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ESS News



UW ESS is 11th best in nation

  Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The annual US News and World Report ranking of colleges and universities has been released for 2009, and the University of Washington Department of Earth & Space Sciences continues to be listed among the top 15 departments of earth sciences in a tie for 11th by Princeton, UCLA, UW, and Yale.

Genius rewarded in the ESS department

UW ESS Professor David Montgomery has been selected as a 2008 MacArthur Fellow, receiving what is commonly known as a "genius grant", a prestigious 5 year grant of money to support his research and other pursuits.
Additional information can be found at:
http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=43719
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008
196765_genius23m0.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_genius_
grants_list.html

MacArthur Foundation 2008 - "Dave Montgomery" page:
http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.4537277/
MacArthur Foundation 2008 Fellows (all) page:
http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.4536877/

UW-ESS ranks well in "Science-Watch" survey

Geosciences at the University of Washinton ranks fifth in the entire WORLD in a survey of scientific journal publications by Thomson Scientific, and is second only to one other public University in the U.S. More information about this is found below.
From the Univ of Wash Weekly News : "The UW scored very high in a survey of published geosciences research by Thomson Scientific, both in the number of times UW research was cited by other scientists (12934 citations for 6th place) and the average number of times a UW paper was cited (12.57 citations per paper for 5th place)."
http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/uweek/uweekarticle.asp?articleID=35307

This survey was conducted by Science-Watch and Thomson Scientific's "Essential Science Indicators", looking at 224 scientific journals containing 150K+ papers, from 1996-2007.
A very interesting interview by Thomson Scientific with UW-ESS chair Robert Winglee in relation to this survey can be found at
http://www.in-cites.com/institutions/UnivofWashington.html

What's the earthquake risk in the Northwest?

  Friday, October 9, 2009
Professor John Vidale talks to King 5 News about Northwest earthquakes in the wake of recent major quakes in the South Pacific. Watch the video:
http://www.king5.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=405957

Changes in Northwest megathrust quake expectations

  Sunday, August 16, 2009
Professor Vidale talks about the possibility of a 'Mega-quake' in the Northwest. Watch the video:
http://www.nwcn.com/video/index.html?nvid=389615

How would Seattle's skyscrapers fare in a M9 earthquake?

  Thursday, April 9, 2009
From king5.com: "Scientists in California have come up with a number of scenarios that show a mega earthquake could cause high raise buildings in Seattle and other parts of the Northwest to collapse." Featuring Professor Vidale. Watch the video:
http://www.king5.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=350434

UW ESS silent earthquake research highlighted in Seattle Times article

  Tuesday, June 30, 2009
The Seattle Times has published an article about silent tremors and related research in the UW ESS department. Titled "Scientists: Silent tremors may foretell the next Big One," the article can be read at:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009400048_quakes30m.html

Earthquake threat to Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct

  Monday, March 5, 2007
From seattlepi.com: "Its design is obsolete, and it's definitely in the wrong place. That, essentially, is what's wrong with the Alaskan Way Viaduct when it comes to earthquakes, engineers say." Read the entire article titled "Quake threat key in viaduct debate" at:
http://www.seattlepi.com/transportation/306108_dangerviaduct05.html

Studying Mount Baker

  Wednesday, September 2, 2009
From king5.com: "Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens are some of the most studied volcanoes in the Cascades, but now Mount Baker is also getting a closer look." Features UW ESS department's Wes Thelen. Watch the video:
http://www.king5.com/video/index.html?nvid=394917

Massive landslide cuts off stretch of Highway 410

  Tuesday, October 13, 2009
From seattlepi.com: "The landslide that smothered a stretch of Highway 410 Sunday could be among the largest ever to hit a state roadway, but its cause remains a mystery." Read more:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010051939_landslide13m.html

UW students create climate change display for Olympic Sculpture Park

  Thursday, October 8, 2009
From uwnews.com: "The UW is creating a display at the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park that illustrates how projected changes in sea level due to climate change could affect Seattle's waterfront, as well as other more vulnerable waterfront cities elsewhere in the world." Features UW ESS graduate student Kristin Poinar. Read more:
http://uwnews.org/uweek/article.aspx?id=52586

UW ESS members studying Naches landslide area

  Friday, October 16, 2009
From king5.com: "There are growing concerns about the gigantic Yakima County landslide. With heavy rain expected, its stability is in question." Watch the report:
http://www.king5.com/video/seattletimes/index.html?nvid=407703

Naches Valley landslide watch update

  Saturday, October 31, 2009
  Naches River Valley
From seattletimes.com: "The Naches River Valley is being closely monitored for signs of a potential landslide bigger than the one that cut off Highway 410, forced the river from its banks and damaged homes on Oct. 11." Featuring UW ESS's Dave Montgomery.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010172792_landslide31m.html

Predicting landslides

  Monday, November 2, 2009
From king5.com: "Just before a massive landslide came down wiping out a half mile of Highway 410 in Yakima County, residents said they could hear cracking, and moaning from the ground. It turns out that seismometers that are part of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network run out of the University of Washington heard them too. But what the earthquake-detecting seismometers picked up was the geological correlation with what people heard." Featuring UW ESS's Wes Thelen.
http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/Can-Landslides-Tell-Us-When-Theyre-Coming--68717177.html