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Geology News And Research - December 2009 Archives
 | The northern coastline of Alaska midway between Point Barrow and Prudhoe Bay is eroding by up to one-third the length of a football field annually because of a "triple whammy" of declining sea ice, warming seawater and increased wave activity, according to new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. ...> Full Article |
 | When the sun and moon are aligned with the San Andreas Fault they tug on it enough to increase the tremor rate deep underground, according to a new UC Berkeley study. While these tremors have not yet been linked to earthquakes, the tremors are associated with increased stress on the fault and may increase the risk of future quakes. The ease with which the deep rock slips indicates it is lubricated by high-pressure water. ...> Full Article |
 | A study of the structure and evolution of the Gulf of Corinth rift in central Greece will increase scientific understanding of rifted margin development and the tectonic mechanisms underlying seafloor spreading and deformation of the Earth's crust. ...> Full Article |
The National Science Foundation recently awarded a grant of $144,244 to Williams College to fund a project titled "Visualizing Strain in Rocks with Interactive Computer Programs." The project is under the direction of Paul Karabinos, professor and chair of the geosciences department. The program with its tutorials will improve undergraduate courses in structural geology, fostering a deeper understanding of how commonly used strain methods work.
...> Full Article
 | A team of European researchers has devised a method for locating plastic anti-personnel mines, which are manufactured to avoid detection by metal detectors. The technique involves analyzing the temperature of the ground in three dimensions using specific software and hardware, according to a study published in the journal Computers & Geosciences. ...> Full Article |
 | A new study of Pacific Ocean sediments off the coast of Chile has found that offshore waters experienced systematic oxygen depletion during the rapid warming of the Antarctic following the last "glacial maximum" period 20,000 years ago. ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists funded by the National Science Foundation and NOAA have recorded the deepest erupting volcano yet discovered -- West Mata Volcano -- describing high-definition video of the undersea eruption as "spectacular."
...> Full Article |
 | New research reveals how wind shear -- the same atmospheric conditions that cause bumpy airplane rides -- affects how pollution contributes to isolated thunderstorm clouds. The work improves scientists' understanding of how aerosols -- tiny unseen particles that make up pollution -- contribute to isolated thunderstorms and the climate cycle. How aerosols and clouds interact is one of the least understood aspects of climate, and this work allows researchers to better model clouds and precipitation. ...> Full Article |
 | Some geologic faults that appear strong and stable, slip and slide like weak faults. Now an international team of researchers has laboratory evidence showing why some faults that "should not" slip are weaker than previously thought. ...> Full Article |
 | Oceanographers using the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason discovered and recorded the first video and still images of a deep-sea volcano actively erupting molten lava on the seafloor. ...> Full Article |
 | The analysis of microfossils found in ocean sediment cores is illuminating the environmental conditions that prevailed at high latitudes during a critical period of Earth history. ...> Full Article |
 | Like an angry dog, a volcano growls before it bites, shaking the ground and getting "noisy" before erupting. This activity gives scientists an opportunity to study the tumult beneath a volcano and may help them improve the accuracy of eruption forecasts, according to UC Santa Cruz seismologist Emily Brodsky. ...> Full Article |
 | Dime-sized temperature sensors, first built for the refrigerated food industry, have been adapted to sense mountain microclimates. ...> Full Article |
New discoveries about the deep ocean's temperature variability and circulation system could help improve projections of future climate conditions.
...> Full Article
 | When the next big earthquake strikes Indonesia, a tsunami could follow close behind, killing thousands of people stuck in traffic jams while attempting to evacuate. Stanford researchers suggest lives can be saved if those residents take refuge instead in nearby tall buildings -- but only after those buildings are strengthened to withstand big waves.
