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The Dead Sea, Israel. Image credit: David Shankbone / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Oldest Evidence of Humans’ Impact on Geological Processes Found in Israel

Jun 5, 2017 by News Staff

What is being reported as the earliest indication of humans’ impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystems has been found in the Dead Sea, Israel —...

Artist’s conception of early Earth. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Francis Reddy.

Early Earth was Barren, Smooth and Almost Entirely under Water, Research Suggests

May 8, 2017 by News Staff

About 4 billion years ago (Hadean eon), our planet was entirely different than it is now. It was barren, smooth and almost entirely under water with a...

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...

An artistic conception of the early Earth. Image credit: Simone Marchi / NASA.

Geologists Find Remnants of Early Earth’s Crust in Canada

Mar 17, 2017 by News Staff

An analysis of rock samples collected from the Superior Province, the region in Canada just north of the Great Lakes, suggests the samples contain components...

Archean Earth. Image credit: Francis Reddy, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Scientists Propose New Contributing Cause for ‘Great Oxidation Event’

Mar 14, 2017 by News Staff

In the Archean Eon, more than 2.3 billion years ago, Earth’s atmosphere spent about a million years filled with a methane-rich haze; and this haze drove...

The last glacial period occurred from 110,000 to 11,700 years ago. Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Simple Rule Accurately Predicts when Ice Age Ends

Feb 23, 2017 by News Staff

According to an international research team led by University College London Professor Chronis Tzedakis, a simple rule can accurately predict when Earth’s...

Based on various lines of geological and geophysical evidence, particularly those accumulated in the last two decades, Nick Mortimer et al argue that Zealandia is not a collection of partly submerged continental fragments but is a coherent 4.9 million km2 continent. NC - New Caledonia; WTP - West Torres Plateau; CT - Cato Trough; Cf - Chesterfield Islands; L - Lord Howe Island; N - Norfolk Island; K - Kermadec Islands; Ch - Chatham Islands; B - Bounty Islands; An - Antipodes Islands; Au - Auckland Islands; Ca - Campbell Island. Image credit: Nick Mortimer et al, doi: 10.1130/GSATG321A.1.

Meet Zealandia, Earth’s New Continent

Feb 14, 2017 by Natali Anderson

Zealandia — a 4.9 million km2 region of the southwest Pacific Ocean — was once part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana and today it is...

ESA’s Swarm satellites have led the discovery of a jet stream in the liquid iron part of Earth’s core about 1,870 miles beneath the surface. In addition, Swarm data show that this jet stream is speeding up. Image credit: ESA.

Researchers Discover Jet Stream in Earth’s Molten Iron Core

Dec 20, 2016 by News Staff

A jet stream within the Earth’s core has been discovered by researchers using data from ESA’s Swarm satellite mission. ESA’s Swarm satellites have...

Artist rendition of NASA’s TIMED spacecraft. The satellite is orbiting at 388 miles (625 km) and viewing in the anti-sunward limb direction. Image credit: NASA.

NASA’s TIMED Satellite Finds Hot Atomic Hydrogen in Earth’s Thermosphere

Dec 7, 2016 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s TIMED satellite, scientists have discovered the existence of hot atomic hydrogen atoms in the thermosphere (from about 56 to 311...

Moon. Image credit: Gregory H. Revera / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Moon is Proto-Earth’s Mantle, Researchers Say

Sep 12, 2016 by News Staff

Measurements of potassium in lunar and terrestrial rocks have disproved the leading hypotheses for the origin of Earth’s sole natural satellite. Moon....

The ratio of volatile elements in Earth’s mantle suggests that virtually all of the planet’s life-giving carbon came from a collision with an embryonic planet about 100 million years after Earth formed. Image credit: A. Passwaters / Rice University / NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Proto-Earth Collided with Mercury-Like Planetary Embryo about 4.4 Billion Years Ago

Sep 6, 2016 by News Staff

In a new paper in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers offer a new answer to a long-debated question: how did carbon-based life develop on Earth,...

A simulation of the Antarctic ozone hole, made from data taken on October 22, 2015. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Researchers Identify Clear Signs of Healing in Antarctic Ozone Layer

Jun 30, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by Prof. Susan Solomon of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has identified the first ‘fingerprints...

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...

This image of the continental United States at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012. The image was made possible by the satellite's ‘day-night band’ of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals such as city lights, gas flares, auroras, wildfires and reflected moonlight. Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory / NOAA NGDC.

Researchers Develop New Global Atlas of Light Pollution

Jun 10, 2016 by News Staff

More than 80 percent of the world and more than 99 percent of the U.S. and European populations live under light-polluted skies, according to a study and...

This map shows the location of the ice-free corridor and Paleo-Indian sites. Image credit: Roblespepe / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Researchers: ‘Ice-Free Corridor’ along Rocky Mountains Opened Up 13,000 Years Ago

Jun 7, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Evidence from bison fossils has enabled researchers to shape a more accurate timeline for the so-called ‘ice-free corridor’ — a route for Pleistocene...

Artist’s concept of the active young Sun 4 billion years ago. Its energy may have aided in creating molecules in the atmosphere of early Earth that allowed it to warm up enough to incubate life. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / CIL.

Young Sun’s Superflares May Have Been Key to Life on Early Earth

May 25, 2016 by News Staff

Powerful coronal mass ejection events from the young Sun may have provided the crucial energy needed to warm early Earth, according to a team of researchers...

Ancient Earth. Image credit: Imperial College London.

Archean Earth’s Upper Atmosphere Was Oxygen-Rich, Scientists Discover

May 12, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from Australia and the United Kingdom has made a surprising discovery about the chemistry of Earth’s upper atmosphere...

Sahara, Libya. Image credit: Victor Korniyenko / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Dust from Sahara Makes Significant Impact on Caribbean Sea Ecosystem, Research Shows

May 10, 2016 by News Staff

Atmospherically transported dust from the Sahara Desert, the largest desert in the world, is bringing iron and other nutrients to underwater plants in...

An artist’s conception of the Antarctic subglacial environment. Image credit: Zina Deretsky / NSF.

What Lies Beneath Thick Antarctic Ice Sheet?

May 4, 2016 by News Staff

Three teams of scientists have taken a detailed look into the biogeochemistry, geophysics and geology of subglacial Lake Whillans, which lies 2,600 feet...