Tsunamis News

December 24, 2024

Top Headlines

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 seen in the 2011 tsunami that hit the Tohoku ...

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 had a ...

New Trigger Proposed for Record-Smashing 2022 Tonga Eruption

Nov. 4, 2024 — Fifteen minutes before the massive January 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, a seismic wave was recorded by two distant seismic stations. The researchers propose that the seismic wave was caused by a fracture in a weak area of ...

What Happened When a Meteorite the Size of Four Mount Everests Hit Earth?

Oct. 21, 2024 — Scientists paint a compelling picture of what happened the day the S2 meteorite crashed into Earth 3.26 billion years ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:23pm EST

Climate-Change-Triggered 2023 Mega-Landslide Caused Earth to Vibrate for Nine Days

Sep. 12, 2024 — A landslide in a remote part of Greenland caused a 200 meter (650 foot) mega-tsunami that sloshed back and forth across a fjord for nine days, ...

Sichuan Province Earthquake Offers Lessons for Landslide Prediction from GNSS Observations

Aug. 7, 2024 — Using data collected from a 2022 magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Luding County in China's Sichuan Province, researchers tested whether Global Navigation ...

Greenland Mega-Tsunami Led to Week-Long Oscillating Fjord Wave

Aug. 9, 2024 — In September 2023, a megatsunami in remote eastern Greenland sent seismic waves around the world, piquing the interest of the global research community. The event created a week-long oscillating wave ...

Cascadia Subduction Zone, One of Earth's Top Hazards, Comes Into Sharper Focus

June 7, 2024 — A new study has produced the first comprehensive survey of the many complex structures beneath the seafloor in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, off ...

Understanding the Mechanisms for Local Amplification of 2024 Tsunamis in Iida Bay

May 28, 2024 — Researchers uncover the unique mechanisms that resulted in severe tsunamis in Iida Bay caused by the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake. The recent ...

Subduction Zone Splay Faults Compound Hazards of Great Earthquakes

May 20, 2024 — Groundbreaking research has provided new insight into the tectonic plate shifts that create some of the Earth's largest earthquakes and ...

Lake Tsunamis Pose Significant Threat Under Warming Climate

May 6, 2024 — The names might not be familiar -- Cowee Creek, Brabazon Range, Upper Pederson Lagoon -- but they mark the sites of recent lake tsunamis, a phenomenon that is increasingly common in Alaska, British ...

Scientists Trigger Mini-Earthquakes in the Lab

Apr. 19, 2024 — Earthquakes and landslides are famously difficult to predict and prepare for. By studying a miniature version of the ground in the lab, scientists have demonstrated how these events can be triggered ...

New Detection Method Aims to Warn of Landslide Tsunamis

Feb. 21, 2024 — Researchers have devised a way to remotely detect large landslides within minutes of occurrence and to quickly determine whether they are close to open water and present a tsunami ...

Ancient Rocks Improve Understanding of Tectonic Activity Between Earthquakes

Feb. 7, 2024 — Rocks once buried deep in ancient subduction zones -- where tectonic plates collide -- could help scientists make better predictions of how these ...

Self-Powered Movable Seawall for Tsunami Protection and Emergency Power Generation

Jan. 24, 2024 — A movable seawall system, capable of generating sufficient electricity to raise gates and protect ports against tsunamis, has been proposed by researchers. The system has been found feasible in areas ...

Morocco Earthquake Had Unusual Deep Slip, According to New Modeling

Dec. 15, 2023 — In their rapid characterization of the magnitude 6.8 Al Haouz earthquake in Morocco, researchers suggest that the earthquake ruptured roughly 25 kilometers deep beneath the ...

Mystery of Volcanic Tsunami Solved After 373 Years

Oct. 26, 2023 — The explosion of the underwater volcano Kolumbo in the Aegean Sea in 1650 triggered a destructive tsunami that was described by historical eye witnesses. A group of researchers has now surveyed ...

Researchers Test Seafloor Fiber Optic Cable as an Earthquake Early Warning System

Oct. 17, 2023 — One of the biggest challenges for earthquake early warning systems (EEW) is the lack of seismic stations located offshore of heavily populated coastlines, where some of the world's most ...

