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Natural Hazards

EGU Guest blogger

This guest post was contributed by a scientist, student or a professional in the Earth, planetary or space sciences. The EGU blogs welcome guest contributions, so if you've got a great idea for a post or fancy trying your hand at science communication, please contact the blog editor or the EGU Communications Officer to pitch your idea.

Faults and earthquakes as friends and not foes

August 3, 2020
Faults and earthquakes as friends and not foes
Figure 1: The earthquakes with magnitude > 7 with a focal depth of 50 km are plotted on the satellite image to show the global distribution of earthquakes, and their relationship with the plate boundaries. The figure is created using the open-source application Natural Hazards Viewer of NOAA (2020), and data are obtained on 26th June 2020.

The earthquakes’ occurrence on the planet Earth is largely considered synonymous with disasters and people generally perceive geological faults as a threat to life and belongings. However, there are exceptions since a small community of earthquake researchers relate the occurrence of earthquakes with the lithospheric plate interactions where movement on faults causes earthquakes. Therefore, ...[Read More]

DE BELLO VULCANICO 40-year scientific effort of ‘predicting the unpredictable’ since the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens

July 6, 2020
DE BELLO VULCANICO 40-year scientific effort of ‘predicting the unpredictable’ since the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens
Figure 1 - Vesuvius from the series of 18 paintings (oil on canvas) by Andy Warhol (1985). This painting shows Mt Vesuvius (in red) and Mount Somma (in blue).

Volcanoes arouse emotions in the soul of men: at the same time, they are fascinating and frighten the population that lives on their slopes when they erupt (Fig. 1). Volcanoes can strike without warning and wreak horrific destruction and death. As such, in the ancient time, volcanoes discharging explosive eruptions have been interpreted as the wrath of gods that destroys and annihilates all around ...[Read More]

Mount Saint Helens 40 years later – May 18, 1980: for everything to stay the same, everything must change

June 22, 2020
Mount Saint Helens 40 years later – May 18, 1980: for everything to stay the same, everything must change
Mount Saint Helens today image as captured from Google Earth.

Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it! Just a few words radioed by volcanologist David ‘Dave’ Johnston on May 18, 1980, to USGS headquarter in Vancouver, Washington State. It was 8:32 a.m., and a few hours later he lost his life during the (in)famous Mount Saint Helens eruption. That day, exactly forty years ago, the eruption of Mount St. Helen upset the world. It all started with a collapse on the nor ...[Read More]

How satellites measuring soil moisture provide a new understanding of rainfall patterns

February 24, 2020
How satellites measuring soil moisture provide a new understanding of rainfall patterns

Soil moisture and rainfall are the two fundamental variables in the water and energy cycle and their knowledge in many applications is crucial. For instance, for predicting the occurrence and the magnitude of flood and landslide events the knowledge of the initial soil moisture condition and of rainfall amount is mandatory. In the last decade, some authors have proposed a completely new approach, ...[Read More]