Researchers found multiple faults with evidence of more than 10 meters of slip during past large earthquakes in the region hit by the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake and tsunami.
New research published in Science argues that environmental impacts from massive volcanic eruptions in India did not play a direct role in the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs. It was all about the impact of an asteroid. The discovery was made by climate scientist James Zachos and earth science alumni Donald Penman, Richard Norris, and Peter Lippert.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
Andrew Fisher, professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
KRON4 — One of the best parts of living or visiting the Bay Area is walking along the bay, but if a tsunami were to hit, that could put you in a danger zone and if you see a blue sign, it means you are in danger — and you should evacuate and head to higher grounds.
Goodtimes — This fall, Santa Cruz County could become one of the first local governments in the country to take decisive action on sea-level rise by altering permitting rules for residents who want to build seawalls or other forms of armoring around valuable coastal real estate. Who will benefit from plans to armor the coast, adapt West Cliff and more?
PhysOrg — “The magma in Io’s crust takes time to flow,” said Francis Nimmo, a geophysicist at the University of California Santa Cruz and co-author on the new paper. “If you squeeze and stretch the crust rapidly, nothing happens; but if you squeeze and stretch it more slowly, the magma has time to move far enough to fill a volcanic conduit, causing an eruption. It’s similar to the way you can run on wet sand, but if you walk slowly your feet sink.”
Science Magazine — Researchers have long known that humans can cause earthquakes by injecting fluid into the ground—a technique used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to break open rocks and release natural gas or petroleum. Pumping water into geothermal vents to generate steam for heating and electricity has also triggered temblors. But earthquakes set off by pumping fresh water out of underground aquifers haven’t received much attention, says study co-author Emily Brodsky, a seismologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “This is not the first example of groundwater extraction triggering earthquakes, but it’s uncommon,” she says.
