Tip sheet for International Seismology Research Conference

Tiny Tremors Can Track Extreme Storms in a Warming Planet
Session: Models, Methods and Measurements: Seismic Monitoring Research
Embargoed: Thursday, April 17, 10:30 AM Eastern; Hilton Hotel, Mesa A&B

Data from faint earth tremors caused by wind-driven ocean waves—often dismissed as “background noise” at seismographic stations around the world—suggest extreme ocean storms have become more frequent over the past three decades. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other prominent researchers have predicted that stronger and more frequent storms may occur as a result of global warming trends. The tiny tremors, or microseisms, offer a new way to discover whether these predictions are already coming true, said Richard Aster, a geophysics professor at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Unceasing as the ocean waves that trigger them, the microseisms show up as five- to 30-second period oscillations at seismographic stations around the world. Even seismic monitoring stations “in the middle of a continent are sensitive to the waves crashing all around the continent,” Aster said.

[Full news release available at www.eurekalert.org].

Historic Soviet Nuclear Test Site Offers Insights for Today’s Nuclear Monitoring
Session: Models, Methods and Measurements: Seismic Monitoring Research
Embargoed: Thursday, April 17, 10:30 AM Eastern; Hilton Hotel--Mesa A&B

Newly published data from the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site, the Soviet Union’s primary nuclear weapons testing ground during the Cold War, can help today’s atomic detectives fine-tune their monitoring of nuclear explosions around the world, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America.

From 1949 to 1989, Semipalatinsk was scrutinized furtively by U2 spy planes, satellites and seismologists hoping to learn more about the Soviet Union’s weapons capabilities. Now, for the first time, researchers can compare the information gleaned from these operations with the actual records from the test site to see how accurate Western researchers were in predicting the number and size of Semipalatinsk’s nuclear detonations.

The treasure trove of data from Semipalatinsk is especially important in light of the fact that only a few nuclear tests by India and Pakistan in 1998 and one by North Korea in October 2006 have been conducted since the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1996, said Paul Richards of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. [Full news release available at www.eurekalert.org]

Nuclear Monitoring on A 3-D Earth
Session: Models, Methods and Measurements: Seismic Monitoring Research
Embargoed: Thursday, April 17, 10:30 AM Eastern; Location: Hilton Hotel--Mesa A&B