Breaking News: Natural Disasters

• share
• favorite_border

Multi-fault earthquakes can span fault systems of tens to hundreds of kilometers, with ruptures propagating from one segment to another. During the last decade, seismologists have observed several cases of this complicated type of earthquake rupture, and are now relying on supercomputers to provide detailed models to better understand the fundamental physical processes that take place during these events, which can have far reaching effects.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Iowa and the United States Geologic Survey report data gathered by orbiting satellites can yield more information about destructive earthquakes and can improve aid and humanitarian response efforts. The researchers looked at satellite data from several recent, large-magnitude earthquakes.

• share
• favorite_border

Following a natural disaster or strong storm, there is usually a second wave of potential destruction – scam artists looking to line their pockets.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Heidi Feigenbaum, a professor at Northern Arizona University, received a $544,758 grant from the U.S. Department of the Army to develop a mathematical model that will more accurately predict how the materials in bridges, pipes and other infrastructure will react to stressors with the goal of building safe and cost-effective projects.

• share
• favorite_border

Less than 24 hours after tornadoes swept through communities across Missouri, Dr. Guirong (Grace) Yan was inspecting the damage in Jefferson City, one of the cities hit by Wednesday night’s tornado outbreak. Yan, an assistant professor of structural engineering at Missouri S&T, and three of her Ph.D. students visited the state capitol to assess the damage as part of her research on tornadic wind pressure.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are publishing research about tornado formation resulting from the multiyear Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment Southeast (VORTEX-SE) program.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Texas A&M researchers use shake-table testing to understand how urban wood-based structures sustain damage from earthquakes, and how to repair them more efficiently.

• share
• favorite_border

Cassandra Rutherford, an Iowa State geotechnical engineer, has inspected failed levees along Midwestern rivers. And now she's working with other engineers to develop technologies that could improve levee performance.

• share
• favorite_border

In the wake of Hurricane Maria, radiation oncologists from the mainland United States and Puerto Rico prepared a set of crisis-planning tips for radiation therapy clinics to minimize gaps in cancer treatment after a catastrophic event. Their emergency preparedness suggestions were published online April 15 in Practical Radiation Oncology.

• share
• favorite_border

The Chelyabinsk meteor caused extensive ground damage and numerous injuries when it exploded on impact with Earth’s atmosphere in February 2013; to prevent another such impact, Amy Mainzer and colleagues use a simple yet ingenious way to spot these tiny near-Earth objects as they hurtle toward the planet. She will outline the work of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office this week at the APS April Meeting in Denver -- including her team’s NEO recognition method and how it will aid the efforts to prevent future Earth impacts.

• share
• favorite_border

A new, free, open-source software reliably predicts how damage from hurricanes, ice storms, earthquakes, and other extreme events will restrict power delivery from utility grids. The Severe Contingency Solver for Electric Power Transmission is the only software available—commercially or open-source—that reliably supports analysis of extreme events that cause widespread damage.

• share
• favorite_border

According to the Notre Dame study, 62 percent of coastal homeowners are not considering taking any action to reduce the vulnerabilities of their homes or enhance protections against future hurricanes.

• share
• favorite_border

Artificial intelligence may soon help transportation agencies and first responders determine the best evacuation routes during floods such as those affecting portions of Missouri and the Midwest, thanks to the work of researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Drs. Suzanna Long and Steve Corns of Missouri S&T’s engineering management and systems engineering department are using a form of AI known as deep learning to develop forecasting tools to integrate water level rate of change as part of evacuation routing planning in flood-prone areas.

• share
• favorite_border

Cornell University postdoctoral researcher Kevin Reath has merged 17 years of satellite data on volcanoes with ground-based detail to form a model for state-of-the-art volcanic eruption prediction.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

The devastation of the Peruvian floods of March 2017 caused native and University of Oklahoma Electrical and Computer Engineering Assistant Professor, Salazar-Cerreno, to look for ways to apply his expertise to help improve weather decision making and warnings.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border