Shifting land won't stop your journey: Using satellites to watch for land hazards

Date: June 25, 2014

Source: European Space Agency

Summary:

Subsidence, rockfalls and landslides threaten potentially devastating human and economic consequences across Europe -- but satellites can help. Traditional monitoring such as photographic mapping to measure changes in the landscape works well for specific locations but is labour intensive and costly. Now, the European Space Agency has looked at using satellites to watch for hazards across broad areas that could affect road and rail networks.

Subsidence along Val Nalps in Switzerland. Results on the left are obtained from ERS-1/2 data from 1992 to 2000; the results on the right are from Envisat data from 2004–10. Credit: MATIST

Subsidence, rockfalls and landslides threaten potentially devastating human and economic consequences across Europe -- but satellites can help.

Traditional monitoring such as photographic mapping to measure changes in the landscape works well for specific locations but is labour intensive and costly. Now, ESA has looked at using satellites to watch for hazards across broad areas that could affect road and rail networks.

The outcome is so promising that the resulting monitoring services continue to be developed by the companies involved in the two projects.

The services rely on a triple space alliance of satellite radar images , combined with satnav using satcoms to relay in-situ observations to a central system for analysing ground motion around road and rail networks.

One promising approach is to use maps produced from radar satellites to identify potentially hazardous slopes, followed by repeat monitoring at ground level.

By taking regular observations, displacements across large areas can be measured with millimetre accuracy. Any sudden changes in motion indicate a potentially high-risk situation and invite closer scrutiny.

"There is no single way of solving the problem of monitoring natural hazards," says ESA's Rob Postema, "but these two projects demonstrate how combining techniques results in a powerful toolset for tackling a whole range of geological challenges."

The Live Land study led by CGI in the UK, looked at how to combine information from satellite radar scans, geology and weather forecasts to come up with risk maps that give enough warning to reduce the disruption and cost associated with landslide and subsidence on selected roads and railways in Scotland.

For example, an area of steep slopes and wet soil that is expecting heavy rainfall is at a higher risk of a landslide -- and this would be highlighted in the maps.

Similarly, the Matist project, led by Gamma Remote Sensing and Consulting in Switzerland, combined satellite and terrestrial radar information and satnav to follow ground movements in the mountainous regions of Switzerland and Austria -- notably covering the dense rail networks and Austria's main road network.

These studies used existing Earth observation data but Europe's Sentinel satellites will become a valuable resource once they come online.

Rob Postema notes: "In coming years, I expect to see a great many more innovative applications that make use of satellite data and capabilities, such as Earth observation and satellite navigation for keeping a watchful eye on phenomena of ground motion and the associated risks."



Story Source:
Science Daily
The above story is based on materials provided by European Space Agency. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Famous Film Locations on Google Earth

Where Movies Live

Which film location would you most like to see?

While most movies are filmed in comfortable studios, increasingly in front of green screens, sometimes they happen in actual places that exist. On the planet. This one. Earth. And thanks to science - or more specifically the omniscient gift of Google - we can see where they happened without even leaving home.

Click on the image above to see a few iconic film locations using the magic of Google Earth. *WARNING: Includes a handful of spoilers.*

Studying magma formation beneath Mount St. Helens

Date:         June 18, 2014
Source:      University of Washington

Summary: 
Scientists are embarking on a research expedition to improve volcanic eruption forecasting by learning more about how a deep-underground feeder system creates and supplies magma to Mount St. Helens. They hope the research will produce science that will lead to better understanding of eruptions, which in turn could lead to greater public safety.

Mount St. Helens as it appeared two years after its catastrophic eruption on May 18, 1980.

Credit: U.S. Geological Survey

University and government scientists are embarking on a collaborative research expedition to improve volcanic eruption forecasting by learning more about how a deep-underground feeder system creates and supplies magma to Mount St. Helens.

They hope the research will produce science that will lead to better understanding of eruptions, which in turn could lead to greater public safety.

The Imaging Magma Under St. Helens project involves three distinct components: active-source seismic monitoring, passive-source seismic monitoring and magnetotelluric monitoring, using fluctuations in Earth's electromagnetic field to produce images of structures beneath the surface.

Researchers are beginning passive-source and magnetotelluric monitoring, while active-source monitoring -- measuring seismic waves generated by underground detonations -- will be conducted later.

Passive-source monitoring involves burying seismometers at 70 different sites throughout a 60-by-60-mile area centered on Mount St. Helens in southwestern Washington. The seismometers will record data from a variety of seismic events.

"We will record local earthquakes, as well as distant earthquakes. Patterns in the earthquake signatures will reveal in greater detail the geological structures beneath St. Helens," said John Vidale, director of the University of Washington-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.

Magnetotelluric monitoring will be done at 150 sites spread over an area running 125 miles north to south and 110 miles east to west, which includes both Mount Rainier and Mount Adams. Most of the sites will only be used for a day, with instruments recording electric and magnetic field signals that will produce images of subsurface structures.

Besides the UW, collaborating institutions are Oregon State University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, Rice University, Columbia University, the U.S. Geological Survey and ETH-Zurich in Switzerland. The work is being funded by the National Science Foundation.

Mount St. Helens has been the most active volcano in the Cascade Range during the last 2,000 years and has erupted twice in the last 35 years. It also is more accessible than most volcanoes for people and equipment, making it a prime target for scientists trying to better understand how volcanoes get their supply of magma.

The magma that eventually comes to the surface probably originates 60 to 70 miles deep beneath St. Helens, at the interface between the Juan de Fuca and North American tectonic plates. The plates first come into contact off the Pacific Northwest coast, where the Juan de Fuca plate subducts beneath the North American plate and reaches great depth under the Cascades. As the magma works its way upward, it likely accumulates as a mass several miles beneath the surface.

As the molten rock works its way toward the surface, it is possible that it gathers in a large chamber a few miles beneath the surface. The path from great depth to this chamber is almost completely unknown and is a main subject of the study. The project is expected to conclude in the summer of 2016.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Washington. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.


Cite This Page:

University of Washington. "Studying magma formation beneath Mount St. Helens." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 June 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140618163918.htm>.

University of Washington. (2014, June 18). Studying magma formation beneath Mount St. Helens. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 19, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140618163918.htm

University of Washington. "Studying magma formation beneath Mount St. Helens." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140618163918.htm (accessed June 19, 2014).

Ground-breaking technique traces DNA direct to your ancestor's home 1,000 years ago

Date: May 1, 2014 

Source: University of Sheffield

Summary:

Tracing where your DNA was formed over 1,000 years ago is now possible, thanks to a revolutionary technique. The ground-breaking Geographic Population Structure tool works similarly to a satellite navigation system as it helps you to find your way home, but not the one you currently live in -- but rather your actual ancestor's home from 1,000 years ago.




