The earthquake that struck roughly 400km off the coast of Sumatra on Wednesday reminded us all that our planet hasn’t gone to sleep. Big earthquakes can happen at any time and often have severe consequences…
Aceh's provincial elections will test democratic progress
AAP/Hotli Simanjutak
The massive but largely benign earthquake off the coast of Sumatra on Wednesday left millions in Aceh reliving the nightmare that engulfed them on Boxing Day 2004. On that day, a similarly large earthquake…
The more we understand about earthquakes, the more we can do to reduce their impact.
EPA/Kimimasa Mayama
The magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku-Oki earthquake of March 11 last year was the largest earthquake in Japan’s modern history. In fact, it was the fourth-largest earthquake anywhere in the world since 1900.
The…
We know how much damage tsunamis can cause, we need to know more about when and where they come from.
AAP
A year ago yesterday the Tōhoku-Oki earthquake and resultant tsunami hit the Japanese coastline, triggering the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster.
A year on, many questions are being asked about how…
How does Queensland tourism recover after a cyclone and floods earlier this year?
AFP Photo/Paul Crcok
This year’s natural disasters have been an omnipresent and unwelcome theme impacting on tourism to Japan, New Zealand, Queensland and Thailand.
Long after the initial horror of a natural disaster, the…
It's first decade as a nation has been challenging, but the outlook for Timor-Leste is positive.
AAP/Mick Stone
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor) is one of the world’s newest post-conflict nations. Next year it celebrates ten years as an independent democratic state, after almost 30 years of Indonesian…
Dr Bernado de Bernardinis told residents to go home and enjoy a glass of red. Now he's in the dock.
AFP PHOTO/ TIZIANA FABI
This week, a committee of six scientists (including Dr Enzo Boschi, formerly president of Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) and one government official, whose role was to advise…
Theories suggesting lunar influence on earthquakes have serious cracks.
penguinbush
With a total lunar eclipse set to occur just before sunrise (AEST) on Thursday, we can expect to see certain views regurgitated about our moon. Our satellite has been the focus of speculation and folklore…
The last 10 years have seen three of the seven biggest earthquakes ever recorded.
Tubbi/Wikimedia Commons
Since the 2004 Sumatra earthquake, there have been several major events, and a large number of magnitude-8 earthquakes – a cluster, it could be said, of large earthquakes.
The last time we saw this was…
Is earthquake prediction even possible?
Soe Than WIN/AFP
Why have so many lives been lost in Japan and New Zealand recently? And why have so many survivors – the so-called “lucky ones” – had their livelihoods and homes destroyed?
As a seismologist, I ask myself…
Is the nuclear industry facing unfair criticism?
AFP Photo/Don Emmert
Japan relies on nuclear power for about 30% of its electricity. It has few natural resources and imports large quantities of coal, gas and oil at an ever increasing cost. Some Japanese people are not in…
Should we be able to better "manage" extreme events?
Kimimasa Mayama/EPA
What lessons can we learn from the March 11 Japan earthquake and tsunami?
Well, hindsight is a wonderful thing. We can, of course, question the wisdom of placing nuclear power plants in coastal locations…
