Geology News

September 9, 2016

Curious Case of Mount Etna's Wandering Craters

A Strange Thing Happened in the Stratosphere

X-Raying the Earth: Stormy Weather 'Bombs'

Arctic: Clues On Worst Mass Extinction of Life

Latest Headlines

updated 12:56am EDT

'Tug of War' Keeps Scientists Working on Storm Tracks

Sep. 2, 2016 — A new analysis finds that human-induced climate change complicates projecting the future position ... read more

Can Melting of Frozen Methane Explain Rapid Climate Change 56 Million Years Ago?

Sep. 1, 2016 — The release of methane from the seafloor was much slower than previously thought during a rapid global warming event 56 ... read more

Sediments Control Methane Release to the Ocean

Aug. 31, 2016 — Methane is stored under the sea floor, concentrated in form of hydrates, crystalline ice structures that stay stable under high pressure and in low temperatures. Several ... read more

'Anthropocene': Potential New Geological Time Interval

Aug. 29, 2016 — The Working Group on the 'Anthropocene' (AWG) will provide its summary of evidence and its provisional recommendations on a potential new geological time ... read more

Research Priorities for the Field of Atmospheric Chemistry

Aug. 26, 2016 — Increasing energy demands and expanding industrial and agricultural activities worldwide are changing the composition of the atmosphere and contributing to major global challenges like climate change ... read more

Positioning Exact to the Millimeter: Geodetic Reference System Enables Highly Accurate Positioning

Aug. 25, 2016 — How many millimeters has the sea level risen? How fast are the continents moving? In order to answer these questions, ... read more

New Insights Into the Relationship Between Erosion and Tectonics in the Himalayas

Aug. 23, 2016 — Earth's climate interacts with so called surface processes -- such as landslides or river erosion -- and tectonics to shape ... read more

Ancient Air Pockets Changing the History of Earth’s Oxygen

Aug. 22, 2016 — Geologists are using new direct methods to measure the Earth's oxygenation. They identified, for the first time, exactly how much oxygen was in Earth's atmosphere 813 million ... read more

Better Understanding Seismic Hazards

Aug. 22, 2016 — The April 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal killed more than 8,000 people and injured more than 21,000. With a magnitude of 7.8, it was the worst natural disaster to strike ... read more

2014 Napa Earthquake Continued to Creep, Weeks After Main Shock

Aug. 19, 2016 — On August 24, 2014, just south of Napa, California, a fault in Earth suddenly slipped, violently shifting and splitting huge blocks of solid rock, 6 miles below the surface. ... read more

Lava Flowing from Hawaii Volcano Draws Tourists

Ancient Ice Reveals Earth's Climate History

Lava from Hawaii Volcano Pours Into the Pacific Ocean

Raw: Scientists Explore Underwater Sinkhole

Thin Tropical Clouds Cool the Climate

Aug. 17, 2016 — Thin clouds at about 5 km altitude are more ubiquitous in the tropics than previously thought and they have a substantial cooling effect on climate, report researchers. The cooling effect of ... read more

Alaska's 'Sleeping Lady'

Aug. 17, 2016 — Every year countless Alaskans and visitors gaze across Cook Inlet from Anchorage at the 'Sleeping Lady' silhouette of Mount Susitna. This scenic mountain and the more rounded Beluga ... read more

New Antarctic Ice Discovery Aids Future Climate Predictions

Aug. 16, 2016 — A team of scientists has discovered a 65 percent reduction in sea ice during the last interglacial period around 128,000 years ... read more

Humble Moss Helped Create Our Oxygen-Rich Atmosphere

Aug. 15, 2016 — The evolution of the first land plants including mosses may explain a long-standing mystery of how Earth's atmosphere became enriched with oxygen, according to an international ... read more

Researcher Uncovers 340 Million Year-Old Oceanic Crust in the Mediterranean Sea Using Magnetic Data

Aug. 15, 2016 — Results of a new study shed new light on the tectonic architecture and evolution of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and have important implications on various geodynamic processes, say ... read more

