http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Super Earths are named for their size, but these planets - which range from about 2 to 10 Earth masses - could be superior to the Earth when it comes to sustaining life. They could also provide an answer to the ‘Fermi Paradox`: Why haven`t we been visited by aliens? http://www.physorg.com/news178821471.html Space & Earth Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:38:28 EST news178821471 A mysterious basin off the coast of India could be the largest, multi-ringed impact crater the world has ever seen. And if a new study is right, it may have been responsible for killing the dinosaurs off 65 million years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news174827113.html Space & Earth Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:06:03 EST news174827113 A sudden cluster of massive earthquakes which has shaken Asia-Pacific communities and likely left thousands dead has also jolted some scientists, who are starting to question conventional thought. http://www.physorg.com/news174481366.html Space & Earth Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:30:03 EST news174481366 (PhysOrg.com) -- The recent earthquakes in the Pacific and Indonesia have one University of Queensland researcher questioning whether the two are related. http://www.physorg.com/news174214964.html Space & Earth Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:03:07 EST news174214964 A Taiwanese scientist has developed an earthquake alarm that could give people a crucial 15-second warning in case of a tremor, one of his team said Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news172328402.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:30:01 EST news172328402 An international team of researchers has created the most complete seismic image of the Earth's crust and upper mantle beneath the rugged Himalaya Mountains, in the process discovering some unusual geologic features that may explain how the region has evolved. http://www.physorg.com/news171899385.html Space & Earth Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:50:22 EST news171899385 Powerful earthquakes that have jolted Asia recently do not presage a disaster, although it is only a matter of time before the next catastrophe befalls the quake-prone region, seismologists say. http://www.physorg.com/news170257984.html Space & Earth Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:54:02 EST news170257984 A team of scientists from Oregon State University has created the first global three-dimensional map of electrical conductivity in the Earth's mantle and their model suggests that that enhanced conductivity in certain areas of the mantle may signal the presence of water. http://www.physorg.com/news169906990.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:23:46 EST news169906990 Using sophisticated seismometers and GPS devices, scientists have been able to track minute movements along two massive tectonic plates colliding 25 miles or so underneath Washington state's Puget Sound basin. Their early findings suggest that a mega-earthquake could strike closer to the Seattle-Tacoma area, home to some 3.6 million people, than was thought earlier. http://www.physorg.com/news169653448.html Space & Earth Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:30:03 EST news169653448 (PhysOrg.com) -- New Zealand is the site of one of the world`s youngest subduction zones, where the Pacific Plate of Earth`s crust dives beneath the Australian Plate. Now, a University of Utah study shows how water deep underground helps the subduction zone mature and paves the way for it to generate powerful earthquakes. http://www.physorg.com/news168507035.html Space & Earth Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:00:02 EST news168507035 (AP) -- Material from volcanoes where the Earth's plates squeeze together is more oxidized than in regions where the seafloor splits apart, a finding that helps shed light on some of the basic processes in the planet's mantle. http://www.physorg.com/news168194028.html Space & Earth Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:34:38 EST news168194028 The shifting of tectonic plates in Central America has been poorly understood -- until now. New research on jade found along fault lines in Guatemala is helping geologists piece the puzzle of the past 130 million years. http://www.physorg.com/news167936004.html Space & Earth Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:10:01 EST news167936004 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. http://www.physorg.com/news164536333.html Space & Earth Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:32:52 EST news164536333 By using a super-computer to virtually squeeze and heat iron-bearing minerals under conditions that would have existed when the Earth crystallized from an ocean of magma to its solid form 4.5 billion years ago, two UC Davis geochemists have produced the first picture of how different isotopes of iron were initially distributed in the solid Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news164296785.html Space & Earth Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:40:01 EST news164296785 (PhysOrg.com) -- The most powerful earthquakes happen at the junction of two converging tectonic plates, where one plate is sliding (or subducting) beneath the other. Now a team of researchers, led by Teh-Ru Alex Song of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, has found that an anomalous layer at the top of a subducting plate coincides with the locations of slow earthquakes and non-volcanic tremors. The presence of such a layer in similar settings elsewhere could point to other regions of slow quakes. Slow earthquakes, also called silent earthquakes, take days, weeks, or even months to release pent-up energy instead of seconds or minutes as in normal earthquakes. The research is published in the April 24th issue of Science. http://www.physorg.com/news159715838.html Space & Earth Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:31:06 EST news159715838 Propagation of earthquake waves within the Earth is not uniform. Experiments indicate that the velocity of shear waves (s-waves) in Earth`s lower mantle between 660 and 2900 km depth is strongly dependent on the orientation of ferropericlase. In the latest issue of Science (Vol. 325, 10.04.2009), researchers from the German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the University of Bayreuth, and Arizona State University report unexpected properties of ferropericlase, which is presumably the second most abundant mineral of the lower mantle. http://www.physorg.com/news158840427.html Space & Earth Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:21:05 EST news158840427 The 2007 Solomon Island earthquake may point to previously unknown increased earthquake and tsunami risks because of the unusual tectonic plate geography and the sudden change in direction of the earthquake, according to geoscientists. http://www.physorg.com/news158506384.html Space & Earth Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:33:56 EST news158506384 (PhysOrg.com) -- In the last decade, scientists have recorded regular episodes of tectonic plates slowly, quietly slipping past each other in western Washington and British Columbia over periods of two weeks or more, releasing as much energy as a magnitude 6 earthquake. http://www.physorg.com/news152461537.html Space & Earth Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:26:08 EST news152461537 Asteroids are hunks of rock that orbit in the outer reaches of space, and scientists have generally assumed that their small size limited the types of rock that could form in their crusts. But two newly discovered meteorites may rewrite the book on how some asteroids form and evolve. Researchers from the Carnegie Institution, the University of Maryland, and the University of Tennessee report in the January 8th edition of Nature that these meteorites are ancient asteroid fragments consisting of feldspar-rich rock called andesite. Similar rocks were previously known only from Earth, making these samples the first of their kind from elsewhere in the Solar System. http://www.physorg.com/news150557683.html Space & Earth Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:34:43 EST news150557683 University of British Columbia researchers are offering the first compelling evidence to explain regular tremors under Vancouver Island. http://www.physorg.com/news149951583.html Space & Earth Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:13:03 EST news149951583