An earthquake with a reported 7.9 magnitude hit New Zealand’s South Island around 12.02am local time. Devastating aftershocks and tsunamis quickly followed. It’s possible that more aftershocks are to come and casualties are difficult to determine at this time.
Just a few months after central Italy was battered by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake, the region has been struck again, and harder.
Yesterday, a massive 6.1 magnitude earthquake rocked central Italy. It was followed by nearly 200 aftershocks, devastating whole towns and burying residents under rubble. Over 4,000 rescuers have been dispatched and the death toll has jumped to 247, the BBC reports.
Central California is currently in the middle of an earthquake swarm, with up to 18 (and counting) tiny quakes shaking things up over the course of a single day. The situation is not, however, as ominous as it may seem.
Californians may scoff at the idea of a mid-sized earthquake, but when our nation’s capitol started shaking on August 23, 2011, people freaked out. Having grown up in the DC metro area, I can tell you why: we don’t get noticeable earthquakes. We are seismically boring and perfectly cool with it.
The US Geological Survey has noted seismic activity—a magnitude 5.1 earthquake—near a known North Korean nuclear test center. The last time this happened, it was thanks to the underground detonation of a nuclear device.
The year 2015 will go down as many things, but normal isn’t one of them. We saw record-smashing temperatures, exceptional droughts, deadly heat waves and massive wildfires. Add in earthquakes, landslides, and a brewing El Niño and we’re convinced our planet is trying to kill us.
It was a day for quake, rattle, and roll on the west coast when small earthquakes hit both Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday. While the pair shared common characteristics, the stories behind why they happened reveal dramatically different Worst Case Scenarios for future earthquakes.
In August, Japan reopened its first nuclear reactors after an almost two-year hiatus that followed the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Now, months later, Kyushu Electric Power Co. is preparing to guard the controversial energy source against terrorist attacks, too.
How big is this landslide in China’s Tonzang valley? Big. So big that it created many (many!) new lakes. So big that, at just one of its three major points of origin, it shifted 395 million (million!) tons of earth. But it didn’t just happen—it actually occurred back in July. So why are we only seeing it now?
Nepal is home to the best climbing, trekking and mountaineering on earth. But, earlier this year, it also had a massive earthquake, an avalanche on Everest and is right now subject to a “blockade” by its neighbor India. Can you still visit? Surprisingly, now may be the best time ever.
People who live in seismically active areas are so good about posting earthquake tweets that you may even be warned of a quake via Twitter before the shaking actually starts at your house. Now two USGS employees have found that Twitter is also an accurate reporting tool when it comes to earthquake detection.
The Illapel earthquake that hit Chile in September shifted the ground by up to 1.4 meters. That’s awfully far to move the not-so-steady rock below our feet.
When Chile was hit by a magnitude 8.3 earthquake this week, the very ground shifted. By comparing images before and after the earthquake with an interferogram, geophysicists can measure just how much and where the ground moved.
A massive earthquake just hit off the coast of Chile. At magnitude of 8.3 and a tsunami warning in effect, this could have been ugly. Here’s the science behind the earthquake, how Chile’s preparations are paying off, and what we can expect for the shaken country.
“Thirteen thousand people will die in the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami,” reads Kathryn Schulz’s now-infamous New Yorker article. “Everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast.” Turns out a very similar event occurred in Chile 55 years ago. What wisdom can its survivors share with residents of the Northwest?
This photo, captured through a polarizing filter, shows the buildup of stress along a modeled fault line at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where a team of scientists is trying to figure out how to forecast earthquakes.
Last month, Nepal was hit by a devastating 7.8 earthquake. And then, just a few days later, an aftershock of almost equal size hit. But after the earthquakes and the aftershocks, the earth that was left behind was a very different one.
The earthquake in Nepal was so violent it moved mountains. Satellite imagery shows that the parts of the Himalayas sank three feet—and the area around it as much as five feet—as tectonic plates snapped under extreme pressure. But the mountains will regain their height, slowly but surely, thanks to the geologic forces…
Another massive earthquake hit Nepal today, this time the epicenter was near Mount Everest. It’s so sad because the people of Nepal are still recovering from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake just two weeks ago that had killed thousands and wrecked Nepal to an unimaginable degree. Samaritan’s Purse filmed this short to…