[Click to enlarge image]


Visualization: World map with human genetic signatures overlaid.
Credit: Image courtesy of University of Sheffield



Tracing where your DNA was formed over 1,000 years ago is now possible, thanks to a revolutionary technique developed by a team of international scientists led by experts from the University of Sheffield.

The ground-breaking Geographic Population Structure (GPS) tool, created by Dr Eran Elhaik from the University of Sheffield's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences and Dr Tatiana Tatarinova from the University of Southern California, works similarly to a satellite navigation system as it helps you to find your way home, but not the one you currently live in -- but rather your actual ancestor's home from 1,000 years ago.

Previously, scientists have only been able to locate where your DNA was formed to within 700kms, which in Europe could be two countries away; however this pioneering technique has been 98 per cent successful in locating worldwide populations to their right geographic regions, and down to their village and island of origin.

The breakthrough of knowing where the gene pools that created your DNA were last mixed has massive implications for life-saving personalised medicine, advancing forensic science and for the study of populations whose ancestral origins are under debate, such as African Americans, Roma gypsies and European Jews.

Genetic admixture occurs when individuals from two or more previously separated populations begin interbreeding. This results in the creation of new gene pools representing a mixture of the founder gene pool.

Such processes are extremely common in history during migrations and invasions, for example, when the Vikings invaded Britain and Europe in the 11th Century and settled with locals some of them formed a new Viking-Anglo-Saxon gene pool, but some married other Vikings and maintained their original gene pool, allowing GPS to trace their Scandinavian origins.

Dr Eran Elhaik said: "If we think of our world as being made up of different colours of soup -- representing different populations -- it is easy to visualise how genetic admixture occurs. If a population from the blue soup region mixes with a population from the red soup region their off-springs would appear as a purple soup.

"The more genetic admixture that takes place, the more different colours of soup are introduced which makes it increasingly difficult to locate your DNA's ancestry using traditional tools like Spatial Ancestry analysis (SPA) which has an accuracy level of less than two per cent."

He added: "What we have discovered here at the University of Sheffield is a way to find not where you were born -- as you have that information on your passport -- but where your DNA was formed up to 1,000 years ago by modelling these admixture processes.

"What is remarkable is that, we can do this so accurately that we can locate the village where your ancestors lived hundreds and hundreds of years ago -- until now this has never been possible."

To demonstrate how accurate GPS predictions are, Dr Elhaik and his colleagues analysed data from 10 villages in Sardinia and over 20 islands in Oceania. The research published today in the journal Nature Communications shows that Dr Elhaik and his team were able to place a quarter of the residents in Sardinia directly to their home village and most of the remaining residents within 50km of their village. The results for Oceania were no less impressive with almost 90 per cent success of tracing islanders exactly to their island.

"This is a significant improvement compared to the alternative SPA tool that placed Oceanians in India," said Elhaik.

"In his third book, children's author L. Frank Baum revealed that Oz resided around Australia. It always troubled me that if I ever met anyone claiming to be from the wonderful world of Oz, I would like to be able to verify their origins and now we can!

"This technique also means that we can no longer easily classify people's ethnic identities with one single label. It is impossible for any of us to tick one box on a form such as White British or African as we are much complex models with our own unique identities. The notion of races is simply not plausible."

Tracing our ancestry is now a major social trend and genealogy is the number one hobby in America. An estimated one million people in the USA have already had their DNA genotyped. People can explore their DNA by simply taking a swab from inside their mouth and sending it to a company such as 23andme or ancestry.com for costs ranging from $99-$200.

Dr Elhaik's co-author, Dr Tatiana Tatarinova, developed a website making GPS accessible to the public.

"To help people find their roots, I developed a website that allows anyone who has had their DNA genotyped to upload their results and use GPS to find their ancestral home," said Dr Tatarinova, who is also an Associate Professor of Research Paediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

"We were surprised by the simplicity and precision of this method. People in a given geographical area are more likely to have similar genetics. When they also have genetic traits typically found in other, distant regions, the geographical origin of those traits is generally the closest location where those traits can be found."

According to the researchers, in ethnically-diverse regions like the UK or US, where many people know only a few generations of their descendants, this kind of screening has huge, important medical implications.

Discovery of a certain genotype might indicate the potential for a genetic disease and suggest that diagnostic testing be done. Also, as scientists learn more about personalized medicine, there is evidence that specific genotypes respond differently to medications -- making this information potentially useful when selecting the most effective therapy and appropriate dosage. The investigators are currently designing a study to correlate pharmacokinetics -- the time course of drug metabolism -- with genotype.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aap-s1kle4Q


Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Sheffield. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.


Journal Reference: 

Eran Elhaik, Tatiana Tatarinova, Dmitri Chebotarev, Ignazio S. Piras, Carla Maria Calò, Antonella De Montis, Manuela Atzori, Monica Marini, Sergio Tofanelli, Paolo Francalacci, Luca Pagani, Chris Tyler-Smith, Yali Xue, Francesco Cucca, Theodore G. Schurr, Jill B. Gaieski, Carlalynne Melendez, Miguel G. Vilar, Amanda C. Owings, Rocío Gómez, Ricardo Fujita, Fabrício R. Santos, David Comas, Oleg Balanovsky, Elena Balanovska, Pierre Zalloua, Himla Soodyall, Ramasamy Pitchappan, ArunKumar GaneshPrasad, Michael Hammer, Lisa Matisoo-Smith, R. Spencer Wells, Oscar Acosta, Syama Adhikarla, Christina J. Adler, Jaume Bertranpetit, Andrew C. Clarke, Alan Cooper, Clio S. I. Der Sarkissian, Wolfgang Haak, Marc Haber, Li Jin, Matthew E. Kaplan, Hui Li, Shilin Li, Begoña Martínez-Cruz, Nirav C. Merchant, John R. Mitchell, Laxmi Parida, Daniel E. Platt, Lluis Quintana-Murci, Colin Renfrew, Daniela R. Lacerda, Ajay K. Royyuru, Jose Raul Sandoval, Arun Varatharajan Santhakumari, David F. Soria Hernanz, Pandikumar Swamikrishnan, Janet S. Ziegle. Geographic population structure analysis of worldwide human populations infers their biogeographical origins. Nature Communications, 2014; 5 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4513


Cite This Page:

University of Sheffield. "Ground-breaking technique traces DNA direct to your ancestor's home 1,000 years ago." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 May 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140430192745.htm>.

Sustainability needs link between theory, practice in education

Wonderful article looking at the challenges of sustainability education.

Date:

May 9, 2014

Source:

Wageningen University and Research Centre

Summary

How can you ensure that people do not only spend time thinking about important global issues like climate change or world food supplies, but also roll up their sleeves and do something about them? Researchers think that the education sector holds the key. Teaching processes around the world could be given more influence and meaning by making pure science subjects, such as biology and physics, complementary to lessons in nature, environment and sustainability.

