Engaging communities in developing a real-time early warning system could help to reduce the often-devastating impact of flooding on people and property – particularly in mountainous regions where extreme water events are a ‘wicked’ problem, a new study reveals
The first study into the biological response of the upper ocean in the wake of South Pacific cyclones could help predict the impact of warming ocean temperatures, New Zealand researchers believe.
Researchers focus a lot of attention on how disasters such as hurricanes and floods affect people’s housing in the United States. But a new national study found that housing is also important before disasters happen: People with homes not meeting federal quality classifications and those who are housing insecure tend to be less prepared to face natural calamities.
Data shows that between 2016-2020, at least five of the top 20 most destructive California wildfires started from power systems. Paired with the extreme weather conditions and nearby vegetation, power system-ignited incidents are more likely to develop into large, intense wildfires.
The Northwest Pacific coast of Mexico is an area struck by large earthquakes and tsunamis as a result of the interaction of two tectonic plates. However, to date, the structure of the continental margin and, therefore, the causes behind the generation of these natural hazards were unknown.
Juyeong Choi, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, will lead a $75,000 National Science Foundation-funded study examining debris collection and illegal dumping in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm that hit southwestern Florida in 2022.
It is simply false to claim that data from the Climate Reference Network show no warming over the last 18 years. There is a warming trend. Even if it was true, the US represents only 1.9 % of the Earth's surface.
Getting hit with one hurricane is bad enough, but new research from Princeton University’s engineering school shows that back-to-back versions may become common for many areas in coming decades.
The claim a Dutch researcher predicted the February earthquake in Turkey and Syria would happen three days before it occurred is misleading. Despite the accuracy of his prediction, scientists cannot predict when and where an earthquake will occur.
Years after Hurricane Michael devastated Florida’s Gulf Coast, residents of that area are still struggling to overcome the trauma of the Category 5 storm. In a recent study, FSU researchers found that trauma and a host of psychosocial and physical challenges caused by Hurricane Michael are disproportionately affecting the region’s Black communities.
New research from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response Center (RIDER) shows how repurposing regular hurricane shelters to special needs shelters could cut travel times for vulnerable populations.
The earthquakes in Turkey and Syria killed over 45,000 people and decimated large areas. The shockingly high number of fatalities raises the question of whether infrastructure issues are to blame. Roberto Leon, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, said there are several reasons for the large number of collapses, leading to mass casualties: Poor enforcement of existing codes (modern codes instituted after the 1999 Izmit earthquake) Grandfathering of older, deficient structures and not requiring their retrofit (structures built before 1999) Poor construction practices (i.
For the first time, researchers have developed a machine learning-based ensemble approach to quantify fire-induced thaw settlement across the entire Tanana Flats in Alaska, which encompasses more than 3 million acres. They linked airborne repeat lidar data to time-series Landsat products (satellite images) to delineate thaw settlement patterns across six large fires that have occurred since 2000. The six fires resulted in a loss of nearly 99,000 acres of evergreen forest from 2000 to 2014 among nearly 155,000 acres of fire-influenced forests with varying degrees of burn severity. This novel approach helped to explain about 65 percent of the variance in lidar-detected elevation change.
More than 1,000 pets perished in the Dec. 30 Marshall Fire in Boulder County, Colo., many of them trapped inside their homes as guardians who had left for the day desperately tried to devise a plan to free them, according to new CU Boulder research published in the journal Animals.
Microgrid in a Box, it includes 320 kilowatt-hours of battery storage, and can tie seamlessly into a modern electrical grid and coordinate the distribution of electricity for a small village, military base, or, in the event of a disaster, a hospital, transportation depot, or other critical infrastructure building.
The increasing frequency of active shooter incidents and other mass casualty events places heighten pressure on first responders to quickly assess, triage and treat victims to save lives. To help first responders prepare for these critical events, The Ohio State University College of Medicine developed a cutting-edge virtual reality disaster response training program.
Cornell University researchers have unearthed precise, microscopic clues to where magma is stored, offering a way to better assess the risk of volcanic eruptions.
Sinan Akçiz, assistant professor of geological sciences at Cal State Fullerton, turned his Introduction to Geology class on Monday into a real-life lesson about earthquakes and the devastation taking place in his native country, Turkey.
Non-erupting volcanoes leak a surprisingly high amount of sulfur-containing gases. A Greenland ice core shows that volcanoes quietly release at least three times as much sulfur into the Arctic atmosphere than estimated by current climate models. Aerosols are the most uncertain aspect of current climate models, so better estimates could improve the accuracy of long-term projections.
A new analysis of seismic data recorded after the massively violent eruption of the underwater volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, on January 15, 2022, has revealed new and useful information on the sequence of events.
The false alert, the first of its kind in the United States, offered a unique opportunity to learn more about the importance of early warning earthquake and post-alert messaging.
With a new analysis of long-term climate data, researchers say they now have a much better understanding of how climate change can impact and cause sea water temperatures on one side of the Indian Ocean to be so much warmer or cooler than the temperatures on the other — a phenomenon that can lead to sometimes deadly weather-related events like megadroughts in East Africa and severe flooding in Indonesia.
In the US, hurricanes caused more than $400 billion in direct economic losses over the historical period 1980–2014, with losses peaking at more than $150 billion in 2005, the year when hurricane Katrina made landfall.
Researchers report a warming climate could increase the number and intensity of tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic, potentially creating more and stronger hurricanes. Researchers also examine a possible explanation for the relatively constant number of tropical cyclones around the globe every year.
Americans are leaving many of the U.S. counties hit hardest by hurricanes and heatwaves—and moving towards dangerous wildfires and warmer temperatures, says one of the largest studies of U.S. migration and natural disasters. These results are concerning, as wildfire and rising temperatures are projected to worsen with climate change. The study was inspired by the increasing number of headlines of record-breaking natural disasters.
Satellite observations have revealed that weak seismic ground shaking can trigger powerful landslide acceleration – even several years after a significant earthquake.