The INQUA has set up an Early Career Researchers Committee (INQUA_ECR), and I am proud being a member of that. Its aim is to support young scientists, to get young scientists involved in INQUA activities, to build up (scientific) networks, and to use social media. I think that’s a great idea, because up to now, you won’t find INQUA on Twitter, Facebook etc. We have set up a Facebook page now – come on in and like us, share links and find job offers! Twitter will follow soon. We will organize young scientists meetings at conferences (e.g. in Australia next year) and provide a lot of infos for early career scientists.
Monument Valley - what a great place.
Climate change and earthquakes:
I’ve come across an article stating that climate change will increase earthquake activity (and tsunamis) and the number of volcano eruptions. It’s from Yale and starts with discussing tectonics and ice ages (sure there is an increase in earthquake activity when Scandinavia goes down 800 m and pops up again within some thousand years!), but then makes it to quakes caused by varying air pressure and to climate change. Right after stating that there’s not enough data to do proper statistics, the clustering of mega-quakes during the last 8 years is mentioned as an indicator. Discussion will go on, I guess. What do you think?
Earthquake forecast in Utah:
The Wasatch fault in Utah has a huge potential to cause a disaster if it would rupture in a large earthquake. Salt Lake City for example might suffer substantial damage. Now, scientists claim to have enough data to set up an earthquake forecast like the Californians do. Good news!
Earthquakes in Azerbaijan:
Two M5.6 earthquakes have struck Azerbaijan on Monday. They caused some damage, but no fatalities as far as media reported.
Moment tensor solutions from EMSC.
Earthquakes are not unusual there, Ghanbari & Jalili, 2006 compiled several recent, historical, and pre-historical earthquake events in the broader area (Ghanbari & Jalili, 2006: Paleoseismicity and new seismicity studies in Azerbaijan and the necessity for seismic zonation. IAEG2006 Paper number 317).
Strange Sumatra Strike-Slip M8.6 EQ:
OurAmazingPlanet has a nice summary on why the huge strike-slip quake that occurred off Sumatra on 11 April was kind of strange and why it didn’t cause a tsunami.
How do earthqukae warnings work:
Have you ever wondered how earthquake warnings do work? Here’s a short article that explains the basics.
Low-frequency earthquakes in shallow depths can cause tsunamis at subduction zones:
Sugioka et al published a paper in Nature, describing how very slow earthquakes can accommodate strain at subduction zones. Those events may last up to 100s and happen close to the surface. Therefore, they can cause tsunamis. Previously, it was thought that convergence in that zones would occur aseismically. Sugioka et al, 2012: Tsunamigenic potential of the shallow subduction plate boundary inferred from slow seismic slip. Nature Geoscience, doi:10.1038/ngeo1466.
Re-photographing George Lawrence’s “San Francisco in Ruins”:
This is for sure one of the most spectacular photographs ever made. Some days after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, photographer George Lawrence shot a panorama of the devastated city. His masterpiece has now been re-photographed by USGS and a zoomable high-res version is online. You must see this!
Have a nice weekend!
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