How can you ensure that people do not only spend time thinking about important global issues like climate change or world food supplies, but also roll up their sleeves and do something about them? Four researchers, including Professor Arjen Wals from Wageningen University, think that the education sector holds the key. Teaching processes around the world could be given more influence and meaning by making pure science subjects, such as biology and physics, complementary to lessons in nature, environment and sustainability. Their article on this new approach to teaching, which is based on citizen science, is published in the 9 May edition of Science.

Throughout the world, 'pure' science subjects such as physics, chemistry, biology, maths, geography and general natural sciences, which traditionally aim to build up knowledge and understanding, are seen separately from subjects such as nature and the environment, which together with the latest branch 'sustainability education' take a more practical approach. Although this certainly makes scholars aware of the current condition of our planet, their lack of practical perspective evokes a sense of powerlessness. For example, what can you do to prevent or respond adequately to forthcoming climate shifts? Affinity with politics, society and the economy are essential in this respect. Conversely, education in nature, the environment and sustainability (aka 'environmental education') does not equip scholars with the scientific insight they need to back up their proposed remedies.

Convergence

When taught separately, natural sciences and environmental education give a disjointed answer to society's demand for a truly sustainable society. "It's time these two schools converged," says Arjen Wals, Professor of Social Learning and Sustainable Development at Wageningen University. "If we cannot create a firm link between these two educational areas, scientific education is in jeopardy of becoming purely a vehicle for enhancing the innovative and competitive potential of a country's economy," he says. "At the same time, without a firm link with the sciences, environmental education will never be able to find a responsible and realistic way of dealing with the contradictions and uncertainties that are raised in the scientific debate surrounding questions of sustainability."

The authors of the article in Science give a number of examples of environmental education, which cover the area where science meets society. Among them is the American concept of Edible School Gardens, whereby schoolchildren grow their own food in an educational garden while simultaneously learning about the things they grow in science lessons. The Dutch version is known as Groene schoolpleinen ('green school grounds'). Another good example is YardMap, based on IT and citizen science. Citizens, both young and old, analyze biodiversity in their own neighborhood by means of digital photos, special apps and Google Maps. The aim is to identify the areas with the greatest potential for boosting biodiversity. Action plans designed to ensure that the YardMaps are kept fully up-to-date are drawn up and implemented on the basis of studies and in consultation with scientists and local partners (including the municipal authority, garden centers and an NGO). The various YardMaps are linked via social media. The Dutch Natuurkalender works in much the same way.

Creating closer ties between citizen science, scientific education and environmental education will help citizens and scientists to take a meaningful and practical approach to the pursuit of sustainability. Wals: "It's not just about linking up the content; it involves developing new competencies such as dealing with complexity, uncertainty and confusion, and devising and implementing meaningful local solutions." This method of learning may also help to restore the damage to public confidence in science. The government will have to put more effort into stimulating and supporting the 'hybrid teaching environments' that blur the boundaries between science and society, school and neighborhood, local and global, and shift the emphasis to the wellbeing of mankind and the planet.

Transition

Calls for transition and another way of thinking are becoming more urgent, says Professor Wals: "At the end of the day, the climate problem is as much in between our ears, as it is between the North and South Poles." He backs this up with a remarkable conclusion: to his mind, the role of education and citizen involvement has been seriously underemphasized in the climate debate. In fact he wonders if we will ever be able to bring about a transition without committed, critical and competent citizens, who aspire to values that are not purely based on the material side of their existence but also on care for fellow human beings and, indeed, other species, here and elsewhere, now and in the future.


Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Wageningen University and Research Centre. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.



Journal Reference:
A. E. J. Wals, M. Brody, J. Dillon, R. B. Stevenson. Convergence Between Science and Environmental Education. Science, 2014; 344 (6184): 583 DOI: 10.1126/science.1250515

It's Officially Tornado Season

With the devastating events in the U.S. this week, I have included a number of resources to highlight the awesome power of these storms.

Click on the titles below:

These Animations Show the Parts of the U.S. Most Likely to Get Hit

Tornadoes cause more destruction, death, in US

Why twisters are so unpredictable

In pictures: Deadly tornadoes sweep through US states

NOAA: U.S. Tornado Climatology 

United States Tornadoes Examining tornadoes... past, present and future

Videos from the April 2014 tornado outbreak sequence

 Interactive Tornado Map

Aerial Drone Footage Shows Extent of Central U.S. Tornado Destruction

The 10 Deadliest Tornadoes in U.S. History

Climate change: risks to well-being of nature, people, ways to mitigate exist, experts say

From: Science Daily 

Date:

April 28, 2014

Source:

Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)

Summary

From food shortages to global weather changes, there are ways to mitigate the risks of climate change, experts say. A new multi-national report outlines what we can expect as the planet continues to change with regard to climate patterns, and offers recommendations that focus on strategies from adaptation to mitigation.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has approved the second part of its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), titled Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, at the IPCC meeting in Yokohama, Japan. The key message of the report is that climate change poses serious risks to the well-being of nature and people all over the world. The observed effects of climate change have an impact on people's health, land and marine ecosystems, water supplies, and people's livelihoods, from the polar regions to the tropics and from small islands to continents. Poor countries that lack the means to adapt to these changes will suffer the worst. 

"Despite our efforts, global greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase and the climate will change. We must strengthen Finland's ability to manage the risks related to climate change and adapt to it," emphasises Permanent Secretary Jaana Husu-Kallio from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

Professor Tim Carter from the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) is one of the lead writers of the now published report. He hopes that decision-makers will take the information produced by researchers seriously: "If adequate measures to reduce emissions are not taken, the fear is that some of the changes resulting from climate change will push us over an edge after which development can no longer be reversed. This kind of threshold could be, for example, the irreversible melting of Greenland's glaciers."

Europe's glaciers dwindling and permafrost melting

"Climate change impacts Europe in many ways. The ice sheets of the Alps and other mountain ranges are dwindling and an increasing portion of the permafrost is melting. In the northern coniferous forest belt, including Finland, the growth of forests is accelerating, and some species are growing more abundant, while others decline. The risk of forest fires is also increasing in southern Europe," Tim Carter explains about the regional effects of climate change.

In Finland, the effects of climate change may weaken the water quality of water systems, as the ground remains unfrozen for longer periods of time in the autumn and winter. Water protection efforts will have to adapt to increased run-off, erosion, and nutrition loads. This will result in new challenges, particularly in agricultural water protection. The warming of Finland's climate is already evident in Finnish fauna; birds, for example, are migrating earlier in the spring and later in the autumn.

Food shortages expected

The estimated future crop yields will not be enough to feed the world in 2015. "The climate has already changed and affected crop yields. The effects observed have been local, and for the most part negative. The most notable effects have had to do with extreme weather events, such as heavy rains, heat waves, and draught."

