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Mid-ocean ridge unfaulting revealed by magmatic intrusions
Recent sequences of reverse-faulting earthquakes at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Carlsberg Ridge show that tectonic extension at mid-ocean ridge axes can be partially undone by tectonic shortening across the ridge flanks.
- Jean-Arthur Olive
- , Göran Ekström
- & Manon Bickert
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News |
Taiwan hit by biggest earthquake in 25 years: why scientists weren’t surprised
A complex network of faults lies in the area that experienced the earthquake, and more shocks are expected.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
Did ‘alien’ debris hit Earth? Startling claim sparks row at scientific meeting
Astrophysicist Avi Loeb says that an interstellar meteor showered Earth with particles. At a planetary-science conference this week, researchers begged to differ.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Earthquakes are most deadly in these unexpected countries
Haiti and Turkmenistan are among the nations with the highest earthquake fatality load, a measure of the burden imposed by quake-related deaths.
- Sumeet Kulkarni
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News Explainer |
Japan earthquakes: the science behind the deadly tremors
A massive quake that triggered tsunamis, fires and multiple aftershocks was the largest on the country’s west coast in more than a century.
- Gemma Conroy
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News |
Iceland braces for volcanic eruption: what scientists are watching
Researchers are tracking every aspect of the geological unrest, which began last month.
- Alexandra Witze
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Nature Podcast |
Martian sounds reveal the secrets of the red planet's core
NASA's InSight mission recorded vibrations of Mars exposing a surprising layer of silicate around the core.
- Geoff Marsh
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News & Views |
Deep Mars is surprisingly soft
Two analyses of seismic waves that traversed Mars paint the clearest picture yet of the red planet’s core and deep mantle — and rationalize the puzzling implications of a previous interpretation of the seismological data.
- Suzan van der Lee
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Article
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Evidence for a liquid silicate layer atop the Martian core
Using multiply diffracted P waves and first-principles computations of the thermoelastic properties of liquid iron-rich alloys, we show that the core of Mars is smaller and denser than previously thought.
- A. Khan
- , D. Huang
- & M. Murakami
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Article
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Geophysical evidence for an enriched molten silicate layer above Mars’s core
We provide observational evidence that suggests the presence of a molten silicate layer above the core of Mars, which is overlain by a partially molten layer, indicating that the core of Mars is smaller than previously thought.
- Henri Samuel
- , Mélanie Drilleau
- & William B. Banerdt
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News |
AI predicts how many earthquake aftershocks will strike — and their strength
Models trained on large data sets of seismic events can estimate the number of aftershocks better than conventional models do.
- Alexandra Witze
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Research Briefing |
Monitoring an active war zone in Ukraine using seismic data
Seismic data have been used to continuously identify individual military explosions in Ukraine. Such conflict monitoring provides unprecedented details of these attacks and an objective data source that is essential for accurate war reporting and for identifying potential breaches of international law.
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Article
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Identifying attacks in the Russia–Ukraine conflict using seismic array data
Analysis of seismic waves caused by explosions in northern Ukraine recorded by a local network in 2022 demonstrated the ability to automatically identify individual attacks during the Russia–Ukraine conflict in close to real time.
- Ben D. E. Dando
- , Bettina P. Goertz-Allmann
- & Alexander Liashchuk
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Research Briefing |
Sources of seismic activity imaged using telecom fibre cables
A telecommunications fibre cable was used to capture signals of seismic activity during a moderate-sized earthquake in California in 2021. The signals revealed sources of high-frequency seismic activity and, together with simulations, suggest that these sources arise from breaks in asperities: patches where friction usually locks two sides of a fault together.
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The break of earthquake asperities imaged by distributed acoustic sensing
Distributed acoustic sensing technology is utilized to image four high-frequency rupture subevents of the 2021 Antelope Valley, California, earthquake; the results indicate that the subevents are due to the breaking of fault asperities.
- Jiaxuan Li
- , Taeho Kim
- & Zhongwen Zhan
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Article |
Enhanced inner core fine-scale heterogeneity towards Earth’s centre
We create a three-dimensional model of inner core fine-scale heterogeneity, showing that inner core scattering is ubiquitous and that it substantially increases in strength 500–800 km beneath the inner core boundary.
