seismology

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]

Is it an earthquake, a nuclear test or a hurricane? How seismometers help us understand the world we live in

Neil Wilkins and Steven Hicks September 8, 2017

Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Jose (R) and Hurricane Katia (L) are pictured in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Nexico in this September 7, 2017 NOAA satellite handout photo. Credit: NOAA

Although traditionally used to study earthquakes, like today’s M 8.1 in Mexico, seismometers have now become so sophisticated they are able to detect the slightest ground movements; whether they come from deep within the bowels of the planet or are triggered by events at the surface. But how, exactly, do earthquake scientists decipher the signals picked up by seismometers across the world? And mo ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Sediments make the colour

Eva Eibl July 17, 2017

Sediment makes the colour . Credit: Eva P.S. Eibl (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Earth is spectacularly beautiful, especially when seen from a bird’s eye view. This image, of a sweeping pattern made by a river in Iceland is testimony to it. The picture shows river Leirá which drains sediment-loaded glacial water from the Myrdalsjökull glacier in Iceland. Myrdalsjökull glacier covers Katla, one of Iceland’s most active and ice-covered volcanoes. A high sediment load (the suspen ...[Read More]