"Crop yields and food production per capita have generally improved over the last 40 years, due to the development of farming culture and technology, which has resulted in better fertilisers, better crop strains and more efficient production. However, climate change will result in more extreme weather, draught, heat, and heavy rains. In northern areas, global warming will initially also present benefits, such as longer growth periods," says Senior Researcher Kaija Hakala from MTT Agrifood Research Finland.

Severe and wide-ranging global changes

Warming, acidification, and decreasing oxygen levels will change marine life. Warming has already resulted in plankton, fish, and invertebrate communities shifting northwards. In northern marine areas, the diversity and biomass of fish populations have increased. Water warming has also altered the distribution of large species of fish found in the open sea. As marine and coastal ecosystems change, their diversity and the products and services derived from them will weaken. Those who depend on coastal areas for their livelihoods, such as fishing communities in the tropics and arctic areas, will suffer.

Rising sea levels, coastal flooding and tidal waves cause danger to life and risk of injury, and hinder livelihoods in low-lying coastal areas and in small island nations. These problems will impact poor population groups in particular. In some areas, flooding will also pose problems to urban populations.

Agricultural trade will grow more difficult and earnings from it will decrease due to the insufficient availability of drinking and irrigation water and the decreasing productivity of farming. These problems will have a particularly severe impact on poor farmers in dry regions.

Extreme weather events will hinder important basic services, such as water, electricity and health and rescue services. Mortality, morbidity and other adverse effects will increase during heat waves, particularly among vulnerable urban population groups and those who work outdoors.

Adaptation required in addition to mitigation

Countries all over the world have begun to develop climate change adaptation plans and strategies. Finland has been a pioneer in this regard, and Finland's reformed adaptation strategy is currently being widely circulated for comments. In Europe, the EU's adaptations strategy has led to adaptation planning being incorporated into, for example, the use and management of coastal areas and water systems and the risk management of natural disasters.

"Currently we are adapting mainly to past events when we should be adapting to future threats. However, it is good that governments, companies and communities are gaining experience in adaptation, since this experience can be utilised to better help society, and more ambitiously adapt to changes," says Chris Field, the Co-chair of IPCC Working Group II.

IPCC gathers information to support decision-making

The IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report consists of the now published report along with a report on the state of climate, which was published last September in Stockholm, and a report on climate change mitigation, which will be finalised at a meeting in Berlin from 7 to 11 April. A summary of the individual reports will be completed in autumn 2014.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was called together by the World Meteorological Organization WMO and the UN's environmental programme UNEP. The goal of the panel is to support decision-making related to climate policy. Its tasks include assessing scientific knowledge related to climate change and its effects, as well as various climate change mitigation measures. During 2010-2013, some 813 writers took part in drawing up the report, five of them from Finland.


Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE). 

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Dumb and Dumber, Thanks to GPS

 

“People should re-engage with their environment,” says Holly Taylor

Wednesday, April 9th 2014

By Helene Ragovin

Summary: What do a commuter taking a detour on the way to work and a youngster fashioning a bird out of a sheet of brightly colored paper have in common? They’re both depending on spatial cognition to complete a task. The trouble is that some of our beloved electronic devices could be a detriment to spatial cognition. Tufts University psychologist Holly Taylor and her colleagues study spatial cognition and comprehension. They tackle the effect of navigational aids on memory and whether learning the Japanese paper art origami can increase children’s abilities in all sorts of practical fields such as science, technology, engineering and math. In this interview she shares some of what they've learned.

What do a commuter taking a detour on the way to work and a youngster fashioning a bird out of a sheet of brightly colored paper have in common? They’re both depending on spatial cognition to complete a task.

Being able to interpret the three-dimensional world around us and to use that information to solve problems is an often-overlooked skill, says Tufts psychologist Holly Taylor. That ability benefits both adults and children in myriad ways, from helping drivers navigate to preparing kids for their future careers.

The trouble is that some of our beloved electronic devices could be a detriment to spatial cognition.
Taylor, a professor in the School of Arts and Sciences, studies spatial cognition and comprehension. In her lab, she and her colleagues have investigated such topics as the effect of navigational aids on memory and whether learning the Japanese paper art origami can increase children’s abilities in all sorts of practical fields such as science, technology, engineering and math.

In one study, she and doctoral student Aaron Gardony looked at subjects who had to find their way through a virtual neighborhood, both with and without navigational aids such as a GPS. In the end, all of them navigated from point to point just as efficiently, regardless of whether they had the GPS. But Gardony’s work also showed that the use of navigational devices actually impaired their memory of where they had been.

Tufts Now: How could people do just as well without the GPS device as with it?

Holly Taylor: People use GPS because they feel they’ll navigate more efficiently, and they see it as a security blanket, to some extent. What we found is that only very early on when navigating from point to point to point in an unfamiliar environment did people with the navigational aid do better than people without it. Very quickly, the people without the navigational aid seemed to learn the environment and navigate just as efficiently as those with the GPS.

But people who had the navigational aid had significantly worse memory about what was around them. And this was on multiple different measures, such as pointing from one landmark to another or drawing a map of the environment.

Why is that?

One of the main reasons is that the GPS draws attention away from the environment.

But don’t some people just have a terrible sense of direction? Wouldn’t the navigational aids have helped them?

There are individual differences, and this is not to discount that some people are better at spatial tasks. But we had each subject working both with the navigational aids and without, and across the whole group, this was what we found.

This doesn’t sound like good news for the GPS companies.

Navigational aids are not going to go away. People feel more comfortable having them, as sort of a crutch. But they don’t seem to have the benefits for navigating that people attribute to them. If you put yourself in the environment and navigate through it, you can do pretty well, and you’ll remember it better.

So what’s the lesson from this?

People should re-engage with their environment, rather than offloading to GPS or smartphones. By paying attention to your environment, you can learn it, so that when things go wrong—your GPS stops working, it gets stolen, you’re in somebody else’s car, there’s a detour somewhere and you can’t stay on the usual path—you’re able to do it. It also sets the wrong example for kids. Seeing their parents always using a device—that sort of suggests that it’s the thing to do, that navigating through your environment and figuring out where things are is not the way to do things.

Speaking of children, you have also done research that supports the idea that improving spatial cognition helps them do better in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.

There’s a lot of work that’s been done over the past 35 years looking at spatial abilities and how that relates to retention, perseverance and ability in the STEM disciplines. My work relates to training in spatial skills, and it’s been shown very nicely that such training is effective. In my work, kids engage in origami and pop-up paper engineering lessons. After doing so, they did better on standard measures of 2D-to-3D mental transformations. What we’ll be looking at next is the question of whether this training translates to performance in STEM disciplines.

You’re involved with a spatial cognition program called Think3d! in elementary schools in rural Vermont and New Hampshire. What’s that?

The approach that my collaborator, Allyson Hutton, who is an architect, and I have used is a program that employs origami and pop-up paper engineering to help young students translate two-dimensional objects into three-dimensional ones. Some of this has also been done with college students.

