Geology
Scientists discover layer of liquified molten rock in Earth’s mantle
March 20, 2013 2:30 pm | News | Comments
Using advanced seafloor electromagnetic imaging technology, scientists with Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution imaged a 25-km-thick layer of partially melted mantle rock below the edge of the Cocos plate where it moves beneath Central America. The finding of this layer, which may be responsible for the sliding motions of the planet’s massive tectonic plates, could have far-reaching implications to our understanding of geologic processes.
Research shows how cosmic impact sparked devastating climate change
May 21, 2013 3:03 pm | by Tom Robinette, University of Cincinnati | News | Comments
An international team of researchers may have found what cause a dramatic cooling near...
Slow earthquakes: It's all in the rock mechanics
May 20, 2013 2:59 pm | News | Comments
Earthquakes that last minutes rather than seconds are a relatively recent discovery,...
Topography of Eastern Seaboard muddles ancient sea level changes
May 17, 2013 12:31 pm | by Ann Stark, LLNL | News | Comments
According to research taking place at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the...
Study: Earth's iron core is surprisingly weak
May 17, 2013 10:54 am | News | CommentsThe massive ball of iron sitting at the center of Earth is not quite as "rock-solid" as has been thought, say two Stanford University mineral physicists. By conducting experiments that simulate the immense pressures deep in the planet's interior, the researchers determined that iron in Earth's inner core is only about 40% as strong as previous studies estimated.
New study: Fracking hasn't polluted Arkansas water
May 16, 2013 5:58 pm | by KEVIN BEGOS - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsHydraulic fracturing for natural gas hasn't contaminated drinking water wells in Arkansas, according to a new study, but researchers said the geology there may be more of a natural barrier to pollution than in other areas where shale gas drilling takes place.
Groundwater unaffected by shale gas production in Arkansas
May 15, 2013 11:46 am | News | CommentsScientists sampling 127 shallow drinking water wells in areas overlying Fayetteville Shale gas production in north-central Arkansas found no evidence of groundwater contamination. The team of scientists at Duke University and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) analyzed the samples for major and trace elements and hydrocarbons, and used isotopic tracers to identify the sources of possible contaminants.
Revising Darwin's sinking-island theory
May 13, 2013 7:41 am | by Genevieve Wanucha, Oceans at MIT | News | CommentsThe three different formations of South Pacific coral-reef islands, fringing, barrier, and atoll, have long fascinated geologists. The question of how reefs develop into these shapes over evolutionary time produced an enduring conflict between two hypotheses, one from Charles Darwin and the other from Reginald Daly. But in a recently published paper, researchers use modern measurements and computer modeling to resolve this old conundrum.
New analysis suggests wind, not water, formed mound on Mars
May 7, 2013 7:33 am | News | CommentsA roughly 3.5-mile high Martian mound that scientists suspect preserves evidence of a massive lake might actually have formed as a result of the Red Planet's famously dusty atmosphere, an analysis of the mound's features suggests. If correct, the research could dilute expectations that the mound holds evidence of a large body of water, which would have important implications for understanding Mars' past habitability.
Meteorite study may reveal Mars’ secrets of life
May 2, 2013 8:57 am | News | CommentsIn an effort to determine if conditions were ever right on Mars to sustain life, a team of scientists has examined a meteorite that formed on the red planet more than a billion years ago. And although this team’s work is not specifically solving the mystery, it is laying the groundwork for future researchers to answer this age-old question.
Fossil shells, new geochemical technique provide clues to ancient climate cooling
April 23, 2013 9:41 am | News | CommentsUsing a new laboratory geochemical technique to analyze heavy isotopes of carbon and oxygen in fossil snail shells, scientists have gained insights into an abrupt climate shift that transformed the planet nearly 34 million years ago. At that time, the Earth switched from a warm and high-carbon dioxide "greenhouse" state to the lower-carbon dioxide, variable climate of the modern "icehouse" world.
Superstorm Sandy literally shook the United States
April 19, 2013 12:57 pm | News | CommentsWhen superstorm Sandy turned and took aim at New York City and Long Island last October, ocean waves hitting each other and the shore rattled the seafloor and much of the United States—shaking detected by seismometers across the country, University of Utah researchers have recently found. These “microseisms” generated by Sandy were detected by Earthscope, a network of 500 portable seismometers.
Carbon’s role in atmosphere formation
April 9, 2013 4:53 am | News | CommentsA new study from a collaboration of several universities suggests that the way carbon moves from within a planet to the surface plays a big role in the evolution of a planet's atmosphere. If Mars released much of its carbon as methane, for example, it might have been warm enough to support liquid water. This finding offers important clues about the early atmospheric evolution of Mars and other terrestrial bodies.
Mars missions scaled back in April because of sun
April 4, 2013 12:39 pm | by Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsIt's the Martian version of spring break: Curiosity and Opportunity, along with their spacecraft friends circling overhead, will take it easy this month because of the sun's interference. For much of April, the sun blocks the line of sight between Earth and Mars. This celestial alignment—called a Mars solar conjunction—makes it difficult for engineers to send instructions or hear from the flotilla in orbit and on the surface.
Power behind primordial soup discovered
April 4, 2013 12:06 pm | News | CommentsResearchers at the University of Leeds may have solved a key puzzle about how objects from space could have kindled life on Earth. While it is generally accepted that some important ingredients for life came from meteorites bombarding the early Earth, scientists have not been able to explain how that inanimate rock transformed into the building blocks of life, until now.
Study provides evidence ancient asteroid caused global firestorm on Earth
March 28, 2013 7:48 am | News | CommentsA new look at conditions after a Manhattan-sized asteroid slammed into a region of Mexico in the dinosaur days indicates the event could have triggered a global firestorm that would have burned every twig, bush, and tree on Earth and led to the extinction of 80% of all Earth’s species, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study.
