Natural Disasters News

February 27, 2025

Top Headlines

School of Rock: Properties of Rocks in Fault Zones Contribute to Earthquake Generation

Feb. 26, 2025 — A study looking at a small region in Japan has shown that the properties of fault zone rocks really matter for the generation of ...

From Waste to Wonder: Revolutionary Green Grout for Sustainable Construction Practices

Feb. 25, 2025 — Grouting is a widely used construction technique that involves injecting stabilizing materials into soil to ensure structural stability, which is especially beneficial in earthquake-prone regions. ...

Housing Damage Resulting from Great East Japan Earthquake and All-Cause Mortality

Feb. 20, 2025 — Scientists know that natural disasters have negative health effects on survivors, but long-term observations are lacking. To help fill this gap, a research team has investigated the connection ...

Bio-Hybrid Drone Uses Silkworm Moth Antennae to Navigate Using Smell

Feb. 19, 2025 — Conventional drones use visual sensors for navigation. However, environmental conditions like dampness, low light, and dust can hinder their effectiveness, limiting their use in disaster-stricken areas. Researchers have now developed a novel ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:21pm EST

Scientists Use Distant Sensor to Monitor American Samoa Earthquake Swarm

Feb. 14, 2025 — In late July to October 2022, residents of the Manu'a Islands in American Samoa felt the earth shake several times a day, raising concerns of an imminent volcanic eruption or ...

Fewer Forest Fires Burn in North America Today Than in the Past--and That's a Bad Thing

Feb. 11, 2025 — Research analyzed tree rings and fire scars to compare modern fires to those in the ...

Models Show Intensifying Wildfires in a Warming World Due to Changes in Vegetation and Humidity; Only a Minor Role for Lightning

Feb. 12, 2025 — Climate scientists present a realistic supercomputer simulation that resolves the complex interactions between fire, vegetation, smoke and the ...

Satellite Data Identifies Warning Signs Ahead of 2018 Volcanic Eruption, Tsunami

Feb. 11, 2025 — In 2018, the side of the Anak Krakatau volcano collapsed in a powerful eruption and produced a tsunami that killed hundreds and injured thousands on ...

Earth's Inner Core Is Undergoing a Transformation

Feb. 10, 2025 — Earth's inner core is undergoing structural transformation. Located 3,000 miles below the Earth's surface, the inner core is anchored by gravity within the molten liquid outer core. Until now the ...

Generating International Testing Standards for Large Outdoor Fires

Feb. 10, 2025 — The recent LA fires drove home how dangerous wildfires can be when they encroach on urban areas. So-called 'wildland-urban interface' fires are on the rise. However, building codes and standards have ...

Ice Streams Move Due to Tiny Ice Quakes

Feb. 6, 2025 — An international team of researchers has shown that countless tiny ice quakes take place in one of Greenland's mightiest ice streams. This finding will allow the flowing of the ice sheet and ...

Shifting Landscapes Due to the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake in Japan

Feb. 5, 2025 — What created the Noto Peninsula landscape we know today? After examining the devastation from the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, researchers have a ...

Global Internet Grid Could Better Detect Earthquakes With New Algorithm

Feb. 3, 2025 — Early detection of earthquakes could be vastly improved by tapping into the world's internet network with a groundbreaking new algorithm, researchers say. Fiber optic cables used for cable ...

Earth Scientists Study Sikkim Flood in India to Help Others Prepare for Similar Disasters

Jan. 30, 2025 — Experts from the global Earth science community have pieced together what happened during the massive Sikkim flood to try to help others prepare for ...

Underwater Mud Volcanos Are a Haven for Marine Organisms

Jan. 27, 2025 — One would think that a volcano was not the most hospitable place for living organisms. However, the Borealis Mud Volcano, at 400 m water depth, acts as a sanctuary for a number of marine ...

Claims for the World's Deepest Earthquake Challenged by New Analysis

Jan. 23, 2025 — The magnitude 7.9 Bonin Islands earthquake sequence, which ruptured deep within the earth near the base of the upper mantle, did not include an aftershock that extended to record depths into the ...

Subterranean 'Islands': Strongholds in a Potentially Less Turbulent World

Jan. 22, 2025 — Deeply hidden in Earth's mantle there are two huge 'islands' with the size of a continent. New research shows that these regions are not only hotter than the surrounding graveyard of ...

