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2008
December 2008
Caltech graduate students bring science to local elementary school
Four graduate students from Caltech's Tectonics Observatory recently participated in Family SMArt (Science, Math, and Art) Night at Pasadena's Hamilton Elementary School. The Caltech grad students contributed to the evening's educational festivities by presenting demonstrations and activities related to their research in geology
Reef record suggests impending Sumatra quakes (ScienceNews)
Analyses of corals surrounding the Mentawai Islands indicate that the Sumatra region has suffered repeated supercycles of seismic upheaval for at least seven centuries. Results of the new studies suggest that the Mentawai Islands' September 2007 temblor is just the first in a series of major temblors that will strike that region in the coming decades.
Another large earthquake off coast of Sumatra likely (ScienceDaily)
The subduction zone that brought us the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and tsunami is ripe for yet another large event, despite a sequence of quakes that occurred in the Mentawai Islands area in 2007, according to a group of earthquake researchers led by scientists from the Tectonics Observatory at Caltech (ScienceNOW) (MSNBC)
October 2008
When
the Earth Moved Kashmir (NASA Earth Observatory Feature) (pdf)
After a major earthquake, scientists have traditionally relied
on ground surveys to understand the damage. But satellite
imagery is producing increasingly accurate ways to spot exposed
faults and map deformation caused by earthquakes, especially
in remote areas like Kashmir
Ken Farley - Recipient of the 2008 Arthur L. Day Medal from the Geological Society of America, "for outstanding distinction in contributing to geologic knowledge through the application of physics and chemistry to the solution of geologic problems"
August 2008
Why
China Quaked: A perfect seismic storm (GEOTIMES) (pdf)
The massive magnitude-7.9 earthquake that struck China’s
Sichuan province on May 12, killing 70,000 people and injuring
hundreds of thousands more, may have taken Chinese citizens
by surprise, but some experts say a major seismic event in
this region was only a matter of time.
June 2008
Rob Clayton - Recipient of the 2007-08 GSC (Graduate Student Council) award for outstanding mentor of the year
Andrew Kositsky (undergrad) - Recipient of the 2008 George W. and Bernice E. Green Memorial Prize, for outstanding ability and achievement in creative scholarship
Andrew Kositsky (undergrad) - Recipient of the 2008 Fritz B. Burns Prize in Geology, for academic excellence and great promise of future contributions
May 2008
Tectonics Observatory Hosts 60 Sixth-Graders (Caltech Today)
Students on the TO tour learned about earthquakes and tsunamis
in Sumatra, how scientists at Caltech monitor and interpret
seismic activity, and how the Himalaya mountains formed.
Stress
Buildup Precedes Large Sumatra Quakes (Caltech press release)
The island of Sumatra, Indonesia, has shaken many times with
powerful earthquakes since the one that wrought the infamous
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Now, scientists from the California
Institute of Technology and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences
are harnessing information from these and earlier quakes
to determine where the next ones will likely occur, and how
big they will be. (Science
Daily)
Aron Meltzer (grad student) - Recipient of the 2007 AGU Outstanding Student Paper Award, for "Coseismic, postseismic, and near the boundary of the 2004 and 2005 Sunda megathrust ruptures"
Min Chen (grad student) - Recipient of the 2007 AGU Outstanding Student Paper Award, for "Toward adjoint tomography of the Japan subduction zone"
April 2008
A
Grand Canyon as Old as the Dinosaurs? (Caltech press release)
With new geochronologic data from the canyon and surrounding
plateaus, geologists from the California Institute of Technology
present significant evidence that the canyon formed nearly
50 million years earlier than previously thought. (LiveScience,
MSNBC) (Fox
News) (National
Geographic)
January 2008
Reason
for earthquake season revealed (LiveScience, MSNBC)
New study connects seismic activity with monsoons. Hurricanes
and tornadoes have seasons, but do earthquakes? They do in
the Himalayas, and it's during the winter.
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