Geology

Why Did Ice In Antarctica Suddenly Appear 35 Million Years Ago? CO2, Says Study

Ice in Antarctica suddenly appeared — suddenly in geologic terms being a little different than how we think of it — about 35 million years ago. For the previous 100 million years the continent had been essentially ice-free.  Even after Antarctica had drift ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 26 2009 - 6:04pm

Mapping The Dunes Of Titan

Titan's vast dune fields, which may act like weather vanes to determine general wind direction on Saturn's biggest moon, have been mapped by scientists who compiled four years of radar data collected by the Cassini spacecraft.  Titan's rippl ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 1 2009 - 11:26am

Promethei Terra Gullies Suggest Water On Mars As Recently As 1.25 Million Years Ago

Planetary geologists at Brown University have found a gully fan system on Mars that formed about 1.25 million years ago. The fan offers compelling evidence that it was formed by melt water that originated in nearby snow and ice deposits and may stand as th ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 2 2009 - 10:26am

Marte Valles: Fractured Lavas, Only Seen Before On Earth, Suggest Floods On Mars

Unique fractures in lavas on ancient Mars suggest water occasionally flooded portions of the planet's surface.   The fractures, known as "columnar joints," are the first that have been observed on a planet other than Earth.  The characterist ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 2 2009 - 10:32am

Rupes Tenuis- Ice-Covered Martian North Pole

The snow-laden region of Rupes Tenuis on the martian north pole got some images courtesy of ESA’s Mars Express orbiter. The images are centred around 81° north and 297° east and have a ground resolution of 41 m/pixel. They cover an area of about 44 000 km2 ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 6 2009 - 12:46pm

Why Is The Nyiragongo Volcano Lava Different From Others?

Nyiragongo, an active African volcano, possesses lava unlike any other in the world, which may point toward its source being a new mantle plume says a University of Rochester geochemist. The lava composition indicates that a mantle plume—an upwelling of i ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 13 2009 - 3:32pm

Asteroid Gets Viewed From Space To Impact

Reports by scientists of meteorites striking Earth in the past have resembled police reports of so many muggings — the offenders came out of nowhere and then disappeared into the crowd, making it difficult to get more than very basic facts. Now an interna ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 6:55pm

Scientists Go On An Asteroid Treasure Hunt

Just before dawn on Oct. 7, 2008, an SUV-sized asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere and exploded harmlessly over the Nubian Desert of northern Sudan. Scientists expected the asteroid, called 2008 TC3, had blown to dust in the resulting high-altitude fi ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 1 2009 - 3:55pm

Hydrocarbon Oceans And Upside-Down Mountains: Welcome To Titan

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, may have a subterranean ocean of hydrocarbons and some topsy-turvy topography in which the summits of its mountains lie lower than its average surface elevation, according to new research.  Titan is also more squashed in ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 6 2009 - 10:18am

Tectonic Events Behind Pisco Earthquake That Killed 595 In Peru

A magnitude 8.0. earthquake destroyed 90 percent of the city of Pisco, Peru on August 16, 2007. The event killed 595 people, while another 318 were missing. Tsunami waves were observed locally, off the shore of Chile, and as far away as New Zealand.  In a ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 24 2011 - 3:17pm