Type of Fluid-Injection-Induced Earthquake

Dec 6, 2021 by News Staff

Unlike conventional earthquakes of the same magnitude, the newly-identified hybrid-frequency waveform earthquakes are slower and last longer. Study area...

These jars were unearthed in a palace in the Canaanite city of Tel Kabri. Image credit: Eric Cline / George Washington University.

Earthquake Destroyed Canaanite Palace 3,700 Years Ago, Archaeologists Say

Sep 15, 2020 by News Staff

The Canaanite palatial site of Tel Kabri in Israel was severely damaged by a large earthquake around 1700 BCE, which led to its abandonment soon thereafter,...

The 2016 7.1 earthquake on the Romanche Fracture Zone in the equatorial Atlantic. The map location is given by the red rectangle on the inset globe. Image credit: Hicks et al, doi: 10.1038/s41561-020-0619-9.

Geoscientists Record ‘Boomerang’ Earthquake in Atlantic Ocean

Aug 12, 2020 by News Staff

Earthquakes occur when rocks suddenly break on a fault — a boundary between two blocks or plates. During large earthquakes, the breaking of rock...

$Earthquakes send sound waves through the Earth. Seismograms record the echoes as those waves travel along the core-mantle boundary, diffracting and bending around dense rock structures. Kim et al provide the first broad view of these structures, revealing them to be much more widespread than previously known. Image credit: Doyeon Kim, University of Maryland.$

Geophysicists Find Dense Rock Structures near Earth’s Core

Jun 16, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study, a team of geophysicists from the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and Tel Aviv University has analyzed echoes of seismic...

$Yang & Song found that refracted waves (blue), rather than reflected waves (purple) change over time, providing the best evidence yet that Earth’s inner core is rotating. Image credit: Michael Vincent.$

Earth’s Inner Core is Rotating, Study Says

May 13, 2020 by News Staff

The inner core of the Earth is rotating at about 0.05-0.1 degrees per year, according to an analysis of seismic data from repeating earthquakes published...

Based on various lines of geological and geophysical evidence, particularly those accumulated in the last two decades, Nick Mortimer et al argue that Zealandia is not a collection of partly submerged continental fragments but is a coherent 4.9 million km2 continent. NC - New Caledonia; WTP - West Torres Plateau; CT - Cato Trough; Cf - Chesterfield Islands; L - Lord Howe Island; N - Norfolk Island; K - Kermadec Islands; Ch - Chatham Islands; B - Bounty Islands; An - Antipodes Islands; Au - Auckland Islands; Ca - Campbell Island. Image credit: Nick Mortimer et al, doi: 10.1130/GSATG321A.1.

New Research Reveals Violent Birth of Continent Zealandia

Feb 10, 2020 by News Staff

Zealandia — Earth’s seventh continent — experienced dramatic elevation changes between about 50 million and 35 million years ago, according...

O’Malley et al find quakes can systematically trigger other ones on opposite side of the globe. This image shows a high school running track in Taiwan crossed by the Chelungpu fault in an earthquake in September 1999. Image credit: Bob Yeats, Oregon State University.

Powerful Earthquakes Can Trigger Other Ones on Opposite Side of Earth, New Research Shows

Aug 9, 2018 by News Staff

A big earthquake can not only cause other quakes, but large ones, and on the opposite side of our planet, according to new research from Oregon State University. O’Malley...

General view of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi; the implication is that the oracular chamber below the temple complex lies on a line of minor fault movement. Image credit: Iain S. Stewart, doi: 10.1016/j.pgeola.2017.07.009.

Earthquakes May Have Had Great Cultural Significance in Ancient Greek World

Sep 13, 2017 by News Staff

The Ancient Greeks may have built their sacred sites deliberately on land previously affected by earthquake activity, according to University of Plymouth...

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Marsquakes Could Support Life Deep within the Red Planet

Sep 28, 2016 by James Romero

The combination of seismic activity and water locked away at depth within Mars could be releasing sufficient hydrogen gas to support communities of microorganisms,...

This map shows the California Borderland and its major tectonic features, as well as the locations of earthquakes greater than magnitude 5.5. The dashed box shows the area of the new study. Large arrows show relative plate motion for the Pacific-North America fault boundary. Image credit: Mark Legg.

Researchers Map Active Fault Zones off Southern California Coast

Jun 1, 2015 by News Staff

According to a group of scientists headed by Dr Mark Legg of Legg Geophysical in Huntington Beach, residents of coastal Southern California could be surprised...

North Atlantic; red dots are earthquakes. Image credit: David Sandwell / SIO.

New Map of World’s Seafloor Exposes Thousands of Previously Unseen Undersea Mountains

Oct 3, 2014 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s and European Space Agency’s satellites that measure variations in gravitational field, a multinational team of researchers...

Earthquake lights from Tagish Lake, Yukon-Alaska border region, around the 1st of July, probably 1972 or 1973 (exact date unknown); estimated size – 1 m diameter; closest orbs slowly drifted up the mountain to join the more distant ones. Image credit: Jim Conacher, used with permission.

Earthquake Lights: Study Sheds Light on Mysterious Natural Phenomenon

Jan 4, 2014 by News Staff

Earthquake lights – a rare luminous phenomenon that appears in the sky during or before seismic activity or volcanic eruptions – are more likely...

This illustration shows how carbon dioxide and water can be used to flush residual oil from a subsurface rock formation between wells. Image credit: U.S. Department of Energy.

Underground Carbon Dioxide Injections Triggered Earthquakes in Texas in 2009-2011

Nov 6, 2013 by News Staff

A new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences correlates 93 small earthquakes near Snyder, Texas between 2009...