Radiation exposure linked to aggressive thyroid cancers, researchers confirm for the first time

fukushima disaster For the first time, researchers have found that exposure to radioactive iodine is associated with more aggressive forms of thyroid cancer, according to a careful study of nearly 12,000 people in Belarus who were exposed when they were children or adolescents to fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. Researchers examined thyroid cancers diagnosed up t

Read More

Should the Japanese give nuclear power another chance?

Japanese  nuclear power On September 9, 2014, the Japan Times reported an increasing number of suicides coming from the survivors of the March 2011 disaster. In Minami Soma Hospital, which is located 23 km away from the power plant, the number of patients experiencing stress has also increased since the disaster. What's more, many of the survivors are now jobless and therefore facing an

Read More

The Rising above the risk: America's first tsunami refuge

Artist rendering: entry view. Credit: TCF Architecture Washington's coast is so close to the seismically active Cascadia Subduction Zone that if a megathrust earthquake were to occur, a tsunami would hit the Washington shoreline in just 25 minutes. One coastal community is preparing for such a disaster by starting construction on the nation's first tsunami evacuation refuge, large enough to

Read More

The Massive debris pile reveals risk of huge tsunamis in Hawaii

The researchers simulated earthquakes with magnitudes between 9.0 and 9.6 originating at different locations along the Aleutian-Alaska subduction zone, and found that the unique geometry of the eastern Aleutians would direct the largest post-earthquake tsunami energy directly toward the Hawaiian Islands. The red circles are centered on Kaua‘i and encircle the Big Island. Credit: Rhett Butler

Read More

The Hydraulic fracturing linked to earthquakes in Ohio

Seismograph (stock image). Hydraulic fracturing triggered a series of small earthquakes in 2013 on a previously unmapped fault in Harrison County, Ohio, according to a study. Credit: © hakandogu / Fotolia Hydraulic fracturing triggered a series of small earthquakes in 2013 on a previously unmapped fault in Harrison County, Ohio, according to a study published in the journal Seismological Rese

Read More

Many older adults still homebound after 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake

2011 Great East Japan Earthquake A new study, published online in the journal Age and Ageing, shows that the homebound status of adults over the age of 65 in the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake is still a serious public health concern. Of 2,327 older adults surveyed, approximately 20% were found to be homebound. A team of researchers led by Naoki Kondo of the University of

Read More

The San Andreas Fault system in San Francisco Bay Area are locked, overdue

San Andreas Fault. Credit: © davetroesh123 / Fotolia Four urban sections of the San Andreas Fault system in Northern California have stored enough energy to produce major earthquakes, according to a new study that measures fault creep. Three fault sections -- Hayward, Rodgers Creek and Green Valley -- are nearing or past their average recurrence interval, according to the study published in t

Read More

Underwater landslide doubled size of 2011 Japanese tsunami

An ocean engineer at the University of Rhode Island has found that a massive underwater landslide, combined with the 9.0 earthquake, was responsible for triggering the deadly tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011. Professor Stephan Grilli, an international leader in the study of tsunamis, said the generally accepted explanation for the cause of the tsunami had been the earthquake, the fifth

Read More

Drilling Into an Active Earthquake Fault in New Zealand

An aerial view of the Alpine Fault at Gaunt Creek, where the Deep Fault Drilling Project is scheduled to begin next month. Three University of Michigan geologists are participating in the $2.5 million international project, which will drill nearly a mile beneath the surface and return rock samples from an active fault known to generate major earthquakes. Credit: Photo by Ben van der Pluijm Th

Read More

The New explanation for origin of plate tectonics: What set Earth's plates in motion?

