Scientists lose instruments, gain first look at seafloor formation

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OBS Array. Credit: Nicolle Rager-Fuller National Science Foundation
OBS Array. Credit: Nicolle Rager-Fuller, National Science Foundation

Ordinarily, losing almost all of one's instruments would be considered a severe setback to any scientist. But when Maya Tolstoy, a marine geophysicist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, a member of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, recently learned that two-thirds of the seismometers she placed on the floor of the Pacific Ocean were trapped more than 8,000 feet (2500 meters) underwater, it turned out to be an extremely good sign.


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All News summaries for November 23, 2006

Trench on Mars Ready for Next Sampling by NASA Lander

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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has groomed the bottom of a shallow trench to prepare for collecting a sample to be analyzed from a hard subsurface layer where the soil may contain frozen water. ...

Arctic 'holds 90bln barrels of oil, mostly offshore'

2 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
Within the Arctic circle there are 90 billion barrels of oil and vast quantities of natural gas waiting to be tapped, most of it offshore, the government-run US Geological Survey said.

Russian scientists begin trial exploration of world's deepest lake

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Russian scientists leading a submarine expedition to probe the world's deepest lake on Thursday carried out test dives ahead of the start of the operation next week, reports said.

Scientists solve 30-year-old aurora borealis mystery

2 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
UCLA space scientists and colleagues have identified the mechanism that triggers substorms in space; wreaks havoc on satellites, power grids and communications systems; and leads to the explosive release of ...

The Quiet Explosion: Object intermediate between normal supernovae and gamma-ray bursts found

2 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
A European-led team of astronomers are providing hints that a recent supernova may not be as normal as initially thought. Instead, the star that exploded is now understood to have collapsed into a black hole, producing a ...
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