Boston Flora

Tag: Earthquakes

  • Wednesday, November 30, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Six Ice Ages in One Billion Years, Climate Change, and Boston’s Earthquake Problem

    Our planet has experienced six ice ages in the last billion years. The first two at about 800 and 600 million years ago may have covered all or most of the earth in ice and is referred to as the “Snowball Earth.” The most recent Pleistocene ice age, perhaps not done, involved over 16 glacial cooling and warming events over the past 2.5 million years.

    Geologist James Lawford Anderson of the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University will speak on Wednesday, November 30 from 7 – 8:30 at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, about various ice ages, today’s climate, and end his lecture with Boston’s glacially-influenced earthquake problem. $5, free for Arnold Arboretum members and students. Register at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277. Image from www.air-worldwide.com.

  • Tuesday, November 15, 6:00 pm – Yes, Humans Really Are Causing Earthquakes

    Justin Rubinstein, Research Geophysicist and Deputy Chief of the Induced Seismicity Project, Menlo Park Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, will speak at the Harvard Museum of Natural History on Tuesday, November 15 beginning at 6 pm.

    In 2009, the central United States began to experience an unprecedented surge in earthquakes. They soared from an average of 21 per year to over 650 in 2014 alone. This increased seismicity has been found in just a few regions of the country, with a majority in Oklahoma, and is limited to areas of new and emerging oil and gas production. Rubinstein will discuss the many ways in which humans can cause earthquakes, how local geological conditions can influence their impact, and how scientists measure and analyze seismicity. He will also address the actions that states are taking to minimize or stop human-induced earthquakes and how academic scientists, regulators, and the oil and gas industry are collaborating in these efforts.

    Presented in collaboration with the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology and the Seismological Society of America.
    This program is located at the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free parking is available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.
    Free and open to the public.

  • Thursday, November 21, 6:00 pm – Seeing Earthquakes Before They Happen

    Geophysicist Brendan Meade, using satellite technology, generates images of current fault-line activity to help predict earthquakes and to better understand earthquake cycles and the tectonic development of continents. Find out more about his research and the progress being made in predicting the timing and magnitude of earthquakes on Thursday, November 21, at 6 pm, in a lecture sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Free and open to the public. Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free event parking is available in the 52 Oxford Street Garage after 5:00 pm.

    http://news.harvard.edu/gazette//srv/htdocs/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Japan_AP_rescueworkers_605.jpg

  • Sunday, January 23, 2:00 pm – From Earthquakes to Volcanoes

    Although large earthquakes are rare and the last volcanoes raged off our coast thousands of years ago, New England has a surprising amount of active seismic activity and a geologic landscape full of volcanic remains. Join Jack Loveless, post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at Harvard, to learn how these spectacular natural events occur, handle real volcanic rocks, and see how scientists use new techniques, such as 3-D vision, to understand tectonic movement and forecast earthquakes. This program at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, will begin at 2 pm on Sunday, January 23, and you can be home before the NFL playoff game begins. Free with museum admission. Call 617-495-3045, or log on to www.hmnh.harvard.edu for more information.