A sea change for earthquakesFebruary 21, 2005A reconstruction of land movements and changes in sea levels for three massive historic earthquakes in Alaska gives clues that may help scientists forecast future earthquakes and earthquake-triggered tsunami. To be published in this week's Journal of Quaternary Scienceą the findings should help reduce losses from future catastrophic events. Investigators Sarah Hamilton and Ian Shennan from the University of Durham, England, studied three earthquakes that occurred around 1400-1500 years ago, about 950-850 years ago, and in 1964 at Kenai, southern Alaska. They found a pattern of change associated with each earthquake. Land in the area was generally rising, but subsided in the years immediately before each great earthquake. Such pre-seismic land subsidence may be one of the indicators that lead up to a great plate-boundary earthquake. Their data show that while earthquake-induced land subsidence was associated with each earthquake, the exact pattern of this subsidence varied during the different events. Observations made before and after the 1964 earthquake provide information on how land moved before and after the event, and consequently earlier great earthquakes can be calibrated against this one. There are other similar investigations underway in Japan and Chile. "We believe that knowing what happened in these past major earthquakes should help predict future seismic activity in plates like this area of southern Alaska," says Ian Shennan. John Wiley & Sons |
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| Related Tsunami Current Events and Tsunami News Articles On the crest of wave energy The ocean is a potentially vast source of electric power, yet as engineers test new technologies for capturing it, the devices are plagued by battering storms, limited efficiency, and the need to be tethered to the seafloor. Fortuitous research provides first detailed documentation of tsunami erosion Tsunamis are among the most-devastating natural calamities. These earthquake-generated waves can quickly engulf low-lying land and bring widespread destruction and death. They can deposit sand and debris far inland from where they came ashore. Tsunami waves reasonably likely to strike Israel "There is a likely chance of tsunami waves reaching the shores of Israel," says Dr. Beverly Goodman of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa following an encompassing geo-archaeological study at the port of Caesarea. "Tsunami events in the Mediterranean do occur less frequently than in the Pacific Ocean, but our findings reveal a moderate rate of recurrence," she says. Tsunami evacuation buildings: another way to save lives in the Pacific Northwest Some time soon, a powerful earthquake will trigger a massive tsunami that will flood the Pacific Northwest, destroying homes and threatening the lives of tens of thousands of people, says Yumei Wang, a geotechnical engineer at the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries in Portland. New publication offers security tips for WiMAX networks Government agencies and other organizations planning to use WiMAX- Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access-networks can get technical advice on improving the security of their systems from a draft computer security guide prepared by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Scientists return from first ever riser drilling operations in seismogenic zone he Deep-sea Drilling Vessel CHIKYU successfully completed riser drilling operations on Aug. 31, for IODP Expedition 319, Stage 2 of the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE). Ocean-drilling expedition cites new evidence related to origin and evolution of seismogenic faults New research about what triggers earthquakes, authored by Michael Strasser of Bremen University, Germany, with colleagues from the USA, Japan, China, France, and Germany, will appear in the Aug. 16 2009 issue of Nature Geoscience. A new cloaking method University of Utah mathematicians developed a new cloaking method, and it's unlikely to lead to invisibility cloaks like those used by Harry Potter or Romulan spaceships in "Star Trek." Instead, the new method someday might shield submarines from sonar, planes from radar, buildings from earthquakes, and oil rigs and coastal structures from tsunamis. Pacific tsunami threat greater than expected The potential for a huge Pacific Ocean tsunami on the West Coast of America may be greater than previously thought, according to a new study of geological evidence along the Gulf of Alaska coast. Between the devil and the deep blue sea Expansion of coastal cities is accompanied by a decline in the quality of life of the people, which was the reason they moved to the coastal zone instead of bringing growing welfare to the inhabitants. More Tsunami Current Events and Tsunami News Articles |
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