Geology News And Research Archives Page 12

2007 Was Earth's Second Warmest Year in a Century (1/21/2008)

Climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) at Columbia University have found that 2007 tied with 1998 for Earth's second warmest year in a century. ...> Full Article

NSF Awards Carnegie Mellon's Jacobo Bielak $1.6 Million for Earthquake Research (1/21/2008)

Carnegie Mellon University's Jacobo Bielak was awarded $1.6 million over the next four years from the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) PetaApps program to develop earthquake computer simulations that play an important role in reducing seismic risk for large urban coastal cities. ...> Full Article

Unconventional natural gas reservoir poised to dramatically increase U.S. production (1/20/2008)

Natural gas distributed throughout the Marcellus black shale in northern Appalachia could conservatively boost proven U.S. reserves by trillions of cubic feet if gas production companies employ horizontal drilling techniques, according to a Penn State and State University of New York, Fredonia, team. ...> Full Article

Geoscientists use radar to locate lost graves (1/19/2008)

Participants in a summer course for educators used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to locate a pair of lost graves at an abandoned cemetery outside Houston. The site might become a historical monument. ...> Full Article

Alaska Glacier Speed-up Tied To Internal Plumbing Issues, Says Study (1/19/2008)

A University of Colorado at Boulder study indicates meltwater periodically overwhelms the interior drainpipes of Alaska's Kennicott Glacier and causes it to lurch forward, similar to processes that may help explain the acceleration of glaciers observed recently on the Greenland ice sheet that are contributing to global sea rise. ...> Full Article

NASA Observes La Nina: This 'Little Girl' Makes A Big Impression (1/18/2008)

Cool, wet conditions in the Northwest, frigid weather on the Plains, and record dry conditions in the Southeast, all signs that La Niņa is in full swing. ...> Full Article

Exploration Of Lake Hidden Beneath Antarctica's Ice Sheet Begins (1/18/2008)

A four-man science team led by British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) Dr Andy Smith has begun exploring an ancient lake hidden deep beneath Antarctica's ice sheet. The lake -- the size of Lake Windermere (UK) -- could yield vital clues to life on Earth, climate change and future sea-level rise. ...> Full Article

University Lands $21.2M Software Grant (1/17/2008)

Deal Will Help Students, Researchers in Key Energy Disciplines ...> Full Article

Record warm summers cause extreme ice melt in Greenland (1/17/2008)

An international team of scientists, led by Dr Edward Hanna at the University of Sheffield, has demonstrated that recent warm summers have caused the most extreme Greenland ice melting in 50 years. The new research provides further evidence of a key impact of global warming and helps scientists place recent satellite observations of Greenland's shrinking ice mass in a longer-term climatic context. ...> Full Article

Quakes Under Pacific Floor Reveal Unexpected Circulatory System (1/16/2008)

Study upsets long-held image of volcanism-driven hydrothermal vents ...> Full Article

Mapping of Greenland may aid understanding of sea-level mystery (1/16/2008)

A University of Alberta Arctic ice researcher is closing in on some real understanding about the process that might be feeding rising sea levels. ...> Full Article

Research Team Finds Evidence of Ancient Subtropical Environment in the Arid Emirate (1/15/2008)

Six to eight million years ago, the Western Region of the Abu Dhabi Emirate was a lush landscape teeming with subtropical wildlife, according to Andrew Hill, the Clayton Stephenson Class of 1954 Professor of Anthropology at Yale. ...> Full Article

Deep-ocean researchers target tsunami zone near Japan (1/15/2008)

Geologists search Nankai Trough for quake clues ...> Full Article

Older Arctic Sea Ice Replaced By Young, Thin Ice (1/13/2008)

A new study indicates older, multi-year sea ice in the Arctic is giving way to younger, thinner ice, making it more susceptible to record summer sea-ice lows like the one that occurred in 2007. ...> Full Article

Evidence of glaciation in 'super greenhouse' world (1/12/2008)

Large ice-sheets existed on Earth about 91 million years ago, during one of the warmest periods since life began, an international team of scientists, including members from Newcastle University, has found. ...> Full Article

Quakes Under Pacific Ocean Floor Reveal Unexpected Circulation System (1/12/2008)

