News tagged with geophysics
UNH ocean scientists shed new light on Mariana Trench
An ocean mapping expedition has shed new light on deepest place on Earth, the 2,500-kilometer long Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean near Guam. Using a multibeam echo sounder, state-of-the-art equipment ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Feb 06, 2012 |
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Surface of Mars an unlikely place for life after 600 million year drought, say scientists
Mars may have been arid for more than 600 million years, making it too hostile for any life to survive on the planet's surface, according to researchers who have been carrying out the painstaking task of analysing ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Feb 03, 2012 |
4.3 / 5 (13) |
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Sea cucumbers could be key to preserving coral reefs
(PhysOrg.com) -- Tropical sea cucumbers could play a key role in saving coral reefs from the devastating effects of climate change, say scientists at One Tree Island, the University of Sydney's research station ...
Jan 31, 2012 |
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Low temperatures enhance ozone degradation above the Arctic
Extraordinarily cold temperatures in the winter of 2010/2011 caused the most massive destruction of the ozone layer above the Arctic so far: The mechanisms leading to the first ozone hole above the North Pole ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 19, 2012 |
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Satellite imagery detects thermal 'uplift' signal of underground nuclear tests
A new analysis of satellite data from the late 1990s documents for the first time the "uplift" of ground above a site of underground nuclear testing, providing researchers a potential new tool for analyzing the strength of ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 10, 2012 |
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Sea cucumbers: Dissolving coral reefs?
Coral reefs are extremely diverse ecosystems that support enormous biodiversity. But they are at risk. Carbon dioxide emissions are acidifying the ocean, threatening reefs and other marine organisms. New research led by Carnegie's ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 22, 2011 |
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Removing sulfur from jet fuel cools climate: study
A Yale study examining the impact of aviation on climate change found that removing sulfur from jet fuel cools the atmosphere. The study was published in the October 22 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.
Dec 14, 2011 |
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Ice sheets can expand in a geologic instant, Arctic study shows
(PhysOrg.com) -- A fast-moving glacier on the Greenland Ice Sheet expanded in a geologic instant several millennia ago, growing in response to cooling periods that lasted not much longer than a century, according ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 14, 2011 |
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Cassini to make a double play
(PhysOrg.com) -- In an action-packed day and a half, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be making its closest swoop over the surface of Saturn's moon Dione and scrutinizing the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 12, 2011 |
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Is cannibalism in polar bears on the rise?
(PhysOrg.com) -- A series of photographs of cannibalism in polar bears have been released, and the researchers who witnessed the act think the rate of cannibalism may be increasing. They observed three instances ...
Dec 09, 2011 |
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Pinot noir grapes reveal 700-year climate record
The French call pinot noir "the noble grape" and have long considered it a source of inspiration. Now it can also be appreciated as the reason for an extensive, localized climate record.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 09, 2011 |
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Paleoclimate record points toward potential rapid climate changes
(PhysOrg.com) -- New research into the Earth's paleoclimate history by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies director James E. Hansen suggests the potential for rapid climate changes this century, including ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 08, 2011 |
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The world's biggest radar laboratory
In the past year, the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility deployed 18 new scanning radars at its research sites in Oklahoma, Alaska, and the tropical western Pacific. These ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 08, 2011 |
3 / 5 (1) |
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Opportunity rover finds mineral vein deposited by water
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found bright veins of a mineral, apparently gypsum, deposited by water. Analysis of the vein will help improve understanding of the history of ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 08, 2011 |
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Landsat satellites track Yellowstone's underground heat
(PhysOrg.com) -- Yellowstone National Park sits on top of a vast, ancient, and still active volcano. Heat pours off its underground magma chamber, and is the fuel for Yellowstone's famous features -- more ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 08, 2011 |
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Geophysics
Geophysics ( /dʒiːoʊfɪzɪks/) is the physics of the Earth and its environment in space; also the study of the Earth using quantitative physical methods. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and composition; its dynamics and their surface expression in plate tectonics, the generation of magmas, volcanism and rock formation. However, modern geophysics organizations use a broader definition that includes the hydrological cycle including snow and ice; fluid dynamics of the oceans and the atmosphere; electricity and magnetism in the ionosphere and magnetosphere and solar-terrestrial relations; and analogous problems associated with the Moon and other planets.
Although geophysics was only recognized as a separate discipline in the 19th century, its origins go back to ancient history. The first magnetic compasses date back to the fourth century BC and the first seismoscope was built in 132 BC. Geophysical methods were developed for navigation; Isaac Newton applied his theory of mechanics to the tides and the precession of the equinox; and instruments were developed to measure the Earth's shape, density and gravity field, as well as the components of the water cycle. In the 20th century, geophysical methods were developed for remote exploration of the solid Earth and the ocean, and geophysics played an essential role in the development of the theory of plate tectonics.
Geophysics is applied to societal needs, such as mineral resources, mitigation of natural hazards and environmental protection. Geophysical survey data are used to analyze potential petroleum reservoirs and mineral deposits, locate groundwater, find archaeological relics, determine the thickness of glaciers and soils, and assess sites for environmental remediation.
For more information about Geophysics, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
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