ETH News

For the first time, an international team of researchers has shown that countless tiny ice quakes take place in one of Greenland's mightiest ice streams. This finding will allow the flowing of the ice stream and associated changes in sea level to be estimated more accurately.

Geophysicists at ETH Zurich are using models of the lower mantle to identify areas where earthquake waves behave differently than previously assumed. This indicates the presence of zones of rocks that are colder, or have a different composition, than the surrounding rocks. This finding challenges our current understanding of the Earth's plate tectonics – and presents the researchers with a major mystery.

Deep geothermal energy is climate-friendly and base-load capable - but how can this heat be tapped safely? ETH researchers are working on minimizing the earthquake risk and developing completely new systems, for example with closed CO₂ cycles.

Catastrophic volcanic eruptions that warmed the planet millions of years ago shed new light on how plants evolve and regulate climate. Researchers reveal the long-term climate effects of disturbed natural ecosystems - its implications both in geological history and for today.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have succeeded in detecting heavy precipitation events directly with GPS data. The results of their study could significantly improve meteorological monitoring and forecasting.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a sensor that utilises energy from sound waves to control electronic devices. This could one day save millions of batteries.

The European Space Agency’s most expensive and complex mission, the LISA space antenna, has reached a major milestone: it has passed the stage of intensive testing by experts in the Mission Adoption Review process - a significant step for the LISA consortium.

In 2019, the tailings dam at a Brazilian iron ore mine failed. The mudslide caused a catastrophe for people and the environment. A team of researchers at ETH Zurich has now uncovered the physical mechanism that may have triggered the accident.

Seismologist Andreas Fichtner uses the newest technologies to explore the interior of the Earth. His research with seismic waves has also found applicability in the field of medicine.  

Geophysicists at ETH Zurich have shown that every single wave of a magnitude 3.9 earthquake registers in the noise suppression system of fibre-optic networks. This method can be used to set up close-meshed earthquake and tsunami early warning systems at low cost.

Mars’s liquid iron core is smaller and denser than previously thought. Not only is it smaller, but it is also surrounded by a layer of molten rock. This is what ETH Zurich researchers conclude on the basis of seismic data from the InSight lander.

A strong quake in the last year of the NASA Mars InSight mission, enabled researchers at ETH Zurich to determine the global thickness and density of the planet's crust. On average, the Martian crust is much thicker than the Earth’s or the Moon’s crust, and the planet’s main source of heat is radioactive.

ETH Zurich researcher Luca Dal Zilio offers an insightful summary of the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, shedding light on the complex nature of this event. He discusses the lessons that can be drawn from it to better understand and prepare for future seismic occurrences in the region.

In the video series "Ask the Expert", ETH Zurich experts answer questions from the community. In this edition, Maren Brehme provides information on the topic of geothermal energy.

The Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich has just introduced the first seismic risk model for Switzerland. It shows the potential impact of earthquakes on people and buildings in the country.

Following two large meteorite impacts on Mars, researchers have observed, for the first time, seismic waves propagating along the surface of a planet other than Earth. The data from the marsquakes was recorded by NASA’s InSight lander and analysed at ETH Zurich in collaboration with the InSight Science Team. It provides new insights into the structure of the Martian crust.

Until now, Mars has been generally considered a geologically dead planet. An international team of researchers led by ETH Zurich now reports that seismic signals indicate vulcanism still plays an active role in shaping the Martian surface.

Researchers from ETH Zurich discover the first definitive proof that the Moon inherited indigenous noble gases from the Earth’s mantle. The discovery represents a significant piece of the puzzle towards understanding how the Moon and, potentially, the Earth and other celestial bodies were formed.

As wave specialists, seismologists map the structure of planets from the information that seismic waves carry. Now, the team led by ETH professor Andreas Fichtner is also using this knowledge for medical imaging.

How the plates of the Earth’s crust move depends largely on the behaviour of the rocks below them in the mantle. A new ETH study now shows that the grain size of these rocks is a key factor.

European scientists with the participation of the Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich have published an updated earthquake hazard map and, for the first time, an earthquake risk map for Europe. Switzerland will follow suit next year with a higher resolution national risk map.

The slab avalanche modelling that Alexander Puzrin and Johan Gaume, two researchers from ETH and EPFL, used to explain the so-called Dyatlov Pass mystery has triggered a variety of responses around the world. In a follow-up article, the two researchers reflect on the impact of their research findings in science and the media and describe the follow up expeditions to the Dyatlov Pass that supported the slab avalanche theory.

Geophysicist Mauro Häusler is a Pioneer Fellow at ETH Zurich. He uses a seismic method to investigate rock instabilities and wants to establish himself as a service provider in the geoengineering industry.

Geophysicists can use a new model to explain the behaviour of a tectonic plate sinking into a subduction zone in the Earth’s mantle: the plate becomes weak and thus more deformable when mineral grains on its underside are shrunk in size.

Two scientists in Switzerland solved the mysterious incident. They tell us in the ETH podcast why they got interested in the incident and what happened after they published their findings.

ETH researchers have devised an ingenious method of using acoustics to conceal and simulate objects.

Researchers at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich have been able to use seismic data to look inside Mars for the first time. Marsquakes recorded by NASA’s InSight lander provided information about the structure of the planet’s crust, mantle and core.

Researchers at ETH Zurich working together with an international team have been able to use seismic data to look inside Mars for the first time. They measured the crust, mantle and core and narrowed down their composition. The three resulting articles are being published together as a cover story in the journal Science.

Phobos and Deimos are the remains of a larger Martian moon that was disrupted between 1 and 2.7 billion years ago, say researchers from the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich and the Physics Institute at the University of Zurich. In collaboration with the U.S. Naval Observatory, they reached this conclusion using computer simulations and seismic recordings from the InSight Mars mission.

Researchers from EPFL and ETH Zürich have conducted an original scientific study that puts forth a plausible explanation for the mysterious 1959 death of nine hikers in the Ural Mountains in the former Soviet Union.

Current understanding is that the chemical composition of the Earth’s mantle is relatively homogeneous. But experiments conducted by ETH researchers now show that this view is too simplistic. Their results solve a key problem facing the geosciences – and raise some new questions.

ETH researchers have used a computer model to test a new hypothesis about the formation of the Alps while simulating seismic activity in Switzerland. This will help improve current earthquake risk models.

ETH researchers used computer simulations to classify the current activity of corona structures on the surface of Venus. To their surprise, they found a previously undiscovered ring of fire on our neighbouring planet.

A research team from ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen counted over 136,000 rockfalls on the moon caused by asteroid impacts. Even billions of years old landscapes are still changing.