Swansea’s earthquake

Researcher Steve Hicks felt an earthquake on last Saturday when in Swansea and describes here his experience: Visiting family in Bristol on Saturday, at around 2.30 pm, I started to notice the structure of my partner’s parents’ house move slightly backwards and forwards for a few seconds. I initially thought that it was the washing… Read More Swansea’s earthquake

Understanding the earthquake and tsunami hazards of the western Indian Ocean

Former Southampton PhD student Gemma Smith and Lisa McNeill, Tim Henstock and Jon Bull have been studying a poorly understood subduction zone in the western Indian Ocean – the Makran, offshore southern Iran and Pakistan. At a subduction zone, one plate slides beneath another creating compressional deformation. The resulting major fault zone generates the largest… Read More Understanding the earthquake and tsunami hazards of the western Indian Ocean

Megathrust earthquakes and submarine landslides

The question whether each megathrust earthquake necessarily and instantaneously triggers submarine mass-movement has been intensively discussed in the wake of the giant earthquakes that occurred over the last decade. Whereas the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake (Japan) caused failure of parts of the lowermost continental slope, no similar evidence was found after the 2010 Maule earthquake (Central… Read More Megathrust earthquakes and submarine landslides