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Geology News & Research
Researchers taking a new look at the snow and ice covering Mount Everest and the national park that surrounds it are finding abundant evidence that the world's tallest peak is shedding its frozen cloak. The scientists have also been studying temperature and precipitation trends in the area and found that the Everest region has been warming while snowfall has been declining since the early 1990s.
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 | Geologists have long used seismology on the bottom of the ocean or have been throwing dynamite from snowmobiles when they look for oil. But now researchers at Centre for integrated petroleum research in Bergen, Norway, have found a new preferred method -- using flying drones with cameras to map new oil reserves from the air. ...> Full Article |
A new study by scientists at Duke University and the U.S. Geological Survey finds no evidence of groundwater contamination from shale gas production in Arkansas.
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 | The Arctic was very warm during a period roughly 3.5 to 2 million years ago -- a time when research suggests that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was roughly comparable to today's -- leading to the conclusion that relatively small fluctuations in carbon dioxide levels can have a major influence on Arctic climate, according to a new analysis of the longest terrestrial sediment core ever collected in the Arctic. ...> Full Article |
While the impact of climate change on the surface of the Greenland ice sheet has been widely studied, a clear understanding of the key process of iceberg production has eluded researchers for many years. Published in Nature this week, a new study presents a sophisticated computer model that provides a fresh insight into the impact of climate change on the production of icebergs by Greenland glaciers, and reveals that the shape of the ground beneath the ice has a strong effect on its movement.
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 | "Eternal flames" fueled by hydrocarbon gas could shine a light on the presence of natural gas in underground rock layers and conditions that let it seep to the surface, according to research by geologists at the Department of Geological Sciences and the Indiana Geological Survey at Indiana University Bloomington. ...> Full Article |
America's urban forests store an estimated 708 million tons of carbon, an environmental service with an estimated value of $50 billion, according to a recent US Forest Service study.
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 | As the Landsat Data Continuity Mission satellite flew over Indonesia's Flores Sea April 29, it captured an image of Paluweh volcano spewing ash into the air. The satellite's Operational Land Imager detected the white cloud of smoke and ash drifting northwest, over the green forests of the island and the blue waters of the tropical sea. The Thermal Infrared Sensor on LDCM picked up even more. ...> Full Article |
Chikyu, Japan's deep sea drilling research vessel, is set to continue to exploring the frontiers of Earth, ocean, and life sciences in the New International Ocean Discovery Program.
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 | Scientists from the Smithsonian and the University of Rhode Island have found unsuspected linkages between the oxidation state of iron in volcanic rocks and variations in the chemistry of the deep Earth. Not only do the trends run counter to predictions from recent decades of study, they belie a role for carbon circulating in the deep Earth. The team's research was published May 2 in Science Express. ...> Full Article |
 | Deposits left by the eruption of a subglacial volcano, or tuya, 1.8 million years ago could hold the secret to more accurate palaeo-glacial and climate models, according to new research by UBC geoscientists. The detailed mapping and sampling of the partially eroded Kima' Kho tuya in northern British Columbia, Canada, shows that the ancient regional ice sheet through which the volcano erupted was twice as thick as previously estimated. ...> Full Article |
Forecasting volcanic eruptions with success is heavily dependent on recognizing well-established patterns of pre-eruption unrest in the monitoring data. But in order to develop better monitoring procedures, it is also crucial to understand volcanic eruptions that deviate from these patterns. New research retrospectively documented and analyzed the period immediately preceding the 2009 eruption of the Redoubt volcano in Alaska, which was characterized by an abnormally long period of pre-eruption seismic activity that's normally associated with short-term warnings of eruption.
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Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth's crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie's Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago.
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 | Using a quantitative model, a research team of biogeochemists at the University of California, Riverside has provided a new view on the relationship between the earliest accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere, arguably the most important biological event in Earth's history, and its relationship to the sulfur cycle. Their model, the researchers argue, is one step toward a more integrated view of how Earth's crust, mantle and atmosphere interact in the global sulfur cycle. ...> Full Article |
 | The temperature near the Earth's center is 6,000 degrees Celsius, 1,000 degrees more than given in an experiment 20 years ago. This experiment with synchrotron X-rays confirms geophysical models that explain the Earth's magnetic field and the creation and intense activity of hot-spot volcanoes. The scientists also established why the earlier experiment had produced lower temperature figures. The results are published on 26 April 2013 in Science. ...> Full Article |
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