Geology

Reconstructing A Catastrophe: The Minoan Eruption Of Santorini

A recent BBC docu-drama called 'Atlantis' recreated the last days of the Bronze Age civilisation on the island of Thera (now known as Santorini), that I've meant to blog about for a while now.  This program, along with a more traditional � ...

Article - Gareth Fabbro - Jul 1 2011 - 6:26pm

Quake Catcher Network- Citizen Science Tackles Seismology

Have a computer?  Of course you do, or you aren't reading this article.   That, and a little space on your floor can make you a 'citizen seismologist.' The Quake Catcher Network is 6,000 tiny sensors, part of the densest networks of seismic ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 15 2011 - 7:14am

Where Does Earth's 44 Trillion Watts Of Heat Come From?

44 trillion watts of heat continually flow from Earth's interior into space. Where does it come from? Researchers can say with 97 percent certainly that 50 percent of the heat is due to radioactive decay and o ther sources, like primordial heat left o ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 17 2011 - 8:15pm

A Vulcanologist's Holiday Snaps

Almost a year ago I started my PhD with fieldwork on Santorini, Greece.  As I am currently planning a second round of fieldwork, I though it was time to write up my first trip. ...

Article - Gareth Fabbro - Jul 18 2011 - 8:20pm

Before Pangaea- North America And Antarctica Were Connected 1.1 Billion Years Ago

Rocks collected from t he Franklin Mountains in West Texas and Coats Land in Antarctica have the exact same composition of lead isotopes, according to new research,  the strongest evidence yet that parts of North America and Antarctica were connected 1.1 b ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 8 2011 - 1:51pm

Marine Biology 10,000 Feet Above Sea Level

Mountains sure aren´t what they used to be. Take  the Dolomites in the Veneto Region of Italy and Austria; 140 to 90 million years ago, they were part of the sea floor rather than mountains.  Over millions of years, deposits were then formed from calcareo ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 2 2011 - 3:55pm

Neutrinos In The Earth Teach Us About The Sun

Using one of the most sensitive neutrino detectors on the planet, the Borexino instrument, an international team are measuring the flow of solar neutrinos reaching Earth more precisely than ever before.  ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 8 2011 - 10:30am

Rifting The Lithosphere In Southern California

You can thank  the stretching of continents and the oceans that filled those newly created basins for the Earth we know today.  Rifting is one of the fundamental geological forces that have shaped our planet. But rifting involves areas deep below the Eart ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 8 2011 - 1:00pm

Found: Possible Trigger For Volcano Super-Eruptions

Every 100,000 years  a "super-eruption" of a major volcanic system occurs- one of the most catastrophic natural events on Earth- yet it's hard to know what triggers these violent explosions. The eruption of super-volcanoes dwarfs the erupti ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 12 2011 - 1:01pm

UC Berkeley Quake GPA now 3.8

The Hayward fault runs smack dab through the UC Berkeley football stadium; it is being retrofitted this year. In the last week, there have been 3 earthquakes on or near the campus, with a magnitude of 4.0 (last Thursday afternoon), 3.8 (last Thursday eveni ...

Blog Post - Bobby Knight - Oct 27 2011 - 5:47pm