Computer models show how deep carbon could return to Earth's surface
March 21, 2013 9:17 am | News | CommentsComputer simulations of water under extreme pressure are helping geochemists understand how carbon might be recycled from hundreds of miles below the Earth's surface. Carbon compounds are the basis of life, provide most of our fuels and contribute to climate change. The cycling of carbon through the oceans, atmosphere, and shallow crust of the Earth has been intensively studied, but little is known about what happens to carbon deep in the Earth.
Under California: An ancient tectonic plate
March 18, 2013 4:39 pm | News | CommentsLarge chunks of an ancient tectonic plate that slid under North America millions of years ago are still present under parts of central California and Mexico, according to new research led by Brown University geophysicists. Called the Isabella anomaly—a large mass of cool, dehydrated material about 100 km beneath central California—is in fact a surviving slab of the ancient Farallon oceanic plate driven deep into the Earth’s mantle about 100 million years ago.
Mars rover shows planet could have supported life
March 13, 2013 12:26 pm | by Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsDrilling into a rock near its landing spot, the Curiosity rover has answered a key question about Mars: The red planet long ago harbored some of the ingredients needed for primitive life to thrive. Topping the list is evidence of water and basic elements that teeny organisms could feed on, scientists said Tuesday.
Lunar impacts created seas of molten rock
March 12, 2013 10:46 am | News | CommentsA new analysis of data from NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter shows that molten rock may have been present on the Moon more recently and for longer periods than previously thought. Differentiation—a settling out of rock layers as liquid rock cools—would require thousands of years and a fluid rock sea at least six miles deep.
Study: Glaciers contribute significant iron in Atlantic Ocean
March 11, 2013 4:24 pm | News | CommentsAll living organisms rely on iron as an essential nutrient. In the ocean, iron’s abundance or scarcity means all the difference as it fuels the growth of plankton. A new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution identifies an unexpectedly large source of iron to the North Atlantic—meltwater from glaciers and ice sheets, which may stimulate plankton growth. This source is likely to increase as melting of the Greenland ice sheet escalates under a warming climate.
Researchers track sediments’ fate in largest-ever dam removal
March 8, 2013 12:35 pm | News | CommentsSalmon are beginning to swim up the Elwha River for the first time in more than a century. But University of Washington marine geologists are watching what’s beginning to flow downstream—sediments from the largest dam-removal project ever undertaken. It turns out there is even more sediment than originally thought—about 34 million cubic yards.
“True grit” erodes assumptions about evolution
March 5, 2013 1:13 pm | by Sandra Hines, University of Washington | News | CommentsNew research led by the University of Washington challenges the 140-year-old assumption that finding fossilized remains of prehistoric animals with such teeth meant the animals were living in grasslands and savannas. Instead it appears certain South American mammals evolved the teeth in response to the gritty dust and volcanic ash they encountered while feeding in an ancient tropical forest.
Researchers find link to arsenic-contaminated groundwater
March 5, 2013 10:01 am | News | CommentsMillions of people in Bangladesh and neighboring countries are chronically exposed to arsenic-contaminated groundwater, which causes skin lesions and increases the risk of certain cancers. According to an international team of scientists, human activities are not the primary cause of arsenic found in groundwater in Bangladesh. They found instead that the arsenic is part of a natural process that predates any recent human activity, such as intensive pumping.
Mineral diversity offers clue to early Earth chemistry
March 1, 2013 9:50 am | News | CommentsNew research on a mineral called molybdenite by a team led by Robert Hazen at Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory provides important new insights about the changing chemistry of our planet as a result of geological and biological processes. Analysis of the mineral showed that concentrations of rhenium, a trace element that is sensitive to oxidation reactions, increased significantly—by a factor of eight—over the past three billion years.
Researchers propose new technique for probing Earth's deep interior
February 22, 2013 10:03 am | News | CommentsNational Science Foundation-funded researchers at Amherst College in Massachusetts and the University of Texas at Austin have described a new technique based in particle physics that might one day reveal, in more detail than ever before, the composition and characteristics of the deep Earth. There's just one catch: the technique relies on a fifth force of nature that has not yet been detected, but some particle physicists think it might exist.
Mercury may have harbored an ancient magma ocean
February 21, 2013 7:53 am | by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office | News | CommentsBy analyzing Mercury's rocky surface, scientists have been able to partially reconstruct the planet's history over billions of years. Now, drawing upon the chemical composition of rock features on the planet's surface, scientists have proposed that Mercury may have harbored a large, roiling ocean of magma very early in its history, shortly after its formation about 4.5 billion years ago.
NASA rover prepares to analyze Mars rock dust
February 20, 2013 3:21 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsFresh off drilling into a rock for the first time, the Mars rover Curiosity is prepping for the next step—dissecting the pulverized rock to determine what it's made of. NASA said Wednesday it received confirmation that Curiosity successfully collected a tablespoon of powder from the drilling two weeks ago and was poised to transfer a pinch to its onboard laboratories. It's the first time a spacecraft has bored into a rock on Mars to retrieve a sample from the interior.
Water on the moon: It's been there all along
February 19, 2013 8:10 am | News | CommentsTraces of water have been detected within the crystalline structure of mineral samples from the lunar highland upper crust obtained during the Apollo missions, according to a University of Michigan researcher and his colleagues. The lunar highlands are thought to represent the original crust, crystallized from a magma ocean on a mostly molten early moon. The new findings indicate that the early moon was wet and that water there was not substantially lost during the moon's formation.
