Experimental studies of frictional weakening beneath a deadly rock avalanche in China help to clarify the mechanisms that cause these devastating natural disasters.
Hazards & Disasters
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Dam Discharge Events Alter Water Flow in an Estuary in Spain
Three-year observations suggest that increased sediment concentrations inhibit vertical transfer of momentum between water layers for more than 2 months after a high-discharge event.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
What Led to the Largest Volcanic Eruption in Human History?
A mineral-dating project at the Toba caldera in Indonesia sheds light on the science of supereruptions.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
For Magnetic Reconnection Energy, O—not X—Might Mark the Spot
A new analysis of satellite data could upend conventional wisdom about how solar storms produce their dangerous radiation—not from X-shaped mergers of magnetic field lines but from swirling vortices.
Posted inNews
“Fingerprinting” Volcanic Tremors May Help Forecast Eruptions
Volcano seismic waves produce distinct tremor patterns, or "fingerprints," shared by different kinds of volcanoes.
Posted inNews
Balloons of Lava Bubble into the Ocean from Seafloor Blisters
These peculiar features of submarine volcanic eruptions could be the result of undersea lava lakes.
Posted inScience Updates
Volcanic Ash Particles Hold Clues to Their History and Effects
Volcanic Ash as an Active Agent in the Earth System (VA3): Combining Models and Experiments; Hamburg, Germany, 12–13 September 2016
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Why Do Great Earthquakes Follow Each Other at Subduction Zones?
A decade of continuous GPS measurements in South America indicates that enhanced strain accumulation following a great earthquake can initiate failure along adjacent fault segments.
Posted inScience Updates
New Data Buoys Watch Typhoons from Within the Storm
Advanced real-time data buoys have observed nine strong typhoons in the northwestern Pacific Ocean since 2015, providing high-resolution data and reducing the uncertainty of numerical model forecasts.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Neotectonics and Earthquake Forecasting
The editors of a new book describe the evolution of major earthquake producing fault zones in the eastern Mediterranean region and explore how earthquake forecasting could improve.