Two High Magnitude Earthquakes “Wake up” Fault System in Southwestern Türkiye, Triggering Over 200 Aftershocks
On February 6th, 2023, Türkiye and Syria experienced the devastating effects of two large (magnitude 7.8 and 7.5) earthquakes, which triggered more than 200 aftershocks. A recent study led by first author, Gesa Maria Petersen, maps two fault zones using data produced from these earthquakes, uncovering never before mapped fault sections and ground motion along these faults.
Ol Doinyo Lengai: Unpacking the Mystery Below
Down at the southern end of the East African Rift in Tanzania lies the Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano, exceptional in that it is the only active volcano that erupts carbonatites— igneous rocks composed of >50% carbonate minerals.
Fiber-Optic Cable Technology: A New Way to Study Firn in Greenland
Researchers interested in determining the depth of the firn layer within a glacier might spend six hours drilling, extracting, and analyzing a core in frigid temperatures. Recent research poses a new method for determining firn layer depth based on an exciting technology finding expanding applications in seismology.
Fluids flowing beneath Cascadia
Subduction zones play a crucial role in recycling old oceanic crust, while also carrying water into Earth’s interior. Magnetotelluric imaging can help scientists better see where fluids have accumulated in the crust.
From crust to core: how subduction relates to ultralow velocity zones
Ultralow velocity zones are among the strangest structures inside Earth and their origins have been debated for decades—including a new paper in Science Advances.
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai’s blast felt ‘round the world
On Jan. 15, 2022, one of the past century’s most violent eruptions occurred, providing scientists the opportunity to explore aspects of relatively rare, but terribly violent, volcanic blasts that occur under the ocean.
Clocking a speeding glacier reveals the fate of a disappearing lake
The metaphor of a “slippery slope” is often invoked for things that might quickly get out of control, but in glaciology these words can be applied more literally. In a warming world, we want to know how quickly ice sheets can melt and raise sea level.
Scientists spy salty groundwater system beneath Antarctic ice stream
Antarctica’s ice sheets are on the move, with the solid ice flowing toward the surrounding oceans. This exodus toward the coasts, explains Paul Winberry, a seismologist at Central Washington University, is enabled by fast moving ice streams—regions where liquid water located at the interface between the ice and underlying subsurface facilitates an ice sheet’s seaward slide.