Scientists have made an important advance in their efforts to predict earthquakes, the journal Nature says.
A team of US researchers has detected stress-induced changes in rocks that occurred hours before two small tremors in California's San Andreas Fault.
The observations used sensors lowered down holes drilled into the quake zone.
The team says we are a long way from routine tremor forecasts but the latest findings hold out hope that such services might be possible one day.
"If you had 10 hours' warning, from a practical point of view, you could evacuate populations, you could certainly get people out of buildings, you could get the fire department ready," said co-author Paul Silver of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington.
Chile on 'red alert' after massive volcanic eruption
Mount St. Helens back to 'normal'
VOLCANO, Hawaii (AP) — More lava than usual is spilling from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano into the ocean.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said Saturday that the lava is emerging near the Pacific on the southeastern side of the Big Island.
People can see the lava from a viewing area a few hundred feet away.
Kilauea has been erupting for 25 years.
Cosmic blasts may throw out plasma 'cannonballs'
First Measurements Of The Solar Wind Termination Shock By Voyager 2 Spacecraft
| Kimberly Johnson for National Geographic News |
| June 30, 2008 |
| Rapid changes in the churning movement of Earth's liquid outer core are weakening the magnetic field in some regions of the planet's surface, a new study says. "What is so surprising is that rapid, almost sudden, changes take place in the Earth's magnetic field," said study co-author Nils Olsen, a geophysicist at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen. The findings suggest similarly quick changes are simultaneously occurring in the liquid metal, 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) below the surface, he said. The swirling flow of molten iron and nickel around Earth's solid center triggers an electrical current, which generates the planet's magnetic field. |
Chile's Llaima volcano erupts 650 kms south of Santiago; nearby villages safe
Scientists fear more eruptions on New Zealand's Mt Ruapehu
International Experts To Monitor Costa Rica's Volcanic Activity
Israel authorities warn hospitals to prepare for earthquake
Two new columns of smoke erupted from the Chaiten volcano on Tuesday (June 17) after activity had calmed since late May.
27 May 08 – “Cashing in on the panic that has set in with the help of some climate alarmists, tour operators like Quark Expeditions of Norwalk Connecticut are offering polar expeditions catering to that “see it before it’s gone” travel worry. One of them is a trip though the Northwest Passage on a former Soviet Icebreaker called the Kapitan Khlebnikov, a massive 24,000 horsepower Polar Class icebreaker capable of carrying 108 passengers in relative luxury through the arctic wilderness.
New Zealand's largest active volcano, Mount Ruapehu in the North Island, has been showing signs of increased activity and scientists are warning it may erupt.
But up on the mountain tourism operators are not too concerned. They are more worried that the media reports have scared off visitors.
Meanwhile newspaper headlines in New Zealand are reading "Restless Ruapehu emits danger signs" and "Molten rock on the move".
Ecuador records 125 explosions of Tungurahua volcano
