Tag Archives: resilience

Puerto Rico sends the Caribbean a sobering seismic anniversary present

Four years ago on Sunday, Haiti, and particularly its capital, Port-au-Prince, was devastated by a shallow magnitude 7.0 earthquake, which killed many tens, and possibly hundreds of thousands of people*, and left more than a million people homeless. Even today, … Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, focal mechanisms, geohazards, society

Natural disasters may not always hit hardest where you’d expect

For many natural hazards, the actual risk is not purely a function of frequency and magnitude: politics, regulation and psychology are also a large influence on the potential human impact. Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, geohazards, society

Aftershocks, triggered earthquakes, and Christchurch’s seismic future

As more scientific information becomes available regarding last week’s magnitude 6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, we can look a bit more closely at the nature of this earthquake, how it fits into the overall tectonic picture in New Zealand, and future … Continue reading

Categories: earthquakes, geohazards, society, tectonics

Snow days

Snowed in in Chicago – even a city with a fleet of 300 snow ploughs has its limits… Continue reading

Categories: environment, photos, society