Geoscience News

Primordial Helium Isotope is Leaking Out of Earth’s Metallic Core: Study

Sketches illustrating core-mantle helium exchange processes: (a) 3He acquisition during Earth’s accretion by ingassing from the nebular atmosphere and transport through the magma ocean to the proto-core; and (b) 3He transport from the core to the mantle and from the mantle to the ocean after accretion. Image credit: Olson & Sharp, doi: 10.1029/2021GC009985.
Mar 29, 2022 by News Staff

Each year, about 2 kg of helium-3, a rare isotope of helium gas, escapes from Earth’s interior, mostly along the mid-ocean ridge system. Helium-3 is primordial, created shortly after the Big Bang and acquired from the Solar Nebula as the Earth formed. Geochemical evidence indicates the Earth has deep reservoirs of helium-3, but their locations and abundances remain uncertain. New models of volatile exchange during Earth’s formation and evolution...

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Locations of four vertical cross sections (thick, solid lines) on two LLSVPs (yellow). Image credit: Yuan & Li, doi: 10.1038/s41561-022-00908-3.

Study: Two Blob-Like Structures in Earth’s Mantle Have Different Densities and Compositions

Mar 14, 2022 by News Staff

Seismic observations have recently revealed two seismic anomalies in Earth’s lowermost mantle, one beneath Africa and the other beneath the Pacific Ocean,...

Photo from fieldwork at the edge of the Greenland Ice Sheet in 2019. Image credit: Pierre Beck.

Enormous Asteroid Crater in Greenland is 58 Million Years Old, Scientists Say

Mar 11, 2022 by News Staff

The 31-km- (19.2-mile) wide Hiawatha impact structure is located beneath Hiawatha Glacier in northwestern Greenland. Photo from fieldwork at the edge of...

Zhu et al. suggest rapid supermountain erosion increased atmospheric oxygen and nutrient levels. Image credit: Keith Johnston

Supermountains May Have Played Crucial Role in Evolution of Life on Earth

Feb 3, 2022 by News Staff

According to new research from the Australian National University and the Queensland University of Technology, the supermountains formed twice in Earth’s...

Twelfth-Century Chronicle Contains Description of Ball Lightning

Jan 28, 2022 by News Staff

Durham University professors Brian Tanner and Giles Gasper have found a credible description of ball lightning in a monastic chronicle compiled and composed...

Many technologies key to modern society are vulnerable to solar storms. Image credit: National Space Weather Program.

Extreme Solar Storm Hit Our Planet 9,200 Years Ago

Jan 27, 2022 by News Staff

During solar storms, the Sun expels large amounts of energetic particles that can react with the atmosphere of Earth and produce cosmogenic isotopes such...

Global inventory of subglacial lakes: (a) inventory of northern hemisphere subglacial lakes (SGLs); the top right inset shows the location of part a (red box) in the northern hemisphere; (b) inventory of SGLs beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet; the extents of larger lakes (such as PEL Lake and Lake Vostok) are defined by blue polygons; red circles represent stable lakes identified from radio-echo sounding (RES), and blue triangles represent active lakes that have been observed to drain at least once during the observation period; lakes labeled in green have been accessed and cleanly sampled with the exception of Glacier de Tête Rousse, which was monitored using boreholes (water level) and sonar (cavity geometry), and Lake Vostok. MIC - Mýrdalsjökull Ice Cap, VIC - Vatnajökull Ice Cap. Image credit: Livingstone et al., doi: 10.1038/s43017-021-00246-9.

Scientists Compile First Global Inventory of Subglacial Lakes

Jan 19, 2022 by News Staff

A multinational team of researchers has catalogued data on 773 subglacial lakes — repositories of ancient climate conditions, provide habitats for...

Pachhai et al. employ seismic data analysis and high-resolution geodynamic modeling to study the origin of ultralow-velocity zones beneath the Coral Sea between Australia and New Zealand. Image credit: Pachhai et al., doi: 10.1038/s41561-021-00871-5.

Ultralow-Velocity Zones are Leftovers from Early Earth’s Magma Ocean, New Study Suggests

Jan 3, 2022 by News Staff

Ultra-low velocity zones sit beneath the central Pacific and Africa, atop the outer core of Earth. In these areas, seismic waves slow by as much as half,...

Long-lived lakes of water vapor in the atmosphere are observed to occur over the western Indian Ocean. Their dynamics resemble those of a well-studied theoretical and simulation paradigm for tropical disturbances called self-aggregation. Image credit: Mapes & Tsai.

New Meteorological Phenomenon Discovered: Atmospheric Lakes

Dec 30, 2021 by News Staff

Atmospheric lakes are long-lived pools of water vapor that occur over the western Indian Ocean and bring water to dry lowlands along East Africa’s coastline. Long-lived...

Oxygen deficient zone intensity across the eastern Pacific Ocean, where copper colors represent the locations of consistently lowest oxygen concentrations and deep teal indicates regions without sufficiently low dissolved oxygen. Image credit: Jarek Kwiecinski & Andrew Babbin.

