Oxford study finds 'extraordinary' tremors caused by tsunamis
A series of "extraordinary" tremors observed across the globe were caused by two tsunamis stranded within a fjord in Greenland, a new study has confirmed.During September and October 2023, the "bizarre" seismic activity was observed every 90 seconds over intermittent periods each month.New University of Oxford-led research confirmed it was caused by two mega tsunamis, which occurred after the warming of a glacier led to two major landslides.The tsunamis became trapped standing waves that surged back and forth within the remote Dickson fjord in eastern Greenland, causing the tremors, the study found.
The research's lead author Thomas Monahan, from the University of Oxford, said: "Climate change is giving rise to new, unseen extremes."These extremes are changing the fastest in remote areas, such as the Arctic, where our ability to measure them using physical sensors is limited."
To conduct the study into what researchers called the "extraordinary" tremors , scientists used new techniques to interpret data recorded by satellites orbiting the globe.This altimetry data measures the height of the Earth's surface by recording how long it takes for a radar pulse to travel from a satellite to the surface and back again.Conventional altimeters were unable to record evidence of the Greenland tsunamis, but a satellite launched in December 2022 had the equipment capable of doing so - allowing researchers to observe the trapped waves."This study shows how we can leverage the next generation of satellite earth observation technologies to study these processes," Mr Monahan said.Co-author of the study Prof Thomas Adcock added: "This study is an example of how the next generation of satellite data can resolve phenomena that has remained a mystery in the past."We will be able to get new insights into ocean extremes such as tsunamis, storm surges, and freak waves."
You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
How the UK is testing a radical plan to refreeze the Arctic
F or much of his career, Dr Shaun Fitzgerald of the University of Cambridge worked on trying to cut the amount of carbon we pump into the atmosphere. Five years ago, he shifted his focus. 'We've been talking about reducing emissions for decades,' he said. 'The truth is, they're still rising.' He turned his attention to something more radical. Could we, he wondered, refreeze the Arctic? The idea has serious backing. In June the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) — a government body created to back 'ideas on the edge of what's possible' — awarded a team led by Fitzgerald £10 million in funding. The money will be spent on exploring whether it might be possible to use hundreds of thousands of robots to thicken and prolong the life of a portion of the sea ice that forms each winter across the High Arctic.
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Bristol volunteers needed for typhoid fever vaccine trial
A clinical study to test a new vaccine to prevent typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever is seeking Hospitals Bristol and Weston (UHBW) NHS Foundation Trust's Vaccine and Testing Research Team is collaborating with the University of Oxford's Vaccine Group to invite healthy people between the ages of 18 and 55 to take part in the will either receive an experimental dose or the control vaccine before being exposed to the bacteria which causes the Rajeka Lazarus, from UHBW, said: "We hope by investigating this new vaccine we can assist in progressing medical research and saving lives". Typhoid fever is a highly contagious bacterial infection that can spread throughout the body and affect many can cause serious complications and can even be fatal without prompt is estimated that there are 13m cases of typhoid and paratyphoid A fever every year, resulting in 133,000 condition mainly affects school-aged children in Asia and Africa. 'Landmark moment' The seven-month trial aims to generate a protective immune the study, participants will be constantly monitored by doctors and will be reimbursed for their time and travel by the Serum Institute of India, which is funding the Sir Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine group, and Chief Investigator of the study, said the trial is a "landmark moment"."Not only would this be the first licensed vaccine specifically for paratyphoid A, but this could also be the first combined vaccine to be licensed to protect against both paratyphoid and added that the vaccine could "significantly reduce the global burden" of the disease if it is successful.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Going Nuclear by Tim Gregory: Want to save the planet? GO NUCLEAR
Going Nuclear: How The Atom Will Save The World by Tim Gregory (Bodley Head £25, 384pp) Tim Gregory works in what he calls 'one of the most chemically exotic square miles on the planet'. He is a scientist at the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory at Sellafield. So, it is no surprise that his new book offers a deeply researched and mostly persuasive argument in favour of nuclear power and its benefits. If we want to renounce fossil fuels and clean up our energy systems, 'splitting atoms of uranium inside nuclear reactors is our best bet at reaching net zero by 2050'. Yet, as he acknowledges, profound suspicion of the nuclear industry is rooted in the public mind. And, in what he sees as an ironic contradiction, those people who are most concerned about climate change are the very ones who are least supportive of nuclear power. This anxiety was not always so widespread. In the 1950s, nuclear power was often seen as the future we should