Zigzagging some 60,000 kilometers across the ocean floor, Earth's system of mid-ocean ridges plays a pivotal role in many workings of the planet: in plate-tectonic movements, heat flow from the interior, and the chemistry of rock, water and air. ...> Full Article

A Warming Climate Can Support Glacial Ice (1/11/2008)

New research indicates glacial ice existed on earth during intense period of global warming ...> Full Article

'Climate Crisis' in the West Predicted with Increasing Certainty (1/10/2008)

Computer model analyses trace hydrological trends to human causes with unprecedented robustness ...> Full Article

Earth's Moving Crust May Occasionally Stop (1/10/2008)

New Theoretical Model Suggests Plate Tectonics May Be On-Again, Off-Again Process ...> Full Article

Hope Diamond's phosphorescence key to fingerprinting (1/9/2008)

Shine a white light on the Hope Diamond and it will dazzle you with the brilliance of an amazing blue diamond. Shine an ultraviolet light on the Hope Diamond and the gem will glow red-orange for about five minutes. This phosphorescent property of blue diamonds can distinguish synthetic and altered diamonds from the real thing, and it may also provide a way to fingerprint individual blue diamonds for identification purposes, according to a team of researchers from the Naval Research Laboratory, the Smithsonian Institution and Penn State. ...> Full Article

Electric sand findings could lead to better climate models (1/8/2008)

Wind isn't acting alone in the geological process behind erosion, sand dunes and airborne dust particles called aerosols. The other culprit is electricity. By taking both factors into account, researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new model that matches real-world measurements of "saltation" better than the decades-old classical theory. ...> Full Article

Plate Tectonics May Grind To A Halt, Then Start Again (1/7/2008)

Plate tectonics, the geologic process responsible for creating the Earth's continents, mountain ranges, and ocean basins, may be an on-again, off-again affair. Scientists have assumed that the shifting of crustal plates has been slow but continuous over most of the Earth's history, but a new study from researchers at the Carnegie Institution suggests that plate tectonics may have ground to a halt at least once in our planet's history--and may do so again. ...> Full Article

North Atlantic Warming Tied to Natural Variability (1/7/2008)

But global warming may be at play elsewhere in the world's oceans, scientists surmise ...> Full Article

Tapping into the Heat Beneath Our Feet (1/6/2008)

Virtually all of Canada's high-temperature geothermal resources are under B.C. In the next 15 years they can supply 30 per cent of our power needs with the cleanest form of energy known. ...> Full Article

Geyser, hot spring researchers, educators to meet at Yellowstone (1/5/2008)

More than 100 scientists and educators from the United States and abroad will gather Jan. 10-13 in Yellowstone National Park to share their findings on the unique biology and chemistry of geysers, hot springs, mud pots and steam vents. ...> Full Article

Earthquake 'memory' could spur aftershocks (1/4/2008)

Using a novel device that simulates earthquakes in a laboratory setting, a team of researchers have shown that seismic waves - the sounds radiated from earthquakes - can induce earthquake aftershocks, often long after a quake has subsided. ...> Full Article

Study suggests future sea-level rises may be even higher than predicted (12/25/2007)

A new study of past sea levels shows that they rose by an average of 1.6 metres every one hundred years the last time the Earth was as warm as it is predicted to be later this century, with levels reaching up to six metres above those seen today. The findings suggest that current predictions of sea-level rises may be too low. ...> Full Article

Earthquake Season in the Himalayan Front (12/24/2007)

Scientists have long searched for what triggers earthquakes, even suggesting that tides or weather play a role. Recent research spearheaded by Jean-Philippe Avouac, professor of geology and director of the Tectonics Observatory at the California Institute of Technology, shows that in the Himalayan mountains, at least, there is indeed an earthquake season. It's winter. ...> Full Article

Searching for 'Martians' in ancient rocks (12/23/2007)

Researchers are investigating whether it is possible to find signs of life in rocks that are 3.5 billion years old. If they succeed, it may become easier to search for life on Mars. ...> Full Article

Tracking Earth Changes with Satellite Images (12/22/2007)

For the past two decades, radar images from satellites have dominated the field of geophysical monitoring for natural hazards like earthquakes, volcanoes, or landslides. These images reveal small perturbations precisely, but large changes from events like big earthquake ruptures or fast-moving glaciers remained difficult to assess from afar, until now. ...> Full Article