• Appearances deceive: supposedly “stable” zone make earthquakes even more powerful

    In an earthquake, ground motion is the result of waves emitted when the two sides of a fault move — or slip — rapidly past each other, with an average relative speed of about three feet per second. Not all fault segments move so quickly, however; new earthquake fault models show that “stable” zones may contribute to the generation of massive earthquakes

  • "Prophylactic dressing" for walls make buildings safer during earthquakes

    In the case of earthquakes, only seconds may remain for a safe escape from buildings; debris falling down and obstructing the escape routes may even aggravate the situation; a new product extends the time for saving lives by reinforcing walls and keeping off the debris; an innovative building material manufacturer now has launched the mature innovation in the market

  • Assessing future sea level rise from ice sheets

    Future sea level rise due to the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could be substantially larger than estimated in Climate Change 2007, the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC, according to new research

  • Political action the biggest swing factor in meeting climate targets: study

    The new study examines the probability of keeping average global temperatures from rising more than 2°C above preindustrial levels under varying levels of climate policy stringency, and thus mitigation costs

  • The natural relationship between CO2 concentrations and sea level means that sea level will continue to rise

    By comparing reconstructions of atmospheric CO2 concentrations and sea level over the past forty million years, researchers have found that greenhouse gas concentrations similar to the present (almost 400 parts per million) were systematically associated with sea levels at least nine meters above current levels

  • Study warns of more powerful quakes in the Himalayas

    A research team has discovered that massive earthquakes in the range of 8 to 8.5 magnitudes on the Richter scale have left clear ground scars in the central Himalayas;this discovery has important implications for the area along the front of the Himalayan Mountains, given that the region has a population density similar to that of New York City

  • Fiscal cliff discussions get in way of post-Sandy relief measure

    The post-Sandy rebuilding effort in the northeast has been stalled by the debate going on in Congress about a solution to the national debt

  • Potentially devastating asteroid collision in 2040 not likely to happen

    A team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have confirmed that the chance of asteroid 2011 AG5 impacting Earth in 2040 is no longer a significant risk — prompting a collective sigh-of-relief; previously, scientists estimated that the risk of this 140-meter-diameter (about the length of two American football fields) asteroid colliding with the Earth – and releasing about 100 megatons of energy — was as high as one in 500

  • Regulating geo-engineering schemes

    With policymakers and political leaders increasingly unable to combat global climate change, more scientists are considering the use of manual manipulation of the environment to slow warming’s damage to the planet; some legal scholars argue that the legal ramifications of this kind of geo-engineering need to be thought through in advance and a global governance structure put in place soon to oversee these efforts

  • Bricks made from paper waste

    Spanish researchers have mixed waste from the paper industry with ceramic material used in the construction industry; the result is a brick that has low thermal conductivity meaning it acts as a good insulator; its mechanical resistance, however, still requires improvement

  • Some geo-engineering approaches to combat climate change may not work

    Numerous geo-engineering schemes have been suggested as possible ways to reduce levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and so reduce the risk of global warming and climate change; one such technology involves dispersing large quantities of iron salts in the oceans to fertilize otherwise barren parts of the sea and trigger the growth of algal blooms and other photosynthesizing marine life; seeding the oceans with iron, however, may not address carbon emissions

  • City is sued over ban on fracking

    An industry group representing oil and gas companies filed a lawsuit Monday against a city in Colorado which has banned hydraulic fracturing; fracking has increased U.S. energy production, but it has also caused contamination of ground water; scientists say fracking may also cause earthquakes

  • Sandy relief bill says rebuilding effort should take into consideration climate-related risks

    The $60 billion Sandy relief bill being debated this week in the Senate does not specifically mention the words climate change or global warming, but it implicitly raises topics and themes which are part of the climate change discussion; the bill says that federal, state, and local agencies engaged in the post-Sandy rebuilding effort should take into consideration “future extreme weather events, sea level rise and coastal flooding”

  • A 1978 NY state law requiring updated emergency preparedness plans largely ignored

    In 1978, a New York state law was passed which required that annually updated plans for the restoration of vital services in the event of a major storm; in the three decades since, the law has been largely ignored due to tight budgets and politicians unwilling to prepare for a storm which may or may not hit

  • To keep global average temperature from rising above 2°C, action should be taken by 2020

    Limiting climate change to target levels will become much more difficult to achieve, and more expensive, if action is not taken soon, according to a new analysis; a new study explores technological, policy, and social changes that would need to take place in the near term in order to keep global average temperature from rising above 2°C, a target supported by more than 190 countries as a global limit to avoid dangerous climate change