Category Archives: Earthquakes

The insanity of the Italian legal system

Posted on October 22, 2012 by

Well, it’s official. The Italian courts have found half a dozen scientists and a government official guilty of manslaughter over the failure to accurately predict the risks of the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake which killed 309 people. This has been rumbling … Continue reading →

Posted in Earthquakes, Geology, Geophysics, Hazard Assessment, Media & Perception, Not even wrong, Science | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Accretionary Wedge #46 – Geology, Life and Civilisation

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

For those of you who may not be aware, there is a fantastic thing in the geobloggosphere known as The Accretionary Wedge.  Every month or so,  someone hosts a specific topic.  Geobloggers are invited to contribute, and the submissions over … Continue reading →

Posted in Earthquakes, Education, Geology, Hazard Assessment, Science, Travel, Volcanism | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Poking sleeping lions

Posted on May 22, 2012 by

I can only assume that the mass of exam papers in the department has caused a time-dilation.  It’s the only possible reason I can come up with for the fact it’s June next week. After the rush of #gradingjail starting … Continue reading →

Posted in Earthquakes, Geology, Geophysics, Hazard Assessment, Science, Travel, Volcanism | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fault Dynamics 101

Posted on April 13, 2012 by

This is a post I’ve been putting off writing for a while, as I find it a very tricky subject to cover without a hands-on practical.  However, a question which has been asked of me a few times (and particularly … Continue reading →

Posted in Earthquakes, Education, Geology, Geophysics, Physics, Science | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The oddity of the Banda Aceh earthquake

Posted on April 11, 2012 by

Earlier I posted an info bulletin about this morning’s Banda Aceh earthquake.  Rather than muddle it with more and more stuff, I thought it might be better to include this update as a separate post, as it is more of … Continue reading →

Posted in Earthquakes, General, Geology, Geophysics, Hazard Assessment, News, Science | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

M8.9 Banda Aceh

Posted on April 11, 2012 by

UPDATE: USGS appear to be revising the initial magnitude estimate downwards.  Currently bouncing between 8.6 and 8.7.  Definitely big though, as we saw a huge signal on our own seismometer here near London (see below). UPDATE 2: After a series … Continue reading →

Posted in Earthquakes, Geology, Hazard Assessment, News | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Katla and the pointless scaremongering journalists.

Posted on December 2, 2011 by

Look what popped up on the BBC website today. In fact, a google search for “Katla volcano Ford Cochran” (the guy quoted in that article) turns up 57 new items published in the last 24 hours. Apparently, “there are signs … Continue reading →

Posted in Earthquakes, Education, Geology, Hazard Assessment, Media & Perception, News, Science, Volcanism | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

El Hierro 4: Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble.

Posted on November 7, 2011 by

UPDATED 16:40 Earthquake-report.com have got their webcam up and running (be patient  - it’s a little flaky at the moment). The eruption at El Hierro has (as of Saturday) become at least partially subaerial.  For the non-scientists amongst you that … Continue reading →

Posted in Earthquakes, Geology, Geophysics, Science, Volcanism | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

El Hierro 3 – The Revenge

Posted on October 27, 2011 by

Most news outlets have gone quiet on the eruption at El Hierro over the last couple of weeks.  Indeed, signs were that the eruption was slowing down, which indeed it has done.  That is not to say that the activity … Continue reading →

Posted in Earthquakes, Geology, Geophysics, Hazard Assessment, Science, Volcanism | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Van earthquake, Turkey

Posted on October 23, 2011 by

UPDATE:  You can click through to see individual seismometer outputs here: http://www.iris.washington.edu/cgi-bin/wilberII/wilberII_EnO_page4.pl?evname=20111023_104121.3.spyder It’s going to be while before we have a proper handle on depths and magnitudes of the aftershocks, but enough data has been collated to start drawing up the … Continue reading →

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