Who are we?
Dr. Judith Hubbard (BS Caltech 2005, PhD Harvard University 2011) — publications
Dr. Kyle Bradley (BS Caltech 2005, PhD MIT 2012) — publications
Contact:
earthquakeinsights@gmail.com
Who are we? Until three years ago, we were professors: doing research, teaching students, writing grants. We were doing fieldwork in countries around the world. We were writing papers. We were discovering how earthquakes work. But something was missing...
We saw a huge gap between what we were doing — studying earthquakes — and the people who were impacted by those events. So, we decided to try to fill that gap. We quit our jobs, moved around the world, and started this project: a newsletter aimed at helping people around the world understand why they were feeling shaking.
But we don’t just want to tell people what’s going on — we want to show them. That’s why each of our posts includes brand-new maps, graphs, and 3D models showing how earthquakes work.
We’re also people, spouses, and parents. We met as undergraduates at Caltech in 2001, and have been together ever since — through PhDs at Harvard and MIT, ten years working at the Earth Observatory of Singapore as faculty, and now as visiting scientists at Cornell University. Over the years, we have collaborated on science, public communication, and the raising of three children!
We communicate broadly. We are regularly asked to provide insight on recent earthquakes by major media organizations, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, and National Geographic. You can find an incomplete list of news highlights here.
You can also follow Judith on Bluesky (@judithgeology.bsky.social), Mastodon (@judithgeology@mastodon.social), and LinkedIn.
Why subscribe?
Who subscribes to Earthquake Insights? We have readers from more than 130 countries around the world. Subscribers include earthquake scientists, journalists, people recently impacted by earthquakes, and interested laypeople. We write our posts to reach all of these audiences — presenting new and exciting results in everyday language.
Subscribe to get regular updates when new posts come out — typically every few days, sometimes longer, depending on what earthquakes have been happening. All of our new posts (<1 month old) free, because we believe that everyone around the world should have access to the latest information when they are impacted by an earthquake.
Some of our posts contain critical, in-depth analyses of recent earthquake research. These posts are permanently free, in order to allow open discussion within the scientific community.
Why pay to subscribe?
Help us keep the site running by choosing a paid subscription. This Substack is a full-time job; we aren’t employed elsewhere, and need paid subscribers to help keep the lights on!
Paid subscribers also get full access to the newsletter and website — including our full archive with over 300 posts.
Special subscriptions:
Does one of the following apply to you? Contact us (earthquakeinsights@gmail.com) to discuss your needs.
Academic or corporate subscriptions: Do you need specific paperwork to charge a subscription to a grant or to your company? Let us know.
Group subscriptions: Sign up with a friend and get 20% off.
Institutional subscriptions: Institutional subscriptions give you a specific number of seats (emails); you manage the list. If you represent an organization interested in earthquakes or earthquake hazards, we can offer some additional services with an institutional subscription, such as Zoom meetings, exclusive chat groups, custom maps, or the rights to republish some of our posts or images.
Teaching subscriptions: If you use our content in teaching and want your students to be able to read all of our posts, we can offer a discounted subscription for your students. In special cases, we may offer Zoom sessions with your students.
Alternative payment method: If you want to opt out of purchasing a subscription through Substack for personal reasons, email us.
Non-renewing subscription: If you want to sign up for a year without a recurring payment, we can arrange that through an alternative payment.
Student or researcher from a low-income country, or otherwise unable to pay: We do not want finances to be a barrier. Contact us to arrange a free “paid” subscription.
Other ways to help:
Sponsor our free subscription program: Contact us if you would like to help make full subscriptions available to people who cannot afford them.
Sponsor a post: If there a specific post that you would like to have remain publicly available? Let us know. Your organization’s name will be credited at the top of the post.
Interested in more? We occasionally do consulting work related to earthquake hazards. If you represent a group that is interested in paid consulting, contact us. Work like this includes training on how to rapidly assess earthquakes or how to communicate about hazards, and more in-depth hazard assessments for regions of interest.
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