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CSI: Pompeii

September 30, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Karl Brullov, "The Last Day of Pompeii," 1830-33. (Wikipedia.org) Click to enlarge.

Ever since 19th-century archaeologists started making plaster casts of the fallen inhabitants of Pompeii, it has been assumed they died from suffocation as a thick layer of ash fell on the town following a massive eruption of nearby Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. But a new report from a team of Italian scientists tells a very different tale about what happened to the residents of the Roman town, and it has important implications for the 3 million people who today live around the world's most dangerous volcano. A meticulous study of bones, household objects and other evidence — a little like a ... Read More

More like this: Environment, Science
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I See a Quake in Your Future. Sometime.

February 16, 2010 • By • 1 Comment

Science is messy. For every step forward on the road to truth, there are two steps in some other direction. And the way toward earthquake prediction, the Holy Grail of seismology, is littered with the dashed hopes of those who have failed. "Even well-trained scientists, even brilliant scientists, can fool themselves in their quest to prove something they believe or want to be true," says Susan Hough in her engaging new book, Predicting the Unpredictable: The Tumultuous Science of Earthquake Prediction. "... It is a hard thing for any scientist to do, to admit they have been on a path that ... Read More

More like this: March-April 2010, Science, Science & Environment, Views Reviews and Interviews
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After the Aftermath

December 29, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment

As children across the Sichuan Province of China sat at their school desks, an earthquake began rattling and knocking buildings to the ground. Felt 1,000 miles away in Beijing, the May 2008 quake would kill roughly 90,000 people, at least 5,300 of them children, according to figures from the Chinese government. Outside observers believe youth casualties are closer to 10,000, a result of the collapse of what Chinese critics later called "tofu dregs schoolhouses." Yang Zhang, a Chinese national and professor of urban planning at Virginia Tech whose research centers on disaster mitigation, ... Read More

More like this: Culture, Culture & Society, Health, January-February 2010, News and Options
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FEMA’s Nightmare: A Big Midwest Shaker

November 21, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment

The "Big One" assumed for California or other Pacific Rim states and provinces will almost certainly arrive some day, but FEMA said Thursday that the most catastrophic quake in the United States probably is destined for mid-America. The feds didn't say "biggest," as in magnitude, but catastrophic, as in social upheaval and economic disruption. Based on a study by the University of Illinois' Mid-America Earthquake Center, FEMA suggests "the total economic impact of a series of (New Madrid Seismic Zone) earthquakes is likely to constitute the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster ... Read More

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The ‘Big One’ Might Not Be in California

May 8, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment

The April 18 earthquake in Illinois, measuring a 5.2 magnitude and felt in parts of 16 states, has piqued the curiosity of seismologists because it did not originate on the notorious and much-feared New Madrid fault in Missouri Bootheel region but rather along the Wabash Valley fault — comparatively overlooked but potentially more dangerous. It's just one of several "underlooked" faults in the United States that could pose greater risks than their better-known neighbors. A series of infamous earthquakes occurred along the New Madrid fault at the end of 1811 and the beginning of 1812 ... Read More

More like this: Environment, Science, Science & Environment
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