• A Mississippi river diversion helped build Louisiana wetlands

    The extensive system of levees along the Mississippi River has done much to prevent devastating floods in riverside communities; the levees, however, have also contributed to the loss of Louisiana’s wetlands; by holding in floodwaters, they prevent sediment from flowing into the watershed and rebuilding marshes, which are compacting under their own weight and losing ground to sea-level rise

  • Corps: absolute flood protection along the Missouri River is impossible

    A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report said that absolute flood protection along the Missouri River is impossible, so the basin needs to prepare and plan for flooding in the future

  • Tropical cyclones are occurring more frequently than before

    Are there more tropical cyclones now than in the past, or is it just something we believe because we now hear more about them through media coverage and are better able detect them with satellites? New research shows that there is an increasing tendency for cyclones when the climate is warmer, as it has been in recent years

  • Water level gauges failed during Hurricane Isaac

    As Hurricane Isaac beat down on New Orleans, the damage it caused was nowhere near as severe as that of Katrina, but it lasted longer than most people expected and for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it provided a field test of a multi-billion dollar investment in flood protection

  • Y-12 Nuclear Complex’s uranium processing facility to be redesigned

    Weeks after the inadequacy of security measures at the Y-12 Nuclear Complex came to light — an 82-year old nun and her two senior citizen colleagues eluded the facility’s fences and security to spend a few hours on the site’s grounds and spray-paint anti-nuclear slogans on its walls – criticism is directed at the design shortcomings of a new uranium processing facility; among other things, the roof of the new facility will have to be raised by thirteen feet because the designers did not take into account the size of the equipment the new facility will house 

  • Environmentalists concerned about earthquakes tests near California nuclear plant

    The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) wants to use air guns to emit strong sound waves into a large near-shore area which includes parts of marine reserves; the purpose: creating three dimensional maps of fault zones near its Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in California; the plans have federal and state officials concerned about marine life and public safety

  • New mobile app could save lives in earthquakes

    A new iPhone app called has been developed to locate loved ones in the world’s earthquake zones during the event of an earthquake; the app, once downloaded, prompts users to enter their own details and those of four friends or family members in order to become their “Buddies”; in the event of an earthquake registering above 5.5, the user’s buddies will instantaneously receive an e-mail displaying a Google map of the user’s location

  • EU considers far-reaching Internet security initiative

    Cybersecurity is becoming an increasingly more daunting challenge as governments try to prevent attacks against critical infrastructure on which the well-being of countries depends, now, several European countries are trying to come together in an effort to defend themselves against a cyber attack, but critics say the project, called CleanIT, goes too far

  • April 2012 Indian Ocean earthquake indicate s that a new tectonic plate is being born

    The 11 April 2012 8.7 magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean, unlike its 2004 predecessor, did very little damage; it began at one fault, and when it reached an intersecting fault, it ruptured; in total, four different faults were ruptured over the course of 150 seconds; when earthquakes spread to connecting faults, the rupture rips along faults that branch away from the initial fault like branches of a river; the April 2012 earthquakes took a very different course, running along grid-like patterns and making 90 degree turns; the weird rupture pattern reflects the fact that the region is giving birth to a new tectonic plate

  • Turkey’s parliament authorizes military action against Syria

    Heavy Turkish artillery attacks against Syrian military targets continue for a second day, following a Wednesday’s mortar attack from inside Syria which killed five Turkish civilians; unconfirmed reports talk of a large number of Syrian military casualties; the Turkish government asked parliament for authorization to send ground units into Syria to create a buffer zone by establishing posts in strategic locations along the border, up to six miles deep inside Syria, in order to prevent similar attacks in the future; the Turkish parliament approved the request; the buffer zone, protected by the Turkish air force, will allow the anti-Assad rebels a protected areas from which to launch operations against the regime

  • China’s infrastructure is failing owing to sub-standard materials, corruption, and lax regulation

    Shoddy infrastructure in China has put people in danger time and time again; many of the infrastructure issues in China stem from the government’s focus on quantity over quality, as well as making sure that as many people are employed as possible for a project, rather than using the latest construction technology; sub-standard materials, corruption, and lax regulation only exacerbate the problem

  • City of Ottawa sits atop soft soil, a geologic features which amplifies seismic waves

    Roughly 20 percent of the Ottawa area is built on bedrock, while the remaining area contains unconsolidated surface deposits; this is not good news for city planners – and dwellers – because soft soil amplifies seismic waves, resulting in stronger ground motion than for sites built over bedrock

  • Keeping safe during earthquakes? There’s an app for that

    The American Red Cross released its official earthquake application for iPhone and Android smartphones; the app is free, available in English or Spanish; the app includes earthquake epicenter locations, impact magnitudes, and local geographical impact data provided by the U.S. Geological Survey; it also includes a “shake zone” impact map and a one touch “I’m safe” messaging

  • Risky business: Modeling catastrophes

    The probability that a given natural hazard could become a natural disaster is higher today than at any previous point in history, largely because of population growth putting more people and infrastructure in harm’s way

  • BART to adopt earthquake early warning system

    Thanks to assistance from the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system can now automatically brake trains when earthquakes threaten to rattle the Bay Area, allowing perhaps tens of seconds to a minute for trains to slow down before the ground starts to shake