https://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. The magnitude 6.9 earthquake that took place in 2018 on the south flank of Kīlauea on the Island of Hawaiʻi may have stalled episodes of periodic slow slip along a major fault underlying the volcano, according to a new study by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-klauea-earthquake-stalled-fault-decades.html Earth Sciences Thu, 05 Feb 2026 15:21:52 EST news689527261 Stanford researchers have created the first-ever global map of a rare earthquake type that occurs not in Earth's crust but in our planet's mantle, the layer sandwiched between the thin crust and Earth's molten core. The new map will help scientists learn more about the mechanics of mantle earthquakes, in turn opening a window into the complexities and triggers for all earthquakes. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-global-rare-continental-mantle-earthquakes.html Earth Sciences Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:00:13 EST news689420519 A swarm of small earthquakes within the Karoo Basin in South Africa has revealed a critically stressed fault that could be perturbed by potential shale gas exploration in the area, according to a new report. The analysis by Benjamin Whitehead of the University of Cape Town and colleagues concludes that the Karoo microseismicity occurred along a buried fault that may extend through sedimentary layers to the crystalline bedrock, which would increase its vulnerability to stresses produced by shale gas exploration. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-highlights-stressed-faults-potential-shale.html Earth Sciences Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:41:27 EST news689352061 Geologists from Heriot-Watt are part of an international research team that has confirmed why the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake off northeast Japan behaved in such an extreme and destructive way. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-japan-trench-geology-key-driver.html Earth Sciences Mon, 19 Jan 2026 10:20:06 EST news688039937 By tracking swarms of very small earthquakes, seismologists are getting a new picture of the complex region where the San Andreas fault meets the Cascadia subduction zone, an area that could give rise to devastating major earthquakes. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-tiny-earthquakes-reveal-hidden-faults.html Earth Sciences Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:02 EST news687541502 The fault beneath Istanbul doesn't behave the way scientists once thought. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-hidden-factors-beneath-istanbul-earthquake.html Earth Sciences Mon, 12 Jan 2026 14:56:25 EST news687452161 A swarm of at least a dozen earthquakes reaching up to magnitude 3.9 rattled San Ramon near San Francisco, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-earthquake-swarm-rattle-northern-california.html Earth Sciences Mon, 22 Dec 2025 06:48:39 EST news685608414 An international research expedition involving Cornell has uncovered new details as to why a 2011 earthquake northeast of Japan behaved so unusually as it lifted the seafloor and produced a tsunami that devastated coastal communities along with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-hidden-clay-japan-megaquake.html Earth Sciences Thu, 18 Dec 2025 14:00:10 EST news685283813 A swarm of at least six earthquakes reaching up to magnitude 2.9 rattled San Ramon near San Francisco, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-earthquake-swarm-resumes-rattle-northern.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Dec 2025 08:30:55 EST news685009585 In April 2025, the Main Marmara Fault below the Sea of Marmara in northwestern Türkiye experienced its largest earthquake in over 60 years. In a study published in Science, a team of researchers led by Prof. Dr. Patricia Martínez-Garzón from the GFZ Helmholtz Center for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany, analyzes nearly two decades of seismic data framing the 2025 April magnitude M 6.2 earthquake. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-earthquake-rupture-main-marmara-fault.html Earth Sciences Fri, 12 Dec 2025 11:58:41 EST news684763081 While it is widely assumed that civil wars reinforce the existing political divisions, a recent sociological study sheds light on how these divisions actually can be reinvented during social conflict. The study, "Fabricating Communists: The Imagined Third That Reinvented the National Fault Line in Mid-Twentieth-Century Colombia's Civil War," by Laura Acosta (University of California-San Diego), is published in the December 2025 issue of the American Sociological Review. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-political-adversaries-real-civil-division.html Social Sciences Thu, 04 Dec 2025 11:11:19 EST news684068965 A common misconception about research is that it takes place in climate-controlled labs with microscopes, beakers, and Bunsen burners. While that is true for many fields, obtaining geoscience data can demand fieldwork in remote, rugged terrain with potentially extreme weather conditions. These investigations may require flying across the world, hiking for days above 14,000 feet of elevation in the Himalayan mountain range during all kinds of weather, and even sacrificing personal hygiene. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-ancient-quakes-mile-fault-nepal.html Earth Sciences Thu, 04 Dec 2025 10:59:21 EST news684068341 A fault line in Canada's Yukon territory has stirred after more than 12,000 years of geological sleep. Researchers studying the Tintina Fault, which stretches 1,000 kilometers from northeast British Columbia into the Yukon and towards Alaska, have found evidence that the fault has built up at least six meters of unrelieved strain. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-earthquakes-wildfires-canada-woefully-ill.html Environment Tue, 02 Dec 2025 13:02:32 EST news683902921 Slow earthquakes have been discovered to exhibit anomalously slow, long-lasting and small slips, adjacent to regular earthquakes where we sometimes feel catastrophic vibration. However, no one knows the reason why slow earthquakes show such strange characteristics. In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers at The University of Osaka succeeded in experimentally reproducing the multiple features of slow earthquakes in the lab and suggested the grain-scale origin of them based on their direct observations. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-simple-gel-jelly-beads-liquid.html Earth Sciences Mon, 01 Dec 2025 11:41:21 EST news683811633 Earthquake faults deep in Earth can glue themselves back together following a seismic event, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The work, published in Science Advances, adds a new factor to our understanding of the behavior of faults that can give rise to major earthquakes. