Search and rescue after an earthquake, illustrated

After a big earthquake, such as the 7.8 that hit Turkey and Syria, it is important that search and rescue be carried through in an organized way when everything around is chaos. For Reuters, Adolfo Arranz, Simon Scarr, and Jitesh Chowdhury illustrate the guidelines recommended by the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group.

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How an earthquake can trigger others on the opposite side of the world

Speaking of earthquakes, Will Chase looked back at a 2012 earthquake in Sumatra that triggered not only a bunch of small ones in the vicinity, but other large ones around the world:

In the ten days following the Sumatra mainshock, 44 earthquakes M5.5+ were recorded. The statistics were clear: this nine-fold increase was highly significant, and most researchers agreed the likely explanation was remote triggering by the M8.6 Sumatra earthquake. This massive triggering of large earthquakes was unprecedented, and many wondered if the strike-slip mechanism at such a large magnitude was a unique combination that led to this outsized response.

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Earthquake trigger

For The New York Times, Derek Watkins used animated maps to show how a large earthquake can lead to thousands of small ones.

Living in California, I’ve experienced a handful of these, but it had been a while before feeling one a few weeks ago. I may or may not have immediately started looking at earthquake insurance.

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A year of earthquakes

Year of quakes

Fathom provides an interactive browser for a year of earthquakes, based on data from USGS. You've likely seen this data before, but the interaction is quite useful and applicable to other maps.

Filters on the right let you turn layers — population density, mortality risk, and the tectonic plates lines — on and off and subset by magnitude. The timeline on the bottom lets you scrub by time with an adjustable time span.

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Earthquake magnitude and the logarithmic scale

Magnitude log scale

The earthquake in Nepal was big, but there's a discrepancy in just how big. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured the earthquake at 7.8 magnitude, whereas the China Earthquakes Network Center (CENC) measured it at 8.1. The three-tenths difference doesn't seem like much, but the latter is actually an earthquake that exerts twice the energy of the former. Akshat Rathi and David Yanofsky for Quartz explain in a lesson of the logarithmic scale and earthquake magnitude.

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Disaster risk indices estimate impact on people

Disaster risk

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 can affect countries differently, depending on the people's ability to withstand and recover from such a disaster. INFORM attempts to assess this risk, so that organizations can make better-informed decisions about what relief to send. Greg Myre for NPR explains with a heatmap. [via @onyxfish]

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