Precious Smith

On Wednesday, a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 struck Japan's northeast shore. The quake led to power outages and has prompted a tsunami warning. Fukushima prefecture, where a devastating earthquake caused serious damages in 2011, was the affected area.

According to a recent study, the center portion of the San Andreas Fault may be capable of producing greater earthquakes than previously thought. Aseismic creep occurs between Parkfield and Hollister on the famed California fault. Instead of creating major quakes by suddenly releasing stress, the two sections of the fault move unnoticeably, allowing stress to dissipate.

An enormous chunk of ice the size of Philadelphia broke off the Larsen-B glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula in just three days in late January and floated away. Between January 19 and 21, NASA satellites captured the breakup, and with it saw the calving of icebergs from Crane Glacier and its neighbors when the sea ice no longer supported their fronts.