New sensor technologies and computer algorithms that allow us to predict earthquakes, floods and famines before they happen. So now we're safe, right? Wrong. The big question is how we'll use this information, and whether we can warn people in time.

Researchers from Germany say that red wood ants change their behavior markedly just before an earthquake hits — a possible indication they can feel it coming.

A new study in the journal Geology is linking Oklahoma’s November 6th, 2011, earthquake to the injection of wastewater deep underground — water that’s used both in fracking and the extraction of petroleum from conventional oil wells. The 5.6 magnitude quake, the most significant to ever hit the region, injured two…

From the annals of "badass visualization tools I want to have in my living room" comes this amazing walk-in simulation of the Earth at UC Davis. And it reveals the stunning earthquake patterns that criss-cross our planet's surface.

To be fair, the tiny trembler wasn't forecast by a huge expanse of time, but seismologists were alerted to it nonetheless. By planting hundreds of sensors around fault zones in California, researchers at CalTech were literally given 30 seconds to anticipate the quake. And when it actually shook their lab, it marked…

This is the kind of statistic we would expect to see decrease over the coming years. But as the number of humans continues to climb, and as these populations increasingly concentrate themselves in tightly packed urban areas, earthquake fatalities could reach 3.5 million by the end of this century. This is the…

Geologists in New Zealand have a new tool to help them measure the effects of earthquakes. It's called T-Rex, a 64,000 pound (29,000 kilogram) shaker truck that's being provided by the U.S. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation.

Back in 2011, geologists working for Signal Hill Petroleum and NodalSeismic conducted an extremely detailed survey to measure the 3D rock structure beneath their Long Beach oilfield. To do so, they deployed a series of seismic arrays consisting of 5,300 nodes spaced about 330 feet (100 meters) apart. And then the…

Geologists know that the most devastating earthquakes happen along subduction zones — those areas where tectonic plates slide beneath another. Less known, however, is where exactly along these danger zones an earthquake is likely to occur. But as new research from the University of Sydney suggests, scarred regions…

As if the folks out on America's east coast don't already have enough to worry about after the onslaught of Hurricane Sandy, it now looks like last year's magnitude-5.8 earthquake in Virginia was no anomaly. According to a report presented this week at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting, the highly…