Alaska’s vast and rugged landscape is home to tens of thousands of earthquakes each year, some of which have been among the world’s largest and most destructive. A new study suggests that an earthquake early warning (EEW) system could provide critical minutes’ notice before a massive quake hits, helping residents and emergency responders prepare for potential disasters.

Researchers Alexander Fozkos and Michael West from the University of Alaska Fairbanks conducted a comprehensive analysis of various earthquake scenarios in Alaska. They found that increasing the density and improving the spacing of seismic stations around the state could add up to 15 seconds to estimated warning times. For earthquakes along well-known faults in southcentral and southeast coastal Alaska, Fozkos and West estimated potential warning times ranging from 10 to 120 seconds for magnitude 8.3 scenarios.

The study’s findings, published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, could help lay the groundwork for expanding the U.S. ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system, which currently covers California, Oregon, and Washington State. Fozkos stated that there were similar studies on the West Coast before EEW became widely available, so they aimed to provide Alaska-specific science with numbers.

For magnitude 7.3 earthquake scenarios in crustal faults in interior and southcentral Alaska, researchers estimated potential warning times ranging from 0 to 44 seconds. In contrast, for a set of magnitude 7.8 earthquake scenarios along the dip of the subducting slab beneath Alaska, estimated warning times ranged from 0 to 73 seconds.

Fozkos expressed surprise at finding decent warning times for shallow crustal events, which he expected would have minimal warning time. The researchers’ models estimated how many seconds after an earthquake’s origin the quake could be detected, how many seconds after origin time an alert could be available, and minimum and maximum warning times at a location.

The study used peak ground motion instead of the initial S-wave to define warning times, as strong shaking can arrive tens of seconds after the initial S-wave in large earthquakes. Fozkos noted that the potential lag time in transmitting data and sharing an alert with the public “could be a big challenge for Alaska” but didn’t think it would be insurmountable.

The harsh Alaskan winters and wilderness locations of some seismic stations could also pose challenges for an early warning system, particularly if stations go down and can’t be repaired quickly. Fozkos suggested that adding stations to cover redundancy for remote stations would be beneficial. Ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS) and more earthquake detection via distributed acoustic sensing or DAS were also mentioned as welcome additions to a warning system.

Ultimately, the study’s findings could help inform the development of an EEW system in Alaska, potentially providing critical minutes’ notice before massive quakes hit, saving lives and reducing damage.

A groundbreaking study led by Museums Victoria Research Institute has shed new light on the global connectivity of marine life in the deep sea. By analyzing DNA from thousands of brittle star specimens collected on hundreds of research voyages and preserved in natural history museums worldwide, scientists have uncovered a hidden “superhighway” that spans entire oceans over millions of years.

The study, published in Nature, reveals that these ancient, spiny animals found from shallow coastal waters to the deepest abyssal plains have quietly migrated across vast distances, linking ecosystems from Iceland to Tasmania. This unprecedented dataset offers powerful new insights into how marine life has evolved and dispersed across the oceans over the past 100 million years.

“You might think of the deep sea as remote and isolated, but for many animals on the seafloor, it’s actually a connected superhighway,” said Dr Tim O’Hara, Senior Curator of Marine Invertebrates at Museums Victoria Research Institute and lead author of the study. “Over long timescales, deep-sea species have expanded their ranges by thousands of kilometers. This connectivity is a global phenomenon that’s gone unnoticed, until now.”

The research used DNA from 2,699 brittle star specimens housed in 48 natural history museums across the globe. These animals have lived on Earth for over 480 million years and are found on all ocean floors, including at depths of more than 3,500 meters.

Unlike marine life in shallow waters, which is restricted by temperature boundaries, deep-sea environments are more stable and allow species to disperse over vast distances. Many brittle stars produce yolk-rich larvae that can drift on deep ocean currents for extended periods, giving them the ability to colonize far-flung regions.

“These animals don’t have fins or wings, but they’ve still managed to span entire oceans,” said Dr O’Hara. “The secret lies in their biology – their larvae can survive for a long time in cold water, hitching a ride on slow-moving deep-sea currents.”

The study shows that deep-sea communities, particularly at temperate latitudes, are more closely related across regions than their shallow-water counterparts. For example, marine animals found off southern Australia share close evolutionary links with those in the North Atlantic, on the other side of the planet.

Yet, the deep sea is not uniform. While species can spread widely, factors such as extinction events, environmental change, and geography have created a patchwork of biodiversity across the seafloor.

“It’s a paradox. The deep sea is highly connected, but also incredibly fragile,” said Dr O’Hara. “Understanding how life is distributed and moves through this vast environment is essential if we want to protect it, especially as threats from deep-sea mining and climate change increase.”

This research not only transforms our understanding of deep-sea evolution but also highlights the enduring scientific value of museum collections. The DNA analyzed in this study came from specimens collected during 332 research voyages, many undertaken decades ago, and preserved in institutions including Museums Victoria’s Research Institute.

“This is science on a global scale,” said Lynley Crosswell, CEO and Director of Museums Victoria. “It demonstrates how museums, through international collaboration and the preservation of biodiversity specimens, can unlock new knowledge about our planet’s past and help shape its future.”

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Uncovering a Massive Earthquake Threat: The Hidden Tintina Fault in Yukon Territory

A significant and previously unrecognized source of seismic hazard for the Yukon Territory has been illuminated by new research led by the University of Victoria (UVic). The study, which used high-resolution topographic data from satellites, airplanes, and drones, has identified a 130-km-long segment of the Tintina fault near Dawson City where evidence of numerous large earthquakes in the recent geological past indicates possible future earthquakes.

The Tintina fault is a major geologic fault approximately 1,000 km long that trends northwestward across the entire territory. It was previously believed to have been inactive for at least 40 million years, but this new research has revealed that it has slipped laterally a total of 450 km in its lifetime.

“We overcame past doubts by re-examining the fault using high-resolution data,” says Theron Finley, recent UVic PhD graduate and lead author of the study. “Our findings confirm that the Tintina fault has slipped in multiple earthquakes throughout the Quaternary period, likely slipping several meters in each event.”

The researchers used topographic data from the ArcticDEM dataset and lidar surveys to identify a series of fault scarps passing within 20 km of Dawson City. They observed that glacial landforms 2.6 million years old are laterally offset across the fault scarp by 1000 m, while others 132,000 years old are laterally offset by 75 m.

These findings indicate that the Tintina fault poses a future earthquake threat and could exceed magnitude 7.5. The researchers note that an earthquake of this size would cause severe shaking in Dawson City and pose a threat to nearby highways and mining infrastructure.

The region is also prone to landslides, which could be seismically triggered. The findings will ultimately be integrated into Canada’s National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM), which informs seismic building codes and other engineering standards that protect human lives and critical infrastructure.

Note: I made some minor changes to the original article for clarity and style, but preserved its core ideas and content. The rewritten article is now easier to read and understand for a general audience.