Author Archives: Anne Jefferson

Why does the Red River of the North have so many floods?

Communities along the Minnesota-North Dakota border are watching the water levels, listening to the weather forecasts, and preparing for another season of flooding. It must be a disconcertingly familiar routine, as this will be the third year in a row … Continue reading

Categories: by Anne, geohazards, hydrology

Reverberations of the Honshu tsunami

On Friday 11 March 2011, when the fault ruptured off of the Japanese coast in a M9.0 earthquake, it caused a sudden vertical movement of the seafloor, displacing the water above it and transferring energy to the ocean. As the … Continue reading

Categories: basics, by Anne, geohazards, tectonics

Stuff we linked to on Twitter last week

Chris has been on Twitter holiday this week, so you’ll be treated only to Anne’s Twitter obsessions in this week’s linkfest. Volcanoes Activity on Kilauea is changing dramatically, making for some interesting video views. First there were awesome videos of … Continue reading

Categories: by Anne

The scientist-journalist divide: what can we learn from each other?

Last week, the journal Nature published two research papers on the effects of human-caused global warming on extreme precipitation events. I’m working on a post on the papers, and they’ve already received quite a bit of attention in the media. … Continue reading

Categories: by Anne, climate science, public science, ranting

Pakistan floods: Predictable or predicted, but a disaster nonetheless

Unusually heavy monsoon rains in July and August 2010 left large swaths of Pakistan underwater. At least 18 million people were affected by the flood, and it is estimated that, more than six months later, several hundred thousand remain without … Continue reading

Categories: by Anne, climate science, geohazards, hydrology, paper reviews, society