...> Full Article |
 | Scientists have discovered more small seismic tremor events lasting one to 70 hours that occur in somewhat regular patterns in a megathrust earthquake zone in Washington state and British Columbia. ...> Full Article |
 | High-resolution computer simulations performed by scientists at the National Oceanography Center, Southampton, are helping to understand the inflow of North Atlantic water to the Arctic Ocean and how this influences ocean climate. ...> Full Article |
 | Black soot deposited on Tibetan glaciers has contributed significantly to the retreat of the world's largest nonpolar ice masses, according to new research by scientists from NASA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Soot absorbs incoming solar radiation and can speed glacial melting when deposited on snow in sufficient quantities. ...> Full Article |
 | The most detailed seismic images yet published of the Yellowstone supervolcano's plumbing shows a plume of hot and molten rock rising from the northwest at a depth of at least 410 miles, contradicting claims that there is no deep plume. A related University of Utah study indicates the banana-shaped magma chamber a few miles beneath Yellowstone is 20 percent larger than believed, so a future cataclysmic eruption could be larger than thought. ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists who study the melting of Greenland's glaciers are discovering that water flowing beneath the ice plays a much more complex role than they previously imagined. Researchers previously thought that meltwater simply lubricated ice against the bedrock, speeding the flow of glaciers out to sea. ...> Full Article |
The research shows a potential signature of nitrate and ammonia that can be found in ice cores corresponding to suspected impacts. Although high nitrate levels previously have been tied to space impacts, scientists have never before seen atmospheric ammonia spikes as indicators of space impacts with our planet.
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The gases which formed the Earth's atmosphere -- and probably its oceans -- did not come from inside the Earth but from outer space, according to a study by University of Manchester and University of Houston scientists.
...> Full Article
 | Sea-level rise along the Atlantic Coast of the United States was 2 mm faster in the 20th century than at any time in the past 4,000 years. ...> Full Article |
 | The University of Alaska Fairbanks has selected Marinette Marine Corporation of Marinette, Wis., to build the 254-foot Alaska Region Research Vessel.When complete, the vessel will be one of the most advanced university research vessels in the world and will be capable of breaking ice up to 2.5 feet thick. ...> Full Article |
A latest discovery of land plant fossils from Heilongjiang, Northeast China shows that the Siberian Plate sutured with the North China Plate at the end of the Permian, and resulted in the final closure of the Paleoasian Ocean (an ocean existed for hundreds of million years in earth history). The study is reported in issue 52 of Science in China.
...> Full Article
 | An international team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have found no evidence supporting an extraterrestrial impact event at the onset of the Younger Dryas approx. 13,000 years ago. ...> Full Article |
 | Heat transport in the Earth's mantle and in the atmosphere is probably not as effective as previously thought. ...> Full Article |
The third in a series of Nature papers lays framework for new approach to earthquake prediction. Testing of new forecasting model is in progress: results are not expected for approximately another two years.
...> Full Article
As the relative speed of the plates around a fault increases, is there a corresponding increase in the number of earthquakes produced along the fault? According to this study published in the December issue of BSSA, the answer depends upon the type of tectonic boundary. On certain types of boundary, the efficiency of earthquake production actually depends on the fault slip rate.
...> Full Article
 | A classic explanation for oceanic hot spots such as Hawaii has been that they originate from upwellings of hot rock, called mantle "plumes," deep in the Earth's mantle. Evidence for these deep structures has been sketchy, however. Now, a sophisticated array of seismometers deployed on the sea floor around Hawaii has provided the first high-resolution seismic images of a mantle plume extending to depths of at least 1,500 kilometers (932 miles). ...> Full Article |
 | Climatic fluctuations close to the equator show a different pattern to
climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic. In the tropics, distinct
11,500-year fluctuations between wet and dry periods can be clearly
identified which do not occur in temperature reconstructions of polar
ice cores. ...> Full Article |
In the film "The Day After Tomorrow," the world enters the icy grip of a new glacial period within the space of just a few weeks. New research supported by the European Science Foundation shows this scenario may not be so far from the truth after all.
...> Full Article
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