Geology News And Research - February 2010 Archives

Volcano monitoring will target hazard threat to Marianas, US military and commercial jets (2/27/2010)

Technology to detect nuclear explosions now will be pioneered to monitor active volcanoes in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth near Guam. The U.S. Geological Survey has named Southern Methodist University in Dallas as prime cooperator on the two-year project. In addition to conventional seismic and GPS monitoring, infrasound will be deployed to "listen" for eruptions. Guam soon will be the primary base for forward deployment of U.S. military forces in the Western Pacific. ...> Full Article

Seamounts reach a pinnacle in upcoming issue of Oceanography (2/26/2010)

Lying beneath the ocean is spectacular terrain ranging from endless chains of mountains and isolated peaks to fiery volcanoes and black smokers exploding with magma and other minerals from below Earth's surface. This mountainous landscape, some of which surpasses Mt. Everest heights and the marine life it supports, is the spotlight of a special edition of the research journal Oceanography. ...> Full Article

Ice shelves disappearing on Antarctic Peninsula (2/25/2010)

Ice shelves are retreating in the southern section of the Antarctic Peninsula due to climate change. This could result in glacier retreat and sea-level rise if warming continues, threatening coastal communities and low-lying islands worldwide. ...> Full Article

Team finds subtropical waters flushing through Greenland fjord (2/24/2010)

Waters from warmer latitudes -- or subtropical waters -- are reaching Greenland's glaciers, driving melting and likely triggering an acceleration of ice loss, reports a team of researchers led by Fiamma Straneo, a physical oceanographer from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. ...> Full Article

Projection shows water woes likely based on warmer temperatures (2/23/2010)

Several Midwestern states could be facing increased winter and spring flooding, as well as difficult growing conditions on farms, if average temperatures rise. Keith Cherkauer, a Purdue assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, ran simulations that show Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan could see as much as 28 percent more precipitation by the year 2070, with much of that coming in the winter and spring. His projections also show drier summer and fall seasons. ...> Full Article

Upside-down answer for deep Earth mystery (2/22/2010)

When Earth was young, it exhaled the atmosphere. During a period of intense volcanic activity, lava carried light elements from the planet's molten interior and released them into the sky. However, some light elements got trapped inside the planet. In this week's issue of Nature, a Rice University-based team of scientists is offering a new answer to a longstanding mystery: what caused Earth to hold its last breath? ...> Full Article

Permafrost line recedes 130 km in 50 years (2/21/2010)

The southern limit of permanently frozen ground, or permafrost, is now 130 kilometers further north than it was 50 years ago in the James Bay region, according to two researchers from the Department of Biology at Université Laval. In a recent issue of the scientific journal Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, Serge Payette and Simon Thibault suggest that, if the trend continues, permafrost in the region will completely disappear in the near future. ...> Full Article

CryoSat to observe Earth's ice cover (2/20/2010)

The European Space Agency is about to launch the most sophisticated satellite ever to investigate the Earth's ice fields and map ice thickness over water and land: lift-off scheduled for February 25. ...> Full Article

US minerals sector declined in 2009 (2/19/2010)

The value of US mineral production significantly declined in 2009. Also over the past year, US dependence on foreign sources for minerals has increased, continuing a trend that has been evident for more than 30 years. This is according to the US Geological Survey report "Mineral Commodity Summaries 2010." ...> Full Article

Antarctic ice shelf collapse possibly triggered by ocean waves (2/18/2010)

Depicting a cause-and-effect scenario that spans thousands of miles, a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California - San Diego and his collaborators discovered that ocean waves originating along the Pacific coasts of North and South America impact Antarctic ice shelves and could play a role in their catastrophic collapse. ...> Full Article

Research challenges models of sea level change during ice-age cycles (2/17/2010)

Theories about the rates of ice accumulation and melting during the Quaternary Period -- the time interval ranging from 2.6 million years ago to the present -- may need to be revised, thanks to research findings published by a University of Iowa researcher and his colleagues in the February 12 issue of the journal Science. ...> Full Article

New picture of ancient ocean chemistry argues for chemically layered water (2/16/2010)

A team led by biogeochemists at the University of California, Riverside, has developed a dynamic three-dimensional model of Earth's early ocean chemistry that can significantly advance our understanding of how early animal life evolved on the planet. Working on rock samples from the Doushantuo Formation, South China, the research team is the first to show that Earth's early ocean chemistry during a large portion of the Ediacaran Period was far more complex than previously imagined. ...> Full Article

Strongest evidence to date shows link between exploration well and Lusi mud volcano (2/15/2010)

Nearly four years ago, a volcano of mud erupted in the middle of an Indonesian suburb, eventually inundating four villages, displacing 30,000 people and causing a gas line explosion that killed 13. The mud volcano continues to erupt today. A new report by Durham University and UC Berkeley scientists blames a drilling company that was drilling a gas exploration well, not a relatively mild and distant earthquake. ...> Full Article

'Fingerprinting' method reveals fate of mercury in Arctic snow (2/14/2010)

A study by University of Michigan researchers offers new insight into what happens to mercury deposited onto Arctic snow from the atmosphere. ...> Full Article

Supra-glacial lakes focus of study (2/14/2010)

Rising temperatures on the Greenland ice sheet cause the creation of large surface lakes called supra-glacial lakes. Now a Penn State geographer will investigate why these lakes form and their implications. ...> Full Article

Black carbon a significant factor in melting of Himalayan glaciers (2/7/2010)

The fact that glaciers in the Himalayan mountains are thinning is not disputed. However, few researchers have attempted to rigorously examine and quantify the causes. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Surabi Menon set out to isolate the impacts of the most commonly blamed culprit -- greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide -- from other particles in the air that may be causing the melting. ...> Full Article

Carbonate veins reveal chemistry of ancient seawater (2/6/2010)

The chemical composition of our oceans is not constant but has varied significantly over geological time. In a study published this week in Science, researchers describe a novel method for reconstructing past ocean chemistry using calcium carbonate veins that precipitate from seawater-derived fluids in rocks beneath the seafloor. The research was led by scientists from the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science hosted at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. ...> Full Article