Dr. Amilcar Carrera-Cevallos

M5.3 earthquake shakes Kolkata and Dhaka "Like all of the world is shaking and the sky will fall on the earth."

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A M5.3 earthquake struck western Bangladesh earlier today. The USGS estimates that more than 150 million people in this densely populated delta experienced at least intensity IV shaking. What do we know about this earthquake, and the geology that caused it?

Deep Mw7.1 earthquake strikes Sabah, Malaysia A signal from a deeply subducted slab?

A M7.1 earthquake struck below northern Borneo today - a large event, but because it occurred 620 km deep, not damaging. The event raises questions: how can an earthquake occur so deep, where the rocks are hot and squishy? And why here, so far from Southeast Asia’s many subduction zones? ⚒️ 🧪

M6.2 earthquake rattles central Chile A delayed aftershock of the 2015 M8.3 Illapel earthquake?

A M6.2 earthquake rattled Chile yesterday, apparently a delayed aftershock of the 2015 M8.3 Illapel earthquake. (Yes, aftershocks can continue for a decade or more!) In the meantime, Chile deployed a cutting-edge offshore fiber-optic system to monitor seismicity, which recorded this event! ⚒️ 🧪

8 February 1843 14:40 UT
Mw8.5 earthquake, biggest known in Lesser Antilles, hit Guadeloupe, killing 1500-5000 people, four years after the M8 Martinique EQ. Felt as far as New York.
doi.org/10.1029/2011...
doi.org/10.1002/jgrb...
gallica.bnf.fr
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

A new early permian fruit, Dengfengfructus maxima gen. et sp. nov., supports the pre-cretaceous origin of angiosperms - BMC Ecology and Evolution BMC Ecology and Evolution - Angiosperms are the most important plant group for humans in the current earth’s ecosystem. Although angiosperms are clearly defined by enclosed seeds/ovules, the...

Wang, X., Huang, W., Fu, Q. et al. A new early permian fruit, Dengfengfructus maxima gen. et sp. nov., supports the pre-cretaceous origin of angiosperms. BMC Ecol Evo 26, 17 (2026). doi.org/10.1186/s128...

Let’s make these papers join a few relevant Bluesky feeds! 👇🏻
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#PaleoSky
Featuring a paleo-🌊 paper (Caley et al., 2026):
doi.org/10.5194/cp-2...

This swarm in San Ramon revived yesterday, with a new burst that included a M4.2. We wrote an update, and removed the paywall from our previous post to allow broader access.

If you read our posts, please consider supporting our work by becoming a paid subscriber.

Pulsed swarm of seismicity offshore Mindanao, Philippines Unusual activity on a dangerous megathrust

⚒️ 🧪 A swarm of earthquakes has been rattling western Mindanao, the Philippines' 2nd-largest island. Some areas have been preemptively evacuated. The fault system here has a record of damaging, tsunamigenic earthquakes, and this swarm is unusual. So, what’s going on, and what can we say about hazard?

M5.6 earthquake collapses buildings in Pakistan Strike-slip event in the western Tibetan Plateau

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A M5.6 earthquake in northern Pakistan caused several buildings to collapse yesterday. How does this strike-slip event fit into the menagerie of Tibetan Plateau earthquakes?

earthquakeinsights.substack.com/p/m56-earthq...

M5.7 earthquake in western Japan causes minor damage An exploration of the enigmatic San-in Shear Zone

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A M5.7 earthquake in western Japan caused minor damage yesterday, preceded by very small foreshocks in the week prior. Why did it occur here, so far from the subduction zone? What do we know about the faults in this part of Japan? And is any of this related to the nearby volcanoes?

‘Every Single Dollar Mattered’: Donations Save Museum of the Earth From Foreclosure Just days before a year-end foreclosure deadline, the Museum of the Earth has paid off its mortgage following a wide fundraising campaign that rescued the Ithaca area landmark.

Some good news for the new year: the Museum of the Earth has avoided foreclosure and paid off its mortgage, thanks to the generosity of donors. If you helped, either by donating or raising awareness, please accept my personal gratitude. It mattered. ❤️

And if you ever visit Ithaca, stop by!

YouTube video by Shawn Willsey: Geology Explained Providing Answers (And Questions) About Earthquakes: Meet Drs. Judith Hubbard and Kyle Bradley

Did you ever wonder how Kyle and I ended up where we are - independently writing Earthquake Insights, rather than employed by a university? We talk about it in this interview with Shawn Willsey on his Youtube channel, Geology Explained.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_-G...

Presenting #YOSO, the You Only Search Once method for detecting slow earthquakes. This method creates template catalogs based on automatic detection and classification of waveforms associated with seismically slow earthquakes. ⚒️

pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/srl/arti...

🌟OPEN ACCESS🌟In a new #SRL paper, scientists from a working group explore applications of fiber-optic systems and consider obstacles and how to overcome them. ⚒️

pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/srl/arti...

