Our research using only common words

Here's a summary of our past and present research in Chile using only the 1000 most common words used in the English language:

When the ground shakes a lot it can kill many people. Ground shaking can also form very big waves of water which cover lots of the land, and kill more people. It is important to understand when and where this happens so that we can make people safer in years to come.

When the shaking happens the land can go up and down. Some places change from being high up before the shaking to being lower down after. Other places change from low down to higher up. We look for things that can tell us how and when the land has changed in the past and when waves have covered the land. To do this we look at tiny bits of rock and very small living things. We have found the biggest shaking and largest waves happened four times in the past 1000 years in the area we are working.

Thanks to Chris Rowan and Anne Jefferson of the Highly Allocthonous blog for passing on the idea. Head over to the Up-Goer Five Words Box to try it for yourself.