Seismology

Geosciences Column: Extreme snowfall potentially worsened Nepal’s 2015 earthquake-triggered avalanche

Olivia Trani May 11, 2018

A view of Langtang Nepal in 2012. The village was struck by an earthquake-induced avalanche and landslides in 2015, burying the town in debris. (Credit: Sander van Dijk via Flickr)

Three years ago, an earthquake-induced avalanche and rockfalls buried an entire Nepalese village in ice, stone, and snow. Researchers now think the region’s heavy snowfall from the preceding winter may have intensified the avalanche’s disastrous effect. The Langtang village, just 70 kilometres from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, is nestled within a valley under the shadow of the Himalayas. The town wa ...[Read More]

April GeoRoundUp: the best of the Earth sciences from the 2018 General Assembly

Olivia Trani May 4, 2018

Scientists present research findings at a press conference at the 2018 General Assembly (Credit: EGU / Keri McNamara)

The 2018 General Assembly took place in Vienna last month, drawing more than 15,000 participants from 106 countries. This month’s GeoRoundUp will focus on some of the unique and interesting stories that came out of research presented at the Assembly. Mystery solved The World War II battleship Tirpitz was the largest vessel in the German navy, stationed primarily off the Norwegian coastline as a fo ...[Read More]

Shaking in the city

Tim Middleton April 13, 2018

Bruce Springsteen plays harmonica and guitar in Washington, D.C. November 11, 2014. (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Bruce Springsteen was playing at Barcelona’s football stadium on 14th May 2016. 65,000 people were there to hear him as he launched into an encore including “Born in the USA”, “Dancing in the Dark” and “Shout”. But unknown to Springsteen, just 500 metres away, in the basement of the Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera (ICTJA), Jorde Díaz and his colleagues were also listening in via their bro ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Chilean relics of Earth’s past

Anita Di Chiara March 12, 2018

Sunset, LLaima volcano and eruptions' relicts . Credit: Anita Di Chiara (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

As Earth’s environment changes, it leaves behind clues used by scientists to paint portraits of the past: scorched timber, water-weathered shores, hardened lava flows. Chile’s Conguillío National Park is teeming with these kind of geologic artifacts; some are only a few years old while others have existed for more than 30 million years. The photographer Anita Di Chiara, a researcher at Lancaster U ...[Read More]