Earth Sciences

A new study by Stanford University geophysicists is raising serious questions about a fundamental technique used to make long-range earthquake predictions.

Writing in the journal Nature, geophysicists Jessica Murray and Paul Segall show how a widely used earthquake model failed to predict when a long-anticipated magnitude 6 quake would strike the San Andreas Fault in Central California.

In their Sept. 19 Nature study, Murray and Segall analyzed the “time-predictable recurrence mod

California scientists credit synthetic aperture radar imagery from the European Space Agency with making possible new ways to depict earthquake fault zones and uncovering unusual earthquake-related deformations. Their study of imagery from a 1999 earthquake in the western US could provide a new way to identify active faults and help track when the last earthquake occurred on a fault zone.

Writing in last week’s issue of Science magazine, researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanograp

Frustrated by the limitations of present numerical models that simulate how Earth’s climate will be altered by factors such as pollution and landscape modification, Duke University engineers are creating a new model incorporating previously-missing regional and local processes.

“The model we are developing is much more refined,” said the project’s leader, Roni Avissar, chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering.

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have used fossilised leaves to determine the effect of greenhouse gases on the end of the Ice Age 300m years ago, according to an article published in PNAS.

The study, led by Professor David Beerling, examined fossilised leaves to determine how much carbon dioxide was in the air at various periods during the ice age.

Leaves have pores on their surface called stomata that act as “air holes” and open and close depending on the levels of carbo

Analysis uncovers unusual earthquake-related deformation, paves the way for methods to identify new active faults

On Oct. 16, 1999, approximately 37 miles from Palm Springs, Calif., a magnitude 7.1 earthquake ripped through 28 miles of faults in the Mojave Desert. Because of the area’s sparse population and development, the massive quake caused virtually no major measurable injuries or destruction.

Yet the “Hector Mine” event, named after a long-abandoned mine in the area, ha

Researchers confirm that waters migrating from the surface can take many tens of thousands of years to reach the water table

A team of researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has confirmed that in drier regions, waters migrating from the surface can take many tens of thousands of years to reach the water table. Since such waters began their underground migration at the time of the last ice age, they hold a scientific and historical record of global climate