natural disasters

September GeoRoundUp: the best of the Earth sciences from around the web

Laura Roberts-Artal September 29, 2017

Partially collapsed building as a result of the 2017 Puebla earthquake (Mexico). Credit: AntoFran. Distributed via Wikimedia Commons.

Drawing inspiration from popular stories on our social media channels, as well as unique and quirky research news, this monthly column aims to bring you the best of the Earth and planetary sciences from around the web. Major story and what you might have missed This month has been an onslaught of Earth and space science news; the majority focusing on natural hazards. Hurricanes, earthquakes and v ...[Read More]

When mountains collapse…

Jane Qiu April 27, 2016

The mountainsides, severely weakened by last year’s Gorkha Earthquake, is more likely to give way, especially during monsoons and aftershocks. (Credit: Kristen Cook)

Jane Qiu, a grantee of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, took to quake-stricken Nepal last month — venturing into landslide-riddled terrains and shadowing scientists studying what makes slopes more susceptible to failure after an earthquake. The journey proved to be more perilous than she had expected. What would it be like to lose all your family overnight? And how would you cope? It’s wit ...[Read More]

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]

Geosciences Column: An international effort to understand the hazard risk posed by Nepal’s 2015 Gorkha earthquake

Laura Roberts-Artal February 12, 2016

The upper part of the Pokhara Valley and view towards the Annapurna Massif. Debris flows and floods triggered by three major medieval earthquakes delivered the vast, flat-lying and steeply dissected deposits of the Pokhara Formation. The photo was taken by Amelie Stolle. Distributed via NASA Goddard on Flickr.

Nine months ago the ground in Nepal shook, and it shook hard: on April 25th 2015 the M7.8 Gorkha earthquake struck and was followed by some 250 aftershocks, five of which were greater than M 6.0. The devastation left behind in the aftermath of such an event, and how to coordinate disaster-relief efforts in a vast, mountainous region, is difficult to imagine. Yet, this December at the 2015 AGU Fall ...[Read More]