What’s tearing the western U.S. apart?
Different forces are tearing the western U.S. apart. Which ones are most important?
Cracking ice: seismic signals identify most rapid rupture recorded on Antarctic ice shelf
In Western Antarctica, the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf cracks and calves. One of these rifting events was observed via seismic sensors, demonstrating that while the tear was slower than expected, it’s still the fastest through-cutting fracture in a floating ice shelf ever recorded.
GPS stations are now part of the ShakeAlert® Earthquake Early Warning System network
GPS stations augment seismometers, significantly improving the system’s ability to accurately detect the largest earthquakes.
Greenland GPS network measures the ice sheet’s weight loss
In a recent study, researchers treat the entire GNET network as a single instrument weighing the loss of Greenland’s ice.
GPS data capturing eclipse phenomena in ionosphere
The passing shadow of the eclipse creates a natural experiment, suddenly reducing solar energy to an isolated area of the ionosphere.
Sensing potentially tsunamigenic Alaskan landslides resulting from retreating glaciers
As the world warms, glaciers retreat, leaving behind over-steepened slopes that are prone to landslides. In places like coastal Alaska, landslides that slip into the ocean can spell disaster.
Sea level rise, Earth’s variable rotation, and a new leap second problem
A new study tries to disentangle the factors affecting Earth’s rotation—and finds that we may have a technical problem our on our hands in the next few years.
Infrasound in Idaho’s mountains come from waterfalls, thunderstorms, and earthquakes
Scientists demonstrate how an array of many infrasound sensors can hear waterfalls, thunderstorms, and earthquakes (yes, the latter makes noise, too).
Nuclear explosion monitoring gets a new dataset
In order to monitor compliance with the Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the CTBTO is developing ways to verify nuclear explosions. A new benchmark dataset based on (non-nuclear) experiments is one example.
Seismometers listen in on ocean waves in a warming world
Wind-driven ocean waves beat on Earth’s seafloor, creating a continuous signal for which seismic stations around the world listen—a signal that is increasing.