The ancient destructive capability of earthquake faults is well chronicled by historians and their cultural impact widely uncovered by archaeologists. Archaeological and geological investigations at some of the most renowned sites in the ancient Greece world, however, suggest a more nuanced and intimate relationship between seismic faults and past human settlements.

Eruptive activity at Turrialba Volcano (Costa Rica) has escalated significantly since 2014, causing airport and school closures in the capital city of San José. Whether or not new magma is involved in the current unrest seems probable but remains a matter of debate as ash deposits are dominated by hydrothermal material. Here we use high-frequency gas monitoring to track the behavior of the volcano between 2014 and 2015 and to decipher magmatic versus hydrothermal contributions to the eruptions.

In Texas, earthquakes have occurred in close association with activities accompanying petroleum production since 1925. Here we develop a five-question test to categorize individual events as “tectonic,” “possibly induced,” “probably induced,” or “almost certainly induced.” In Texas, the probably induced and almost certainly induced earthquakes are broadly distributed geographically—in the Fort Worth basin of north Texas, the Haynesville Shale play area of east Texas, along the Gulf Coast in south Texas, and the Permian basin of west Texas.

Coal mines in the western areas of China experience low mining rates and induce many geo-hazards when using the room and pillar mining method. In this research, we proposed a roadway backfill method during longwall mining to target these problems. We tested the mechanical properties of the backfill materials to determine a reasonable ratio of backfill materials for the driving roadway during longwall mining.

Original Source

Fault damage zones record the integrated deformation caused by repeated slip on faults and reflect the conditions that control slip behavior. To investigate the Japan Trench décollement, we characterized the damage zone close to the fault from drill core recovered during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 343 (Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST)). Core-scale and microscale structures include phyllosilicate bands, shear fractures, and joints. They are most abundant near the décollement and decrease in density sharply above and below the fault.

The Greenland ice sheet presently accounts for ~70% of global ice sheet mass loss. Because this mass loss is associated with sea-level rise at a rate of 0.7 mm/year, the development of improved monitoring techniques to observe ongoing changes in ice sheet mass balance is of paramount concern. Spaceborne mass balance techniques are commonly used; however, they are inadequate for many purposes because of their low spatial and/or temporal resolution.

Temporal pattern of global seismicity indicates temporal clustering of large earthquakes (Mw≥8.2) followed by relative quiescence (stress shadow). It is a characteristic seismic pattern along the plate boundaries. Clustering of the largest earthquakes during 1950s to 1960s followed by the extended period of low-moment release until 2003 and then again heightened moment release since 2004 has been observed, which represents a seismic temporal pattern of 50 years period.

A year after a devastating earthquake triggered killer avalanches and rock falls in Nepal, scientists are wiring up mountainsides to forecast hazards.