Marine Animals Live Longer at High Latitudes

Aug. 11, 2016 — After months of work by researchers, two patterns have emerged. The first reveals that, as a bivalve's lifespan increases, its growth rate decreases. The second shows that long life and slow ... read more

Specialized Life Forms Abound at Arctic Methane Seeps

Aug. 10, 2016 — Methane seeps have strong effects on the community structure at the bottom of the Arctic ... read more

Earth Interacted With Supernova Remnants for 1 Million Years

Aug. 10, 2016 — Physicists have succeeded in detecting a time-resolved supernova signal in the Earth's microfossil record. As the group shows, the supernova signal was first detectable at a time starting about ... read more

International Ocean Drilling Expedition to Understand Causes of the Indian Ocean 2004 Earthquake and Tsunami

Aug. 8, 2016 — The devastating earthquake that struck North Sumatra and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Boxing Day in 2004 caused a tsunami that inundated coastal communities around the Indian Ocean, killing ... read more

Magma-Limestone Interaction Can Trigger Explosive Volcanic Eruptions and Affect the Global Carbon Cycle

Aug. 7, 2016 — New research shows what happens when magma meets limestone on its way up to the surface. Magma-limestone interaction might help explain why volcanoes like Vesuvius in Italy and Merapi in Indonesia ... read more

Subduction Zone Earthquakes Off Oregon, Washington More Frequent Than Previous Estimates

Aug. 5, 2016 — A new analysis suggests that massive earthquakes on northern sections of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, affecting areas of the Pacific Northwest that are more heavily populated, are somewhat more ... read more

Lasers Melt Rocks to Reveal Development of Super-Earths and How Giant Impacts Make Magma

Aug. 3, 2016 — New experiments provide insight into how Earth-type planets form when giant asteroids or planetesimals collide and how the interiors of such planets ... read more

New Method to Measure the Energy of a Lightning Strike

Aug. 3, 2016 — By investigating 'fossilized' sand cylinders made by lightning strikes, sometimes thousands of years old, a geology professor's study provides a unique history of lightning and a new ... read more

Traces of Failed Super-Eruption in the Andes

Aug. 2, 2016 — Geoscientists have discovered accumulations of magma in the Andes sufficient to have set off a super-eruption but which, in fact, did not. Such eruptions, which expel enormous quantities of magma, ... read more

The Search for the Earthquake Nucleus

Aug. 1, 2016 — Where a tectonic plate dives under another, in the so-called subduction zones at ocean margins, many strong earthquakes occur. Especially the earthquakes at shallow depths often cause tsunamis. How ... read more

Earth's Mantle Appears to Have a Driving Role in Plate Tectonics

July 28, 2016 — Deep down below us is a tug of war moving at less than the speed of growing fingernails. Keeping your balance is not a concern, but how the movement happens has been debated among geologists. New ... read more

Virtual Rocks: A New Spin on Virtual Geology

July 28, 2016 — Over the past decade, the number of virtual field trips created to simulate in-person field excursions has grown, but one aspect of physical fieldwork is not commonly replicated: Virtual explorers do ... read more

Scientists Simulated a Nuclear Explosion of an Asteroid

July 27, 2016 — Scientists are developing measures to protect the Earth from potentially dangerous celestial bodies. With the help of supercomputer SKIF Cyberia, the scientists simulated the nuclear explosion of an ... read more

Transformations to Granular Zircon Revealed: Meteor Crater, Arizona

July 27, 2016 — Having been reported in lunar samples returned by Apollo astronauts, meteorites, impact glass, and at a number of meteorite craters on Earth, granular zircon is the most unusual and enigmatic type of ... read more

Magma Build-Up May Put Salvadoran Capital at Risk

July 25, 2016 — The build-up of magma six kilometres below El Salvador’s Ilopango caldera means the capital city of San Salvador may be at risk from future eruptions, researchers have ... read more

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Tuesday, August 16, 2016