Geology

Earth Orbit Plus Seafloor Volcanoes Yield Climate Swings

Vast ranges of volcanoes hidden under the oceans ooze lava at slow, steady rates along mid-ocean ridges. A new study shows that they flare up on strikingly regular cycles, ranging from two weeks to 100,000 years, and, that they erupt almost exclusively dur ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 6 2015 - 8:55am

The Copper Heart Of Volcanoes

The link between volcanism and the formation of copper ore could lead to discovery of new copper deposits. Copper has been in use for 6,000 years and it shows no signs of slowing down. The average home has about a hundred pounds of it and we are going to h ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 10 2015 - 2:11pm

Leading Theory Of What Causes Ice Ages Cast Into Doubt

The leading theory of what causes ice ages around the world-- changes in the way the Earth orbits the sun- has been cast into doubt by a new study. The study raises questions about the Milankovitch theory of climate, which says the expansion and contractio ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 20 2015 - 10:45am

The Mystery Of The Canyon With Two Mouths

One canyon on Earth has two mouths- but that is not the only mystery. First formally documented by western explorers mapping the Colorado Territory in the 1800s, Unaweep Canyon is a puzzling landscape and so it has inspired numerous scientific hypotheses f ...

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

Costa Rica And Panama Evolution Is A Clue To How Continents Formed

The same processes that determined how continents were generated on Earth more than 2.5 billion years ago have continued within the last 70 million years- and they profoundly affect the planet's current life and climate. A new study details how relat ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 31 2015 - 1:30pm

Snowball Earth, Even In The Tropics

New details of a nightmare period on Earth with surface conditions as frigid as present-day central Antarctica at the equator have been revealed thanks to the publication of a study of ancient glacier water. The research, by an international team led by D ...

Article - The Conversation - Apr 13 2015 - 3:44pm

Typhoon Haiyan May Contaminate Philippines Aquifer For Years

In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people and destroying nearly $3 billion worth of property in the Philippines. While the country is still recovering from the storm, researchers have found that an aquifer on the island of Samar inundated with ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 17 2015 - 8:00am

Calbuco Volcano Erupts 7 Miles Into The Air

The Calbuco volcano, a 2,000 meter peak in southern Chile, sent a column of ash about 15 kilometers skywards twice on the night of April 22 and early the following morning.  As the risk of deadly flows of ash and hot air was immediate, a 20 kilometer radi ...

Article - The Conversation - Apr 24 2015 - 11:55am

Yellowstone Volcanic System Four Times Bigger Than Thought

Seismologists have discovered a massive magma reservoir beneath the Yellowstone supervolcano in Wyoming, US, that suggests its volcanic system could be more than 5.6 times larger than was previously thought. ...

Article - The Conversation - Apr 25 2015 - 7:30am

Detecting Earthquakes On Venus Using Sound

Detecting an earthquake on Venus is no trivial task. For one thing, it is not a surface like we think of surface. It is under crushing pressure and the temperate is almost 900 degrees. Ordinary seismic instruments aren't suited for that. But the uppe ...

Article - News Staff - May 1 2015 - 3:08pm