ESS Course Webpages

• Is Potassium a Key to Understanding the Ocean’s Past?
  When looking at a periodic table, potassium might not be the first element you’re drawn to – distracted instead by gold, copper or silver. But a new paper published in Science ... - Read More

• Nisqually Earthquake 20 Years Later -- Are We Prepared for the Next Big One? | KIRO 7
  It's been 20 years since the Nisqually earthquake shook the region. It was one of the biggest earthquakes to rattle the area in decades. The UW's Bill Steele, director of outreach ... - Read More

• Opinion: Twenty Years After 6.8 Nisqually Earthquake, Are We Ready for the Next One? | The Seattle Times
  "The passing of decades quickly lulls us into a false sense of complacency, but another earthquake just like Nisqually -- or worse -- could happen at any time. Knowing that the ... - Read More

• Holzworth Discusses WWLLN and Lightning Science on German Public Radio
  An interview featuring Prof. Robert Holzworth and other lightning scientists was broadcast 2/25 on German Public Radio (Bavaria station). The interview covered recent ... - Read More

• Fleets of Radar Satellites Are Measuring Movements on Earth Like Never Before | Science
  Individual GPS stations can track surface movements of less than 1 millimeter, but a technique called interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) can measure changes almost ... - Read More

• The First Organism to Use Oxygen May Have Appeared Surprisingly Early | Science
  The first organisms to "breathe" oxygen -- or at least use it -- appeared 3.1 billion years ago, according to a new genetic analysis of dozens of families of microbes. Roger ... - Read More

• Fossilized Teeth Flesh out the Tale of the Earliest Primates | GeekWire
  The shapes of fossilized teeth from 65.9 million-year-old, squirrel-like creatures suggest that the branch of the tree of life that gave rise to us humans and other primates ... - Read More

• State Asks People to Opt-in to Earthquake Early Warning System Test Alert Thursday
  For years, UW has been working with many other groups to create ShakeAlert. The early warning system uses a network of seismic sensors -- 300 alone in the state of Washington -- ... - Read More

• State Continues Work to Install Early Warning Earthquake System Despite COVID-19 | KOMO 4
  The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has not slowed work to track earthquake activity around Western Washington, and in fact, experts say they have made more progress in their efforts ... - Read More

• Quakes off Oregon Coast, on Rainier Are Typical and Wouldn't Have Triggered Forthcoming ShakeAlert System | The Seattle Times
  A cluster of small earthquakes far off the southern Oregon coast and atop Mount Rainier in recent days are common events, and would not have triggered a seismic warning system set ... - Read More

• 'ShakeAlert' Earthquake Early Warning System Nearing Release in Washington | KIMA
  After years of development, a West Coast earthquake early warning system will be ready to send alerts to your phone in a matter of weeks. The much-anticipated system rolls out in ... - Read More

• Q&A: ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System Arriving in Pacific Northwest
  

  After years in development, an earthquake early warning system known as Read More

• Global Heating to Blame for Threat of Deadly Flood in Peru, Study Finds | The Guardian
  Human-caused global heating is directly responsible for the threat of a devastating flood in Peru that is the subject of a lawsuit against the German energy company RWE, according ... - Read More

• For a City Staring Down the Barrel of a Climate-driven Flood, a New Study Could Be the Smoking Gun | Inside Climate News
  A lawsuit is leaning on the new research that found a global warming fingerprint on the melting glacier threatening to send an outburst flood into Huaraz, Peru. Gerard Roe, ... - Read More

• Melting Glacier Study Could Hold Climate Polluters Accountable | EcoWatch
  New research shows global warming caused by human activity is to blame for a shrinking Andean glacier that threatens to flood 120,000 people and could be used to establish legal ... - Read More

• Human-made Warming Melting Peru Glacier, Says Lawsuit-linked Study | Thomas Reuters Foundation
  Researchers conclude emissions from human activities are raising flood risk from a receding Andean glacier - a finding set to support a Peruvian farmer suing German utility RWE. ... - Read More

