Geophysics News

Geophysicists Discover Two Salty Subglacial Lakes in Canadian Arctic

A cold and windy spring night on the vast landscape of the Devon Ice Cap where two subglacial lakes are lurking 1,805 to 2,460 feet (550-750 m) below the surface. Image credit: Anja Rutishauser.
Apr 12, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of geophysicists has discovered two hypersaline lakes beneath the Devon Ice Cap, one of the largest ice caps in the Canadian Arctic. A cold and windy spring night on the vast landscape of the Devon Ice Cap where two subglacial lakes are lurking 1,805 to 2,460 feet (550-750 m) below the surface. Image credit: Anja Rutishauser. While there are more than 400 known subglacial lakes in the world, concentrated primarily in Antarctica...

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The team’s model reproduces key features of melting snowflakes that have been observed in nature: first, meltwater gathers in any concave regions of the snowflake’s surface; these liquid-water regions merge as they grow and eventually form a shell of liquid around an ice core, finally developing into a water drop. Image credit: Free-Photos.

Researchers Develop First-Ever 3D Numerical Model of Melting Snowflake

Mar 30, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has developed a numerical 3D model for the melting of single snowflakes. A better understanding of how snow melts can...

NASA’s SeaWiFS satellite photographed this eddy field in the waters around Tasmania in November 2000. Image credit: NASA.

Scientists Find ‘Smoke Rings’ in Earth’s Oceans

Dec 17, 2017 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the United Kingdom has spotted the equivalent of smoke-rings in the Earth’s southern oceans which they think could ‘suck-up’...

Noctilucent clouds over Orlando. Image credit: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.

Researchers Solve Millennia-Old Mystery of ‘Bright Nights’

Jun 23, 2017 by News Staff

Dating back to the first century CE, philosophers, scientists, and reporters have noted the occasional occurrence of the phenomena known as ‘bright nights,’...

Bathymetric map of recent Hawaiian volcanism, highlighting the Loa and Kea tracks. Solid lines represent the geochemically distinct Loa (blue) and Kea (red) volcanic trends. The dashed lines are an estimate of the future projection of these trends based on the team’s hypothesis. Before the emergence of the Loa and Kea tracks, Kea-type lavas were overlain by Loa-type lavas at Ko’olau and Kaua’i. The encircled number indicates the approximate age at which Loa trend lavas first appeared at Ko’olau. Image credit: Jones et al, doi: 10.1038/nature22054.

Geoscientists Finally Solve Mystery of Hawaiian Volcanoes

May 6, 2017 by News Staff

New research has solved a long-standing mystery of how the world’s biggest and most active volcanoes formed in Hawaii. Bathymetric map of recent Hawaiian...

Global map of seismic data and ages of ocean crust: the location of seismic refraction data (circles) and mantle hotspots (white stars) were used to examine whether mid-plate volcanism substantially influenced the thickness of aged ocean crust; the modern mid-ocean ridge system is marked by a yellow line; areas in violet outline large igneous provinces. Image credit: Harm J. A. Van Avendonk et al, doi: 10.1038/ngeo2849.

Pangea Breakup Cooled Earth’s Mantle, Thinned Crust

Dec 21, 2016 by News Staff

According to a new study, the oceanic crust produced by Earth today is thinner than crust made 170 million years ago during the time of the supercontinent...

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Marsquakes Could Support Life Deep within the Red Planet

Sep 28, 2016 by James Romero

The combination of seismic activity and water locked away at depth within Mars could be releasing sufficient hydrogen gas to support communities of microorganisms,...

Aalto University scientists find explanation for auroral sounds. Image credit: Unto Laine / Aalto University.

Scientists Find Explanation for Sounds of Northern Lights

Jun 28, 2016 by News Staff

The popping and crackling sounds associated with Aurora borealis (or the Northern Lights) are born when the related geomagnetic storm activates the charges...

Torres del Paine, southern Andes, Chile. Image credit: Miguel Vieira.

New Research Suggests Andes Mountains Older Than Previously Thought

Nov 19, 2015 by News Staff

According to new research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the Andes have been a mountain chain for much longer than previously thought. Torres...

The inner core of our planet has an inner core of its own, with crystals aligned in a different direction. Image credit: Lachina Publishing Services.

Earth’s Inner Core ‘Only’ 1 – 1.5 Billion Year Old, New Study Says

Oct 8, 2015 by News Staff

The Earth’s deepest layer – the inner core – was formed between a billion and 1.5 billion years ago as it ‘froze’ from the surrounding molten...