Volcanic Eruption Caused Neolithic People to Sacrifice Unique 'Sun Stones'

Jan. 16, 2025 — 4,900 years ago, a Neolithic people on the Danish island Bornholm sacrificed hundreds of stones engraved with sun and field motifs. Archaeologists and climate scientists can now show that these ...

Speleothem and Ice Cores: Natural Climate Archives Offer New Insights Into the Climate History of Central Europe

Jan. 16, 2025 — The synchronization of data from two natural climate archives -- a speleothem from the Herbstlabyrinth Cave in Hesse (Germany) and ice cores from Greenland -- offers new insights into the chronology ...

Hiroshima Flooding: A Case Study of Well Usage and Adaptive Governance

Jan. 14, 2025 — A researcher conducted a survey on the use of private wells during the 2018 Western Japan floods in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, which was affected by water supply ...

Residents of Unburned Homes Reported Health Symptoms Months After Marshall Fire

Jan. 14, 2025 — Wildfires that burn homes and vehicles could expose people to dangerous airborne compounds through ash and smoke. Research has shown that people returning to their unburned homes may also experience ...

To Mitigate Impact of Wildfires on Communities' Water, Report Fills Gaps in Guidance to Public Drinking Water System Staff

Jan. 13, 2025 — Wildfires increasingly threaten public drinking water systems, but guidance on how to address damage to these systems from a wildfire has been insufficient, conflicting or inaccurate. A new ...

Magma Composition May Drive Volcanic Tremor

Jan. 10, 2025 — A new study based on the sampling and analysis of volcanic ash at Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands, located off Africa's northwest coast, suggests that the composition of magma could ...

Oil Extraction Might Have Triggered Small Earthquakes in Surrey, England

Jan. 9, 2025 — A series of more than 100 small earthquakes in Surrey in 2018 and 2019 might have been triggered by oil extraction from a nearby well, suggests a new ...

Study Identifies Coastal Black Pine Trees Resistant to Tsunamis and Strong Winds

Jan. 8, 2025 — Researchers have found that the taller the Japanese black pine trees (Pinus thunbergii) along the coast, the deeper their roots penetrate the ground. Deeper roots make trees more resistant to damage ...

Climate Extremes in 2024 'Wreaking Havoc' on the Global Water Cycle

Jan. 6, 2025 — 2024 was another year of record-breaking temperatures, driving the global water cycle to new climate extremes and contributing to ferocious floods and crippling droughts, a new report shows. The ...

Prehistoric Rock in Japan Reveals Clues to Major Ocean Anoxic Event

Dec. 17, 2024 — Researchers analyzed radioisotopes in layers of fossilized volcanic ash. Decay of uranium to lead within tiny crystals enabled scientists to precisely pinpoint dates for certain events. They ...

The Great Ripple: How a Tsunami Can Disrupt Global Trade

Dec. 13, 2024 — Tsunamis can cause immense physical damage to ports, but the economic cost does not stop there. The resultant disruptions of shipping lanes result in billions of dollars in losses every day, as was ...

Technique to Forecast Where the Next Big Quake Will Start

Dec. 12, 2024 — Scientists have a new method for studying faults that could improve earthquake forecasts, shedding light on where quakes start, how they spread, and where the biggest impacts might ...

What Triggered Nepal's Catastrophic 2021 Flood -- And Could It Happen Again?

Dec. 4, 2024 — Heavy monsoon rainfall, excessive snowmelt and unstable terrain combined to cause the 2021 Melamchi Valley flood disaster in Nepal, according to new research. The findings highlight how a mix of ...

Unveiling a Century of Stress and Deformation: Insights from Kilauea Volcano's 1975 Earthquake

Dec. 2, 2024 — Scientists assessed an unprecedented 120 years of data from K lauea Volcano on Hawai'i Island, uncovering, for the first time, century-spanning patterns of deformation and stress changes. They ...

New Research Provides an Improved Understanding of Earthquake Hazards in the Permian Basin

Dec. 2, 2024 — A new collection of published papers offers the most detailed and comprehensive breakdown yet of how water injected into the Permian Basin during oil and gas operations is changing subsurface ...

Moving 'Hotspot' Created World's Longest Straight Underwater Mountain Belt

Nov. 27, 2024 — New research has revealed that the Ninetyeast Ridge -- the Earth's longest straight underwater mountain chain -- formed through a different process than previously believed. Stretching 5000 km ...

How Flood Risk Affects Home Values

Nov. 19, 2024 — Houses for sale in a flood zone are around 10% cheaper than surrounding areas, according to new research. However, the reduced price tag is not worth the extra risk and can burden buyers with ...