We don’t actually teach origami—we don’t say, “Now fold this, and then fold this.” We say, “Here are the diagrams and instructions; you figure out how to do it.” Or we use reverse engineering, and we show them an origami object already made, and tell them to take it apart. Figuring out how to make or modify objects has been shown to help people make great gains in spatial thinking.

Are there other methods of teaching these skills?

In other studies, researchers have used perspective drawings and even video games, such as first-person shooter games, all of which have been shown to improve spatial thinking and have been linked to improved STEM outcomes.

I don’t have very good spatial abilities. Do you mean playing Call of Duty could improve them?

It may not hurt to try it.

Originally published by Tufts University on Tufts Now, this article appears in Directions Magazine courtesy of Tufts University

Do you think you know your aerial imagery? Find out on QuizUp.

Saw this at Google Earth Blog.  Try it - it is a lot of fun.

Posted:   April 7, 2014

Author:     Mickey Mellen, Google Earth Blog

A few months ago I started playing QuizUp from time to time on my phone. It’s a fast-paced trivia game that pits you against other players around the world in real-time. It has a very wide variety of categories, and you can get in and play a game in only a minute or two.

They’ve recently added a new category that many of you will find interesting: “Google Maps: Earth from Above”:

Each question will show you an aerial image and a bit of text, and you have four possible answers. As with all of the categories on QuizUp, speed is important. Go try it out and see just how good your geography skills are. You can download the app for Android or iOS.

More Earthquakes for Chile? Seismic gap has not been closed

Date:              April 4, 2014

Source:           Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research                            Centre for Geosciences

Summary:

After the strong earthquake that struck Chile on April 2 (CEST), numerous aftershocks, some of them of a considerable magnitude, have struck the region around Iquique. Seismologists doubt that the strong earthquake closed the local seismic gap and decreased the risk of a large earthquake. On the contrary, initial studies of the rupture process and the aftershocks show that only about a third of the vulnerable zone broke.

GPS measurements of the displacement vectors.

After the strong earthquake that struck Chile on April 2 (CEST), numerous aftershocks, some of them of a considerable magnitude, struck the region around Iquique. Seismologists from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences doubt that the strong earthquake closed the local seismic gap and decreased the risk of a large earthquake. On the contrary, initial studies of the rupture process and the aftershocks show that only about a third of the vulnerable zone broke. 

This vulnerable area is referred to as the seismic gap of Iquique and a strong earthquake is expected to strike here. The Pacific Nazca plate meets the South American plate at South America's west coast. "In a subsea trench along the coast, the Pacific Ocean floor submerges beneath the continent buildinumerous aftershocks, some of them of a considerable magnitude, have ng up tension that is released in earthquakes," explains Professor Onno Oncken of the GFZ. "In the course of about 150 years the entire plate boundary from Patagonia in the South to Panama in the North breaks completely with a segmented series of strong earthquakes." This cycle has been completed except for a last segment west of Iquique in northern Chile. As expected, the strong earthquake of April 2 took place exactly at this seismic gap. 

No All-Clear 

Initial analyses conducted by GFZ seismologists have shown that there is no sign that tension in the earth' crust has significantly decreased: "So far tension has been released only in the central section of this vulnerable zone," Oncken further explains. The series of earthquakes began on March 16 with a 6.7-magnitude earthquake. Although the main earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1 broke the central section of the seismic gap of a length of some 100 kilometres, two large segments further north and south remain intact, and these segments are able to cause strong earthquakes with a high risk of ground shaking and tsunamis.Oncken: "This means that the risk of one or even several earthquakes with a magnitude clearly above 8 still exists." Furthermore, the location and magnitude of the aftershocks suggest such a scenario. 

Since the main quake struck, hundreds of aftershocks have been registered, the strongest that of April 2 (CEST) of a magnitude of 7.6. This earthquake struck about 100 kilometres south of the main earthquake's epicentre. Together with the its associated aftershocks, it forms a second rupture zone. 

Scientists getting ready for a field trip 

For such extreme events, the GFZ has a task force called HART (Hazard and Risk Team) that will travel to the area affected to conduct further studies. The assignment aims at gaining a better and more detailed understanding of the rupture process based on the aftershocks, and defining the rupture surface more precisely based on the distribution of the aftershocks. Currently 25 seismometers are being prepared for air transport. Early next week a team of eight GFZ scientists will fly to Chile. The 25 portable seismometers will be used to expand the existing observatory network IPOC (Integrated Plate Boundary Observatory Chile) in order to be able to determine the earthquake epicentres more precisely. In addition highly precise surface displacements will be measured at 50 GPS measuring points. Two new additional continuous GPS stations will be installed to determine how the earthquake has deformed the earth' crust. 

The Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Geomar in Kiel intends to support the measuring campaign. Ocean floor seismometers will supplement land-based seismic data by providing measurements of the aftershocks on the seafloor. 

The Plate Boundary Observatory IPOC in Chile 

The GFZ initiated the setup of an observatory directly within the seismic gap in northern Chile in order to be able to precisely measure and capture tectonic processes before, during and after the expected strong earthquake. The observatory called Integrated Plate Boundary Observatory Chile (IPOC) is a European-American network of institutions and scientists. Together with several Chilean and German universities, German, French, Chilean and American non-university research institutions operate a decentralized instrumentation system located at Chile's convergent plate boundary to gather data on earthquakes, deformations, magmatism, and surface processes. 

The mission succeeded in the case of the April 2 earthquake: "All our instruments survived the quake and aftershocks unscathed. We now have a set of data that is unique in the world," says GFZ seismologist Günter Asch with a smile, who was responsible for checking the instruments on site right after the earthquake and who is once again on his way to the region. "We believe that these data will help us understand the entire earthquake process -- from the phase that tension builds up to the actual rupture, and also during the post-seismic phase." This understanding will provide insights into earthquake risks in this part of the world as well as elsewhere. 

The IPOC will further expand. To this day more than 20 multi-parameter stations have been set up. They comprise broadband seismographs, accelerometers, continuous GPS receivers, magneto-telluric probes, expansion measuring devices and climate sensors. Their data is transferred to Potsdam in real time. The European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal is now also part of the observatory network.

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Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Where everyone in the world is migrating--in one gorgeous chart

Finally, world migration in one (relatively) easy to use graphic!

Original Source: Quartz 

By Nick Stockton @StocktonSays March 27, 2014

These flows represent 75% of human migration from 2005-2010. (NB only flows over 50,000 are displayed.) Circos/ Krzywinski, M. et al.

It’s no secret that the world’s population is on the move, but it’s rare to get a glimpse of where that flow is happening. In a study released in today’s Science, a team of geographers used data snapshots to create a broad analysis of global migrations over 20 years.

The study was conducted by three geographic researchers from the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital in Vienna. The researchers presented their data in five-year increments, from 1990 to 2010. Their research is unique, because it turned static census counts from over 150 countries into a  dynamic flow of human traffic.