Jakobshavn glacier, also known as Sermeq Kujalleq and the Jakobshavn Isbræ, is a large glacier in West Greenland and is among the world’s most dynamic glaciers. Radar images from ESA’s Sentinel-1A captured the glacier before and after a massive calving event, which took place between 14 and 16 August 2015. The image composite includes different Sentinel-1A images from 27 July, and 13 and 19 August. The red, green and blue indicate the position of the calving front and other dynamic features on each respective date. Image credit: Copernicus Sentinel data /ESA.

Sentinel-1A Satellite Catches Jakobshavn Glacier Shedding Ice

Aug 24, 2015 by News Staff

Images from European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1A satellite show that Greenland’s Jakobshavn glacier, the fastest moving glacier in the world, shed a...

An artist’s depiction of Earth’s magnetic field deflecting high-energy protons from the Sun around 4 billion years ago. Image credit: Michael Osadciw / University of Rochester.

Earth’s Magnetic Field Older than Thought, Says New Study

Jul 31, 2015 by News Staff

American and Canadian scientists have reported in the latest issue of Science that the magnetic field of our planet is at least 4 billion years old, up...

Dr Yan Li and co-authors followed the journey of water through the Tarim Basin from the rivers at the edge of the valley to the desert aquifers under the basin. They found that as water moved through irrigated fields, the water gathered dissolved carbon and moved it deep underground. Image credit: Yan Li.

Desert Aquifers Could Hold More Carbon Dioxide than All Earth’s Plants

Jul 29, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, massive aquifers underneath deserts contain approximately one trillion...

Schematic illustration of Earth's magnetic field. Image credit: Peter Reid / University of Edinburgh.

Earth’s Core Region beneath Southern Africa May Be Trigger for Magnetic Pole Reversals

Jul 29, 2015 by News Staff

A group of scientists – led by Dr John Tarduno from the University of Rochester, NY – has recovered a magnetic field record from minerals for Iron...

Helheim Glacier. Image credit: Nick Selmes / Swansea University.

Scientists Determine What Causes Glacial Earthquakes

Jun 26, 2015 by News Staff

A group of geoscientists led by Dr Tavi Murray of Swansea University, UK, has shown that during the glacier edge breaking process, known as calving, the...

An artist’s impression of plasma tubes in the Earth’s magnetosphere. Image credit: Mats Bjorkland / ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics.

Scientists Detect Plasma Tubes in Earth’s Magnetosphere

Jun 5, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists using the Murchison Widefield Array in the Western Australian desert have confirmed the existence of tubular plasma structures between the plasmasphere...

Thousands of supraglacial lakes form each spring and summer on top of the Greenland Ice Sheet. When they drain, they send torrents of water to the base of the ice sheet, lubricating the interface between rock and ice. That allows the ice sheet to flow faster to the ocean and discharge ice into ocean, which causes sea levels to rise faster. Image credit: Laura Stevens / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

New Study Explains What Triggers Sudden Drainages of Greenland Supraglacial Lakes

Jun 4, 2015 by News Staff

Many glacial lakes atop the Greenland Ice Sheet disappear completely within hours when large cracks form below them, draining the lakes and sending torrents...

This map shows the California Borderland and its major tectonic features, as well as the locations of earthquakes greater than magnitude 5.5. The dashed box shows the area of the new study. Large arrows show relative plate motion for the Pacific-North America fault boundary. Image credit: Mark Legg.

Researchers Map Active Fault Zones off Southern California Coast

Jun 1, 2015 by News Staff

According to a group of scientists headed by Dr Mark Legg of Legg Geophysical in Huntington Beach, residents of coastal Southern California could be surprised...

Kelvin-Helmholtz instability clouds. Image credit: Astronautilus, rodjonesphotography.co.uk / CC BY 2.0.

Kelvin-Helmholtz Waves Perturb Earth’s Magnetosphere, New Study Shows

May 12, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, the underlying physical process that creates ‘breaking wave’ cloud patterns...

Lion Geyser and Heart Spring in Yellowstone National Park. Image credit: Brocken Inaglory / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Discover Gigantic Magma Reservoir beneath Yellowstone Supervolcano

Apr 24, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by Dr Hsin-Hua Huang of California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the University of Utah has discovered a reservoir of...

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