A/V Room

Ross Stein and Volkan Sevilgen, from the USGS, have created a nifty little DIY project to easily show what can happen to your house during an earthquake.

Volcanic activity in Iceland may lead to an explosive eruption of the nearby Katla volcano.  In 1783, the Latki volcano erupted with major consequences for areas in Europe, and led to significant global winter cooling during the year 1784.

The earthquake that occurred offshore of Maule, Chile on February 27, 2010 was one of the most powerful of the last 50 years.  The largest earthquake ever recorded was offshore of Valdivia, Chile on 22 May 1960.  It registered a magnitude 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale.

This is footage of the magnitude 9.3 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the island of Sumatra, Thailand, and Sri Lanka on December 26, 2004.  More than 225,000 persons died.  The earthquake ruptured a part of the subduction zone for a length in excess of 1600 km.  This event was the second- or third-most powerful earthquake ever recorded instrumentally.  The others were the 22 May, 1960 Valdivia, Chile earthquake, magnitude 9.5, and the 27 March 1964 Alaska earthquake, magnitude 9.3.  Slip in the Sumatra earthquake was as large as 20 meters.

This is a video of the magnitude 6.8 Kobe, Japan earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1995.  More than 6000 persons died in this earthquake.  The earthquake caused the collapse of more than 200,000 structures.

The greatest force to hit the North American continent in the 20th century. Equivalent to 10,000,000 Hiroshima bombs. Some great classic footage and talk about the good Friday earthquake. This entire film is public domain now.

Earthquake Simulators are physics-based models of stress accumulation and subsequent release as earthquakes on faults. Similar to climate models, earthquake simulators can run for 1000s of virtual years and provide insights into earthquake prediction.