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The drone image above was obtained by the NY Times. It shows building damage that resulted from the double earthquake in Venezuela in 2026 that I described in a iprevious blog.. It caused over 3,800 deaths, a figure that will keep rising as more of those unaccounted for are found. In the image I count 8 for sure, maybe 9 buildings that have fallen. They have all fallen in the same direction, toward the right in the image (I don't know the orientation of the image so I can't

The death toll from the recent earthquake doublet in Venezuela remains to be seen. As so often happens, early estimates were very low., just 100 or so. As of today, July 2nd 2026, the count has exceeded 2,000 and doesn't look like setting out any time soon. Speculation has it that it could reach 10,000. That would not be surprising. Estimates in July are over 8,000. Obtaining an accurate death toll is a difficult undertaking, more difficult than you might think. At first, pe

Surprising to many, including myself at one time although I am a marine geophysicist, the deep seafloor in many parts of the world's oceans is strewn with fist-sized nodules chock full of what have come to be called critical metals (or minerals). They are known as polymetal nodules, or maganese nodules. A typical example is shown below. They contain manganese and a lot more metals including copper, cobalt, nickel, zinc, silver, gold and Rare Earth elements. That’s what’s mean

The 7.8 Mw earthquake just south of the Philippines island of Mindanao was not exactly unexpected. The region is tectonically active and has seen many historic large earthquakes. An earthquake with magnitude Mw 7.8 is not huge and doesn't qualify for the terminology in the science to be described as a Great earthquake. But it's alrge enough to cause a lot of destruction and death. In the the map below, the recent earthquake is shown with a yellow star embedded in a backgrou