Bon Voyage! It’s Global Travel Grant Application Time Throughout July, student and early-career members are invited to apply for the next round of SSA Global Travel Grants. The grants of up to $2,500 dollars (plus an additional $500 to help cover parents’ childcare costs) have already paid the way for … Continue Reading »
SSA and AGU Update Position Statement on Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty
9 June 2022–In April, the Seismological Society of America (SSA) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) agreed on minor updates to their position statement, “The Capability to Monitor the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Should be Expanded, Completed, and Sustained.” The CTBT is an international agreement to ban all nuclear … Continue Reading »
At Work: Peggy Hellweg
16 May 2022–Peggy Hellweg was the first Explainer hired at the Exploratorium, a science, technology and arts museum in San Francisco, when it opened in 1969. The job as a young docent, engaging visitors and leading demonstrations, was a perfect fit for Hellweg. She had grown up in a family … Continue Reading »
Models Show How Topography Influences Ground Shaking in Seattle Area
3 May 2022–Including topography—the hills, cliffs and valleys of a landscape—in ground motion models shows where shaking might be most amplified during an earthquake, researchers demonstrate with detailed new models of the Puget Sound region. In their models, Ian Stone of the U.S. Geological Survey and colleagues simulated several magnitude … Continue Reading »
Rocket Launch Data Helps Verify Presence of Atmospheric Acoustic Duct
22 April 2022–The presence of an atmospheric acoustic duct, a channel of sound at the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere, has been verified for the first time by Sandia National Laboratory scientists. Solar hot air balloons carrying microbarometers floating in the lower stratosphere were able to observe infrasound signals … Continue Reading »
What Can Deep Diamonds Tell Us About Deep Earthquakes?
22 April 2022–Diamonds that formed deep in the Earth could help seismologists answer a decades-old question: do fluids play a role in generating earthquakes at depths where high pressure should keep brittle failure from happening? Fluid-assisted faulting in subducted slabs 300 to 700 kilometers deep, in the transition zone between … Continue Reading »