Geology

Tectonic Events Behind Pisco Earthquake That Killed 595 In Peru

A magnitude 8.0. earthquake destroyed 90 percent of the city of Pisco, Peru on August 16, 2007. The event killed 595 people, while another 318 were missing. Tsunami waves were observed locally, off the shore of Chile, and as far away as New Zealand.  In a ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 24 2011 - 3:17pm

Sticky Lunar Dust- Sun's Elevation Made The Difference

In the 1960s and early 1970s, the Apollo Moon Program struggled with a formidable enemy that was sometimes more formidable than others: sticky lunar dust. Four decades later, a new study says they now know why; forces that compel lunar dust to cling to sur ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 19 2009 - 11:12am

Chicxulub Crater Too Old To Have Been The Impact That Killed Dinosaurs- Study

The theory that the Chicxulub crater holds the clue to the demise of the dinosaurs and 40 percent of all species 65 million years ago is challenged in a paper published in the Journal of the Geological Society.  The Chicxulub crater, discovered in 1978 in ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 27 2009 - 4:11pm

'Rembrandt Basin'- Landform The Size Of DC Boston Corridor Discovered On Mercury

A previously unknown, large impact basin has been discovered by the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft during its second flyby of Mercury in October 2008. The impact basin, now named Rembrandt, more than 7 ...

Article - News Staff - May 6 2009 - 2:01pm

Great Oxygenation Event- Oxygen Implicated In Earliest Global Cooling

An international team of geologists may have uncovered the answer to an age-old question- an ice-age-old question, that is. It appears that Earth's earliest ice age may have been due to the rise of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere, which consumed atm ...

Article - News Staff - May 7 2009 - 9:02pm

Geochemistry As Alchemy- Gas Becomes Solid At The Mountain Of God

If you didn't know better, you might think the Oldoinyo Lengai volcano in Tanzania was proof of alchemy. There, in the ancient East African Rift at a place known to local Maasai people as the Mountain of God, Oldoinyo Lengai spews forth carbon dioxide ...

Article - News Staff - May 18 2009 - 8:38pm

Victoria Crater- Sexy Siren Of The Wet, Windy And Wild Early Days On Mars

The Mars rover, Opportunity, surveyed the rim and interior of Victoria Crater on the Red Planet from September 2006 through August 2008. Key findings from that work, reported in the May 22 edition of Science, reinforce and expand what researchers learned f ...

Article - News Staff - May 21 2009 - 9:31pm

Global Extinction Event- Volcanoes Did It, Says Hypothesis

Scientists at the University of Leeds say they have uncovered a previously unknown giant volcanic eruption.   And it's no ordinary eruption, they say- it led to global mass extinction 260 million years ago.  The eruption in the Emeishan province of so ...

Article - News Staff - May 28 2009 - 8:54pm

Mars Hephaestus Fossae Ortho-Image Shows Channels Of Unknown Origin

ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has obtained images of Hephaestus Fossae,, which lies at about 21° North and 126° East on Mars. Named after the Greek god of fire, Hephaestus Fossae extends for more than 600 km on the western flank of Elysium Mons in the Utopia ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 5 2009 - 8:59am

Ancient Sediment Record Reveals New Details Of Four Global Warming And Cooling Booms

Researchers here have used sediment from the deep ocean bottom to reconstruct a record of ancient climate dating back more than 500,000 years.   The data were extracted from  the top 65 feet of a 1,312 foot sediment core drilled in 2005 in the North Atlant ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 15 2009 - 4:15pm