Geology

San Andreas, The Movie: 5 Geology Facts Versus Fictions

The new disaster movie   San Andreas draws on science fact- that earthquakes are a reality- and turns it into an action movie by creating a domino effect and pitting Duane "The Rock" Johnson against them. ...

Article - News Staff - May 29 2015 - 1:31pm

Floods As Weapons Of War

A new study shows that, from 1500 until 2000, about a third of floods in southwestern Netherlands were deliberately caused by humans during wartimes. Some of these inundations resulted in significant changes to the landscape, being as damaging as floods c ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 16 2015 - 9:00am

6 Facts On Human-Caused Earthquakes, From USGS

The central United States has undergone a dramatic increase in seismicity over the past 6 years. From 1973-2008, there was an average of 24 earthquakes of magnitude 3 and larger per year. From 2009-2014, the rate steadily increased, averaging 193 per year ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 10 2015 - 4:30pm

A Third Of The World's Biggest Groundwater Basins Are In Distress

Two new studies led by UC Irvine using data from NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites show that civilization is rapidly draining some of its largest groundwater basins, yet there is little to no accurate data about how much water remain ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 22 2015 - 9:00am

Clues Point To Sulfur In Earth's Core

Researchers have found chemical evidence for the presence of sulfur in the Earth's core. They determined the composition of the core, which is inaccessible to direct sampling, by analyzing isotopes- atoms of the same element that have different masses ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 21 2015 - 11:00am

Understanding Subduction Zone Earthquakes, Like Sumatra In 2004

The December 26th 2004 Mw ~9.2 Indian Ocean earthquake, also known as the Sumatra-Andaman or Aceh-Andaman earthquake and generated massive, destructive tsunamis, clearly demonstrated the need for a better understanding of how frequently subduction zone ear ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 24 2015 - 10:00am

Residential Tourism Increases Earthquake Risk, Says Sociologist

Antonio Aledo, Professor of Sociology at the University of Alicante, warns that "because of real estate speculation and the management of public budgets based on income from the real estate business, seismic risk has been forgotten." As an examp ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 28 2015 - 9:30am

Earth’s Magnetic Field May Be 4 Billion Years Old

Since 2010, the best estimate of the age of Earth’s magnetic field has been 3.45 billion years but new research says the magnetic field is far older. John Tarduno, a geophysicist at the University of Rochester and a leading expert on Earth’s magnetic field ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 2 2015 - 1:02pm

Why The Greenwich Prime Meridian Moved

In 1884, a delegation of international representatives convened in Washington, D.C. to recommend that Earth's prime meridian (the north-south line marking zero degrees longitude) should pass through the Airy Transit Circle at the Royal Observatory in ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 14 2015 - 6:30am

Colorado Front Range Storm In 2013 Caused 1,000 Years Of Erosion

We can be concerned about erosion due to man-made causes but it is nothing like what nature will randomly do in a single year, without ever once consulting Natural Resources Defense Council or other industry-funded groups. The historic September 2013 stor ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 28 2015 - 7:00am