Earth Sciences news

After mastodons and mammoths, a transformed landscape

Nov 19, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (11) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Roughly 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, North America's vast assemblage of large animals -- including such iconic creatures as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, ground ...

Mysteriously warm times in Antarctica

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 18, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (19) | 26

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study of Antarctica's past climate reveals that temperatures during the warm periods between ice ages (interglacials) may have been higher than previously thought. The latest analysis ...

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

Nov 11, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (12) | 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

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 08, 2009 | 3.8 / 5 (6) | 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 ...

Earthquakes actually aftershocks of 19th century quakes

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 04, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (19) | 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

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (36) | 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

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Oct 29, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (27) | 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

Oct 29, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (13) | 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

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Oct 26, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (15) | 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

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Oct 22, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (5) | 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 ...

Some 6,000 families were affected by the drought in the Chaco region of Paraguay, particularly indigenous populations

El Nino intensifies Latin America drought

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 20, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

From a devastating food crisis in Guatemala to water cuts in Venezuela, El Nino has compounded drought damage across Latin America this year.

Paleontologists find extinction rates higher in open-ocean settings during mass extinctions

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 19, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

Arnie Miller, University of Cincinnati professor of paleontology in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, and co-author Michael Foote of the University of Chicago publish their research in the Nov. 20 issue ...

Rich Ore Deposits Linked to Ancient Atmosphere

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 19, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Much of our planet's mineral wealth was deposited billions of years ago when Earth's chemical cycles were different from today's. Using geochemical clues from rocks nearly 3 billion years old, a group of ...

Oceans' uptake of manmade carbon may be slowing

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 18, 2009 | 3.7 / 5 (20) | 9

The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Now, the first year-by-year accounting of this mechanism during the industrial ...

Ancient high-altitude trees grow faster as temperatures rise

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 16, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (11) | 0

PIC=32536:left]Increasing temperatures at high altitudes are fueling the post-1950 growth spurt seen in bristlecone pines, the world's oldest trees, according to new research.