Study Shows Long-Term Health Impacts After Exposure to Environmental Disaster

Oct. 16, 2023 — Exposure to a large-scale disaster, such as a tsunami, impacts population health over a decade later. A new study has found that women who lived along the coast of Aceh, Indonesia when it was hit by ...

How to Distinguish Slow and Fast Earthquakes

July 31, 2023 — Slow earthquakes are slow-slip phenomena that last many days or months, and you barely notice them. In 2007, researchers proposed how the magnitude and duration of earthquakes vary, which can help ...

Creating a Tsunami Early Warning System Using Artificial Intelligence

Apr. 25, 2023 — Researchers develop an early warning system that combines acoustic technology with AI to immediately classify earthquakes and determine potential tsunami risk. They propose using underwater ...

Ridgecrest Faults Increasingly Sensitive to Solid Earth Tides Before Earthquakes

Apr. 21, 2023 — Faults in the Ridgecrest, California area were very sensitive to solid earth tidal stresses in the year and a half before the July 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake ...

Puerto Rico Tsunami Deposit Could Have Come from Pre-Columbian Megathrust Earthquake

Apr. 20, 2023 — Tsunami deposits identified in a coastal mangrove pond in Northwest Puerto Rico could have come from a megathrust earthquake at the Puerto Rico Trench that occurred between 1470 and 1530, according ...

Turkey's Next Quake: Research Shows Where, How Bad -- But Not 'When'

Apr. 20, 2023 — Using remote sensing, geophysicists have documented the massive Feb. 6 quake that killed more than 50,000 people in Eastern Turkey and toppled more than 100,000 buildings. Alarmingly, researchers ...

2022 Tongan Volcanic Explosion Was Largest Natural Explosion in Over a Century, New Study Finds

Apr. 14, 2023 — The 2022 eruption of a submarine volcano in Tonga was more powerful than the largest U.S. nuclear explosion, according to a new study. The 15-megaton volcanic explosion from Hunga Tonga-Hunga ...

Earthquake Scientists Have a New Tool in the Race to Find the Next Big One

Feb. 16, 2023 — New research on friction between faults could aid in predicting the world's most powerful earthquakes. Researchers discovered that fault surfaces bond together, or heal, after an earthquake. A ...

Looking Back at the Tonga Eruption

Jan. 27, 2023 — A 'back-projection' technique reveals new details of the volcanic eruption in Tonga that literally shook the ...

The Adverse Health Effects of Disaster-Related Trauma

Jan. 4, 2023 — A new study has found that individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to experience disaster-related home loss, and they are also more likely to develop functional limitations ...

Signals from the Ionosphere Could Improve Tsunami Forecasts

Dec. 12, 2022 — The powerful volcanic eruption in January 2022 created ripple effects throughout the world's atmosphere and oceans. Analysis of the Hunga Tonga eruption shows how signals from the ionosphere ...

Finding Faults Deeply Stressful

Dec. 8, 2022 — Evidence that a complete stress release may have contributed to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake that broke records. Both sedimentary formations above and below the plate boundary fault lie in the stress ...

Exploring the Deep: Drones Offer New Ways to Monitor Sea Floor

Nov. 21, 2022 — Researchers have developed a novel method for measuring the earth's crust on the seafloor. A lightweight geodetic measurement device was mounted on a sea-surface landing unmanned aerial vehicle ...

Water Cutoff Countermeasures Using Disaster Emergency Wells

Nov. 4, 2022 — Groundwater is considered both an environmental and industrial resource, but a new study indicates it is also an important resource in disaster prevention. Researchers conducted research surveys of ...

Violent Supershear Earthquakes Are More Common Than Previously Thought

Oct. 31, 2022 — About 14% of magnitude 6.7 or greater strike-slip earthquakes since 2000 have been supershear. That's 50% more than previously thought. Supershear earthquakes occur when a fault ruptures faster ...

Impact That Killed the Dinosaurs Triggered 'Mega-Earthquake' That Lasted Weeks to Months

Oct. 6, 2022 — Some 66 million years ago, a 10-kilometer asteroid hit Earth, triggering the extinction of the dinosaurs. New evidence suggests that the Chicxulub impact also triggered an earthquake so massive that ...