A comparison of water content in undeformed and deformed quartz indicates that grains may change shape via weakening processes that cannot be duplicated in laboratory experiments.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Flash Heating May Lubricate Rubbing Rock Faces in Earthquakes
A new laboratory study examines the small-scale physics at play as two pieces of granite are smashed together in a scaled-down version of a real earthquake.
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A Hole in Earth’s Surface
Research shows that a broken lithosphere underneath the island of Hawai'i could explain the island's patterns of seismic activity.
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Icelandic Eruption Caused Record-Breaking Sulfur Dioxide Release
Satellite and ground-based data reveal sulfur dioxide flux, trace element release, and preeruption magma movement.
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Can We Predict How Volcanic Ash Disperses After an Eruption?
Researchers investigate what factors influence how particles from a plume spread following a volcanic eruption.
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Can Meteorite Impacts Disturb a Planet's Magnetic Field?
Such disturbances probably do not occur on our own planet, but evidence for them might still exist elsewhere in the solar system.
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Massive Carbon Dioxide Stores Beneath Mammoth Mountain
Gas in rocky pores beneath the surface of California's Mammoth Mountain could fuel dangerous carbon dioxide emissions for the next 28 to 1100 years.
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Hawaii’s Swelling Lava Lake Charts a Volcano’s Hidden Plumbing
Geophysicists used unique seismic signatures to track the cyclic rise and fall of lava inside Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park's Overlook crater.
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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.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Wharton Basin Earthquakes: Evidence for a New Plate Boundary?
The largest ever strike-slip earthquake may have occurred on a newly developing boundary between the Indian and Australian plates.