Skeptophilia

Three years ago, I wrote here at Skeptophilia  about the scary Cascadia Subduction Zone , which is capable of enormous earthquakes and tsuna...

In 923 C.E., a massive earthquake -- estimated at magnitude 7.5 -- struck the Pacific Northwest. Marine terraces  -- stairstep-like formatio...

In 1869, explorer John Wesley Powell did the first systematic study of the geology of the Grand Canyon.  As impressive as it is, the Grand ...

I've written here before about the fact that the continents are in motion, something that is only not staggering because we've all ...

I recently re-read John McPhee's wonderful quartet of books on geology, Basin and Range, Rising from the Plains, In Suspect Terrain , an...

Between December 16, 1811 and February 7, 1812, a series of four earthquakes -- each estimated to be above magnitude 7, with the first and l...

Seismologists and volcanologists are unusual amongst scientists in that for the most part, what they're studying are things that are per...

I wonder if you've heard of Marie Tharp .  I hope you have, but suspect you haven't.  Even in scientific circles, her name is not ex...

One of the most unusual stories that H. P. Lovecraft ever wrote is "In the Walls of Eryx."  It isn't his usual fare of soul-su...

One of the nice things about science is that it allows us to understand the parts of the universe that are beyond common sense.   Don't ...