- Guanning Pang
- , Keith D. Koper
- & Garrett Euler
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News |
Rampant groundwater pumping has changed the tilt of Earth’s axis
Human depletion of underground reservoirs has shifted the global distribution of water so much that the North Pole has drifted by more than 4 centimetres per year.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Article |
Dynamics, interactions and delays of the 2019 Ridgecrest rupture sequence
Data-assimilated three-dimensional dynamic rupture models of the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence in California are used to reveal the dynamics, interactions and delays of the earthquake sequence.
- Taufiq Taufiqurrahman
- , Alice-Agnes Gabriel
- & František Gallovič
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News |
Tonga volcano eruption triggered ‘mega-tsunami’
Detailed analysis of the January 2022 event shows how underwater blasts generated huge waves that battered coastlines throughout the island nation.
- Gemma Conroy
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Nature Podcast |
Audio long read: What Turkey’s earthquake tells us about the science of seismic forecasting
Despite decades of research, predicting exactly where an earthquake will strike remains practically impossible.
- Shannon Hall
- & Benjamin Thompson
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Nature Index |
Japan’s rising research stars: Tatsuya Kubota
Using submarine sensors, Kubota works to understand earthquakes and tsunamis.
- Sandy Ong
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News Feature |
What Turkey’s earthquake tells us about the science of seismic forecasting
Geologists knew decades ago that a quake would strike southeastern Turkey, but precise prediction is still the stuff of science fiction.
- Shannon Hall
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Editorial |
Syria after the earthquakes: what researchers can do to help
Equipment and expert aid are urgently needed for 4.7 million people in the country’s neglected northwest.
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Article |
Weak upper-mantle base revealed by postseismic deformation of a deep earthquake
The Earth’s mantle viscosity is studied following a deep earthquake located near the bottom of the upper mantle, and a weak layer is detected that is consequential to the understanding of mantle dynamics.
- Sunyoung Park
- , Jean-Philippe Avouac
- & Adriano Gualandi
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Article |
Core origin of seismic velocity anomalies at Earth’s core–mantle boundary
Investigations of the crystallization of FeSi in Fe–Si–H melt under high pressure−temperature conditions provide evidence of a new process that explains geochemical and geophysical observations at the core–mantle boundary.
- Suyu Fu
- , Stella Chariton
- & Sang-Heon Shim
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News Explainer |
Turkey–Syria earthquake: what scientists know
Turkey and Syria’s buildings have always been vulnerable to earthquakes, but war has made things worse.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News |
Has Earth’s inner core stopped its strange spin?
Earthquake data hint that the inner core stopped rotating faster than the rest of the planet in 2009, but not all researchers agree.
- Alexandra Witze
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Nature Podcast |
Flies can move their rigid, omnidirectional eyes — a little
The mysterious muscles that move flies’ retinas, and calls for militaries to report their climate emissions.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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News |
NASA spacecraft records epic ‘marsquakes’ as it prepares to die
InSight lander reports largest-ever meteorite strikes on Mars, and scientists wish it a fond farewell.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
What do Nord Stream methane leaks mean for climate change?
Researchers are rushing to calculate the greenhouse-gas emissions resulting from mysterious leaks in major gas pipelines that connect Russia to Europe.
- Katharine Sanderson
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Article
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Layered subsurface in Utopia Basin of Mars revealed by Zhurong rover radar
A ground-penetrating radar survey of Martian subsurface structure in a southern marginal area of Utopia Planitia constructed a detailed subsurface image profile showing a roughly 70-m-thick, multi-layered structure below regolith.
- Chao Li
- , Yikang Zheng
- & Fuyuan Wu
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Article |
Timescales for pluton growth, magma-chamber formation and super-eruptions
Analysis of inherited zircons and sanidines from Miocene ignimbrites in the Central Andes shows that plutons were emplaced for up to 4 million years prior to onset of volcanism and that disruption of plutonic rock occurs a few decades or less just before or during super-eruptions.
- M. E. van Zalinge
- , D. F. Mark
- & A. Rust
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News |
Burst of underwater explosions powered Tonga volcano eruption
Research expeditions find that the caldera’s collapse exposed huge amounts of hot magma to water.
