SM
Seismology

Seismology & Society

Ten years after the 2010 Maule earthquake: how science and ancestral knowledge build-up resilient societies

February 27, 2020
Ten years after the 2010 Maule earthquake: how science and ancestral knowledge build-up resilient societies
Tren Tren and Cai Cai Vilu, mythological beings of the Mapuche culture. Tren Tren Vilu is the terrestrial snake, who dominates the lands and take care of the nature spirits and Cai Cai Vilu the sea snake, who dominates the ocean and take care of the water spirits.

  At 3:34 a.m. (local time) on February 27, 2010, a magnitude Mw 8.8 earthquake occurred in Central Chile and extended over around 500 km along the Maule and Bio Bio regions, a convergent zone between the Nazca and South America plates (Figure 1a). The occurrence of this large earthquake in the context of active subduction zones, as Central Chile, was expected by many Chilean and European res ...[Read More]

Ambient seismic noise and the quest for groundwater

February 18, 2020
Ambient seismic noise and the quest for groundwater

Groundwater is water stored within permeable geological formations, and nearly a third of Earth’s freshwater supply comes from this source (a). In Africa, the overwhelming majority of distributable freshwater is contained in groundwater, and in the EU, 75% of the population relies on groundwater (b).   This dependence on groundwater is steadily rising. As humanity as a whole, figures out how ...[Read More]

Imaging volcanic perturbations induced by large earthquakes

February 12, 2020
Imaging volcanic perturbations induced by large earthquakes
Hakone Lake and Mount Fuji, a 19th century printing.

In a study recently published in Nature Communications [1], an international team led by researchers from the Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP) has sought to better understand how the 2011 Tohoku-Oki mega-earthquake in Japan disrupted volcanic regions, by monitoring the seismic anisotropy in these regions before and after the earthquake.   What is seismic anisotropy? A seismic wav ...[Read More]

Hackathon: when ideas happen

January 28, 2020
Hackathon: when ideas happen

You live in a developing country and wish for access to safe drinking water [1]. Or, you are at the supermarket and want to jump the endless line at the checkout [2]. Maybe you are a business woman and want to confidently represent yourself as the professional you are [3].   Whether it be inspired by the best of intentions or simply the laziness of a shopper, an idea worth developing always h ...[Read More]