Category Archives: geohazards

Geological mayhem and destruction in 2012: not the end of the world, just business as usual

We don’t live on a boring planet. 2012 will be plagued by natural disasters, but so is every other year. Continue reading

Categories: antiscience, climate science, earthquakes, geohazards, palaeomagic, public science, volcanoes

Two more earthquakes shake Christchurch

Just as it seemed that seismic activity was finally dying down in Christchurch, the city has been shaken by two more earthquakes. The USGS currently has the first shock pegged as a magnitude 5.8, and the second as a magnitude … Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, focal mechanisms, geohazards

Friday focal mechanisms: aftershocks in eastern Turkey

Almost a fortnight after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake shook Eastern Turkey, the region continues to suffer from aftershocks, and there were two pretty big ones earlier this week: a magnitude 5.2 on Tuesday, and then a magnitude 5.6 on Wednesday. … Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, focal mechanisms, geohazards

A short FAQ on earthquakes and fracking

While there are plenty of important reasons to scrutinise this fracking business, the risk of triggering earthquakes is not one of them. Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, geohazards, public science

M 7.2 earthquake near Van, eastern Turkey

Earlier this morning, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit near the city of Van on the eastern border of Turkey. The BBC reports that at least 45 people have died as buildings collapsed close to the rupture. The most well-known seismic … Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, focal mechanisms, geohazards, tectonics

Friday Focal Mechanisms: the Hayward Fault shows up to the Shakeout Party

Yesterday, several million Californians participated in the 2011 Great California ShakeOut – a simulated earthquake drill, held close to the anniversary of the 1989 Loma Preita earthquake, that aims not only to raise awareness of the ever-present risk of a … Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, focal mechanisms, geohazards

Friday focal mechanism: mountain building in Argentina

Yesterday a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck in the Jujuy province of northwestern Argentina, in the western foothills of the Andes. What few news reports there are indicate strong shaking but little damage in what seems to be a remote and … Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, focal mechanisms, geohazards, structures

One recipe for flooding: Take a tropical cyclone and add steep topography

The past few weeks have brought two tropical cyclones* to the eastern seaboard of the United States. They serve nicely to illustrate the topographic controls on flood generation that we were been talking about in my Fluvial Processes class recently. … Continue reading

Categories: by Anne, geohazards, geomorphology, hydrology

Flooding around the world (3 July edition)

Here is a brief update on the floods I covered in the last edition of flooding around the world. Note that there has also been flooding in Xiengkoung, Viengtian, Boolikhamxay, and Xayaboury provinces of Laos, as a result of heavy … Continue reading

Categories: by Anne, geohazards, hydrology

Update: Christchurch aftershocks

As the aftershocks of the Darfield quake continue, where do the future seismic dangers lie? Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, geohazards, tectonics