A new study, led by Professor Mike Kendall from the Department of Earth Sciences, has investigated the use of a new monitoring technique for early warning of a volcanic eruption.

The research team compared the earthquake signals during two eruptions of Ontake Volcano in Japan, one of which was a small eruption and the other of which was explosive.

From this, they were able to identify that shear-wave splitting parameters showed differences depending on the size of the eruption.

The study, published this week in the journal Seismica, proposes that the monitoring of this signal would provide a useful early warning of dangerous volcanic eruptions.

Why do some ancient animals become fossils while others disappear without a trace? A new study from the University of Lausanne, published in Nature Communications, reveals that part of the answer lies in the body itself. The research shows that an animal’s size and chemical makeup can play an important role in determining whether it’s preserved for millions of years—or lost to time.

Analysing lava flows that solidified and then broke apart over a massive crack in the Earth’s crust in Turkey has brought new insights into how continents move over time, improving our understanding of earthquake risks.

In what could represent a milestone in ecological restoration, researchers have implemented a method capable of restoring peatlands at tens of thousands of oil and gas exploration sites in Western Canada. 

Researchers from the University of Waterloo led the project that involves lowering the surface of these decommissioned sites, known as well pads, and transplanting native moss onto them to effectively recreate peatlands. This is the first time researchers have applied the method to scale on an entire well pad. The study found that the technique results in sufficient water for the growth of peatland moss across large portions of the study site.