Most landslides in western Oregon triggered by heavy rainfall, not big earthquakes

Will Struble and Alison Duvall dig into a landslide deposit near the community of Sitkum, Oregon.

Researchers at the University of Washington, Portland State University and the University of Oregon have shown that deep-seated landslides in the central Oregon Coast Range are triggered mostly by rainfall, not by large offshore earthquakes. The open-access paper was published Sept. 16 in Science Advances. “Geomorphologists have long understood the importance of rainfall in triggering landslides, and our study is simply driving home just how important it is,” said first author Sean LaHusen, who did the work as part of his doctorate at the UW.

February lockdown in China caused a drop in some types of air pollution, but not others

Pollution over Shanghai, China in October 2019.

Atmospheric scientists have analyzed how the February near-total shutdown of mobility affected the air over China. Results show a striking drop in nitrogen oxides, a gas that comes mainly from tailpipes and is one component of smog. Learning how behavior shifts due to the COVID-19 pandemic affect air quality is of immediate importance, since the virus attacks human lungs. The event is also a way for Earth scientists to study how the atmosphere responds to sudden changes in emissions.

David Montgomery elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences in 2020

David Montgomery, professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, has been elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences, according to an announcement July 15 by the academy. The new members are lauded for “their outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement and their willingness to work on behalf of the academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.”

Katharine Huntington helps define the next decade in Earth sciences

It is easy to feel lost when thinking of the vast scope of Earth sciences. After all, Earth sciences covers everything from the microscopic interactions of bacteria all the way to natural hazards like earthquakes and tsunamis. So how do scientists narrow down such a vast subject to prioritize investments into specific research areas? Every ten years, scientists gather in a committee formed under the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) to guide the National Science Foundation (NSF) in exploring priority Earth science questions that need attention over the coming decade.

Then and Now: The Mount St. Helens Eruption, four decades later

The mountain’s crater, covered in snow, lets out a small plume against a dark blue sky.

It wasn’t supposed to be Mount St. Helens. In the 1970s, scientists including Emeritus Research Professor Steve Malone (then a postdoctoral researcher at UW) investigated what they believed to be earthquakes on Mount Rainier. Further work determined they were “glacier quakes” instead: As glaciers on a mountain shift, the energy created mimics an earthquake. Then in 1975, Mount Baker began to steam.