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"Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler", Albert Einstein
Browsing All Posts filed under »GEOLOGY«
The Earth’s center is 1,000 degrees hotter than previously thought
Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s centre to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 degrees hotter than in a previous experiment run 20 years ago. These measurements confirm geophysical models that the temperature difference between the solid core and the mantle above, must be at least 1500 degrees to explain why the Earth has […]
The Story of Our Planet
March 24, 2013
Dinosaur-killing space rock ‘was a comet’
March 23, 2013
The space rock that hit Earth 65m years ago and is widely implicated in the end of the dinosaurs was probably a speeding comet, US scientists say. Researchers in New Hampshire suggest the 180km-wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico was carved out by a smaller object than previously thought. Many scientists consider a large and relatively […]
Particle physics research sheds new light on possible ‘fifth force of nature’
February 22, 2013
In a breakthrough for the field of particle physics, Professor of Physics Larry Hunter and colleagues at Amherst College and The University of Texas at Austin have established new limits on what scientists call “long-range spin-spin interactions” between atomic particles. These interactions have been proposed by theoretical physicists but have not yet been seen. Their […]
New clues to the early Solar System from ancient meteorites
July 22, 2012
In order to understand Earth’s earliest history–its formation from Solar System material into the present-day layering of metal core and mantle, and crust–scientists look to meteorites. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Doug Rumble and Liping Qin focuses on one particularly old type of meteorite called diogenites. These samples were examined using an array […]
Could GPS be used to predict earthquakes?
March 26, 2012
Professor Kosuke Heki of Hokkaido University in Japan believes he has found a way to predict earthquakes. Heki analyses GPS signals by measuring the TEC, or Total Electron Content, in the upper atmosphere. Whilst measuring how the TEC was disrupted by sound waves after the Tohoku earthquake of 2011, he discovered – quite by accident […]
Laguna del Maule
January 3, 2012
In the Andean mountain range, stretching across the border between Chile and Argentina, lies a volcanic caldera named Laguna del Maule, roughly 15 by 25 kilometers (9 by 15 miles) across. Within the northern part of the caldera lies Maule Lake, which is surrounded by a complex volcanic landscape. This perspective image is made from data acquired […]
‘New metal type’ at Earth’s core
December 20, 2011
The composition of the Earth’s core remains a mystery. Scientists know that the liquid outer core consists mainly of iron, but it is believed that small amounts of some other elements are present as well. Oxygen is the most abundant element in the planet, so it is not unreasonable to expect oxygen might be one […]
Super-Powerful X-Ray Beam Will Probe the Center of the Earth
November 10, 2011
It is much easier to get to Mars than to get deep inside this planet, so for all our knowledge about things like earthquakes and the magnetic field, Earth’s interior is actually very poorly understood. To study how metals interact at the prodigious pressures within, scientists squeeze small particles in the lab and heat them […]
The Ozone Hole: Summer 2011
October 20, 2011
NASA, NOAA Data Show Significant Antarctic Ozone Hole Remains The Antarctic ozone hole, which yawns wide every Southern Hemisphere spring, reached its annual peak on Sept. 12. It stretched to 10.05 million square miles, the ninth largest ozone hole on record. Above the South Pole, the ozone hole reached its deepest point of the season […]
Arty shot of moon crater with link to dinosaurs
July 4, 2011
The sun rises over the central peak complex of the moon’s Tycho crater in this image captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on 10 June. The spacecraft, which has been collecting detailed information about the lunar environment since June 2009, angled its orbit 65 degrees to the west to capture the image. Located near the […]
Ancient Greek oral traditions got geology right
June 6, 2011
In the first century AD, a Greek geographer and historian named Strabo noted that a peninsula just south of Athens called Piraeus had, at one time in the past, been an island. It’s unusual for landforms to change so quickly that humans can take notice, even over generations, so that’s a pretty interesting claim. The […]
April 25, 2013
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