Catastrophic events

Historical Earthquakes: Fascinating collection of historical images (875 slides) of earthquakes presented by countries or regions, or through a chronological list of events. Includes a bibliography. It is based on the collection of Dr. Jan Kozak, a geoscientist at the Institute of Rock Structures and Mechanics in Prague, Czech Republic, and Katherine Frohmberg at the Earth Sciences Library of the University of Berkeley, USA. The historical prints and illustrations from many countries illustrate the wide range of human reactions - often linked with religious beliefs and folklore - to earthquakes and other natural disasters.

Monitoring Earthquakes using InSAR: Thanks to a powerful new technology, called Satellite Radar Interferometry (or InSAR for short), researchers are now able to reveal bulges in our planet. By using radar signals from satellites to measure the up and down movement of the Earth's crust at an unprecedented level of accuracy, they can measure changes in elevation on the order of 0.508 to 1.016 cm over areas hundreds of square meters wide. A nice thing about InSAR is that it does not need equipment on the ground and so can reveal movements of magma (related to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) in the remotest areas of the planet. InSAR can also map land subsidence, that is, the sinking of the Earth surface following the removal of oil, gas or water. For a detailed insight on recent applications of InSAR to earthquake monitoring, a look at various papers, such as that by Tim Wright on the Izmit (Turkey) earthquake or that by Charles Wick on seismic deformations in east central California is much recommended.