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-faults-seismic-movement-scientists.html Earth Sciences Wed, 19 Nov 2025 14:00:05 EST news682763161 Predicting earthquakes has long been an unattainable fantasy. Factors like odd animal behaviors that have historically been thought to forebode earthquakes are not supported by empirical evidence. As these factors often occur independently of earthquakes and vice versa, seismologists believe that earthquakes occur with little or no warning. At least, that's how it appears from the surface. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-ai-earthquakes-machine-subtle-lab.html Earth Sciences Wed, 19 Nov 2025 11:36:04 EST news682774562 Climate change is accelerating continental rifting, the geological process where landmasses slowly pull apart. According to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, the East African Rift System (EARS) became more tectonically active after its major lakes shrank due to a drier climate 4,000 to 6,000 years ago. This could have caused more frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-climate-earthquakes-east-africa.html Earth Sciences Tue, 11 Nov 2025 11:03:23 EST news682081399 No one knows when the next major earthquake will strike. In the meantime, researchers are working to understand how these events could disrupt access to health care in densely populated regions—and how best to prepare for them. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-major-bay-area-earthquake-endanger.html Earth Sciences Mon, 10 Nov 2025 11:20:04 EST news681994108 Lake Turkana in northern Kenya is often called the cradle of humankind. Home to some of the earliest hominids, its fossil-rich basin has helped scientists piece together the story of human evolution. Now, researchers from Syracuse University and the University of Auckland are revealing that the lake's geologic history may be just as significant as its anthropological one. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-climate-impact-earthquakes-lake-turkana.html Earth Sciences Mon, 10 Nov 2025 05:00:31 EST news681736182 New Zealand—particularly the South Island/Te Waipounamu—is one of the most seismically active regions in the world. For this reason, the country has acknowledged the importance of building awareness and preparedness. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-beauty-role-emotions-communicating-natural.html Earth Sciences Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:01 EST news681724202 Recently, Science put out an article detailing new research on the Myanmar earthquake that occurred on March 28, 2025. In one of these studies, Shengji Wei and colleagues analyze data on the event and provide insight on multiple factors that lead to these rare and devastating supershear ruptures. Their research was published this week. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-seismic-factors-myanmar-supershear-rupture.html Earth Sciences Sat, 01 Nov 2025 08:30:01 EDT news681131554 A UCLA-led team of scientists has uncovered how the devastating magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar in March 2025 produced one of the longest and fastest-moving ruptures ever recorded on land. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-myanmar-fault-ideal-geometry-supershear.html Earth Sciences Thu, 30 Oct 2025 14:00:10 EDT news680948701 Earthquakes in the American state of Utah, the Soultz-sous-Forêts region of France or in the Dutch province of Groningen should not be able to occur even if the subsurface has been exploited for decades. This is because the shallow subsurface behaves in such a way that faults there become stronger as soon as they start moving. At least that is what geology textbooks teach us. And so, in theory, it should not be possible for earthquakes to occur. So why do they still occur in such nominally stable subsurfaces? https://phys.org/news/2025-10-earthquakes-tectonically-silent-regions.html Earth Sciences Mon, 27 Oct 2025 09:58:03 EDT news680777881 Scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) have analyzed signals generated by the vibrations of traffic along the Federal Highway to learn more about the seismic nature of Lake George, situated north-east of Canberra. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-traffic-vibrations-scientists-deep-lake.html Earth Sciences Tue, 21 Oct 2025 09:08:06 EDT news680256481 Most Californians are familiar with earthquakes. But researchers say the state faces an overlooked threat: "supershear" earthquakes that move so fast they outrun their own seismic waves. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-scientists-california-destructive-supershear-earthquakes.html Earth Sciences Wed, 24 Sep 2025 11:50:01 EDT news677931148 Earthquakes don't just shake the ground, they can also shift rivers, damage stop banks and raise the risk of flooding for years afterward. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-quakes-reshape-rivers.html Earth Sciences Fri, 19 Sep 2025 13:13:03 EDT news677506382 The University of Texas at Arlington is far from California earthquake country, yet its researchers are helping pinpoint which sections of the San Andreas Fault are most active. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-west-coast-team-tracks-california.html Earth Sciences Wed, 10 Sep 2025 04:22:04 EDT news676696921 Rare rocks buried deep beneath central Australia have revealed the origins of one of the world's most promising new deposits of niobium—a metal vital for producing high-strength steel and clean energy technologies—and how it formed during the breakup of an ancient supercontinent. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-ancient-reveal-continent-critical-mineral.html Earth Sciences Wed, 03 Sep 2025 07:02:04 EDT news676101722 Far beneath the waves, down in the depths of the Japan Trench—seven kilometers below sea level—lie hidden clues about some of the most powerful earthquakes and tsunamis on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-drilled-deep-sea-mega-earthquakes.html Earth Sciences Wed, 27 Aug 2025 12:19:05 EDT news675515941 While quantum computers are already being used for research in chemistry, material science, and data security, most are still too small to be useful for large-scale applications. A study led by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, now shows how "scalable" quantum architectures—systems made up of many small chips working together as one powerful unit—can be made. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-larger-reliable-quantum-imperfect-links.html Quantum Physics Mon, 25 Aug 2025 16:40:04 EDT news675358802