A new experimental technique traces the state of a shearing fault gouge and shows for the first time how friction of a fault surface can change as a function of varying normal stress.
acoustics
Posted inScience Updates
Monitoring Volcanic Craters with Infrasound “Music”
Volcanic craters act as giant horns that emit intense low-frequency sounds. Changes in this infrasound may be used to track rising lava lakes and identify signals of future eruptions.
Posted inNews
Damselfish in Distress?
Noise pollution may be changing how some species of fish develop.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Follow The ‘Hum’: The Seismic Signal of Pacific Ocean Storms
Have you ever noticed that the Earth is humming? Seismologists have! Discover how individual storms in the northern Pacific Ocean generate a long-period seismic signal.
Posted inScience Updates
Deep Floats Reveal Complex Ocean Circulation Patterns
Acoustically tracked floats drift far below the ocean’s surface, providing fresh discoveries about deep-sea currents. A new archive gathers decades’ worth of float data into a central repository.
Posted inNews
Audio Reveals Sizes of Methane Bubbles Rising from the Seafloor
A sensitive underwater microphone captures the sounds of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, escaping into waters off the coast of Oregon. Using this sound, researchers can estimate the bubbles’ sizes.
Posted inScience Updates
Seismic Sensors Record a Hurricane’s Roar
Newly installed infrasound sensors at a Global Seismographic Network station on Puerto Rico recorded the sounds of Hurricane Maria passing overhead.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Harnessing Remote Infrasound to Study Volcanic Eruptions
Data from the 2015 eruption of Chile’s Calbuco volcano suggest the international network built to monitor nuclear explosions may also be used to detect and characterize volcanic activity.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Acoustic Monitoring of Inelastic Compaction in Porous Limestone
During triaxial compression experiments, acoustic monitoring reveals compaction localization in a high porosity limestone, accompanied by a significant decrease in P-wave velocity.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Acoustic Imaging of Oceanic Mixing in the Gulf of Mexico
Detailed analysis of acoustic reflections suggests that vertical mixing of oceanic water is enhanced at greater depths, thanks to weak stratification and the roughness of the seabed.