Government-sponsored research and regulations enabled western U.S. states to clean up their air, despite industrial and population growth. Proposed funding cuts could undo this progress.
Hazards & Disasters
How Drought Plays Out
Humans are less likely to deplete groundwater when rainfall varies between years.
Spills, Sediment, and Shoreline Contamination
A recent paper in Reviews of Geophysics describes the formation and behavior of oil-sediment residues in marine and coastal environments following an oil spill.
Working Together Toward Better Volcanic Forecasting
A National Academies report highlights challenges and opportunities in volcano science.
Sea Level 2017 Conference Looks to Coastal Sea Level Rise Impact
International World Climate Research Programme/Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (WCRP/IOC) Open Science Conference on Regional Sea Level Rise and Its Impacts; New York, New York, 10–14 July 2017
Using Radar to Understand How Volcanic Eruptions Evolve
Radar satellite imagery can be used to measure constructional changes in the topography of long-lived volcanoes, according to a new study of Ecuador’s El Reventador volcano.
Probability Analysis Improves Hazard Assessment
A recent paper in Reviews of Geophysics describes a probabilistic method for evaluating tsunami location, size, and risk to human populations.
What Feeds Indonesia’s Destructive Mud Eruption?
New advances in seismic investigations suggest links in plumbing between nearby magma volcanoes and a mud-erupting system that has been spewing for more than a decade.
The Curious Case of the Ultradeep 2015 Ogasawara Earthquake
Unusual ground motion associated with the deepest major earthquake in the seismological record is due to both its great depth and its origin away from the subducting slab.
Humans to Blame for Higher Drought Risk in Some Regions
New observations and analysis dispel remaining doubts that anthropogenic climate change is expanding dry areas in northern midlatitudes.