Geology News And Research - June 2009 Archives
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.
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Biomass, metabolic activity much lower than at previously explored sites
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 | Scientists discover early warning signs of ecosystems at risk ...> Full Article |
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.
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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.
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 | 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 |
 | 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 |
 | Seismological Lab doing a portion of USGS project to discover and accurately map fault lines ...> Full Article |
Team investigates the climate of planet Earth 440 million years ago
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 | 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 |
 | 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 |
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.
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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.
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 | The Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than expected according to a new study led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher and published in the journal Hydrological Processes. ...> Full Article |
A new study evaluates expected ground motion in Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver from earthquakes of magnitude 7.5 - 9.0, providing engineers and policymakers with a new tool to build or retrofit structures to withstand seismic waves from large "subduction" earthquakes off the continent's west coast.
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 | Scientists have made the surprising finding that typhoons trigger slow earthquakes, at least in eastern Taiwan. Slow earthquakes are non-violent fault slippage events that take hours or days instead of a few brutal seconds to minutes to release their potent energy. The researchers discuss their data in a study published the June 11 issue of Nature. ...> Full Article |
The examination of the fossil remains of rodents and insectivores from deposits in the cave of El Miron, Cantabria, has made it possible to determine the climatic conditions of this region between the late Pleistocene and the present day. In total, researchers have pinpointed seven periods of climatic change, with glacial cold dominating during some of them, and heat in others.
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A new research project at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, funded by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will provide the first-ever record of seismic activity in the Tennessee Valley, providing not only new information on past quakes but insight into future activity.Led by Robert Hatcher, a team will explore sites from just north of Knoxville, Tenn., to just north of Rome, Ga. The area, known as the East Tennessee Seismic Zone, is the second most seismically active area in the eastern US.
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A melting of the Greenland ice sheet this century may drive more water than previously thought toward the already threatened coastlines of New York, Boston, Halifax and other cities in the northeastern United States and in Canada, according to new research led by NCAR.
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Large bombardments of meteorites approximately four billion years ago could have helped to make the early Earth and Mars more habitable for life by modifying their atmospheres, suggests the results of a paper published today in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochima Acta.
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A team of researchers from the University of Cantabria has developed a statistical model that makes it possible to study the variability of extreme waves throughout the year, according to the journal Coastal Engineering. The study has shown that there are seasonal variations in the height of waves reaching Spain's coasts, and stresses the importance of this data in planning and constructing marine infrastructures.
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New species of ancient crocodile discovered
Kitchen gadget inspires scientist to make more effective plastic electronics
Making memories last
Ferroelectric switching discovered for first time in soft biological tissue
Forensic research extends detection of cyanide poisoning
The wild early lives of today's most massive galaxies
Shakespeare's skill 'more in grammar than in words'
Detailed picture of how myoV 'walks' along actin tracks
Need muscle for a tough spot? Turn to fat stem cells
Earth's energy budget remained out of balance despite unusually low solar activity
Pictures of food create feelings of hunger
Mighty mesh
Sweeten up your profits with the right hybrid
Patterns of antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in Galapagos reptiles
How seawater could corrode nuclear fuel
Bilayer graphene works as an insulator
Patterns of chromosome abnormality: The key to cancer?
Advantages of living in the dark: The multiple evolution events of 'blind' cavefish
Snakes improve search-and-rescue robots
Enhancing cognition in older adults also changes personality
Magnetic actuation enables nanoscale thermal analysis
A new artificial intelligence technique to speed the planning of tasks when resources are limited
'Tiger mothers' should tame parenting approach
Film coatings made from whey
Growing US violent extremism by the numbers
If a fat tax is coming, here's how to make it efficient, effective
Bobsled runs -- fast and yet safe
Fruit fly intestine may hold secret to the fountain of youth
New study may answer questions about enigmatic Little Ice Age
What really happened prior to 'Snowball Earth'?
Injecting sulfate particles into stratosphere won't fully offset climate change
Scientists aboard Iberian coast ocean drilling expedition report early findings
Waiting for Death Valley's Big Bang
Rock stability research could make mining and construction safer
Researchers identify molecular 'culprit' in rise of planetary oxygen