earthquake

Counting the cost of natural disasters

Hazel Gibson April 21, 2016

'Earthquake damage in Zona Rossa, L’Aquila'. Credit: Nadine Hoffman (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Often, in the news, we are used to seeing disaster statistics reported as isolated figures, placed into context by the tragic human cost of floods, earthquakes and drought. The recent Ecuadorian earthquake that occurred on Saturday the 16th April, for example, was described as having an estimated economic cost of $820 million, which could rise as the scale of the disaster is revealed. But beyond t ...[Read More]

The day the Earth trembled: A first-hand account of the 25 April Nepal earthquake

Laura Roberts-Artal June 12, 2015

Map of Gaurishankar Conservation area (GCA) including respective Village Development Committees (VDC’s) and localities within the Tamakoshi River valley that are mentioned in this post (by NTNC, the National Trust for Nature Conservation, Lalitpur, Nepal).

On the 25th April 2015, Viktor Bruckman, a researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and a team of his colleagues were a few hours into a hike between the settlements of Lamabagar, in a remote area of northeastern Nepal, and the Lapchi Monastery when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal. Their journey cut short by the trembling Earth, stranded in the heights of the Himalayas, this is thei ...[Read More]

GeoEd: A risky business

Laura Roberts-Artal January 9, 2015

In this month’s GeoEd post, Sam Illingworth explores the pitfalls of being a scientist in the public eye. Following the recent acquittal of 6 geoscientists on manslaughter charges after ‘failing’ to predict the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake, is it time we thought about improving how risk is communicated to the wider public? At the beginning of November of this year, six Italian scientists were acquitte ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: Matthew Agius on how online communication can help identify earthquake impact

Sara Mynott August 8, 2014

In this edition of GeoTalk, we’re talking to Matthew Agius, a seismologist from the University of Malta and the Young Scientist Representative for the EGU’s Seismology Division. Matthew gave an enlightening talk during the EGU General Assembly on how communication on online platforms such as Facebook can help scientists assess the effect of earthquakes. Here he shares his findings and what wonders ...[Read More]