• Glacial Lake Flooding Directly Linked to Climate Change for the First Time | IFL Science
  Floods from melting alpine glaciers look like one of the more obvious threats from global warming. Instead, they have turned out to be among the most controversial, even among ... - Read More

• The Deadly Threat from the World's Most Dangerous Lake is Mostly Our Fault | Forbes
  In 1941, a chunk of a glacier is thought to have fallen into the Lake Palcacocha in Peru, triggering a massive flood that overtopped the natural moraine dam. The ensuing mudslide ... - Read More

• Global Heating to Blame for Threat of Deadly Flood in Peru, Study Finds | The Guardian
  Research showing severe flood threat caused by global heating may set legal precedent in climate litigation. Gerard Roe, professor of Earth and space sciences at the UW, is - Read More

• Global Warming Found to Be Culprit for Flood Risk in Peruvian Andes, Other Glacial Lakes
  

  Huaraz is a Peruvian city of about 120,000 residents that lies 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) above sea level, in view of Palcaraju Glacier and other peaks in ... - Read More

• Seismic Network Monitors Recent Tremor Under Vancouver Island | Bellingham Herald
  The UW-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network is monitoring an "out of the ordinary" series of nearly 3,000 small seismic events over the past week that have rattled just ... - Read More

• Podcast: How Mount Rainier Will Tell Us when It's Going to Blow | Crosscut
  Looming on the horizon like a holographic ice cream cone, Mount Rainier draws eyes skyward everywhere in Puget Sound. But fear mingles with our fascination: Is it going to blow? ... - Read More

• Robert Winglee, 1958-2020: UW's 'Rocket Man' Launched Thousands of Space and Science Careers | GeekWire
  The global aerospace community and students across the Northwest have lost a researcher, mentor and "Rocket Man" who inspired and guided thousands of young people toward careers ... - Read More

• Relentless Rain Triggers Landslides; More Rain and Risk on the Way | KIRO 7
  Days of heavy rain in Western Washington has communities on high alert. Storms have already triggered small landslides, and geologists say conditions are ripe for the next storm ... - Read More

• Salty Seas Make Lightning Brighter | Hakai Magazine
  Salt seems to be the reason why bolts are brighter over the ocean than over land. Robert Holzworth, professor of Earth and space sciences at the UW, is - Read More

• 3rd Small Earthquake Hits Puget Sound Area | The Seattle Times
  A small earthquake with a magnitude of 3.0 was reported near Carnation on Tuesday morning, one day after a smaller magnitude 2.2 quake was reported in the same location on Monday, ... - Read More

• Small Earthquake Near Monroe Follows Other Recent Minor Quakes in the Puget Sound Area | The Seattle Times
  A magnitude 2.9 earthquake was recorded about four miles from Monroe at 2:41 a.m. Monday, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. Ken Creager, professor of Earth and ... - Read More

• WWLLN Detects Increasing Lightning in the Arctic As Earth Warms
  Nature magazine reports on the AGU ( American Geophysical Union) paper presented this year by ESS Professors Holzworth,and McCarthy, senior scientist Jacobson, Grad student Todd ... - Read More

• An Ice Core from the Roof of the World | Eos
  An innovative National Geographic expedition collected the world's highest ice core from Mount Everest. Eric Steig, professor of Earth and space sciences at the UW, is - Read More

• How the First Life on Earth Survived Its Biggest Threat -- Water | Nature
  Living things depend on water, but it breaks down DNA and other key molecules. So how did the earliest cells deal with the water paradox? David Catling, professor of Earth and ... - Read More

• NSF-funded Deep Ice Core to Be Drilled at Hercules Dome, Antarctica
  Researchers in Earth and Space Science are leading a new ice core project in Antarctica. Grad student Gemma O'Connor and ESS Chair Eric Steig are featured in UW - Read More

• Optical Lightning Superbolts: Holzworth Comments on Recent Optical Work
  Prof. Holzworth reviews and comments on recent optical lightning papers about superbolts, pointing out that recent optical work suggesting that superbolts are all from positive ... - Read More

Submit News Item