Apr 27, 2015

Tidal tugs on Teflon faults drive slow-slipping earthquakes

Unknown to most people, the Pacific Northwest experiences a magnitude-6.6 earthquake about once a year. The reason nobody notices is that the movement happens slowly and deep underground, in a part of the fault whose behavior, known as slow-slip, was only recently discovered. A University of Washington seismologist who studies slow-slip quakes has looked at how they respond to tidal forces from celestial bodies and used the result to make a first direct calculation of friction deep on the fault.

A year later, UW geologist reflects on Oso and the need for better application of landslide science

Earth and Space Sciences’ David Montgomery is one of many University of Washington researchers who have been working to develop and analyze critical data in the aftermath of last year’s landslide in Oso. March 22, 2015 marked one year since the largest recorded landslide in U.S. history decimated a western Washington community and killed 43 people. In the wake of that disaster, Montgomery has some thoughts about how to make landslides less deadly.

Read David's New York Times op-ed »

Mar 11, 2015

UW scientist offers new insights on Earth's evolution in recently published book

“A New History of Life” by Earth and Space Sciences’ Peter Ward and Joseph L. Kirschvink from the California Institute of Technology draws on their years of experience in paleontology, biology, chemistry, and astrobiology to illuminate recent scientific developments about the evolution of life on Earth. More than 150 years after Darwin published his evolutionary theories, Ward and Kirschvink argue that chaos and catastrophe shaped the evolution of life on Earth; that it was not an elegant, gradual process.

World's oldest rocks show signs of life on Earth 3.2 billion years ago

3.2 billion year old sedimentary rock samples from Australia contain chemical evidence for nitrogen fixation by microbes.

Recent findings from Earth and Space Sciences‘ Roger Buick, Eva Stüeken, and Matt Koehler, with Bradley Guy from the University of Johannesburg, suggest that life on Earth may have flourished more than a billion years earlier than previously thought. Nitrogen is a building block of amino and nucleic acids, both essential for life on Earth. By studying some of the planet’s oldest rocks, which contain preserved chemical clues and are free of chemical irregularities, the team concluded that life was pulling nitrogen out of the air and converting it into a form that could support larger communities 3.2 billion years ago.

UW researchers test Washington's first-ever earthquake detection system

An example of the software available to alert users of expected earthquake shaking.

Earth and Space Sciences’ John Vidale, Paul Bodin, and the University of Washington-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network team, will soon begin testing the region’s first early warning system for incoming earthquakes. Originally developed for use in California, the system will create an automated alert giving people anywhere from a few seconds to more than a minute’s warning before an earthquake’s S waves begin to shake the ground.