2 May 2024–The names might not be familiar—Cowee Creek, Brabazon Range, Upper Pederson Lagoon—but they mark the sites of recent lake tsunamis, a phenomenon that is increasingly common in Alaska, British Columbia and other regions with mountain glaciers. Triggered by landslides into small bodies of water, most of these tsunamis have occurred in remote locations so far, but geologist Bretwood Higman of Ground Truth Alaska said it may just be a matter of time before a tsunami swamps a more populated place like Portage Lake near Whittier, Alaska. When he estimates where the risk of an Alaskan lake ..read more

2 May 2024–On an October morning in 2023, a chemical explosion detonated in a tunnel under the Nevada desert was the launch of the next set of experiments by the National Nuclear Security Administration, with the goal to improve detection of low-yield nuclear explosions around the world. Physics Experiment 1-A (PE1-A) is the first in a series of non-nuclear experiments that will compare computer simulations with high-resolution seismic, tracer gas, acoustic and electromagnetic data gleaned from underground explosions and atmospheric experiments, said Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory rese ..read more

2 May 2024–Permafrost in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, differs from place to place under the surface, ranging from ice rich zones to unfrozen layers in both undisturbed and disturbed tundra, according to a new report discussed at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2024 Annual Meeting. Using multiple geophysical techniques to explore this spatial variability, Ahmad Tourei of Colorado School of Mines and colleagues from Penn State and University of Alaska Fairbanks show that infrastructure such as gravel roads and pile foundations are affecting permafrost over the long term. The team observed tha ..read more

The Alaska Range | NPS Photo / Kent Miller 2 May 2024–A recent study of the crust below south-central Alaska, across the Denali Fault, suggests there may be a reservoir of magma located below the enigmatic Denali Volcanic Gap, researchers reported at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2024 Annual Meeting. The Denali Volcanic Gap (DVG) is the roughly 400-kilometer-long gap in volcanic activity between the Wrangell volcanoes to its east and the volcanoes of the Aleutian Arc to its west. The Pacific tectonic plate subducts below the North American plate at the site of the gap, which cou ..read more

Wind turbine on Wolfe Island, Ontario. | Richard Kohar/ Wikimedia Commons 2 May 2024–As wind power becomes a widespread and cost-effective renewable energy source at sites throughout the world, researchers are focusing on the propagation of seismic and acoustic waves that wind-harnessing turbines produce. At the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2024 Annual Meeting, researchers presented simulations of turbine-driven wave propagation across several frequencies and ground conditions. John Fitzgerald of Queen’s University and colleagues then compared these simulation results with observat ..read more

2 May 2024–In the shadow of Washington State’s Mount Rainier, about 90,000 people live in the path of a potential large lahar—a destructive, fluid and fast-moving debris flow associated with volcanic slopes. At the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2024 Annual Meeting, U.S. Geological Survey volcano seismologist Seth Moran described how he and his colleagues have expanded and made upgrades to a detection system that would inform alerts to those living near the Seattle-area volcano in the event of the next lahar. Volcanic eruptions usually cause lahars by rapidly melting snow and ice. Bu ..read more

1 May 2024–Friction along a fault during an earthquake can sometimes generate a rise in temperatures high enough to produce a signal in the organic and mineral material contained within the fault’s rocks. At the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2024 Annual Meeting, Genevieve Coffey of GNS Science discussed how she and her colleagues are using biomarkers as high-temperature proxies for faults in New Zealand and California. Their research has yielded new insights into the history of earthquakes along those faults and how frictional energy might contribute to the overall energy budget of ..read more

1 May 2024–Tiny seismic signals captured around the globe can be used to build a picture of the Earth’s inner core, its fabric made up of differences in the size, shape and orientation of iron grains. This glimpse at the inner core also offers a window into the evolution of the core over Earth’s history, Sin-Mei Wu, a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2024 Annual Meeting. By examining the scattering of seismic signals reflected off the core, Wu and colleagues found that the inner core contains many small-scale ..read more

1 May 2024–Trees caught up in two prehistoric, devastating landslides in the Coast Ranges of northern California suggest that the landslides could be linked to major earthquakes, including the magnitude 7.9 1906 San Francisco earthquake, researchers said at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)’s 2024 Annual Meeting. Jessie Pearl climbs out of Mule Slide debris avalanche. | Jessie Pearl In the Mule Slide landslide, telltale trauma in a tree caught in the landslide pinpoints the age of the landslide to 1906. At a second landslide called Red Lassic, trees buried in debris help date the land ..read more

1 May 2024–When a magnitude 5+ earthquake occurs in the United States, the U.S. Geological Survey makes a variety of aftershock forecast communication products available to the public. But is there an ethical responsibility to make aftershock products more widely available to people affected by earthquakes in other countries? In listening sessions held in 2022 and 2023 with seismologists and earthquake responders from around the world, USGS social scientist Sara McBride and her colleagues got a glimpse of the possible ethical and social tensions around publicly communicating the international ..read more