The United States just suffered the most intense hurricane season in more than a decade, and possibly the costliest ever. Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in mid-August. Hurricane Irma struck Florida in early September, followed just two weeks later by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Now, with the close of hurricane season on Nov. 30, new UW faculty member Shuyi Chen, professor in the UW’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences and an expert on hurricanes, answered a few questions about the state of hurricane forecasting and the 2017 storm season.
Read the Q&A at UW Today »Less life: Limited phosphorus recycling suppressed early Earth’s biosphere
The amount of biomass — life — in Earth’s ancient oceans may have been limited due to low recycling of the key nutrient phosphorus, according to new research by the University of Washington and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The research, published online Nov. 22 in the journal Science Advances, also comments on the role of volcanism in supporting Earth’s early biosphere — and may even apply to the search for life on other worlds.
Read more at UW Today »50 simulations show how a 9.0 Cascadia earthquake could play out
We know the "really big one" is coming. But what exactly is going to happen in cities along the coast?
Read more at UW Today »Hacking a pressure sensor to track gradual motion along marine faults
Deep below the ocean’s surface, shielded from satellite signals, the gradual movement of the seafloor — including along faults that can unleash deadly earthquakes and tsunamis — goes largely undetected. As a result, we know distressingly little about motion along the fault that lies just off the Pacific Northwest coast. University of Washington oceanographers are working with a local company to develop a simple new technique that could track seafloor movement in earthquake-prone coastal areas.
Read more at UW Today »Ship exhaust makes oceanic thunderstorms more intense
New research from UW atmospheric scientist Joel Thornton and others finds that storms above the world’s busiest shipping lanes are significantly more powerful than storms in areas of the ocean where ships don’t travel.
Read more at UW Today »