A prototype ShakeAlert early warning system approaches alert-ready status as the administration issues an executive order on federal earthquake standards.
earthquakes
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Alaska's Semidi Segment Could Unleash a Devastating Tsunami
Study reveals structures along the Alaskan convergent margin capable of generating a powerful tsunami directed toward the United States's West Coast.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Deep-Sea Microbes Can Leave Records of the Past
Researchers use carbon signatures within sea sediments to identify microbial activity and also to date earthquakes.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Plate Displacement Rate Offers Insight into 2011 Tohoku Quake
For the first time, scientists use GPS to measure the displacement rate of the subducting Pacific Plate near the source of disastrous shaking in 2011.
Posted inNews
Subtle Seismic Movements May Help Forecast Large Earthquakes
Where a plate of Earth's crust slides under another and when frequent episodes of plate slippage occur without noticeable earthquakes, large temblors will more likely strike, a new study finds.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
P Wave Amplitude Decay Offers a Glimpse of Earth's Structure
Scientists look at deep earthquake signals to map how seismic waves lose energy in the upper mantle across the United States.
Posted inNews
Quake or Bomb? Seismic Waves Speak Truth, Even If Nations Don't
When the Earth rumbles and no one knows why, seismologists can analyze the seismic event's waveforms to determine whether a hidden explosion or an earthquake caused the shaking.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Oklahoma's Dormant Faults Hide Huge Seismic Risk Potential
Researchers look at induced seismicity data in Oklahoma to spot an increase of stress in faults that could cause even more damage than recent quakes.
Posted inNews
The Backwards Earthquakes
Earthquakes in Idaho's panhandle are usually caused by the Earth's crust pulling apart. So why were earthquakes on 24 April pushing the crust together?
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Aftershocks of Old Quakes Still Shake New Madrid Seismic Zone
Geodetic data show that earthquakes in 1450 and 1811–1812 may be responsible for present-day seismic activity in the region.