• Category 6-level Hurricanes Are Already Here, a New Study Says

    By Kate Yoder and Jake Bittle

    Some U.S. scientists are making the case that the current storm classification no longer captures the intensity of recent hurricanes. They argue for extending the current hurricane rating system, the Saffir-Simpson scale, with a new category for storms that have winds topping 192 miles per hour, saying that the world has already seen storms that would qualify as Category 6s. But what would change if we added a number to the hurricane scale?

  • Wood Is Making a Comeback in Construction

    By Mark Helzen Draper

    In the past 150 years, as cities and skyscrapers have boomed, wood has been eclipsed by newer materials such as concrete and steel. Experts say that we shouldn’t accept the dominance of the steel-and-concrete jungle just yet. Thanks to the work of engineers, our oldest building material is experiencing a revival — one that can even withstand earthquakes.

  • U.S. Disrupts Botnet China Used to Conceal Hacking of Critical Infrastructure

    In December 2023, the FBI disrupted a botnet of hundreds of U.S.-based small office/home office (SOHO) routers hijacked by People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored hackers. The Chinese government hackers used privately-owned SOHO routers infected with the “KV Botnet” malware to conceal the PRC origin of further hacking activities directed against U.S. critical infrastructure and the critical infrastructure of other foreign victims.

  • Is the Southwest Too Dry for a Mining Boom?

    By Wyatt Myskow

    Critical minerals for the clean energy transition are abundant in the Southwest, but the dozens of mines proposed to access them will require vast sums of water, something in short supply in the desert.

  • What Sets the Recent Japan Earthquake Apart from Others?

    By Paige Colley

    On Jan. 1, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the western side of Japan on the Noto Peninsula, killing over 200 people. Japan is prone to earthquakes, including a magnitude 9.1 earthquake in 2011 that triggered a tsunami and killed almost 20,000 people. Geophysicist William Frank discusses how a recent earthquake in Japan relates to an earthquake swarm in the region.

  • Clusters of Atmospheric Rivers Amp Up California Storm Damages

    By Laura Castañón

    When multiple atmospheric rivers hit California back-to-back, the economic damage from resulting rain and snowfall is three to four times higher than predicted from individual storms, a Stanford study finds. The insight could help water managers and disaster planners better prepare for future impacts of climate change.

  • Creating the Self-Healing Grid of the Future

    Self-healing electrical grids: It may sound like a concept from science fiction, with tiny robots or some sentient tech crawling around fixing power lines, but in a reality not far from fiction, a team of researchers is bringing this idea to life. What’s not hard to imagine is the potential value of a self-healing grid, one able to adapt and bounce back to life, ensuring uninterrupted power even when assailed by a hurricane or a group of bad guys.

  • Central Asia Key to Breaking China's Rare Earth Monopoly

    By Navbahor Imamova

    U.S. officials hoping to break China’s near monopoly on the production of rare earth elements needed for many cutting-edge technologies should engage the governments of Central Asia to develop high concentrations of REEs found in the region, says a new report.

  • From New York to Jakarta, Land in Many Coastal Cities Is Sinking Faster Than Sea Levels Are Rising

    By Pei-Chin Wu, Meng (Matt) Wei, and Steven D’Hondt

    Sea level rise has already put coastal cities on notice thanks to increasing storm surges and even sunny day flooding at high tide. These challenges will continue to grow because global projections point to a mean sea level rise of at least one foot above year-2000 levels in a few decades. many cities are facing another factor making them even more vulnerable to rising waters: land subsidence.

  • Where Damaging Earthquakes Are Most Likely to Occur in U.S.

    Scientists recently revealed the latest National Seismic Hazard Model, showing that nearly 75% of the United States could experience a damaging earthquake, emphasizing seismic hazards span a significant part of the country.

  • Predicting Flood Risk from Hurricanes in a Warming Climate

    By Jennifer Chu

    Coastal cities and communities will face more frequent major hurricanes with climate change in the coming years. Using New York as a test case, a model developed by MIT scientists predicts flooding at the level experienced during Hurricane Sandy will occur roughly every 30 years by the end of this century.

  • Iceland Battles a Lava Flow: Countries Have Built Barriers and Tried Explosives in the Past, but It’s Hard to Stop Molten Rock

    By Iceland Battles a Lava Flow: Countries Have Built Barriers and Tried Explosives in the Past, but It’s Hard to Stop Molten Rock

    Fountains of lava erupted from the Sundhnúkur volcanic system in southwest Iceland on Jan. 14, 2024, invading the outskirts of the coastal town of Grindavík. Humans have tried many ways to stop lava in the past, from attempting to freeze it in place by cooling it with sea water, to using explosives to disrupt its supply, to building earthen barriers. It’s too soon to say if Iceland’s earthworks will succeed in saving Grindavík, a town of about 3,500 residents, and a nearby geothermal power plant.

  • California’s Salton Sea Region a Rich Domestic Lithium Resource

    The United States currently has limited capabilities to recover, refine, and produce domestically sourced lithium, meaning nearly all lithium for U.S. needs must be imported. The most comprehensive analysis to date quantifying the domestic lithium resources in southern California’s Salton Sea region found that the total resources in the region could contain more than 3,400 kilotons of lithium, enough to support over 375 million batteries for electric vehicles (EV).

  • How to Prevent America’s Aging Buildings from Collapsing – 4 High-Profile Disasters Send a Warning

    By Abieyuwa Aghayere

    Many cities have buildings showing signs of aging and in need of repair. Four recent catastrophic building collapses and a near miss are raising concerns about the state of America’s aging buildings and questions about who, if anyone, is checking their safety.

  • Coastal Populations Set to Age Sharply in the Face of Climate Migration

    By Mark Blackwell Thomas

    As climate change fuels sea level rise, younger people will migrate inland, leaving aging coastal populations — and a host of consequences — in their wake. While destination cities will work to sustainably accommodate swelling populations, aging coastal communities will confront stark new challenges.