Geology

Cause Of The Big Freeze Confirmed, Scientists Say

Geologists have long thought that the rapid global cooling period nearly 13,000 years ago known as the Younger Dryas (Big Freeze) was triggered by the melting Laurentide ice sheet. But geological evidence for that theory has been lacking so far. Now resear ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 1 2010 - 5:51pm

How Fast Did The Andes Rise?

How quickly the Andes Mountains reached their current height, an average elevation of 13,000 feet, has been a contentious debate in geological circles. Some researchers claim the mountains rose abruptly and others maintain that the uplift was a more gradua ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 1 2010 - 4:48pm

Faint Young Sun- No Paradox

Faint Young Sun- No Paradox The faint young sun paradox is no paradox, according to a recent paper in Nature. The faint young sun paradox is that the earth didn't freeze over when the sun was weaker at the time when the oceans formed.  Earth's c ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - Apr 2 2010 - 4:47pm

Study Links Eccentricity And 100,000-yr Glacial Cycles

A new study in Nature Geoscience has uncovered more evidence linking regular changes in  Earth's orbital cycle to changes in the planet's climate The new analysis of ocean sediment cores from 57 locations around the world suggests that the patter ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 6 2010 - 12:48pm

Antarctic Ice Cores May Contain Glacial Stage Ice

Newly drilled core samples from the Antarctic Peninsula may contain ice dating back into the last ice age and could give new insight into past global climate changes. Oxygen-isotopic ratios – a proxy for temperature, and concentrations of dust and various ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 12 2010 - 11:52am

Asteroid Not To Blame For Pleistocene Extinction

An asteroid impact was likely not responsible for the extinction of the North American megafauna – such as mammoths, saber tooth cats, giant ground sloths and Dire wolves – along with the Clovis hunter-gatherer culture some 13,000 years ago, suggests a new ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 12 2010 - 5:31pm

Why So Many Earthquakes Recently? It's Physics

The earth has four major layers: the inner core, outer core, mantle and crust.  The crust is what we need to think about here and the earth's crust is divided into 'plates' that are like puzzle pieces but are up to 50 miles thick and they ar ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 24 2011 - 3:13pm

Iceland Volcano Spreads Ash Across UK

Carried by winds high up in the atmosphere, a massive cloud of ash from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in southwest Iceland has led to the closure of airports throughout the UK and Scandinavia, with further disruption in northern Europe expe ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 15 2010 - 12:58pm

Native Americans Caused Global Warming, Too

Chemical analysis of a stalagmite found in the mountainous Buckeye Creek basin of West Virginia suggests that native Americans contributed a significant level of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere through land use practices, such as burning trees to active ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 15 2010 - 12:35pm

Eyjafjallajökull, Gígjökull, Jökulhlaup, Gosmökkur

Eyjafjallajökull, Gígjökull, Jökulhlaup, Gosmökkur The world is suddenly faced with the need to learn how to pronounce Islenska, the Icelandic language. With much of European airspace closed due to volcanic ash in the skies, people are most commonly askin ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - Apr 19 2010 - 11:11am