Breaking News: Natural Disasters

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University of Queensland researchers have optimised a new technique to help forecast how volcanoes will behave, which could save lives and property around the world.

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A new study by Lab scientists finds that as rising global temperatures shift snow to rain, mountains across the Northern Hemisphere will be hotspots for extreme rainfall events that could trigger floods and landslides – potentially impacting a quarter of the world’s population.

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As human-driven climate change amplifies natural disasters, hurricanes and typhoons stand to increase in intensity. Until now, there existed very few freely available computer models designed to estimate the economic costs of such events, but a team of researchers led by Jane W. Baldwin at the University of California, Irvine recently announced the completion of an open-source model that stands to help countries with high tropical cyclone risks better calculate just how much those storms will impact their people and their economies.

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Smoke from forest fires in Canada cast a pall over St. Louis this month as well as other parts of the Midwest and the East Coast. New radar remote sensing technology can help reduce the amount of time it takes to produce a useful map of burned areas, helping emergency managers to respond to the threat of flash flooding after fires.

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As we enter the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere and the possibility of extreme heat becomes more common, it’s important to stay up-to-date on the science of heat waves and take measures to protect ourselves from this growing public health threat.

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With the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season officially starting on June 1 and ending Nov. 30, several Florida Atlantic University faculty experts are available to discuss various issues surrounding hurricane preparedness, evacuation and aftermath.

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Natural disasters can wreak havoc on a city, from hurricanes in Houston to winter storms in Dallas. Measuring resilience -- the length of time it will take a city to bounce back -- can help policymakers and others plan responses to future events and reveal potential vulnerabilities. An SMU research team measured Dallas’s resilience before, during, and after the February 2021 winter snowstorm and found Dallas recovered almost immediately after the snowstorm ended, indicating Dallas exhibits a great degree of resilience.

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By: Bill Wellock | Published: May 17, 2023 | 3:32 pm | SHARE: From the atmospheric disturbances that generate them to the insurance market that helps in their aftermath, there is much to understand about hurricanes.Florida State University faculty are world leaders in the study of hurricanes, the effects of these destructive storms and solutions for mitigating their impacts.

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Title 42, the United States pandemic rule that had been used to immediately deport hundreds of thousands of migrants who crossed the border illegally over the last three years, has expired. Those migrants will have the opportunity to apply for asylum. President Biden's new rules to replace Title 42 are facing legal challenges. Border crossings have already risen sharply, as many migrants attempt to cross before the measure expires on Thursday night. Some have said they worry about tighter controls and uncertainty ahead. Immigration is once again a major focus of the media as we examine the humanitarian, political, and public health issues migrants must go through.

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A new book by Christopher Reddy, marine chemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), identifies the principal challenges that scientists face during an environmental disaster when communicating with different stakeholder groups, and offers advice on how to navigate the maze of competing interests and deliver actionable science when the clock is ticking. Science Communications in a Crisis: An Insider's Guide (Routledge; May 10, 2023), draws on Reddy’s decades of experience and offers his hard-won advice from the front lines of environmental disasters.

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Storm-DEPART helps utilities refine their damage estimates by combining utility infrastructure data with weather data from the National Hurricane Center to efficiently deploy restoration resources.

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This study is led by Dr. Zhuwen Xu (School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University). The effects of increased nitrogen input and mowing on the resistance and recovery of temperate grassland experiencing a three-year natural drought (from 2015 to 2017) were investigated based on a five-year field manipulative experiment.

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New research found that Americans already bearing the brunt of climate change and health inequities are most at risk of impact by a lengthy power outage.

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Hundreds of villagers who live in the shadow of the Western Hemisphere’s deadliest volcano, Colombia’s Nevado del Ruiz, have been on edge for nearly a month ever since the 17,000-foot-tall mountain started spewing plumes of ash and steam high into the atmosphere, indicating that an eruption could be imminent.

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In Physics of Fluids, researchers develop an early warning system that combines acoustic technology with AI to immediately classify earthquakes and determine potential tsunami risk. They propose using underwater microphones, called hydrophones, to measure the acoustic radiation produced by the earthquake, which carries information about the tectonic event and travels significantly faster than tsunami waves. The computational model triangulates the source of the earthquake and AI algorithms classify its slip type and magnitude. It then calculates important properties like effective length and width, uplift speed, and duration, which dictate the size of the tsunami.

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Researcher will discuss the study which involved a sleeping aid known as suvorexant that is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for insomnia, hints at the potential of sleep medications to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

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The multidisciplinary team created a virtual simulation of the devastation that a Category 5 hurricane and sea level rise could have on West Palm Beach. The simulation, produced with 3D technology, reveals the destruction that could occur in Osprey Park and the surrounding communities, highlighting the threat to the coastline and potential solutions for coastal areas.