The massive 9.2-magnitude Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on 26 December 2004 generated a tsunami that propagated throughout the Indian Ocean, killing more than 250,000 people. By contrast, the nearby 8.7-magnitude Simeulue-Nias earthquake on 28 March 2005 generated a small tsunami that caused only a few casualties. Though these earthquakes occurred in similar tectonic settings, their tsunami were markedly different, highlighting the need for reliably determining tsunami hazards from earthquake geometry.

How is matter created? What happens when stars die? Is the universe shrinking, or is it expanding? At Florida State University, a new facility known as RESOLUT is helping physicists conduct experiments that may help provide answers to just such questions. Weighing some 16 tons and taking up more than 450 square feet of space along a wall inside the accelerator lab, RESOLUT enables researchers to fire a beam of atomic particles through a steel tube at speeds approaching 60 million miles per hour -- roughly one-tenth the speed of light -- and then to observe the nuclear reactions that occur.