Migration data is counted in two ways: Stock and flow. “The stocks are the number of migrants living in a country,” says Nikola Sander, one of the study’s authors. Stock is relatively easy to get—you just count who is in the country at a given point of time. Flow is trickier. It’s the rate of human traffic over time.

Keeping accurate account of where people are moving has stymied the UN, and researchers and policy-makers in general, for a while. The European Union keeps good track of migrant flows, but elsewhere the data are sparse. Static measurements are plentiful, but it is hard to use them to get a picture of how people are moving on a broad scale, because each country has its own methodology for collecting census data.

Last year, however, the UN brought stock data from nearly 200 countries into harmony by erasing the methodological seams between them. To turn this stock data into five-year flow estimates, the researchers used statistical interpolations from stock data from the UN, taken mostly from 10-year country censuses, but supplemented with population registers and other national surveys.

It’s not the poorest who migrate the most

While the results of the migration study aren’t particularly groundbreaking, there are two interesting insights:

1) Adjusted for population growth, the global migration rate has stayed roughly the same since around  since 1995 (it was higher from 1990-1995).

2) It’s not the poorest countries sending people to the richest countries, it’s countries in transition—still poor, but with some education and mobility—that are the highest migratory contributors.

“One of the conclusions they make in the paper, is the idea as countries develop, they continue to send more migrants, and at some point they become migrant-receiving regions themselves,” says Fernando Riosmena, a geographer from the University of Colorado, who did not contribute to this research, but is collaborating with one of the authors on a future paper.

A few other noteworthy results:

1) The largest regional migration is from Southeast Asia to the Middle East. This is largely driven by the huge, oil-driven, construction booms happening on the Arabian Peninsula.
2) The biggest flow between individual countries is the steady stream from Mexico to the US. (In fact, the US is the largest single migrant destination)
3) There’s a huge circulation of migrants among sub-Saharan African countries. This migration dwarfs the number leaving Africa, but the media pay more attention the latter because of the austerity-driven immigration debates in Europe.

Explore the world of migration

The data aren’t perfect. Riosmena points out that in countries that especially dislike migrants, like the US and Europe, numbers are often underreported. Still, he says, the data are a very good indication of the general trends.


Also, amateur data sleuths be warned: Because these flow estimates are taken from 10-year static counts, they cannot be compared to the annual migrational flows that the UN publishes (which, as mentioned above, cannot be used to compare between countries).

Sander says she hopes her data will change the way other researchers approach migration. “Inside the discipline, we hope that it’s going to be the basis for subsequent analysis of the impact of migration on population, on economies, on aging.” Sander and her colleagues have lined their data up with global remittance flows, and are analyzing what kind of patterns they can find therein.
You can explore for yourself how regional flows have changed over the past 20 years with this awesome interactive, from Sander and her co-authors, Guy J. Abel & Ramon Bauer.

Beware the risks of smartphones and tablets in schools - I knew it!

Beware the risks of smartphones and tablets in schools

I have been saying something similar for years. Now the experts agree!

Article By: Sachin Maharaj Freelance Opinion writer, Published Toronto Star, on Wed Apr 02 2014

While electronic devices like smartphones and tablets offer many learning benefits, we should be cognizant of the potential downsides.

Kye R. Lee / MCT file photo

School boards are embracing the use of smartphones and tablets as learning tools for students in class. But Sachin Maharaj says we should be aware of the potential downsides of pervasive electronic use on young people.

After initial reluctance, school systems appear to be rapidly embracing the use of electronic devices in classrooms. In 2010, former premier Dalton McGuinty reversed an earlier position and publicly supported the use of smartphones in schools, touting their ability to be used as learning tools. In 2011, the Toronto District School Board followed suit and overturned its previous ban of devices in classrooms.

Tablets like the iPad, once considered an expensive luxury, are increasingly becoming a must-have learning item. The Los Angeles Unified School District recently decided to spend more than $1 billion to give every one of its students an iPad. Many schools across Canada are now either buying iPads for their students or actively encouraging them to bring their own smartphones and tablets to class.

The momentum appears to be unstoppable. But while electronic devices certainly offer many learning benefits, we should be cognizant of the potential downsides.

First, as many teachers will know from first-hand experience, while these devices can be valuable learning tools, they are often not used that way. Instead of focusing on the lesson or task at hand, many students find the compulsion to use their phones to play Candy Crush or browse Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Instagram et al. much too tempting. This should be no surprise given what we know about impulse control and the developing adolescent brain.

And even when safeguards are put in place to ensure the devices are used for learning, they are often no match for students’ ingenuity. Almost immediately after students in Los Angeles were given their iPads, the tablets were hacked, loaded up with social media apps, and students started accessing unauthorized websites.

Apart from these issues, given how pervasive electronic use is in all of our lives already, should we really be encouraging even more of this in our schools? Canadians with smartphones already spend an average of eight hours per day staring at electronic screens, not including time spent on computers or mobile devices for work. One Stanford University study found that 75 per cent of iPhone users regularly fall asleep with their phones in their bed. Another study found that almost a third of 16- to 25-year-olds check and update their social media accounts while in the middle of using the bathroom.

Perhaps most worrying are the effects that all of this constant technology use can have on students’ cognitive and emotional development. As noted in a recent feature on CBC’s The National, such high amounts of screen time reduce opportunities for quiet reflection, a key to developing empathy for others. This may go some way to explaining the prevalence of cyberbullying among teens.

It is also having an impact on the values our children hold. Whereas teens used to be mostly concerned with fitting in with their social groups, their primary concerns now seem to be acquiring attention and fame. As one Grade 6 Nova Scotia student put it: “I like it when people like my pictures, it makes me feel really good . . . who doesn’t want to be famous?”

Constant electronic use can also carry a significant cognitive cost. Indeed, researchers in Britain found that excessive use of technology reduces people’s intelligence more than twice as much as heavy marijuana use. The incessant barrage of electronic information also makes us less patient. A study by Microsoft and Google found that just a mere 250-millisecond delay in the time it takes to load a web page is enough for most people to abandon it entirely.

Other studies have shown that as our devices and networks get even faster, our impatience only grows. It also seems to be reducing our attention span. Consider the finding that people who read newspapers read for an average of 25 minutes, whereas people who read news online read for an average of 70 seconds.

The implications for our students are profound: it can make them less likely to want to experience things that take long periods of time or that do not provide instant gratification. But learning about and truly appreciating the natural world, as well as the great works of humanity, often require both significant time and patience. It is also what is necessary for students to engage in deep and creative thinking of their own. So while electronic devices may have benefits, perhaps we should rethink embracing them with such open arms in our schools.

Sachin Maharaj holds an MA in educational administration from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto and is an assistant curriculum leader in the Toronto District School Board.

UN report on climate change rings alarm on warming polar regions

Second of three reports by UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released Monday in Japan warns that Arctic sea ice is declining faster than models projected.

