Geology

Lack Of 65 Million Year Old Coal Plants Leads To A Carbon Cenosphere Mystery

Beads known to geologists as carbon cenospheres were formed from liquefied carbon deep in the earth when an asteroid struck some 65 million years ago, according to a new theory. The carbon cenospheres were deposited next to a thin layer of the element irid ...

Article - News Staff - May 5 2008 - 8:09pm

Are Climate Models Right Or Wrong Compared To Antarctic Data? Yes

A comparison of recorded Antarctic temperatures and snowfall accumulation to predictions by major computer models of global climate change offer both good and bad news. The good news is that the numerical models’ predictions covering the last 50 years broa ...

Article - News Staff - May 7 2008 - 12:21pm

Chile’s Chaiten Volcano Blasting Ash

Chile’s Chaiten Volcano is shown spewing ash and smoke (centre left of image) into the air for hundreds of km over Argentina’s Patagonia Plateau in this Envisat image acquired on 5 May 2008. The 1000 m-high volcano had been dormant for thousands of years b ...

Article - News Staff - May 8 2008 - 12:40pm

How Much Warming Would It Take To Turn Earth Into Venus?

A new study of possible links between climate and geophysics on Earth and similar planets finds that prolonged heating of the atmosphere can shut down plate tectonics and cause a planet's crust to become locked in place. "The heat required goes f ...

Article - News Staff - May 12 2008 - 4:53pm

Earthquake Faults In Sichuan, China Identified Last Summer

Last summer, researchers writing in the international journal Tectonics concluded that geological faults in the Sichuan Basin, China “are sufficiently long to sustain a strong ground-shaking earthquake, making them potentially serious sources of regional s ...

Article - News Staff - May 17 2008 - 11:02am

The Mystery Of Surface Waves From Large Earthquakes Triggering Small Ones Across The World

Until 1992, when California’s magnitude-7.3 Landers earthquake set off small jolts as far away as Yellowstone National Park, scientists did not believe large earthquakes sparked smaller tremors at distant locations. Now, a definitive study shows large eart ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 24 2011 - 3:23pm

Mud Volcano In Java May Continue To Erupt For Months And Possibly Years

The first scientific report into the causes and impact of Lusi, the Indonesian mud volcano, reveals that the 2006 eruption will continue to erupt and spew out between 7,000 and 150,000 cubic metres of mud a day for months, if not years to come, leaving at ...

Article - News Staff - May 28 2008 - 11:41am

Lusi, World's Fastest-Growing Mud Volcano, Is Collapsing

Lusi, the world’s fastest-growing mud volcano, is collapsing and could subside to depths of more than 140 meters with consequences for the surrounding environment, according to new research. As the second anniversary (May 29) of the eruption on the Indones ...

Article - News Staff - May 28 2008 - 11:59am

Antarctic Seismic Waves Equal To A Magnitude 7 Earthquake- Every Day

A seismologist at Washington University in St. Louis and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have found seismic signals from a giant river of ice in Antarctica that makes California's earthquake p ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 24 2011 - 3:26pm

Report Says Drilling, Not Earthquake, Caused The Lusi Mud Volcano

The two-year old mud volcano called Lusi spews huge volumes of mud and has displaced more than 30,000 people and caused millions of dollars worth of damage. An international team of scientists has now concluded that it was caused by the drilling of a gas e ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 24 2011 - 3:25pm