Federal science agency
Appears in 13 stories · Last updated Oct 28, 2026
Issued an orange PAGER alert and MMI VIII ShakeMap for the Baqen County quake
Sixteen people were killed and 76 injured after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Baqen County, Nagqu city, the latest figures officials gave on October 23. The quake destroyed or damaged 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds and cut power and phone service in the county seat.
Updated Oct 28
Reported the M 7.7 earthquake and the M 6.6 aftershock; monitors the ongoing sequence
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck southern Panama on October 9, 2026, at 17:56 UTC, centered 12 kilometers west-southwest of Pitaloza Arriba in Herrera province at a depth of 12.6 kilometers. The U.S. Geological Survey first reported it as magnitude 8.0, then revised it to 7.7; Panama's Institute of Geosciences put it at 7.6.
Produced the baseline maps and co-authored the loss analysis
For the first time, researchers have counted and measured every glacier in the lower 48 states. The census, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), shows 398 glaciers have vanished since the mid-20th century.
Updated Oct 18
As of September 2026: Co-author on East Coast subsidence research
The ground under America's coasts is moving downward faster than scientists had mapped. New research analyzing more than 190 million data points finds that 71.5% of U.S. coastal areas are sinking at least 1 millimeter per year, with the Gulf Coast sinking fastest. Nearly a quarter of the coastline drops 3 millimeters or more annually.
Updated Sep 27
As of September 2026: Issued the reviewed earthquake report and PAGER assessment
The US Geological Survey logged a magnitude 6.6 earthquake beneath the Java Sea early Saturday, 125 kilometers north of Jakarta, at 358.6 kilometers depth. Indonesia's BMKG agency revised it to 6.5 at 368 kilometers, calling it a deep quake inside the subducting plate, not a shallow fault rupture.
Updated Sep 12
As of September 2026: Independently located and sized the earthquake; issued highest-level impact alert
At 7:34 a.m. on August 10, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck near San José del Palmar in western Colombia's Chocó department. It was the strongest quake Colombia has recorded this century. The official death toll has reached 331.
Updated Sep 3
As of September 2026: Monitored the quake and issued ShakeMap, PAGER, and ground-failure assessments
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit the Flores Sea before dawn on August 15, local time, 68 kilometers (42 miles) north-northwest of Ende, Indonesia. At least 47 people died, buildings collapsed across the region, and small tsunamis reached 16 coastal locations in four provinces.
Updated Sep 2
As of September 2026: Issued the main earthquake alert and PAGER green impact estimate
On Aug 15, 2026, at 17:54 local time, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck under North Sumatra, 9 km northwest of Pematangsiantar. The quake was about 175 km deep, so it shook a vast area but caused only light damage.
As of September 2026: Recorded M 6.7, issued Green alert
A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Peru's southern Andes on August 20, sending residents into the streets as far away as Lima, 480 km from the epicenter. The quake hit 31 km northwest of the small settlement of Aniso in the Ayacucho region at a depth of 99 km, injuring three people and damaging homes, schools, and health clinics.
As of September 2026: Revised its quake reading to a glacial collapse signal
The morning of August 26, a 600-meter-wide slab of glacier and rock peeled off Langtang Lirung, a 23,700-foot peak on the Nepal-China border, and fell 1,200 meters into the valley. The debris dammed the Lhende Khola river; hours later the dam burst, sending a wall of ice, mud, and water down the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers.
Updated Sep 1
As of August 2026: Detected and analyzed the seismic signal
A slab of glacier broke off a steep Himalayan slope near the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday morning and fell roughly a kilometer to the valley floor. The impact shook the ground like a magnitude 5.2 earthquake and produced enough meltwater to flood the river system below within minutes.
Updated Aug 27
As of May 2026: Running airborne eDNA pilots for invasive-species detection
For most of conservation history, counting wildlife meant walking into a forest with binoculars, traps, or camera arrays. A new method does it without seeing the animal: filter the air, sequence the DNA fragments, and read off which species were nearby.
Updated May 31
As of May 2026: Providing independent earthquake measurements
Taiwan got hit with back-to-back earthquakes this week—a 6.0-magnitude tremor on Christmas Day, and a 6.6-magnitude quake Saturday night. Saturday's quake shook buildings across Taipei, damaged Taoyuan Airport's ceiling, and cut power to thousands. Taiwan sits on the collision zone where the Philippine Sea plate rams into the Eurasian plate at 7 centimeters per year, producing roughly 2,200 earthquakes annually.
Updated May 16
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