Geology
KQED Science
What Causes Earthquakes?
The earth is constantly shifting and the Earth’s crust is broken up into many rocky plates, like pieces of a puzzle.
KQED Science
Epic Drought in West Is Literally Moving Mountains
Some parts of California’s mountains have been uplifted by as much as half an inch in the past 18 months because the massive amount of water lost in the drought is no longer weighing down the land, causing it to rise a bit like an uncoiled spring.
KQED Science
New-Generation Earthquake Forecasting Swings into Operation in Italy
Italy is approaching the next frontier in earthquake forecasting: an "operational" system that will make quake forecasts routine, whose contents we can take in stride.
KQED Science
Parks Attract Affluent Homeowners to Earthquake Fault Zones Despite Risks
The Alquist-Priolo law keeps new homes away from active earthquake faults. But a study finds that the resulting 'fault zone parks' attract wealthy residents despite the seismic hazard.
KQED Science
A Simple Mineral Has Geochemical Power That Helps Spark Life
New work shows that the simple mineral sphalerite has geochemical powers suitable for helping life to arise from precursors in the mineral kingdom.
KQED Science
The ‘Tahoe Tsunami’: New Study Envisions Early Geologic Event
A new paper marshals evidence detailing the catastrophic landslide and mega-tsunami that struck Lake Tahoe during the late Pleistocene.
KQED Science
Oklahoma Study Offers Better Insight into Industrial Earthquakes
A new study adds strong evidence that deep-injection wells can occasionally nudge a fault into activity. The key is figuring out how it happens, then learning to avoid whatever is making it happen.
KQED Science
Studying Exoplanets: What A Thousand Points of Light Might Reveal About Earth
As a flood of new exoplanets swim into our ken, we have ways of turning these pixel-size steams of data into insights about our own planet.
KQED Science
New Evidence of Earth’s Deep Water Cycle Reveals A Virtual Buried Ocean
New evidence from high-pressure experiments and earthquake waves suggests the presence of water-rich melt at the base of the upper mantle, far deeper than previous estimates.
The California Report
Groundwater Pumping Causing Land to Sink in Coachella Valley
Even before the drought, farmers around California were sucking down the groundwater faster than the environment could keep up. Now, the U.S. Geological Survey reports the practice has caused land in the Coachella Valley to sink up to two feet in some places. ...Read More
KQED Science
Plastic Substance Created by Pollution Yields a New Word: Plastiglomerate
When future geologists, whatever species they may be, look for our signs in the fossil record of the future, it may be this newly described amalgam of plastic and sediment.
KQED Science
Progress in Earthquake Forecasts May Come from Studying Foreshocks
Recent cutting-edge techniques are opening a new approach for earthquake forecasts by matching foreshocks -- small quakes occurring on the same stretch of fault that subsequently fails in the large mainshock -- to changes on the seafloor.
KQED Science
NOAA Expedition Finds Asphalt Volcanic ‘Tar Lilies’ in Gulf of Mexico
A research expedition in the Gulf of Mexico has stumbled on a field of beautiful natural sculptures made of asphalt on the sea floor.
KQED Science
Auburn Dam: The Water Project That Won’t Die
The giant dam and reservoir remains on the radar, whether or not it has a future.
KQED Science
California Edging Closer to Regulating Groundwater for the First Time
Power players in California water policy seem to agree for once: It's time to get serious about groundwater.
KQED Science
Biologists’ Paradox: Killing and Collecting Rare Creatures to Prove They’re Not Extinct
A group of biologists asks their peers to start documenting newly discovered and "rediscovered" species by non-destructive techniques instead of killing a specimen to bring home.
KQED Science
New Stanford Study Examines Geologic Impact of a Massive Asteroid Collision on Ancient Earth
A new paper attempts to describe a realistic picture of the unimaginable: a colossal cosmic impact that left a crater 500 kilometers across on the ancient Earth.
KQED Science
Study Reveals New Suspect in the ‘Great Dying’ Mass Extinction Murder Mystery
The latest microbial hypothesis published in a recent paper addresses the ongoing drama of the "Great Dying", a monstrously deadly event that occurred about 250 million years ago and drove some 90 percent of the world's species to extinction.
KQED Science
50 Years Ago, Alaskan Earthquake Was Key Event for Earth Science
50 years ago today, the Good Friday earthquake in Alaska sent shockwaves through earth science itself.
KQED Science
Digging Up New Info on Old Earthquakes in the Santa Cruz Mountains
New research has mapped 19th-century earthquake ruptures along the San Andreas Fault in a study that combines geologic and human records.
