How long was the longest earthquake?

32-year- A devastating earthquake in Indonesia in 1861 was the crescendo of a 32-year-long clash between the tectonic plates below the island. It is the longest such 'slow slip event' ever recorded, and it left its mark in the bodies of the long-lived corals that inhabit the seas above.

nature.com - Daily briefing: The longest-known earthquake lasted 32 years - Nature

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A 32-year-long undersea quake was recorded in coral. Plus, Thailand’s pioneer of mRNA COVID vaccines and what the science says about lifting mask mandates. Coral microatolls, such as this one, cannot grow when exposed to air, so their fossilized bodies record elevation changes that push them up out of the water.Aron Meltzner/Earth Observatory of Singapore A devastating earthquake in Indonesia in 1861 was the crescendo of a 32-year-long clash between the tectonic plates below the island. It is the longest such ‘slow slip event’ ever recorded, and it left its mark in the bodies of the long-lived corals that inhabit the seas above. Researchers analysed growth patterns in corals on Simeulue Island, which were periodically exposed to the air as the land rose up and down. The corals record decades of vertical movement at the fault, from 1738 to the moment they died when thrust up by the 1861 quake. The findings will help seismologists to better understand some of the most dangerous quakes on Earth: the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people were preceded by a slow slip.

Scientific American | 4 min read

Go deeper with geoscientist Daniel Melnick in the Nature Geoscience News & Views article.

Reference: Nature Geoscience paper

120—150 years

The maximum lifespan for humans, according to an analysis of blood cell counts and physical activity among ageing people. (Scientific American | 6 min read)

Reference: Nature Communications paper

Features & opinion

Two books offer complementary insights into how artificial intelligence (AI) is shaping society. In The Alignment Problem, writer Brian Christian gives an intimate view of the people making AI technology — their aims, expectations, hopes, challenges and desolations. In Atlas of AI, scholar Kate Crawford deals with how, practically, AI gets into and plays out in our lives. “Meticulously researched and superbly written, these books… show that the responsible — ethical, legal and beneficial — development and use of AI is not about technology,” writes reviewer Virginia Dignum. “It is about us.”

Nature | 6 min read

Even laboratory-grown meat is made from cows — or from one cow, at least. Researchers must start with conventional meat cells, which someday might serve as the seed for huge bioreactors churning out more environmentally sound, ethical flesh. This means scientists must get their hands on reliable cell lines to study — but in the secretive world of cultured meat, no one wants to share. “There’s basically nowhere to start yet. If anyone wants to get into this field, it takes a significant amount of resources and time to acquire and characterize a cell line in-house,” says cultivated-meat researcher Elliot Swartz.

Wired | 15 min read

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Is a 10km earthquake deep?

Ten kilometers is a "fixed depth". Sometimes data are too poor to compute a reliable depth for an earthquake. In such cases, the depth is assigned to be 10 km.

usgs.gov - Why do so many earthquakes occur at a depth of 10km? - USGS.gov

Ten kilometers is a "fixed depth". Sometimes data are too poor to compute a reliable depth for an earthquake. In such cases, the depth is assigned to be 10 km. Why that number? In many areas around the world, reliable depths tend to average 10 km or close to it. For example, if we made a histogram of the reliable depths in such an area, we'd expect to see a peak around 10 km. So if we don't know the depth, 10 km is a reasonable guess. The USGS used to use 33 km, but increased understanding indicates that 10 km is more likely. Some areas, like subduction zones, are known to have many earthquakes much deeper than 10 km. In those areas, a deeper fixed depth would probably be appropriate. The most common reason for having to fix the depth is that the earthquake occurred too far from the nearest seismic station. A useful rule of thumb is that a reliable depth requires that the distance from the epicenter to the nearest station must be less than the depth of the earthquake. Modern computational and theoretical advances can now produce reliable depths at greater distances from the nearest station, so the rule of thumb does not always apply. However, the rule of thumb does illustrate one conclusion: fixed depths are more common for shallow earthquakes than for deep ones.

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