Earth Sciences news

Earth's early ocean cooled more than a billion years earlier than thought: Stanford study

Earth's early ocean cooled more than a billion years earlier than thought (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 11, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (10) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- The scalding-hot sea that supposedly covered the early Earth may in fact never have existed, according to a new study by Stanford University researchers who analyzed isotope ratios in 3.4 ...


Deep creep means milder, more frequent earthquakes along Southern California's San Jacinto fault

Deep creep means milder, more frequent earthquakes along Southern California's San Jacinto fault

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 08, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1

With an average of four mini-earthquakes per day, Southern California's San Jacinto fault constantly adjusts to make it a less likely candidate for a major earthquake than its quiet neighbor to the east, the ...


earthquake

Earthquakes actually aftershocks of 19th century quakes

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 04, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (19) | comments 9

(PhysOrg.com) -- When small earthquakes shake the central U.S., citizens often fear the rumbles are signs a big earthquake is coming. Fortunately, new research instead shows that most of these earthquakes ...


African desert rift confirmed as new ocean in the making

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (36) | comments 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled ...


Previously Unknown Volcanic Eruption Helped Trigger Cold Decade

Previously Unknown Volcanic Eruption Helped Trigger Cold Decade

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 29, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (27) | comments 9

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of chemists from the U.S. and France has found compelling evidence of a previously undocumented large volcanic eruption that occurred exactly 200 years ago, in 1809.


A new wrinkle in ancient ocean chemistry

Ancient ocean chemistry: Effects of biological oxygen production 100 million years before it accumulated in atmosphere

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 29, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists widely accept that around 2.4 billion years ago, the Earth's atmosphere underwent a dramatic change when oxygen levels rose sharply. Called the "Great Oxidation Event" (GOE), the ...


Volcanoes played pivotal role in ancient ice age, mass extinction

Volcanoes played pivotal role in ancient ice age, mass extinction

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 26, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (14) | comments 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers here have discovered the pivotal role that volcanoes played in a deadly ice age 450 million years ago.


Geologist analyzes earliest shell-covered fossil animals

Geologist analyzes earliest shell-covered fossil animals

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 22, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 1

The fossil remains of some of the first animals with shells, ocean-dwelling creatures that measure a few centimeters in length and date to about 520 million years ago, provide a window on evolution at this ...


algae

Killer algae a key player in mass extinctions

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 19, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (17) | comments 4

Algae, not asteroids, were the key to the end of the dinosaurs, say two Clemson University researchers. Geologist James W. Castle and ecotoxicologist John H. Rodgers have published findings that toxin producing ...


Antarctic glacier

West Antarctic ice sheet may not be losing ice as fast as once thought

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 19, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (10) | comments 4

New ground measurements made by the West Antarctic GPS Network (WAGN) project, composed of researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, The Ohio State University, and The University of Memphis, suggest ...


Europa Has Enough Oxygen For Life

Jupiter's Moon Europa Has Enough Oxygen For Life

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 16, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (93) | comments 42

New research suggests that there is plenty of oxygen available in the subsurface ocean of Europa to support oxygen-based metabolic processes for life similar to that on Earth. In fact, there may be enough ...


Deep-Sea Microbes May Answer Long-Standing Question About Earth's Nitrogen Cycle

Deep-Sea Microbes May Answer Long-Standing Question About Earth's Nitrogen Cycle

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 15, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have identified an unexpected metabolic ability in a symbiotic community of deep-sea microorganisms. It may help solve a lingering mystery about the world's nitrogen cycle.


Giant impact near India -- not Mexico -- may have doomed dinosaurs

Giant impact near India -- not Mexico -- may have doomed dinosaurs

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 15, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (41) | comments 15

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 ...


Greenland ice cap melting faster than ever

Greenland ice cap melting faster than ever

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created 2 hours ago | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Satellite observations and a state-of-the art regional atmospheric model have independently confirmed that the Greenland ice sheet is loosing mass at an accelerating rate, reports a new study in Science.


Record high temperatures far outpace record lows across US

Record high temperatures far outpace record lows across US (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created 3 hours ago | popularity 2.7 / 5 (7) | comments 1

Spurred by a warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States, new research shows. The ratio of record highs ...