Understanding the geologic history of Earth will no doubt be a decades, if not centuries long process, as we gather more and more data and expand our knowledge. New research published in the April 25 issue of the journal Nature has contributed an interesting new data point, however, shining a light on the processes involved in
Scientists have for decades attempted to solve the ‘how’ of plate tectonics: how they move across the Earth’s mantle. Studies have shown in the past that dissolved water in mantle minerals results in a more ductile mantle that would facilitate tectonic plate motions, but clear images and data required to confirm such a theory have
Plate tectonics utterly fascinate me, and this new news out of Caltech University just proves that this particular field of science is one of the most interesting out there. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology, aka Caltech, along with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) have found that previous assumptions about
Residents of the Himalayas could be at great risk of a massive earthquake according to new research which shows that two massive earthquake over the past millennia have left visible ground scars. Such a finding is of critical importance to the region, a region which has a similar population density to that of New York
New studies conducted by researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey have found that tsunamis pose a risk to the East Coast of the United States. Researcher Uri ten Brink noted that, “although the risk is small,” a variety of sources could actually trigger a tsunami on the East Coast. Brink also stated: “Hurricane Sandy showed
If you look at the Caribbean islands from above you’ll see that they arc, and new research by geophysicists at the University of Southern California have found that over the past 50 million years the Caribbean islands have been pushed east by the steady movement of the Earth’s viscous mantle against the more stationary Southern
Scientists have long believed that planet Earth is the only planet in our solar system where plate tectonics existed, but new research out of the University of California Los Angeles has reversed this position, showing that Mars in fact also hosts this geological phenomenon. “Mars is at a primitive stage of plate tectonics. It gives us
astrologer has also predicted that such a close perigee would/must somehow perturb the earth’s (tectonic) integrity so much that it will trigger major earthquakes and even volcanoes (not simply severe storms). Although he is not clear on the exact lunar-geo-mechanisms that would produce these quakes, never-the-less this lunar-induced disaster scenario quickly set the Web abuzz with yet another wave of doom-and-gloom “apocalypticism.”
Timing is everything.
Much of our planet is not what it once used to be: mountains have risen and collapsed; continents broken apart and crashed into one another; and according to a report to be published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the world’s largest river – the Amazon – started life out as a massive swath of wetland.
