Natural hazards

The boreal forest of North America developed after the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. We might expect that climate change and human occupation of the territory would put the boreal forest at greater risk of fire. But a recent scientific study involving Martin Girardin, a research scientist from the Laurentian Forestry Centre at the Canadian Forest Service, has found the opposite.

For weeks, Simon Tolszczuk-Leclerc and the Emergency Geomatics Service (EGS) team have been following the spring thaw and river ice breakup. They know exactly what to do, and they’re ready to take immediate action.

On the morning of February 8, 1855, a 5.2-magnitude earthquake near Moncton, New Brunswick, sent rumbles through the Maritimes and Maine. Over a century later, newspaper archives have allowed research scientists to uncover much information about this event.

Media reports of earthquakes often identify their epicentre as a single point on a map. This may be accurate for small earthquakes. But for large ones, the seismic energy is released from a large surface, not a point on a map.