Geology

How The Air We Breathe Was Created By Earth's Tectonic Plates

By Simon Redfern, University of Cambridge How is it that Earth developed an atmosphere that made the development of life possible? A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience links the origins of Earth’s nitrogen-rich atmosphere to the same tectoni ...

Article - The Conversation - Oct 27 2014 - 1:31pm

Cambrian Explosion: Geography May Have Triggered Increase In Animal Life

The "Cambrian explosion," the rapid diversification of animal life in the fossil record 530 million years ago, has by necessity remained the subjective of speculation. We know it happened, but no idea why, we simply know we wouldn't be here ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 1 2014 - 10:24am

Plate Tectonics 2.0: Terra Firma Is Not So Firm And Tectonic Plates Are Not Rigid

Tectonic plates, which make up the outer layer of the earth, are rigid. It is giant layers of rock, after all. But that is a bit of a simplification. They are not rigid and don't fit together as nicely as we imagine, according to a new paper in  Geol ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 4 2014 - 3:54pm

Gamburtsev: The Fountain Of Youth Under The Antarctic Mountains

Time is relative. What is a long time to humans is nothing to a mountain. Like humans, mountains usually burst on the scene, then they stand tall and finally age wears them down and their sharp features soften and they become grow shorter and rounder. Not ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 19 2014 - 11:46am

Ancient Buried Canyon In South Tibet Rules Out Tectonic Aneurysm

An ancient, deep canyon buried along the Yarlung Tsangpo River in south Tibet, north of the eastern end of the Himalayas, has been discovered by geologists who say this ancient canyon--thousands of feet deep in places--effectively rules out a popular mode ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 21 2014 - 11:03am

Two Thirds Of Earth's Carbon May Be Stored In The Inner Core

The planet's largest carbon reservoir is not in permafrost or the Amazon rainforest, it is hidden in the Earth's inner core, according to what the authors of a new study in PNAS call a "provocative and speculative" finding.  As much as ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 1 2014 - 6:31pm

Cape Verde Volcano- The Biggest Natural Disaster You Aren't Reading About

Many villagers near the Cape Verde volcano will have little to return to. Joao Relvas/EPA By David Rothery, The Open University Around 60 volcanoes erupt in the average year. On any particular day, there are usually about 20 volcanoes erupting somewhere i ...

Article - The Conversation - Dec 10 2014 - 10:35am

Bárðarbunga Volcano Eruption Led To Earth Growing A New Layer Underneath

When the Bárðarbunga volcano beneath Iceland's Vatnajökull ice cap reawakened in August 2014, scientists got an opportunity to monitor how the magma flowed through cracks in the rock away from the volcano.  Although it has a long history of eruptions ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 15 2014 - 1:12pm

2011 Virginia Earthquake May Have Been Due To Fault "Crossroads"

The 2011 east coast earthquake felt by people from Georgia to Canada likely originated from a fault “junction” just outside of Mineral, Virginia, according to new U.S. Geological Survey research published in the Geological Society of America’s  Special Pa ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 24 2014 - 9:30am

The Most Detailed Geologic Map of Mars: Q&A with Dr. Chris Okubo

In December 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released its highest-resolution geologic map of Mars. ...

Blog Post - Tomasz Nowakowski - Jan 4 2015 - 12:27pm