Geology

One Mystery Of Earthquake Lights Phenomena Solved

From the earliest days on record, earthquake lights- rare, luminous phenomena associated with some seismic events- have mystified people and intrigued geologists.  ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 3 2014 - 10:32am

Utah Copper Mine Landslide Triggered Earthquakes

The April 10th, 2013 landslide at a Utah copper mine probably was the biggest non-volcanic slide in North America's modern history, and included two rock avalanches that happened 90 minutes apart and surprisingly triggered 16 small earthquakes, accor ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 6 2014 - 2:58am

Neoarchean Terra Firma: Rare Trace Elements Show Large Landmasses Existed 2.7 Billion Years Ago

Researchers have determined the isotope composition of the rare trace elements Hafnium and Neodymium in 2.7 billion year-old seawater using high purity chemical sediments from Temagami Banded Iron Formation (Canada) and concluded that large landmasses mus ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 15 2014 - 11:00am

Source Of Galapagos Eruptions- It's Not Where Previously Thought

Seismic waves penetrating to a depth of almost 200 miles report the discovery of an anomaly that likely is the volcanic mantle plume of the Galapagos Islands- it's just not where geologists and computer modeling had assumed. ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 21 2014 - 12:11pm

44,000-Year-Old Ancient Moss Revealed In The Warming High Arctic

Relic moss samples exposed by modern Arctic warming have been found to date as far back as 44,000 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating.  ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 21 2014 - 5:13pm

The Ocean Beneath Your Feet

In a way, you could be walking on water right now. Water is carried to the mantle by deep sea fault zones which penetrate the oceanic plate as it bends into the subduction zone. Subduction, where an oceanic tectonic plate is forced beneath another plate, ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 27 2014 - 2:17pm

New Evidence For The Existence Of A Martian Ocean?

Lorena Moscardelli of Statoil North America–Research, Development and Innovation in Austin is not the first to claim evidence to support the existence of a Martian ocean during the late Hesperian–early Amazonian. Viking Orbiter images did that throughout ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 4 2014 - 7:33pm

Permian Mass Extinction May Have Happened 10X Faster Than Previously Thought

Earth's largest mass extinction occurred some 252 million years ago, wiping out more than 96 percent of marine species and 70 percent of life on land, including the largest insects known to have inhabited the Earth. Multiple hypotheses have tried to ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 11 2014 - 5:00am

Jupiter Geology: Ganymede Gets Global

The U.S. Geological Survey has gone cosmic and produced the first global geological map of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon and the largest in the solar system. ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 12 2014 - 4:54pm

Cool Earth- 4.4 Billion Year Old Australian Zircon Reveals The Early Genesis Of The Planet

Zircon crystals from Western Australia's Jack Hills region crystallized 4.4 billion years ago, building on earlier studies that used lead isotopes to date Australian zircons and identify them as the oldest bits of the Earth's crust. The microsco ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 23 2014 - 11:16pm