Geoscience News

Study: Famous ‘Space Weather’ Train Delay Actually Happened Seven Years Later

The magnetogram recorded at Greenwich Magnetic Observatory (London) from 11:20 UT on 18 October 1848 to 00:20 UT on 19 October 1848. Powerful geomagnetic disturbances are apparent on the evening of 18 October 1848 from 21:20 UT. Image credit: Wild et al., doi: 10.1029/2026SW005239.
Sep 16, 2026 by News Staff

Although the famous Carrington Event of 1859 is often described as the first major space weather event to affect technology, earlier incidents did occur. Historical records show that telegraph systems were disrupted by geomagnetic storms as early as the late 1840s. An anonymous 1871 article in the journal Nature even suggested such an impact happened in 1841, when a railway telegraph system in southern England was said to have malfunctioned and delayed...

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Distribution of Earth’s wind-blown sand dunes. Image credit: Andrew Gunn, doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-75466-y.

Researcher Creates Global Map of Earth’s Sand Dunes

Aug 24, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Dr. Andrew Gunn, a scientist at Monash University, has produced a complete digital map of Earth’s wind-blown sand dunes. Distribution of Earth’s wind-blown...

Ankylosaurus magniventris, a large armored dinosaur species, witnesses the impact of an asteroid, falling on the Yucatan peninsula 66 million years ago. Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Didn’t Just Strike Earth, Its Dust Cloud Cooked It

Jul 29, 2026 by News Staff

The Chicxulub impact not only plunged Earth into an impact winter but also produced a dust blanket that later overheated the planet, according to new research...

The North Pole Dome crater: (A) simplified map of the East Pilbara Terrane (EPT, Western Australia), showing Paleoarchean granite domes (pink) and greenstone belts (greens and blues); the North Pole Dome (NPD) lies near the terrane center; (B) geological map of the NPD and the shatter-cone field (yellow star); (C) A quartz (Qtz)-carbonate vein cutting shatter-cone lineation. Image credit: Kirkland et al., doi: 10.1130/G54866.1.

Australia’s North Pole Dome Crater is Earth’s Oldest and Only Known Archean Impact Structure

Jun 25, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Zircon crystals and impact-altered minerals show that a massive asteroid slammed into what is now the Pilbara region of Western Australia about 3 billion...

Fault-controlled basins and interpreted structural frame in the newly-identified East Antarctic Fan-Shaped Basin Province. Image credit: Armadillo et al., doi: 10.1038/s41561-026-01991-6.

Geoscientists Find Vast Fan-Shaped Structure beneath Antarctica’s Ice

Jun 8, 2026 by News Staff

By combining seismic, gravity and topographic data, a team of researchers from Italy, Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom found that several well-known...

Early Earth. Image credit: Peter Sawyer / Smithsonian Institution.

Ancient Oceans Began Losing Oxygen Millions of Years before End-Triassic Mass Extinction

Jun 2, 2026 by News Staff

Chemical traces preserved in ancient rocks indicate that marine environments were deteriorating long before the catastrophe that wiped out vast numbers...

Lim et al. demonstrate that stromatolites -- the oldest fossil evidence of oxygen-producing microbial life on early Earth -- could have developed within impact craters, based on a detailed investigation of stromatolites and lake sediments in the Hapcheon impact crater, South Korea. Image credit: Lim et al., doi: 10.1038/s43247-026-03206-7.

Ancient Crater Lakes May Have Provided Ideal Conditions for Earth’s Earliest Oxygen-Breathing Life

May 20, 2026 by News Staff

Researchers have discovered stromatolites — layered structures formed by microbial communities — inside a 42,000-year-old asteroid crater in...

An artist’s impression of the ‘Snowball Earth.’ Image credit: Oleg Kuznetsov, http://3depix.com / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ancient Earth Repeatedly Thawed during Catastrophic Ice Ages, New Research Suggests

May 13, 2026 by News Staff

Earth experienced extreme climate swings during the Neoproterozoic epoch (one billion to 538.8 million years ago), including the Sturtian glaciation, when...

A foggy field in Pennsylvania has a little secret: its suspended water droplets form a habitat for helpful bacteria that eat air toxins. Image credit: Thi Thuong Thuong Cao.

Tiny Bacteria in the Fog May Be Helping Clean the Air

May 13, 2026 by News Staff

A study of radiation fog events over Pennsylvania has found that bacteria living inside fog droplets are actively growing and feeding on toxic chemicals...

