Chris Rowan | Highly Allochthonous

Author Archives: Chris Rowan

How long was the last magnetic reversal – and why might subducting slabs have had a say in what it looked like?

A new paper on the chronology of the last magnetic reversal concludes it took 20,000 yrs, and there were two distinct excursions – where the field becomes weak and disorganized, but it recovers without reversing polarity – before the main event about … Continue reading →

Earthquakes of 2018

Posted on January 1, 2019 by Chris Rowan

Just as I did in 2016 and 2017, I thought I’d begin the new year with a look back at the earthquake activity in the last. According to the catalogue maintained by the USGS, the Earth’s ever-grinding tectonic plates produced … Continue reading →

Categories: earthquakes, geohazards, society

Earthquake prediction is a fool’s errand

Posted on May 13, 2018 by Chris Rowan

If you want to make earthquake scientists jumpy, all you need to do is ask, "can you predict the next earthquake?" In fact, any variation on the theme of ‘earthquake’ and ‘prediction’ will do – unless it is one which … Continue reading →

Categories: deep time, earthquakes, geohazards, geology, ranting, society

Magma making earthquakes on Hawaii

Posted on May 5, 2018 by Chris Rowan

Volcanic happenings are afoot on the Big Island of Hawaii. To be clear, Kilauea has been erupting continuously since 1983, but activity has waxed and waned. The last few weeks have definitely seen an uptick in unrest, with inflation and … Continue reading →

Categories: earthquakes, geohazards, volcanoes

A very slow magnetic doom

Why an ‘imminent’ reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field doesn’t mean what most people think it means. Continue reading →