Spencer Wynn / Toronto Star

Arctic sea ice cover and volume are declining faster than models projected, warns John Stone, the lead author on the polar regions chapter of the new UN report on climate change.

By: Raveena Aulakh Environment, Published in the Toronto Star, March 30, 2014

The world is warming up and the impact of climate change is already being seen across the globe, an authoritative new UN climate report says.

But in this part of the world, which is barely out of the clutches of a long and wicked winter, the report sounds like a conundrum.

Make no mistake, the world is warming up, especially the Arctic, said John Stone, an IPCC lead author and adjunct professor at Carleton University.

“What we have experienced this winter is just weather,” said Stone. “It may have been cold in large parts of North America, but Alaska was unusually warm and Norway and other Scandinavian countries have been abnormally warm, too.”

Related:

· Who will bear the brunt of climate change?

Most of Europe has also had warm weather this year, he added.

“When you are looking at climate change, you just cannot look at one region of the world. You’ve got to look at the whole world together and you can’t look at one year, you have to look at the trend.”

The past 150 years indicate that climate has changed, he said.

The second of three reports by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was released in Japan on Monday. It warns that governments are ill-prepared for a warming world and if action is not taken soon, risks could become unmanageable.

The impact and adaptations in polar regions are a big part of the report.

Stone, the lead author on the polar regions chapter, pointed out that warming there has already led to a decrease in Arctic sea ice cover and volume. “It is declining faster than any of our models projected,” he said, adding that it suggests “to some of us that climate change may well be accelerating.”

Related:

· Global warming has irreversibly damaged coral reefs, Arctic ice

The Arctic, said Stone, could be clear of sea ice in summer within the next few decades, “rather than the end of the century as was previously estimated. . . ”

It may be very hard for Arctic communities to adapt, he said.

The accelerated rates in permafrost thaw, loss of coastal sea ice and sea level rise are forcing some communities, particularly in Alaska, to relocate, said Stone.

“It is an expensive and culturally difficult exercise.”

The report says, without ambiguity, that there are risks to the “health and well-being of Arctic residents, resulting from injuries and illness from the changing physical environment, food insecurity, lack of reliable and safe drinking water, and damage to infrastructure, including infrastructure in permafrost regions.”

In an emailed statement, Environment Canada said that through the Arctic Council scientists are engaged in “climate change adaptation activities that advance our understanding of the range and extent of impacts of climate change in the Arctic region.”

It also said that an online adaptation information portal will be set up to help people there understand and adapt to climate change.

The IPCC report also sheds light on the new reality of property insurance versus extreme weather, especially in North America, where companies have experienced increases in severe weather damage claims in the past couple of decades.

(The flooding in southern Alberta in June 2013 was the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history, with $6 billion in losses, according to a January report by Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance firm.)

Meanwhile, Monday’s IPCC report also warned of decreased crop yields, losses due to forest fires and coastal erosion in North America.

“Climate change is more than just an environmental issue,” Ian Bruce, science and policy manager with the David Suzuki Foundation, said. “This is an economic and security issue that will impact everyone from the biggest cities to the smallest towns.”

In September, the first part of the IPCC report warned that Canada will continue to see more warming than the global average and extreme weather events will be more frequent and more intense.

Denmark Needs Babies so Danish Businesses Take on Population Decline

Taking on the problems associated with an aging and declining population!

A Danish travel company is calling for Danes to have more sex while they’re on holiday – to save the country. They even launched a competition to encourage the people to take a break and conceive kids, as the birthrate is now at its lowest in decades.

Spies Rejser Travel has promised three years of free baby supplies and a child friendly holiday for a couple who can prove that they conceived while on a Spies’ holiday. The travel company said it is trying to help tackle the country’s low birth rate by encouraging couples to do it for Denmark.

The birth rate in Denmark is currently the lowest it’s been in 27 years. Almost 58,000 children were born in 2012, but the present rate of 1.7 children per family is not enough to maintain the population. 

Warning:  Mildly Not Safe for Work/Children

Eva Lundgren, a spokeswoman for Spies, said that sexologists believe one of the reasons for the low birth rate is that Danes are too busy to have sex.

“Sex specialists believe that Danes are too busy with their daily life and they need to get away, so we hope we encourage people to take a break and have some romance,” she told RT.

The thinking behind the initiative is that a couple’s desire for each other increases while they are taking a break together.

Couples who enter the competition are sent a pregnancy test after the holiday and if it comes up positive, they must send in a picture of the test result to Spies as proof.

Entrants are given a list of romantic cities and the website then asks women to enter the date of their last period so they can take a trip when they are at their most fertile.

There are even useful tips for increasing fertility such as “take advantage of gravity. Lie down for at least 15 minutes after sex.” Men are also advised not to wear tight pants “even if you think it looks good.”

A report published in February described the birth rate among Danish women as “dangerously low” and found that one in five couples in Denmark are childless.

“Many wait too long to have children, creating a greater need for fertility treatments. There is a need to raise awareness, as the problem is approaching epidemic levels,” Soren Ziebe, a clinical supervisor at Rigshospitalet, wrote in the report.

The study noted that in the 1970s the average Danish woman was 24 years-old when she gave birth to her first child. Today the age is 29, but a greater number of women are waiting until they are over 35. As a result more and more couples are relying on fertility treatments to conceive.

But do it for Denmark isn’t just about increasing the birthrate and is also a bit of fun.

“What if you already did your duty? Or what if your chance of conceiving a child isn’t so high,” asks the advert, filming an old couple followed by two gay men.

“Well look at it this way. It’s not just about winning. All the fun is in the participation.”

Great earthquakes, water under pressure, high risk

Date:

March 28, 2014

Source:

Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences

Summary

The largest earthquakes occur where oceanic plates move beneath continents. Water trapped in the boundary between both plates has a dominant influence on the earthquake rupture process. Analyzing the great Chile earthquake of February, 27th, 2010, a group of scientists found that the water pressure in the pores of the rocks making up the plate boundary zone takes the key role.

Earthquake History of Chile

The largest earthquakes occur where oceanic plates move beneath continents. Obviously, water trapped in the boundary between both plates has a dominant influence on the earthquake rupture process. Analyzing the great Chile earthquake of February, 27th, 2010, a group of scientists from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and from Liverpool University found that the water pressure in the pores of the rocks making up the plate boundary zone takes the key role.

The stress build-up before an earthquake and the magnitude of subsequent seismic energy release are substantially controlled by the mechanical coupling between both plates. Studies of recent great earthquakes have revealed that the lateral extent of the rupture and magnitude of these events are fundamentally controlled by the stress build-up along the subduction plate interface. Stress build-up and its lateral distribution in turn are dependent on the distribution and pressure of fluids along the plate interface.

