Geology

Stop Making Earthquake Forecasts Using Flawed Methodology

For 20 years, some seismologists in Japan, such as  Katsuhiko Ishibashi, now professor emeritus at Kobe University, have warned of the seismic and tsunami hazards to the safety of nuclear power plants.  Yet in the immediate aftermath of the magnitude-9.1 ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 13 2011 - 2:00pm

Yellowstone Supervolcano Plume- Conductivity Shows Its Even Bigger Than Previously Believed

The first large-scale picture of the electrical conductivity of the underground molten rock that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano suggests that the plume beneath the volcanically active area, known for geysers and hot springs, is even bigger than it appe ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 14 2011 - 11:30am

When It's Not Freezing, The Earth's Core Is Melting

The Earth's inner core is a ball of solid iron about the size of the Moon. This iron core is surrounded by a dynamic outer core of a liquid iron-nickel alloy- along with other, lighter elements- a highly viscous mantle and a solid crust that forms the ...

Article - News Staff - May 19 2011 - 11:18am

Grímsvötn Ash Plume

Grímsvötn Ash Plume Grímsvötn, an ice-capped volcano in the south of Iceland is currently erupting.  The ice cap is quite extensive and thick, so unless there are unknown sub-surface fissures, extensive local flooding is unlikely to result from the erupti ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - May 22 2011 - 11:13am

Volcanic Eruptions: Science And Risk Management

In 2010 volcanic ash from Eyjafjallajökull clouded Europe for days. It opened up a discussion about how science is used in risk management. Europe had just finished its first volcanic ash crisis exercise validating changes and improvements to the volcanic ...

Article - Bente Lilja Bye - Oct 23 2012 - 5:35pm

Did Global Cooling Drive The Vikings From Greenland?

Contrary to what you might think by the name, Greenland is rather frigid and Iceland is often quite nice.    Nice for Vikings, anyway.  But for a time Greenland became so miserable even Scandinavians had enough. ...

Article - News Staff - May 30 2011 - 6:11pm

Ancient Analogies For Global Warming?

Most people know that we have tried to judge what may happen during global warming by creating gigantic models of the Earth system, and see how it responds to forcing from different factors. Another way that we approach the problem, is, (in my opinion) a m ...

Article - Oliver Knevitt - Jun 10 2011 - 11:07am

Let's Clear Up A Few Things About Geomagnetism

If you're anything more than an infrequent stumbler to Science 2.0, then you will probably have noticed- if not, read- Helen's article on geomagnetic polarity reversals, which until recently has been floating in the top articles list. Whilst it&# ...

Article - Oliver Knevitt - Jun 23 2011 - 5:10am

Welcome To The Anthropocene

Here's a question. In many millions of years time, is it possible that future geologists- be they our distant descendants, or an alien race that has since conquered Earth- will be able to look at the sequence of rocks corresponding to the present peri ...

Article - Oliver Knevitt - Jul 4 2011 - 12:02pm

Reconstructing A Catastrophe: The Minoan Eruption Of Santorini

A recent BBC docu-drama called 'Atlantis' recreated the last days of the Bronze Age civilisation on the island of Thera (now known as Santorini), that I've meant to blog about for a while now.  This program, along with a more traditional � ...

Article - Gareth Fabbro - Jul 1 2011 - 6:26pm