The Geological Society has prepared an interactive website that pays a small tribute to the pioneers of plate tectonics: Alfred Lothar Wegener Harry Hammond Hess Frederick Vine and Drummond Matthews John Tuzo-Wilson Dan McKenzie The website also features a Teacher Zone with good teaching material, a Glossary for nicely explained geological terms, and a Test Your Knowledge section with multiple cho ...[Read More]
125 years since the first recorded seismogram
17th April marks the 125 anniversary of the first ever recorded seismogram from a distant earthquake. The widely recognised first teleseismic seismogram was recorded on April 17, 1889, in Potsdam, Germany by E. von Rebeur-Pacshwitz (Nature, 1889). The earthquake was in Japan and had a magnitude of about 5.8. Ironically the instrument was originally installed for astronomical purposes. The instrume ...[Read More]
Molding seismic surface waves
Following each major earthquake that occurs close to nearby cities many people wonder what scientist and engineers can do to minimise the seismic hazard on society. Whilst scientist try to understand the mechanism of each fault system on the globe, engineers try to find solutions for buildings to be more safe. One interesting experiment I came across lately is published in last month’s Physi ...[Read More]
Earthquake shakes Twitter users and geeks do some science (oh, and celebrities said they felt it too)
The ever increasing use of mobile phones constantly connected to the internet is bring on a new era in scientific research called crowdsourcing. On Wikipedia crowdsourcing is the defined as the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community. In recent years social media is being used as a re ...[Read More]