Thursday, 23 May, 2013

What are sinkholes, and how dangerous are they? Can we detect and prevent them? Should you be asking more questions about the ground we’re standing on?

How do hurricanes form? How do we predict their paths? How can we improve predictions?

Could an offshore earthquake start a deadly tsunami, as in Sumatra and Japan? Where do tsunamis get their power? How do warning systems work?

Are extreme heat, wicked cyclones and record rainfalls signs of climate change, or just more changes in the weather? Will warming eliminate record cold days? Will hurricanes get bigger?

Aftershocks and triggered earthquakes both follow a large earthquake, and they don’t happen at random. Can lessons about the sequence and timing of quakes improve safety?

Construction matters. Hundreds of millions live and work in houses and schools that will collapse in the next earthquake. Chile and California prove that smart engineering saves lives.

How do hurricanes form? How do we predict their paths? How can we improve predictions?

New shark repellent tested. How common are shark attacks? Meet the social shark. Learn why some people are fascinated by this cold-blooded killer.

Tornadoes kill 60 Americans each year. How do we predict tornadoes? How do we make houses safer? Where do tornadoes get their energy?

Atlantic Ocean releases giant bubble of hydrogen sulfide gas near Namibia, tracked for first time from space.

West Antarctic Ice Sheet may be thickening, which could reduce the rise in sea level caused by global warming.

Fungus that caused Irish potato famine is back, threatening potato crops around the world. How did the blight change world history, and what is being done to prevent another blight?

The Edmund Fitzgerald went down in 1975 with barely a trace, and no warning call whatsoever. New evidence pins the blame on terrible weather.

Flooding. We call it a natural disaster. But humans have a role. How do people promote flooding by cutting trees, draining wetlands, paving parking lots and otherwise interfering with nature?

How bad is the asteroid threat to Earth, and what are they doing to find any killer asteroids out there? Read the delightful debate between the no-problem and the killer-asteroid schools of thought.