A virologist overcame smears and adversity to stand up for science.
Hazards & Disasters
Posted inResearch Spotlights
The Wildfire One-Two: First the Burn, Then the Landslides
Severe wildfires strip away plant cover and reduce the soil’s ability to hold water. A new study develops a model to better understand landslide risk following a burn.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Learning from a Disastrous Megathrust Earthquake
Ten years of interdisciplinary studies since the disastrous Tohoku-oki earthquake have improved our knowledge of earthquake-cycle processes and hazard, but prediction of such events remains elusive.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Subduction Initiation May Depend on a Tectonic Plate’s History
New seismic imaging study of the Puysegur Trench aims to solve one of the last major questions in plate tectonics.
Posted inNews
Siberian Heat Wave Nearly Impossible Without Human Influence
A new study finds that the exceptional temperatures seen in Siberia in the first half of 2020 would have been extremely unlikely without anthropogenic climate change.
Posted inNews
Indian Cities Prepare for Floods with Predictive Technology
The number and intensity of floods are increasing—they can inundate neighborhoods in Chennai in just 15 minutes. New models can pinpoint and help warn vulnerable areas hours or even days in advance.
Posted inFeatures
Deploying a Submarine Seismic Observatory in the Furious Fifties
Our crew braved rough Southern Ocean seas, endured pandemic precautions, and adapted plans on the fly for the chance to observe a possible subduction zone in the making below the Macquarie Ridge.
Posted inNews
Below Aging U.S. Dams, a Potential Toxic Calamity
Documents suggest that in more than 80 U.S. locations, the failure of an aging dam could flood a major toxic waste site.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A New Approach to Calculate Earthquake Slip Distributions
A transdimensional, probabilistic approach is more flexible than traditional least squares fits and provides better handling of sharply varying slip distributions.
Posted inFeatures
Chasing Cyclones from Space
The pioneering use of satellite-based synthetic aperture radar to characterize tropical cyclones in near-real time has provided a crucial new tool with which to forecast powerful storms.