- Jonathan O'Callaghan
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Article |
Intermittent lab earthquakes in dynamically weakening fault gouge
Lab experiments show that spontaneously propagating ruptures navigate fault regions through intermittent slip with dramatic friction evolution, providing support that weakening mechanisms may allow ruptures to break through stable faults.
- V. Rubino
- , N. Lapusta
- & A. J. Rosakis
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Article
| Open Access
Instantaneous tracking of earthquake growth with elastogravity signals
A deep learning model trained on prompt elastogravity signal (PEGS) recorded by seismometers in Japan predicts in real time the final magnitude of large earthquakes faster than methods based on elastic waves.
- Andrea Licciardi
- , Quentin Bletery
- & Kévin Juhel
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News & Views |
Mobile mantle could explain volcanic hotspot locations
Ancient records of Earth’s magnetic field seem to contradict a conceptual picture of how regions of volcanic activity form. Statistical modelling now reconciles these data with our understanding of mantle fluid dynamics.
- Allen K. McNamara
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Article |
Assembly of the basal mantle structure beneath Africa
Reconstruction of one billion years of mantle flow shows that mobile basal mantle structures are just as consistent with the Earth’s volcanic history as are fixed mantle structures.
- Nicolas Flament
- , Ömer F. Bodur
- & Andrew S. Merdith
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Nature Podcast |
Tongan volcano eruption leaves scientists with unanswered questions
Scientists scramble to understand the devastating Tongan volcano eruption, and modelling how societal changes might alter carbon emissions.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News Feature |
Why the Tongan eruption will go down in the history of volcanology
The 15 January blast sent shock waves around the globe and defied scientific expectations. Researchers are now scrambling to work out why.
- Alexandra Witze
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Nature Podcast |
Our podcast highlights of 2021
The Nature Podcast team select some of their favourite stories from the past 12 months.
- Shamini Bundell
- , Nick Petrić Howe
- & Benjamin Thompson
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News |
Science agency on trial following deadly White Island volcano eruption
The rare example of a government research agency facing criminal charges after a natural disaster underlines the perils of communicating and managing risk.
- Dyani Lewis
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News |
How Nature’s COVID coverage has made a difference
We analysed the impact of Nature’s coronavirus journalism and opinion. Here’s what we found.
- Julian Nowogrodzki
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News |
Home seismometers provide crucial data on Haiti’s quake
A volunteer network helps to monitor aftershocks and illuminate the country’s earthquake hazards.
- Alexandra Witze
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Nature Podcast |
Eavesdropping on a glacier's seismic whisper
One researcher's unorthodox quest to listen to a Greenland glacier.
- Benjamin Thompson
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News & Views |
Earthquakes triggered by underground fluid injection modelled for a tectonically active oil field
An analysis of the Val d’Agri oil field in Italy provides insight into how processes associated with wastewater disposal trigger earthquakes — and how such effects can be reduced to maintain the economic viability of mature oil fields.
- Mirko van der Baan
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Nature Podcast |
Has the world’s oldest known animal been discovered?
Researchers debate whether an ancient fossil is the oldest animal yet discovered, and a new way to eavesdrop on glaciers.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Noah Baker
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Article |
A process-based approach to understanding and managing triggered seismicity
A multidisciplinary method for managing triggered seismicity is developed using detailed subsurface information to calibrate geomechanical and earthquake source physics models, and is applied to the Val d’Agri oil field in seismically active southern Italy.
- Bradford H. Hager
- , James Dieterich
- & Andreas Plesch
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News & Views |
Fluid-rich extinct volcanoes cause small earthquakes beneath New Zealand
Imaging of a region where an oceanic tectonic plate descends below another plate reveals evidence that fluid-rich extinct volcanoes can help to lubricate the interface between plates — reducing the potential for large earthquakes.
- Catherine A. Rychert
- & Nicholas Harmon
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Article |
Fluid-rich subducting topography generates anomalous forearc porosity
Electromagnetic data collected at the northern Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand show that a seamount on the incoming plate allows more water to subduct, compared with normal, unfaulted oceanic lithosphere.
- Christine Chesley
- , Samer Naif
- & Dan Bassett
Seismological evidence for a multifault network at the subduction interface