Geology News And Research Archives Page 11

Like it or not, uncertainty and climate change go hand in hand (10/30/2007)

Despite decades of ever more-exacting science projecting Earth's warming climate, there remains large uncertainty about just how much warming will actually occur. ...> Full Article

Scientist studies 'fossil earthquakes,' possible key to understanding future quakes (10/29/2007)

A Colorado State researcher is studying Earth's ancient earthquakes, or fossil earthquakes, to get a better understanding of how and why earthquakes happen. ...> Full Article

Extinction Theory Falls From Favor (10/28/2007)

The greatest mass extinction in Earth’s history also may have been one of the slowest, according to a study that casts further doubt on the extinction-by-meteor theory. ...> Full Article

Methane Bubbling From Arctic Lakes, Now And At End Of Last Ice Age (10/27/2007)

A team of scientists have identified a new likely source of a spike in atmospheric methane coming out of the North during the end of the last ice age. ...> Full Article

Seismologists See Earth's Dynamic Interior as Interplay of Temperature, Pressure, Chemistry (10/26/2007)

Seismologists have recast their understanding of the inner workings of Earth from a relatively homogeneous environment to one that is highly dynamic and chemically diverse. ...> Full Article

New Way To Measure Ancient Ocean Temperatures Refined (10/25/2007)

Spanish researcher further refined the recently developed TEX86 paleothermometer. The thermometer measures seawater temperature dependent changes in the cell wall composition of archeabacteria. ...> Full Article

Researchers probe undersea earthquake zone (10/24/2007)

Over the next five years, an international team of scientists will drill deep into the Earth's crust off the shore of Japan to understand how undersea earthquakes are generated and to establish a series of permanent undersea observatories on the plate boundary. ...> Full Article

New meteorite impact site discovered in the north west province of South Africa (10/19/2007)

A spectacular megabreccia (a coarse rock assemblage composed of large angular-to-rounded fragments, some over 6m in length, held together by a mineral cement - in this particular case by melted rock in the form of fine crystalline glassy material) in the Kraaipan granite-greenstone terrane, located roughly midway between Mafikeng and Vryburg, has provided the first clues to the recognition of a new meteorite impact locality. The discovery adds a sixth impact site to the list previously recorded in southern Africa and is exceeded in size only by the Vredefort and Morokweng impact structures. ...> Full Article

Ancient Fossil Evidence Supports Carbon Dioxide As Driver Of Global Warming (10/18/2007)

A team scientists has devised a new way to study Earth's past climate by analyzing the chemical composition of ancient marine fossils. The first published tests with the method further support the view that atmospheric CO2 has contributed to dramatic climate variations in the past, and strengthen projections that human CO2 emissions could cause global warming. ...> Full Article

Why Is The Ocean Salty? (10/17/2007)

The saltiness of the sea comes from dissolved minerals, especially sodium, chlorine, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, and potassium, says Galen McKinley, a UW-Madison professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences. ...> Full Article

Researchers monitor glaciers for long-haul study (10/15/2007)

Researcher describes 'day at the office' ...> Full Article

Geologist Discovers Three New Minerals (10/12/2007)

New minerals include stornesite-(Y), chopinite and tassieite, all are extremely rare and represented only by microscopic samples. ...> Full Article

Climate research gives clues to human expansion out of tropical Africa (10/10/2007)

New research has shed light on an important, but previously little-understood period in Africa's climate history that has implications for understanding human evolution and the expansion of Homo sapiens out of tropical Africa. ...> Full Article

Carbon Dioxide Did Not End The Last Ice Age, Study Says (10/9/2007)

Carbon dioxide did not cause the end of the last ice age, a new study in Science suggests, contrary to past inferences from ice core records. ...> Full Article

Cave Records Provide Clues To Climate Change (10/8/2007)

When Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Kim Cobb and graduate student Jud Partin wanted to understand the mechanisms that drove the abrupt climate change events that occurred thousands of years ago, they didn't drill for ice cores from the glaciers of Greenland or the icy plains of Antarctica, as is customary for paleoclimatolgists. Instead, they went underground. ...> Full Article

Eruption debris may extend snow seasons (10/6/2007)

Skiers and snowboarders in New Zealand may have the recent eruption to thank for an extended ski season. ...> Full Article

Geologists Recover Rocks from San Andreas Fault (10/5/2007)

Scientists drill into earthquake zone 10,000-plus feet beneath Earth's surface ...> Full Article

Geologist discovers Martian mineral (10/4/2007)

A researcher's surprising discovery - made first in his garage and later verified through field work - has resulted in the naming of a new mineral species that may exist on Mars, and has caught the attention of the NASA space program. ...> Full Article

Deepest ever scientific ocean drilling could hold key to understanding earthquakes (10/2/2007)

One of the most ambitious earth science expeditions yet mounted to gain a better understanding of the earthquake process, has begun off the coast of Japan. ...> Full Article

Life-giving Rocks From A Depth Of 250 Km (10/1/2007)

If our planet did not have the ability to store oxygen in the deep reaches of its mantle there would probably be no life on its surface. This is the conclusion reached by scientists at the University of Bonn who have subjected the mineral majorite to close laboratory examination. Majorite normally occurs only at a depth of several hundred kilometres under very high pressures and temperatures. ...> Full Article

Ruapehu eruption like 'Groundhog Day' (9/30/2007)

Volcanologist says the latest eruption and lahar on Mt Ruapehu, in New Zealand, is just like the September 1995 eruption. ...> Full Article

Clues to End of the Last Ice Age (9/29/2007)

Researcher shows that deep-sea temperatures rose 1,300 years before the buildup of atmospheric carbon dioxide, ruling out CO2 as driver of the last ice age's meltdown. ...> Full Article

Oxygen on Earth: 50 to 100 Million Years Earlier Than Scientists Thought (9/28/2007)

Scientists have found that traces of oxygen appeared in Earth's atmosphere 50 to 100 million years earlier than previously thought--before what geologists call the "Great Oxidation Event." ...> Full Article

Arctic heat wave stuns climate change researchers (9/27/2007)

Unprecedented warm temperatures in the High Arctic this past summer were so extreme that climate change researchers have begun revising their forecasts. ...> Full Article

Scientists to forecast and respond to human health effects of climate change (9/25/2007)

Climate changes have jeopardized human health in the past, and are bound to do so again. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s, for example, led to many illnesses and deaths from breathing difficulties and malnutrition, and prompted westward migrations of people vying for scarce food, shelter, and work. ...> Full Article

Arctic Sea Ice Bottoms Out For 2007, Shatters All Time Record Low (9/24/2007)

Scientists say that the extent of Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its minimum for 2007 on Sept. 16, shattering all previous lows since satellite record-keeping began nearly 30 years ago. ...> Full Article

Scientist tracks greenland meltwater (9/22/2007)

World oceans would rise 23 feet and flood many coastal areas if climate change melted the entire Greenland ice cap. And satellite images from 1980 onward reveal the surface of this vast ice sheet is warming, getting soggy and staying wet for longer periods every year. ...> Full Article

Rising Surface Temperatures Drive Back Winter Ice in Barents Sea (9/21/2007)

Researchers find not so between Siberia and Alaska, where winter sea ice holds its own. ...> Full Article

Researchers Reassess Theories on Formation of Earth's Atmosphere (9/20/2007)

Geochemists at are challenging commonly held ideas about how gases are expelled from the Earth. Their theory could change the way scientists view the formation of Earth's atmosphere and those of our distant neighbors, Mars and Venus. Their data throw into doubt the timing and mechanism of atmospheric formation on terrestrial plants. ...> Full Article

How The Discovery Of Geologic Time Changed Our View Of The World (9/18/2007)

In 1911 the discovery that the world was billions of years old changed our view of the world for ever. ...> Full Article