High-Resolution Atlas of Pacific Ocean’s Oxygen Deficient Zones Created

Dec 28, 2021 by News Staff

A duo of MIT researchers has created the most detailed atlas of the world’s largest oxygen deficient zones, biogeochemical regions of the global ocean...

A valley in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Image credit: S. McMurtrey / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Iodine from Desert Dust Decreases Ozone Air Pollution, New Study Shows

Dec 23, 2021 by News Staff

Iodine, the same chemical added as a nutrient to table salt, is an atmospheric trace element emitted from oceans that efficiently destroys ozone. Low ozone...

An illustration depicting the onset of the end-Permian mass extinction. Image credit: Dawid Adam Iurino / PaleoFactory, Sapienza University of Rome / Jurikova et al, doi: 10.1038/s41561-020-00646-4.

Toxic Microbes Helped Cause and Prolong End-Permian Marine Mass Extinction, Study Suggests

Dec 20, 2021 by News Staff

Extreme warming at the end of the Permian period induced profound changes in marine biogeochemical cycling and animal habitability, leading to the largest...

Study area and hybrid-frequency waveform earthquakes (EHWs): (a) hydraulic fracturing activity and seismicity in northeast British Columbia, Canada; the top-right inset shows the geographic location of the study area (red rectangle); blue diamonds: hydraulic fracturing injection wells between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2016, reported by the British Columbia Oil and Gas Commission; yellow dots: earthquakes during the same period; stars: 10 M 4-5 earthquakes since 2008; black rectangle: study area in which EHWs occurred; (b, c) comparison between representative examples of a typical induced event (black trace) and an EHW (purple trace); both waveforms are from the vertical component of station MG03 with comparable source-station distance (1.32 km vs. 1.65 km) and magnitudes (MW1.5); manually picked P/S-arrivals are marked; the comparison of P/S-pulse shape demonstrates the relatively wider pulses for EHWs; (d, e) the same as (b) and (c) but for waveforms recorded at station MG02; both events show longer coda durations with slightly larger epicentral distances; note that although both types of events have extended coda durations, the EHW contains a relatively larger proportion of lower-frequency energy in the coda. Image credit: Yu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-26961-x.

Scientists Detect New Type of Fluid-Injection-Induced Earthquake

Dec 6, 2021 by News Staff

Unlike conventional earthquakes of the same magnitude, the newly-identified hybrid-frequency waveform earthquakes are slower and last longer. Study area...

This diamond from Botswana contains tiny inclusions of davemaoite. Image credit: Aaron Celestian, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

New Mineral Found inside Deep-Mantle Diamond: Davemaoite

Nov 17, 2021 by News Staff

Calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO3) is arguably the most geochemically important phase in the Earth’s lower mantle, because it concentrates elements...

Tang Dynasty mural commemorating the victory of General Zhang Yichao over the Tibetans in 848 CE, from Mogao cave 156.

Volcanic Eruptions Contributed to Repeated Collapse of Ancient Chinese Dynasties, Says New Study

Nov 12, 2021 by News Staff

One or more volcanic eruptions preceded the majority (62 of 68) of dynastic collapses in China over the past 2,000 years, according to new research led...

An artist’s impression of the Hadean Earth: huge, impact-generated lava lakes coexisted with surface liquid water, under a thick greenhouse atmosphere sustained by lava outgassing. Image credit: Simone Marchi & Dan Durda, Southwest Research Institute.

Extreme Heat Led to Episodic Deluges on Ancient ‘Hothouse’ Earth, Scientists Say

Nov 4, 2021 by News Staff

The distant past of Earth and potentially its future include extremely warm ‘hothouse’ climate states, but little is known about how the atmosphere...

Ordovician sea life. Image credit: Fritz Geller-Grimm / National Museum of Natural History / CC BY-SA 2.5.

New Research Explores Cause of End-Ordovician Mass Extinction

Nov 2, 2021 by News Staff

The end-Ordovician mass extinction, the first of the ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions occurred 445 million years ago and was characterized by the disappearance...

This artistic conception illustrates large asteroids penetrating Earth’s oxygen-poor atmosphere. Image credit: SwRI / Dan Durda / Simone Marchi.

Archean Asteroid Impacts Delayed Evolution of Earth’s Atmosphere, Study Suggests

Oct 21, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States and Austria has analyzed remnants of ancient asteroids and modeled the effects of their violent collisions...

The supercontinent Nuna about 1.59 billion years ago. Image credit: Alexandre DeZotti.

Mantle beneath Earth’s Continents Experienced Large-Scale Heating Two Billion Years Ago

Sep 24, 2021 by News Staff

New research from the University of Adelaide sheds light on why cold eclogites — high-pressure, metamorphic rocks that consist primarily of garnet...

Earth’s magnetic field lines. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Study Provides Further Evidence of 200-Million-Year-Long Cycle in Strength of Earth’s Magnetic Field

Aug 20, 2021 by News Staff

New research shows that the magnetic field of our planet was relatively weak (less than half the strength of the long-term average field) for tens of millions...

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