Groundbreaking earthquake catalog may have just solved a seismic mystery
A crack in Highway 178 appeared after a 6.4
magnitude earthquake hit Ridgecrest, California.
Image from NatGeo,
In a recent study in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists examined a massive dataset of the region’s big and small rumbles, and they report a distinct increase in seismic activity in the weeks and days leading up to the majority of earthquakes.
Data from such experiments suggest that main quakes should be preceded by foreshocks, with tiny failures splintering across a fault when it approaches a critically stressed state.
But “real earthquakes are a much more complex system than our simple laboratory experiments,” says lead author Daniel Trugman, a seismologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Full story)
It's really hard to predict an earthquake, but scientists are getting closer
Image from Popular Mechanics.
Earthquakes are among the most surprising natural disasters. Unlike, say, hurricanes, the early-warning systems for quakes are still in their earliest stages. But new studies from the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Lab are painting a more accurate picture of the stresses within the earth's crust.
"It's very difficult to unpack what triggers larger earthquakes because they are infrequent, but with this new information about a huge number of small earthquakes, we can see how stress evolves in fault systems," says Daniel Trugman, a post-doctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. (Full story)
Also from Popular Mechanics this week:
The power source for a Mars outpost could be ready in 3 years
Engineers prepare the Kilopower reactor core.
NASA image.
An experimental miniature nuclear reactor known as Kilopower, meant to power manned outposts beyond Earth, could be ready for an in-flight test as early as 2022, says a project lead project at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
In a recent NASA Future In-Space Operations (FISO) Working Group weekly teleconference, Kilopower lead Patrick McClure spoke for himself and not the government when he said, "I think we could do this in three years and be ready for flight." (Full story)
Nuclear reactor for Mars outpost could be ready to fly by 2022
Watch this video
A new type of nuclear reactor designed to power crewed outposts on the moon and Mars could be ready for its first in-space trial just a few years from now, project team members said.
A flight test is the next big step for the Kilopower experimental fission reactor, which aced a series of critical ground tests from November 2017 through March 2018. No off-Earth demonstration is on the books yet, but Kilopower should be ready to go by 2022 or so if need be, said Patrick McClure, Kilopower project lead at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. (Full story)
Preparing the quantum workforce of the future
Lukasz Cincio, LANL photo.
In a hot auditorium deep in the Laboratory’s Physics Building at Los Alamos National Laboratory, college physics and computing students, veteran scientists and esteemed Laboratory fellows file in after lunch for the Director’s Colloquium, as they have done for decades. The well-worn fabric seats and wood panel walls have seen some of the world’s most influential scientists speak.
But this lecture is different and a sense of anticipation fills the crowd. Quantum computing guru Scott Aaronson from the University of Texas at Austin is giving the final lecture in the Quantum Computing Summer School, a new program aimed at building a global workforce capable of working on the computers of the future – quantum computers. (Full story)
LANL scientists pioneer fast leak detection system
Manvendra Dubey, left, Bryan Travis and
Keeley Costigan. LANL photo.
Natural gas is used to heat our homes, cook our food and keep our lights on. Increased production activity — spread over millions of miles of pipeline and thousands of processing facilities across the globe — brings with it costly, hard-to-detect leaks.
Enter ALFa LDS, the Autonomous, Low-cost, Fast Leak Detection System, pioneered by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists in collaboration with Aeris Technologies and Rice University. ALFa LDS is an affordable, robust, autonomous system for the detection of natural gas leaks. (Full story)
LANL officials detail potential building boom
At a meeting attended by some 700 representatives of construction firms from around the country Thursday, plans for different kind of explosion – a building and hiring boom – were described for Los Alamos National Laboratory.
LANL Director Thomas Mason, in an interview Friday, said the lab currently has 1,400 openings and has been hiring about 1,000 people annually over the past several years, with about 500 each year placed in new job slots as opposed to replacing retirees or others who’ve left the lab. (Full story)
Also from the Journal this week:
LANL operator Triad gives $500K to local development non-profit
Laboratory Director Thomas Mason.
LANL photo.
Triad National Security, LLC — operator of Los Alamos National Laboratory — is providing a $500,000 grant to a local economic development non-profit.
“The laboratory boosts the region’s economy through employment and procurement and we are always looking for direct ways to increase that impact,” said lab director Thomas Mason, who also is president of Triad. “Triad’s partnership with RDC helps businesses provide jobs across all of northern New Mexico.” (Full story)
Also reported by the LA Daily Post
Small businesses loans available via Regional Development Corp.
The Regional Development Corp., based in Española, has $269,000 available for no-interest microloans to small businesses and loans for technology and manufacturing companies in seven Northern New Mexico counties. The Regional Development Corp. receives financial support from Triad National Security, which operates Los Alamos National Laboratory; the cities of Española and Santa Fe; Los Alamos and Santa Fe counties; and the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership. (Full story)
