http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Uncertainty issues are paramount in the assessment of risks posed by natural hazards and in developing strategies to alleviate their consequences. http://phys.org/news286551644.html Other Sciences Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:40:53 EST news286551644 (Phys.org)—A new Rice University-led study finds the real estate mantra "location, location, location" may also explain one of Earth's enduring climate mysteries. The study suggests that Earth's repeated flip-flopping between greenhouse and icehouse states over the past 500 million years may have been driven by the episodic flare-up of volcanoes at key locations where enormous amounts of carbon dioxide are poised for release into the atmosphere. http://phys.org/news279440535.html Space & Earth Thu, 07 Feb 2013 06:24:47 EST news279440535 Researchers still have much to learn about the volcanism that shaped our planet's early history. New evidence from a team led by Carnegie's Frances Jenner demonstrates that some of the tectonic processes driving volcanic activity, such as those taking place today, were occurring as early as 3.8 billion years ago. Their work is published in Geology. http://phys.org/news277735896.html Space & Earth Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:51:41 EST news277735896 Scientists have recreated the extreme conditions at the boundary between Earth's core and its mantle, 2,900 km beneath the surface. Using the world's most brilliant beam of X-rays, they probed speck-sized samples of rock at very high temperature and pressure to show for the first time that partially molten rock under these conditions is buoyant and should segregate towards the Earth's surface. This observation is a strong evidence for the theory that volcanic hotspots like the Hawaiian Islands originate from mantle plumes generated at the Earth's core-mantle boundary. http://phys.org/news261824715.html Space & Earth Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:00:23 EST news261824715 Earthquakes that occur on "passive" continental margins, such as the August 2011 magnitude 5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake, surprise people because they expect earthquakes to occur only on plate boundaries. But, in fact, large and damaging intraplate earthquakes occur fairly regularly on passive margins around the world. For instance, in North America the approximately magnitude 7 Charleston earthquake shook South Carolina in 1886, causing severe damage and about 60 deaths, and the 1929 magnitude 7.2 earthquake on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, Canada, caused a tsunami, a large landslide, and 28 fatalities. http://phys.org/news251398391.html Space & Earth Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:53:18 EST news251398391 (PhysOrg.com) -- Small scale convection at the base of the Pacific plate has been simulated in a model of mantle plume dynamics, enabling reasearchers to explain the complex set of observations at the Hawaiian hotspot, according to a new study posted online in the June 26th edition of Nature Geoscience. http://phys.org/news228570402.html Space & Earth Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:47:06 EST news228570402 (PhysOrg.com) -- The New Madrid fault system does not behave as earthquake hazard models assume and may be in the process of shutting down, a new study shows. http://phys.org/news156169464.html Space & Earth Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:24:56 EST news156169464