When I posted a version of this video last year, I underestimated the equivalent energy of a magnitude 9.1 earthquake relative to a nuclear blast by a factor of 10. This time I’ve quantified it using the Trinity test (as seen in the movie Oppenheimer). The 1957 underground test was 10x smaller again

Drawings and photographs of a fossil skeleton with a small head, long neck, and 4 paddle-shaped limbs. Left, letter of 26 December 1823 from Mary Anning with her drawing of her new Plesiosaurus; top right, the specimen itself, now in the Natural History Museum, London; bottom right, the published drawing from the 1824 published description.

For #FossilFriday today it has to be Mary Anning's 1823 near-complete Plesiosaurus. On 26 December 1823 she wrote to Sir Charles Bunbury sending a scale drawing of the specimen. This was one of several drawings she sent to potential buyers. For more check out www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Image description: Robert Piotrowski ' Meet Robert Piotrowski, geomythologist and folklorist. Read more.'

👋 Meet Robert Piotrowski, geomythologist and folklorist!

In this #GeoTalk, he shares how geomythology is used for science communication and education, and how it helps people engage with the geosciences.

👉 Read more: egu.eu/1ZM6KS

Turkey’s Largest City Is Threatened by a Lurking Seismic Catastrophe

⚒️ 🧪 A paper in Science today highlighted a "progressive eastward rupture of the Main Marmara fault toward Istanbul."

My thoughts on what a damaging Istanbul earthquake might look like, and whether recent earthquakes tell us something new, are in this article in the NYTimes:

The results are in! We have updated the post with an initial InSAR image for this earthquake, showing ground deformation in this event. Scroll to the end to find the new text with figures!

M7.6 earthquake strikes offshore Honshu, Japan Japan issues "Subsequent Earthquake Advisory" due to elevated (but still low) risk of triggered megaquake

⚒️ 🧪 Japan just issued a “Subsequent Earthquake Advisory” following a M7.6 earthquake offshore Honshu. What does that mean?

Also: what happened in the earthquake, and why did it trigger a tsunami evacuation, with alerts of waves “up to 3 meters high”?

earthquakeinsights.substack.com/p/m76-earthq...

Map of Japan showing tectonic plates and thousands of earthquakes colored by depth. A star marks a magnitude 7.6 earthquake off the western coast of Honshu along the boundary between the Pacific and Okhotsk plates. Plate labels include the Eurasian, Okhotsk, Pacific, and Philippine Sea plates, with plate boundaries shown in colored lines.

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck off the east coast of Aomori Prefecture in Japan, prompting tsunami advisories for parts of Honshu and Hokkaido. Japan lies in a tectonically complex area at the intersection of four tectonic plates, making it a highly seismically active area.

Information on the magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Japan, including an animation showing the seismic waves as they were detected by seismometers across North America. 🧪

What’s the source for the geothermal reservoir in the Jianghan basin of central China? A new #SRL paper explores. ⚒️

pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/srl/arti...

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Have you been watching the little swarm of earthquakes east of San Francisco (most recently, M3.7)? Here's a map and timeline.

Map showing the location of the earthquake, which is marked by star. The different colored contours indicate the level of shaking at different locations.

M 3.7 earthquake 4 km SE of San Ramon, CA. This is part of that ongoing earthquake swarm that started around Thanksgiving.

Did you feel it? Report it!

earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...

Map showing tsunami warnings and measured wave heights for the 2025-12-09 M7.6 earthquake offshore Japan.

Here is the latest tsunami information for the M7.6 earthquake that just struck offshore northern Japan. The warnings are for waves up to 3 m, but the highest waves measured so far are <0.5 m. It is still possible for larger waves to arrive.

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www.jma.go.jp/bosai/map.ht...

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Map showing the location of the earthquake offshore of northern Japan. The earthquake is marked by star. Concentric rings of different colors show the level of shaking generated by the earthquake.

M 7.6 earthquake 73 km ENE of Misawa, Japan

earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...

M7.0 earthquake strikes Alaska-Canada border Aftershocks suggest an unmapped fault beneath the Hubbard Glacier

Yesterday, a M7.0 earthquake struck the Alaska-Canada border, directly beneath the Hubbard Glacier. Aftershocks reveal an unmapped fault in this already complex area.

Read our post for more, & also:

What happens when a fault offsets a glacier?
Is the glacier named after one of my ancestors?

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M5.8 in northwestern China: aftershock of 2024 M7.0 Wushi earthquake Well-studied earthquake sequence includes "blind" mainshock with surface-rupturing aftershock

A M5.8 earthquake struck NW China today - an aftershock of the 2024 M7 Wushi earthquake. Although slip in the M7 mainshock did not reach the surface, a M5.7 aftershock a week later produced a remarkable surface scarp. Did the latest M5.8 do the same thing? We're waiting for data to find out.

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Three seismograms showing P-wave arrivals from about 23.24.00 UTC and S-waves and surface waves after about 23.24.20

M3.4 earthquake, Lancashire UK, at 23.23 UTC on 3 December 2025. Recorded in Nottingham using (from top) 'slinky', horizontal pendulum, and LEGO school seismometers
#earthquake ⚒️ #geology 🦕
earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...