Geology

Haida Gwaii: Birthing Wrangellia

“When the tide is out, the table is set.” This wisdom from those who call Haida Gwaii home is still true today. The enormous difference between high and low tide in Haida Gwaii – up to twenty three vertical feet – means that twice a day, vast swathes of s ...

Article - Heidi Henderson - Jul 29 2019 - 12:55am

Biochronological Macrofossils

Paper clams or 'flat clams' were widespread in the Triassic. We call these bivalves 'flat clams' because of their very thin shell width and narrow valve convexity. They often dominate the rocks in which they are found, as in these spec ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Aug 5 2019 - 12:18am

Mars Weather Forecast 3,000,000,000 BC: Warm With Occasional Rain, Turning Cold

Mars may seem hospitable only for cute robots now, but 3 to 4 billion years ago it was warm enough to have rainstorms and flowing water, followed by a longer cold period where the water froze- a lot like earth.  Scientists have long known that water was ab ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 20 2019 - 9:59am

ArchaeoGLOBE Project: If There Is An Anthropocene Epoch, It Started 4,000 Years Ago

Human land use due to manufacturing, population, and agriculture changing the shape of earth itself has been termed the Anthropocene Epoch, but if less hyperbolic scientists of the future agree with that at all, they are likely to agree it started 4,000 ye ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 30 2019 - 1:06am

Like Diversity? Thank Mountains

In 1799, Alexander von Humboldt set sail on a 5-year, 8000-km voyage through Latin America. His journey through the Andes Mountains, captured by his famous vegetation zonation figure featuring Mount Chimborazo, canonized the place of mountains in understan ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 13 2019 - 5:00am

Hexagonal Columns: The Giant's Causeway

The Giant's Causeway is a spectacular expanse of interlocking hexagonal basalt columns formed from volcanic eruptions during the Paleocene some 50-60 million years ago. These columns tell a story of the cooling and freezing of the lava flows that form ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Sep 16 2019 - 12:37pm

Norm Borlaug Gave Us The Green Revolution: What's Next?

Dr. Norm Borlaug, the "father of the Green Revolution", is credited with saving a billion lives using agricultural science, and for the last 50 years he and his successors debunked the Malthusian claims of cynics like Paul Ehrlich, John Holdren, ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Nov 20 2019 - 1:46pm

How Indians Survived The Biggest Volcanic Eruption Of The Last Two Million Years

About 74,000 years ago on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, the largest volcanic event over the last two million years, 5,000 times larger than the Mount St. Helen's eruption in the 1980s, ushered in a worldwide "volcanic winter" that lasted ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 25 2020 - 5:57pm

Acid Rain Of 250,000,000 B.C.

The Permian was a geologic period that ended more than 250 million years ago. The Earth consisted of one forested super-continent called Pangea and a large ocean called Panthalassa teemed with life. It wasn't going to last, we know the largest mass ex ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 18 2020 - 8:45am

Australia's Mountains Are Still Growing

Because Australia was discovered late by Europeans it is considered an old continent with little geological activity, but a new study reveals that its mountains are still growing. Some parts of the Eastern Highlands of Victoria, including popular skiing de ...

Article - News Staff - May 20 2020 - 5:34pm