Nuclear reactors in the central and eastern U.S. face previously unrecognized threats from big earthquakes, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday. Experts said upgrading the plants to withstand more substantial earth movements would be costly and could force some to close.

The two nuclear power reactors in North Anna, Va., were cooling off Wednesday after being shut down by Tuesday’s earthquake, but the debate about what lessons should be learned for nuclear safety was still simmering.

As part of its budget for the upcoming fiscal year, Pentagon research agency Darpa is launching the “Transparent Earth” project which will create real-time, 3-D maps that display “the physical, chemical and dynamic properties of the earth down to 5 kilometer depth” by 2015. The new maps would help explain and predict volcanic eruptions and earthquakes but would have military utility in detecting, targeting, and destroying hard and buried underground facility (UGF) target.

The author discusses current research into detecting enhanced infrared radiation from ground stations and outer space as a way of detecting earthquakes before they happen.

There are rumblings the long-feared Yellowstone superquake could be imminent in the wake of a series of 30-plus mini-earthquakes in the park over the past few day -- too weak to be felt by humans for the most part but picked up by the seismometers at the University of Utah.

Japan yesterday signed a deal to receive data on possible tsunami activity from seismic and hydroacoustic sensors operated by an international nuclear detonation monitoring organization.

Earthquake researchers in California hope to take advantage of the motion sensors in laptops to create an earthquake-sensing network. By putting computers in homes and businesses to work as seismic monitors, the researchers hope to pull together a wealth of information on major quakes, and perhaps even offer early warnings, giving a few seconds' notice of a potentially devastating quake.

NASA scientists have said they could be on the verge of a breakthrough in their efforts to forecast earthquakes.
Researchers say they have found a close link between electrical disturbances on the edge of our atmosphere and impending quakes on the ground below and they are working on a proposal for a low-cost, space-borne early warning system based on at least three satellites.

An effort to develop cooperative seismic monitoring of the Indian Ocean to prevent a repeat of last year's Tsunami is being held up by Indian concerns that the data could reveal too much about their nuclear weapons testing program.

The International Monitoring System, an international network of seismographic sensors developed to verify compliance with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, has agreed to release seismographic data that could be useful for Tsunami detection and early warning. However, the data release is on an experimental basis because there is still disagreement among the participants in the IMS as to whether the IMS should be providing early warning data.