The image shows a snapshot from the film after 45 million years of spreading. The pink is the region where the mantle underneath the early continent has melted, facilitating its spreading, and the initiation of the plate tectonic process. Credit: Patrice Rey, Nicolas Flament and Nicolas Coltice The mystery of what kick-started the motion of our earth's massive tectonic plates across its surfa

Read More

The Wastewater injection is culprit for most earthquakes in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, study finds

The deep injection of wastewater underground is responsible for the dramatic rise in the number of earthquakes in Colorado and New Mexico since 2001, according to a study to be published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA). The Raton Basin, which stretches from southern Colorado into northern New Mexico, was seismically quiet until shortly after major fluid injecti

Read More

Mega-quake possible for subduction zones along 'Ring of Fire,' new study suggests

The magnitude of the 2011 Tohoku quake (M 9.0) caught many seismologists by surprise, prompting some to revisit the question of calculating the maximum magnitude earthquake possible for a particular fault. New research offers an alternate view that uses the concept of probable maximum magnitude events over a given period, providing the magnitude and the recurrence rate of extreme events in sub

Read More

The Major earthquake may occur off coast of Istanbul, seismic shifts suggest

When a segment of a major fault line goes quiet, it can mean one of two things: The "seismic gap" may simply be inactive -- the result of two tectonic plates placidly gliding past each other -- or the segment may be a source of potential earthquakes, quietly building tension over decades until an inevitable seismic release. Researchers from MIT and Turkey have found evidence for both types of

Read More

The New study reconstructs mega-earthquakes timeline in Indian Ocean

UM Rosenstiel School Geologist Kelly Jackson documents sediments deposited by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka. Credit: UM Rosenstiel School A new study on the frequency of past giant earthquakes in the Indian Ocean region shows that Sri Lanka, and much of the Indian Ocean, is affected by large tsunamis at highly variable intervals, from a few hundred to mo

Read More

The Textbook theory behind volcanoes may be wrong

Tungurahua volcano eruption. Credit: © Sunshine Pics / Fotolia In the typical textbook picture, volcanoes, such as those that are forming the Hawaiian islands, erupt when magma gushes out as narrow jets from deep inside Earth. But that picture is wrong, according to a new study from researchers at Caltech and the University of Miami in Florida. New seismology data are now confirming that suc

Read More

The New, inexpensive method for understanding earthquake topography

Using high-resolution topography models not available in the past, geologists can greatly enrich their research. However, current methods of acquisition are costly and require trained personnel with high-tech, cumbersome equipment. In light of this, Kendra Johnson and colleagues have developed a new system that takes advantage of affordable, user-friendly equipment and software to produce topo

Read More

Can a stack of computer servers survive an earthquake?

The rack of servers shook, but did not fall, during a simulation that mimicked 80 percent of the force of 1994's Northridge earthquake. Credit: Cory Nealon, University at Buffalo How do you prevent an earthquake from destroying expensive computer systems? That's the question earthquake engineer Claudia Marin-Artieda, PhD, associate professor of civil engineering at Howard University, aims t

Read More

The Seismic hazards reassessed in the Andes

Gulf of Guayaquil and Andes. Credit: © IRD / L. Audin Although being able to predict the date on which the next big earthquake will occur is still some way off becoming a reality, it is now possible to identify the areas where they will occur. IRD researchers and their French, Ecuadorian and Peruvian partners have just measured the current deformation in the northern part of the Andes for the

Read More

Likely near-simultaneous earthquakes complicate seismic hazard planning for Italy

Before the shaking from one earthquake ends, shaking from another might begin, amplifying the effect of ground motion. Such sequences of closely timed, nearly overlapping, consecutive earthquakes account for devastating seismic events in Italy's history and should be taken into account when building new structures, according to research published in the September issue of the journal Seismolog

Read More

The Pacific plate shrinking as it cools

A map produced by scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno, and Rice University shows predicted velocities for sectors of the Pacific tectonic plate relative to points near the Pacific-Antarctic ridge, which lies in the South Pacific ocean. The researchers show the Pacific plate is contracting as younger sections of the lithosphere cool. Credit: Corné Kreemer and Richard Gordon The tecton

Read More