"We combined observations of several geoscience disciplines -- geodesy, seismology, petrology. In addition, we have a unique opportunity in Chile that our natural observatory there provides us with long time series of data," says Onno Oncken, director of the GFZ-Department "Geodynamics and Geomaterials." Earth observation (Geodesy) using GPS technology and radar interferometry today allows a detailed mapping of mechanical coupling at the plate boundary from the Earth's surface. A complementary image of the rock properties at depth is provided by seismology. Earthquake data yield a high resolution three-dimensional image of seismic wave speeds and their variations in the plate interface region. Data on fluid pressure and rock properties, on the other hand, are available from laboratory measurements. All these data had been acquired shortly before the great Chile earthquake of February 2010 struck with a magnitude of 8.8.

"For the first time, our results allow us to map the spatial distribution of the fluid pressure with unprecedented resolution showing how they control mechanical locking and subsequent seismic energy release," explains Professor Oncken.

"Zones of changed seismic wave speeds reflect zones of reduced mechanical coupling between plates." This state supports creep along the plate interface. In turn, high mechanical locking is promoted in lower pore fluid pressure domains. It is these locked domains that subsequently ruptured during the Chile earthquake releasing most seismic energy causing destruction at Earth's surface and tsunami waves. The authors suggest the spatial pore fluid pressure variations to be related to oceanic water accumulated in an altered oceanic fracture zone within the Pacific oceanic plate. Upon subduction of the latter beneath South America the fluid volumes are released and trapped along the overlying plate interface, leading to increasing pore fluid pressures. This study provides a powerful tool to monitor the physical state of a plate interface and to forecast its seismic potential.

Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Marcos Moreno et al. Subduction locking and fluid pressure distribution correlate before the 2010 Chile earthquake. Nature Geoscience, Vol. 7(2014), Issue 4, pp. 292-296 DOI: 10.1038/NGEO2102, 28.03.2014

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Landslide in Washington State: USGS is working with partners to provide up-to-date information

A large landslide occurred in northwest Washington at about 11:00 am PDT on Saturday, March 22, 2014. Recent rain conditions and soil saturation led to the onset of the landslide.

Landslide debris covered about 30 houses and 0.8 miles of State Route 530. Flow also dammed and partially blocked the North Fork Stillaguamish River, creating a potential for flooding at the blockage. A pool of water is forming behind the natural dam, also creating a flood hazard downstream if the natural dam is breached. Currently, the pool is approximately 20-30 feet in depth.

USGS scientists are supporting state and county agencies responding to the event. It is a collaborative effort, with many working hard to provide assistance, assess the situation, and alleviate impacts as the hazard isn't over. For example, future rain conditions or snowmelt from nearby mountain tops could exacerbate the situation. Current research is focused on gathering more LiDAR imagery and aerial photographs to help with mapping the extent of the landslide.

Monitoring Water Levels and Flood Potential

The USGS operates a streamgage to measure water levels about 12 miles downstream from the landslide, on the North Fork Stillaguamish River at Arlington. The river level at the gage dropped suddenly at about 1:30 pm PDT on Saturday. The drop in water level was about 1.2 feet, which is equivalent to a drop in discharge of about 1,200 cubic feet per second. Go online and see near-real-time data (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/wa/nwis/uv/?site_no=12167000).

USGS scientists continue to monitor the streamgage remotely. The streamgage is operating normally (measurements every 15 minutes, transmissions to the web every hour) but could possibly be damaged if large debris comes down the river. Discussions are underway on whether and how to increase the reporting frequency of the streamgage, but this modification of instrumentation requires reprogramming at the field site. Due to safety concerns, USGS staff are currently not scheduled to go to the field-monitoring site.

Consideration also is currently being given to making frequent streamflow measurements downstream of the slide at auxiliary sites and installing rapid deployment gages and turbidity meters. We are exploring deploying a buoy to measure the elevation of the pool elevation behind the blockage.

The USGS is working with the National Weather Service (NWS) to do preliminary modeling of possible scenarios considering what would happen if the blockage on the Stillaguamish River were to break. This will help estimate the range of potential discharge from the pool that has formed behind the landslide. The NWS will use these data to develop flood inundation maps to estimate where flooding could likely occur.

Coordinated Emergency Response

Snohomish County is the lead responding agency and is coordinating closely with local agencies. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Washington State Emergency Management Division, and Washington State Department of Transportation are the primary state staff at the site to help assess the flood hazard and evaluate how the river may rework the landslide and natural dam in the next few days. Many other organizations are playing a supportive role and providing all hands on deck to assist.

Prior Landslides in the Area
Other large, and perhaps sudden, landslides have occurred in this valley. Large landslides are the norm in many parts of the western foothills of the North Cascades. In particular the Nooksack Valley in Whatcom County, from the town of Glacier downstream, has seen at least five large catastrophic landslides in the last 12,000 years.

Debris Flows

There are many types of landslides, and this event in Washington was a "debris flow," also commonly referred to as a "mud slide" or "mud flow." A debris flow is a flowing mixture of water-saturated debris that moves downslope under the force of gravity. Debris flows consist of material varying in size from clay to blocks several tens of meters in maximum dimension. When moving, they resemble masses of wet concrete and tend to flow downslope along channels or stream valleys.

Debris flows are formed when loose masses of unconsolidated wet debris become unstable. Water may be supplied by rainfall, by melting of snow and ice, or by overflow of volcanic crater lakes. Debris flows may be formed directly if lava or pyroclastic flows are erupted onto snow and ice. Debris flows may be either hot or cold, depending on their manner of origin and temperature of their constituent debris.

USGS: Start with Science

Landslides occur in all 50 states and U.S. territories, and cause $1-2 billion in damages and more than 25 fatalities on average each year. Falling rocks, mud, and debris flows are one of the most common and sometimes deadly hazards, yet there is still much to learn about how and why they happen.
USGS science is helping answer questions such as where, when and how often landslides occur, and how fast and far they might move. USGS scientists produce maps of areas susceptible to landslides and identify what sort of rainfall conditions will lead to such events. For more information, watch a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVwSpGVfWVo&feature=plcp) about USGS landslide science, and visit the USGS Landslide Hazards Program website (http://landslides.usgs.gov/).

Scientists at the USGS are also asking you to help by reporting your landslide experiences and sightings at the new USGS "Did You See It?" website (http://landslides.usgs.gov/dysi/).

Further, the USGS is working with the NWS on a Debris Flow Warning System (http://www.usgs.gov/homepage/science_features/debris_flow_ca.asp) to help provide forecasts and warnings to inform community and emergency managers about areas at imminent risk.

More Info on the Washington Landslide

Read the following reports by the Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources:

• Geologic map of the Oso 7.5-minute quadrangle, Washington (http://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/ger_ofr2003-11_geol_map_oso_24k.pdf)

• Geologic map of the Mount Higgins 7.5-minute quadrangle, Washington (http://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/ger_ofr2003-12_geol_map_mounthiggins_24k.pdf)

Story Source:
The above story was found at Science Daily and is based on materials provided by U.S. Geological Survey. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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