Location map of the extensional zone within the Central African Plateau of Zambia. The Kafue Rift is connected to the Luano and Luangwa rifts to the NE, and the Western branch of the EARS at the Rukwa rift (RRB) and Rungwe Volcanic Province (RVP). Image credit: Karolytė et al., doi: 10.3389/feart.2026.1799564.

Hidden Rift beneath Zambia May Be Tearing Africa Apart

May 12, 2026 by News Staff

Unusual gases rising from geothermal springs within the Kafue Rift of Zambia suggest a deep fracture in Earth’s crust could mark the early stages of...

Hadean Earth. Image credit: Alec Brenner.

Earth’s Lithosphere was Already Segmented and Mobile 3.5 Billion Years Ago

Mar 22, 2026 by News Staff

By tracing magnetic signals preserved in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia, geoscientists have found the oldest direct evidence yet that...

Mortierellomycetes and Umbelopsidomycetes fungi from freshwater ecosystems in Korea. Image credit: Goh et al., doi: 10.4489/kjm.20230018.

Fungi Found to Trigger Ice Formation

Mar 19, 2026 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States and Germany has identified fungal proteins that can freeze water at relatively warm subzero temperatures,...

Coronae glow on the tips of spruce needles, induced by charged metal plates in a laboratory. Image credit: William Brune.

Scientists Observe Electrical Discharges on Trees under Thunderstorms

Feb 26, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

Most people know about lightning and the havoc it wreaks on forests. They do not know about the weak electrical glow, called a corona, that is thought...

Location of large plume-like structures (triangles) hidden deep within the Greenland Ice Sheet. Image credit: Leysinger Vieli et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07083-3 / Law et al., doi: 10.5194/tc-20-1071-2026.

Researchers Solve Mystery of Swirling, Plume-Like Structures Deep Inside Greenland’s Ice Sheet

Feb 16, 2026 by News Staff

For years glaciologists puzzled over strange plume-like structures hidden deep within the Greenland Ice Sheet. Now a new study by scientists from the University...

Evolution of the Antarctic Geoid Low. Image credit: P. Glišović & A.M. Forte, doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-28606-1.

Geoscientists Pinpoint Ancient Forces behind Antarctica’s Gravity Hole

Feb 16, 2026 by News Staff

New research by geoscientists from the University of Florida and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris traces the origins of the Antarctic gravity...

An artist’s impression of Earth around 700 million years ago during the Sturtian glaciation. Image credit: Pablo Carlos Budassi.

Seasonal and Multi-Decadal Climate Cycles Persisted during Snowball Earth, Scientists Say

Feb 11, 2026 by News Staff

A new analysis of exquisitely preserved laminated rocks (varves) from the Port Askaig Formation on the Garvellach Islands, Scotland, shows that climate...

Two enormous blobs of solid, superheated material located at the base of Earth’s mantle affect the underlying liquid outer core. Image credit: Biggin et al., doi: 10.1038/s41561-025-01910-1.

Two Enormous Blobs of Superheated Material Help Shape Earth’s Magnetic Field

Feb 3, 2026 by News Staff

Two immense, ultrahot rock structures located at the base of Earth’s mantle, around 2,900 km beneath Africa and the Pacific, have been shaping Earth’s...

Early Earth. Image credit: Peter Sawyer / Smithsonian Institution.

Massive Undersea Volcanism May Explain Frequent Extinctions in Triassic Period

Jan 29, 2026 by News Staff

A team of geologists from China and Australia has found evidence that episodic eruptions from vast marine large igneous provinces (LIPs) drove repeated...

Cryogenian Earth. Image credit: NASA.

Tectonic Plate Movements, Not Volcanoes, Drove Major Climate Shifts Over 540 Million Years

Jan 20, 2026 by News Staff

New research challenges conventional wisdom by demonstrating that mid-ocean ridges and continental rifts, not volcanic eruptions, played the central role...

Example photographs of primary, mixed, and secondary halite inclusion assemblages. Image credit: Park et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2513030122.

Scientists Find Ancient Air Bubbles in 1.4 Billion-Year-Old Salt Crystals

Dec 22, 2025 by News Staff

Researchers have found ancient gases and fluids trapped in 1.4-billion-year-old halite crystals from northern Ontario, Canada. Their analyses directly...

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