happily embrace. In Britain, Calder Hall, the country's first atomic power station, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II 'with pride'. The town of Workington became one of the first in the world where people's washing machines, record players and other electrical appliances were driven by nuclear electricity. It was not only the Queen who was enthused by the then new technology. Gregory tells the oddly charming story of Muriel Howorth, who became a staunch advocate of nuclear power at the age of 62 after reading a book she'd borrowed from her local library. She went on to found the Ladies' Atomic Energy Club and to write a pantomime called Isotopia, which included characters such as Isotope, Neutron and Atom Man. In 1950, it was staged in London with members of the Ladies' Atomic Energy Club playing all the roles. She had hopes of a performance at the Albert Hall but, sadly, this was never to be. A 21st-century Muriel Howorth seems unlikely to emerge. Nuclear power has lost the glamour it may have possessed in the 1950s. It is more likely today to elicit alarm and anxiety. Gregory puts much of contemporary worry about the nuclear industry down to what he calls 'radiophobia' – an irrational fear of radiation. Popular culture has played its part in warping society's perception of the subject. The idea of atomic bombs has become entwined with our notions of the nuclear industry. Gregory endeavours to get beyond the mushroom clouds of our imagination. As he points out, all kinds of unexpected objects are radioactive to some extent. Potassium-40 emits beta and gamma radiation. Bananas and potatoes both contain potassium, so are therefore radioactive. 'Biology,' he notes, 'unfolds against a background of radioactivity.' All of us spend our lives 'bathed in radiation'. The only way we could avoid it would be by adopting a highly impractical programme of not eating, drinking or even breathing. 'You can't have radiation-free anything,' Gregory writes. 'Background radiation is about as ubiquitous and as harmless as it gets.' What about the dangers of nuclear waste and the difficulties of disposing of it? Gregory argues that these are greatly exaggerated. The paraphernalia in his lab – gloves, test-tubes, biros – is all classified as nuclear waste because it comes from Sellafield. Most of it is 'far less radioactive than a banana'. 'Low-level' nuclear waste accounts for just one per cent of the radioactivity in all nuclear waste but 87 per cent of its volume. The most dangerous type of 'high-level' waste, by contrast, represents 0.1 per cent of the total volume of nuclear waste but contains 95 per cent of its radioactivity. All the high-level waste from the past 70 years of the nuclear industry would fit inside a medium-sized concert hall. Figures such as these may well be reassuring, but Gregory is on less sure ground when he turns to the major disasters that have struck the industry over the decades. Again he turns to statistics to argue that we should not be over-anxious. 'Nuclear's safety record is blotted by a small number of rare, high-visibility events,' he acknowledges, but it's 'about as safe as wind and solar, and it's tens or hundreds times safer than fossil fuels'. Air pollution from the latter kills as many people every six hours, Gregory states, as nuclear power has ever done. He acknowledges the seriousness of Chernobyl, which he describes unequivocally as 'the worst disaster in the history of nuclear power', but he argues that we should not overestimate its long-term effects. The accident at Chernobyl happened because of a combination of factors – an unusual design of reactor, operators who broke the rules, Soviet-era corruption – that is extremely unlikely to occur again. He also uses an array of statistics and scientific studies to show fears of ongoing health risks are exaggerated. A study from 2019 found that cancer rates in regions of Ukraine close to Chernobyl were no higher than the national average. Not everyone will buy Gregory's take on Chernobyl, but he's more convincing on the 2011 Fukushima disaster, where an earthquake triggered a tsunami that caused three nuclear units to explode. Twenty thousand people died due to the natural disasters but only one person died as a result of the radiation, and a UN scientific committee found no evidence that the radiation caused an increase in any type of cancer. Arguments over the dangers of nuclear power will continue. What seems inarguable is its potential. There is, Gregory writes, 'as much nuclear energy in a gram of uranium as there is chemical energy in more than a tonne of coal'. If you powered a lightbulb with a gram of coal, it would give you 15 minutes of light; a gram of uranium would light up the bulb for 30 years. As he bluntly states, 'Net zero is impossible without nuclear power.' Renewables such as wind and solar have important roles to play but alone they cannot possibly satisfy a society that needs on-demand electricity. And the demand is growing. Europe today generates a fifth of its electricity from nuclear. It's the biggest source of emissions-free electricity, bigger than solar and wind combined. Gregory reports on what he calls 'the flatpack furniture of the nuclear world' – small modular reactors that take up the space of 5.5 football pitches. He envisages a future in which every large town will have one of these smaller reactors and there will be several in every major city worldwide. 'Nuclear,' he writes, 'will become routine.' Gregory is passionate in his belief that nuclear power will solve the world's energy problems. Not all readers will be so evangelical but his book presents a strong, carefully argued case for his ideas.
