Geology News & Research

The least sea ice in 800 years (7/2/2009)

New research, which reconstructs the extent of ice in the sea between Greenland and Svalbard from the 13th century to the present indicates that there has never been so little sea ice as there is now. The research results from the Niels Bohr Institute, among others, are published in the scientific journal Climate Dynamics. ...> Full Article

Geologists to help communicate the dangers of Colombian volcano (7/1/2009)

During the past decade, residents of Pasto, Colombia, and neighboring villages near Galeras, Colombia's most dangerous volcano, have been threatened with evacuation, but compliance varies. With each new eruption Colombian officials become increasingly concerned about the safety of the residents who live within striking there. Now, geologists from the University at Buffalo and the Universidad de Nariņo have organized a special workshop in Colombia designed to tackle the communication issue. ...> Full Article

First riser-drilling research operations undertaken (6/30/2009)

IODP drilling vessel CHIKYU has resumed operations in the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone off the Kii Peninsula of Japan using riser technology successfully for the first time in scientific ocean research. ...> Full Article

Subseafloor sediment in South Pacific Gyre (6/26/2009)

Biomass, metabolic activity much lower than at previously explored sites ...> Full Article

Sudden collapse in ancient biodiversity: Was global warming the culprit? (6/25/2009)

Scientists discover early warning signs of ecosystems at risk ...> Full Article

Ice sheets can retreat 'in a geologic instant,' study of prehistoric glacier shows (6/24/2009)

Modern glaciers, such as those making up the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, are capable of undergoing periods of rapid shrinkage or retreat, according to new findings by paleoclimatologists at the University at Buffalo. ...> Full Article

Close relationship between past warming and sea-level rise (6/23/2009)

Scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, along with colleagues from Tuebingen and Bristol have reconstructed sea-level fluctuations over the last 520,000 years. Comparison of this record with data on global climate and CO2 levels from Antarctic ice cores suggests that even stabilization at today's CO2 levels may commit us to much greater sea-level rise over the next couple of millennia than previously thought. ...> Full Article

Ancient drought and rapid cooling drastically altered climate (6/22/2009)

Two abrupt and drastic climate events, 700 years apart and more than 45 centuries ago, are teasing scientists who are now trying to use ancient records to predict future world climate. The events -- one, a massive, long-lived drought believed to have dried large portions of Africa and Asia, and the other, a rapid cooling that accelerated the growth of tropical glaciers -- left signals in ice cores and other geologic records from around the world. ...> Full Article

When palm trees gave way to spruce trees (6/21/2009)

One long-standing climate puzzle relates to the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene. Profound changes were underway. Globally, carbon dioxide levels were falling and the hothouse warmth of the dinosaur age and Eocene Period was waning. In Antarctica, ice sheets had formed and covered much of the southern polar continent. But what exactly was happening on land, in northern latitudes? An international team that included Dr. David Greenwood, an NSERC-funded researcher at Brandon University, now provides some of the very first detailed answers. ...> Full Article

Researchers survey earthquake faults through downtown Reno (6/20/2009)

Seismological Lab doing a portion of USGS project to discover and accurately map fault lines ...> Full Article

Geologists demonstrate extent of ancient ice age (6/19/2009)

Team investigates the climate of planet Earth 440 million years ago ...> Full Article

Natural deep earth pump fuels earthquakes and ore (6/19/2009)

For the first time scientists have discovered the presence of a natural deep earth pump that is a crucial element in the formation of ore deposits and earthquakes. ...> Full Article

New study closes in on geologic history of Earth's deep interior (6/18/2009)

UC Davis team calculates distribution of iron isotopes in Earth's mantle 4.5 billion years ago, opening door to new studies of planet's geologic history ...> Full Article

Sediment yields climate record for past half-million years (6/17/2009)

Researchers here have used sediment from the deep ocean bottom to reconstruct a record of ancient climate that dates back more than the last half-million years. The record, trapped within the top 20 meters (65.6 feet) of a 400-meter (1,312-foot) sediment core drilled in 2005 in the North Atlantic Ocean by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, gives new information about the four glacial cycles that occurred during that period. ...> Full Article

The Earth's magnetic field remains a charged mystery (6/16/2009)

Professor Gregory Ryskin from the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University in Illinois, US, has defied the long-standing convention by applying equations from magnetohydrodynamics to our oceans' salt water (which conducts electricity) and found that the long-term changes (the secular variation) in the Earth's main magnetic field are possibly induced by our oceans' circulation. ...> Full Article