• First Planetary Defense Test

    An asteroid slammed into Earth 63 billion years ago, igniting vast fires which threw smoke and soot into the atmosphere, plunging the planet into a prolonged winter, killing many plants on which herbivores depended. The extinction of the dinosaurs was only one consequence of that event. NASA wants to make sure there is no repetition of such a calamity: The agency is planning the first-ever planetary defense test, which deliberately collides a spacecraft into an asteroid called Dimorphos. The aim is to try and deflect the asteroid away from its Earth-bound trajectory. 

  • Seismic Shockwave Pattern May Be Redirecting Earthquake Damage

    New research could change the way scientists think about potential damage from earthquakes. The study examined data from one of the densest seismic arrays ever deployed and found that earthquakes emit their strongest seismic shockwaves in four opposing directions.

  • Be Prepared: It Is Impossible to Predict an Earthquake

    In earthquake-prone developed countries like Japan and New Zealand, even severe earthquakes cause very few deaths – they are mainly stories of economic loss. Earthquakes without Frontiers (EwF) supported physical and social scientists in eight U.K. universities and institutes working to increase resilience to earthquakes in Asian countries. But throughout much of the Mediterranean—Middle East–Central Asia earthquake belt, earthquakes here will kill tens, or hundreds of thousands of people.

  • Germany: Building Back in Flood-Prone Areas After a Flood

    After deadly flash flooding devastated villages in Germany’s Ahr Valley, many residents are hoping to return. But experts say there needs to be a fundamental change in how we build in areas at risk of floods.

  • Machine Learning Improves Earthquake Detection Capabilities

    Researchers are applying machine learning algorithms to help interpret massive amounts of ground deformation data collected with Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) satellites; the new algorithms will improve earthquake detection. The new methodology enables the detection of ground deformation automatically at a global scale.

  • Experts Call for More Comprehensive Research into Solar Geoengineering

    Two articles published in Science magazine this week argue for more and better social science research into the potential use of solar geoengineering to offset some of the global warming from greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

  • Human-Caused Climate Change Increases Wildfire Activity

    The western United States has experienced a rapid increase of fire weather as the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) increases in the area during the warm season. New research shows that two-thirds (approximately 68 percent) of the increase in VPD is due to human-caused climate change.

  • Back-to-Back Hurricanes Expected to Increase in the Gulf Coast

    Over the past four decades, the time between tropical storms making landfall in the Gulf Coast has been getting shorter. Florida and Louisiana are most likely to experience “sequential landfall,” where one hurricane moves over land faster than infrastructure damaged in a previous storm can be repaired. The researchers estimate this timescale between hurricanes to be 10 days for those states. Being hit by two storms in quick succession gives communities and infrastructure less time to recover between disasters.

  • Stalling Shifting Sand Dunes, Protecting Infrastructure and Ecosystems

    As deserts continue to expand, sand dunes pose an increasing risk to the built environment: swallowing up roads and houses whole as they engulf the land. In a similar way, dunes on the seabed can block shipping routes and even compromise the safety of underwater cables and pipelines.

  • The 1,800-Plus “Young” Volcanoes in the U.S. Southwest

    The landscape of the southwestern U.S. is heavily scarred by past eruptions of monogenetic volcano, a type of volcanic hazard that can pose important dangers despite an ephemeral existence. A new study marks a step toward understanding future risks for the region.

  • Flood Sensors to Support NYC Real-Time Flood Monitoring, Response

    In the face of climate change, which is likely to increase the frequency and severity of floods, NYC needs access to real-time data providing critical information on when and where flooding occurs.

  • Extreme Ice Melting in Greenland Raises Global Flood Risk

    Global warming has caused extreme ice melting events in Greenland to become more frequent and more intense over the past 40 years, raising sea levels and flood risk worldwide. Over the past decade alone, 3.5 trillion tons of ice has melted from the surface of the island and flowed downhill into the ocean.

  • The Ripple Factor: Weather Extremes Amplify Economic Losses

    Weather extremes can cause economic ripples along our supply chains. A new study shows that if they occur at roughly the same time the ripples start interacting and can amplify even if they occur at completely different places around the world.

  • Extreme Events and Major Impacts

    In a sobering new report, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says that record atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and associated accumulated heat have propelled the planet into uncharted territory, with far-reaching repercussions for current and future generations

  • DHS Strategic Framework for Addressing Climate Change

    Two weeks ago, the Biden administration released four reports, by DHS, the intelligence community, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Council, on how climate change-driven developments — among them:  worsening conflict within and between nations; increased dislocation and migration as people flee climate-fueled instability; heightened military tension and uncertainty; infrastructure destruction; worsening public health; food and water shortages; financial hazards, and more – are posing an increasingly more serious challenge to global stability and to U.S. national security.