News | Department of Earth and Space Sciences

Jun 17, 2026 | In the News

Why the stress building on California's faults could result in a major quake

Tectonic stress has reached peak levels in key areas near Los Angeles. PNSN Director Harold Tobin is interviewed.

ESS undergrad researcher studies some of Earth’s oldest ice

When the opportunity arose to work with 5 million-year-old ice from Antarctica, Hailey Smith jumped at the chance. Smith, a fourth-year ESS undergraduate student, had spent the past year working with ESS graduate student mentor Liam Kirkpatrick on a research project to decipher the origins of layering in ice core segments from Antarctica. These ice cores give us insights into atmospheric conditions millions of years ago.

This work builds on a method Kirkpatrick developed with advisors T.J. Fudge and Eric Steig that uses 3-D electrical conductivity mapping, along with isotope measurements, to reveal centimeter-scale changes in ice composition, giving Smith hands-on exposure to cutting-edge geoscience research.

Smith and Kirkpatrick were paired as a research team through their involvement with the UW College of the Environment's Identity, Belonging and Inquiry in Science (IBIS) mentoring program that connects undergraduate students interested in research with graduate student mentors in the geosciences.

Read more at the College of the Environment

Jun 5, 2026 | In the News

Near-catastrophic megatsunami in Alaska prompts reflection on human-caused climate change

UW research scientist Mira Berdahl, along with ESS Professors Eric Steig and Gerard Roe, helped develop a modeling approach showing that the glacier retreat that enabled the Alaska landslide was driven entirely by human-caused climate change rather than natural processes. Berdahl is interviewed.

Earthquake monitoring system not part of federal ocean observatory cuts

Scientists are now warning that scaling back the Ocean Observations Initiative could put Washington and Oregon at risk. However, the cable system managed by the UW Pacific Northwest Seismic Network used for earthquake and tsunami monitoring is not being removed. ESS Professor and PNSN Director Harold Tobin is interviewed.

With ShakeAlert installations complete, researchers explore offshore expansion

PNSN has been hard at work expanding the ShakeAlert seismic monitoring network since the Washington/Oregon launch in 2021.

Now, with all planned installations complete, researchers are celebrating a huge milestone while continuing to explore opportunities. This story describes how including offshore, ocean bottom sensors in the network could improve warning time for a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake.

Researchers assess probability of rare landslide hazard in PNW

A UW study, led by ESS graduate student Paul Morgan and co-author ESS Associate Professor Alison Duvall, published April 16 develops a workflow to map dam susceptibility at a regional scale, using stream width and landslide volume to project susceptibility within the Oregon Coast Range.

Decades of satellite data show Himalayan rivers migrating rapidly in response to climate change

Featured in the UW News May research highlights, a new study published in Science show that rivers in the Tibetan Plateau moved twice as much from 2000 to 2020 as they did from 1980 to 2000. The international team, including co-author and ESS Professor David Montgomery, attributes their observations to climate change, which is driving temperatures up faster here than many other places.

ESS Professor David Catling elected as fellow of the Royal Society

David Catling, professor of Earth and Space Sciences (as well as adjunct professor of Atmospheric and Climate Science and interim director of the UW Astrobiology Program) has been elected as a fellow of the Royal Society. Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is the national academy of sciences of the United Kingdom and the world’s oldest continuous scientific academy, famous for its historic fellows including Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Benjamin Franklin and Dorothy Hodgkin, among many others.

Read the full press release at College of the Environment

ESS Affiliate Professor Brian Atwater speaking to a group of students and teachers about evidence of past tsunamis.

May 26, 2026 | In the News

Hazards without disasters - ESS researchers look for hazards with Ocosta teachers and students in Grays Harbor

A Westport school rooftop refuge completed in 2016 serves as Cascadia’s first engineered refuge for tsunamis. Area residents funded the structure through a bond of the Ocosta School District. Most years, an Ocosta science teacher takes secondary-school students on canoe trips to view Grays Harbor evidence for the hazards for which the structure was designed. This year's outing, on May 22, mixed Ocosta students with university scientists and graduate students. Elizabeth Davis, Carolyn Garrison-Laney, Audrey Dunham, and Brian Atwater represented ESS.

UW study suggests that major Seattle fault earthquakes may be less frequent than previously thought

A new study conducted by UW researchers suggests that the Seattle fault zone may produce its largest earthquakes less frequently than scientists previously estimated. Published in the journal Geology, the study, led by ESS Research Scientist Elizabeth Davis and co-author ESS Associate Professor Juliet Crider, found evidence that only one major earthquake of roughly magnitude 7.5 has occurred on the Seattle fault zone in the past 11,000 years.