Geoscience News

Geophysicists Find Dense Rock Structures near Earth’s Core

Earthquakes send sound waves through the Earth. Seismograms record the echoes as those waves travel along the core-mantle boundary, diffracting and bending around dense rock structures. Kim et al provide the first broad view of these structures, revealing them to be much more widespread than previously known. Image credit: Doyeon Kim, University of Maryland.
Jun 16, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study, a team of geophysicists from the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and Tel Aviv University has analyzed echoes of seismic waves traveling beneath the Pacific Ocean basin. They’ve detected unusually dense, hot rock structures at the core-mantle boundary beneath the volcanic Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific and found that the structure beneath the Hawaiian Islands is much larger than previously known. Earthquakes...

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Devonian-period seafloor. Image credit: University of Michigan Museum of Natural History.

End-Devonian Mass Extinction Caused by Erosion of Ozone Layer, New Study Finds

May 28, 2020 by News Staff

High levels of damaging ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation collapsed forest ecosystems and killed off many species of fish and tetrapods at the end of the...

The Chicxulub asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, which is among the worst-case scenarios for the lethality of the impact by the production of climate-changing gases. Image credit: Chase Stone.

Dinosaur-Killing Chicxulub Asteroid Hit Earth at Angle of 60 Degrees

May 27, 2020 by News Staff

A 10-km asteroid crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years...

Hawaiian Volcano Puhahonu is Earth’s Biggest and Hottest Shield Volcano

May 15, 2020 by News Staff

Pūhāhonu (‘turtle rising for breath’ in Hawaiian), a 13-million-year-old volcano in the northwest Hawaiian Ridge, is twice the size of Mauna Loa...

Yang & Song found that refracted waves (blue), rather than reflected waves (purple) change over time, providing the best evidence yet that Earth’s inner core is rotating. Image credit: Michael Vincent.

Earth’s Inner Core is Rotating, Study Says

May 13, 2020 by News Staff

The inner core of the Earth is rotating at about 0.05-0.1 degrees per year, according to an analysis of seismic data from repeating earthquakes published...

Heavier iron isotopes migrate toward lower temperatures into the mantle, while lighter iron isotopes circulate back down into the core. Image credit: L. O’Dwyer Brown, Aarhus University.

Earth’s Core May Be Leaking Iron, Geoscientists Say

Apr 16, 2020 by News Staff

Earth’s molten core may be leaking heavy isotopes of iron, according to a study led by geoscientists from Aarhus University and the University of California,...

DLR researchers spotted an unusual ozone mini-hole over the Arctic. Image credit: DLR / BIRA / ESA.

Researchers Spot Ozone Mini-Hole over Arctic

Apr 10, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the Tropomi instrument on ESA’s Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite (also known as Sentinel-5P), a team of scientists from the...

The internal sctructure of Earth. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Université Paris Diderot / Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris.

‘Basal Magma Ocean’ Generated Early Earth’s Magnetic Field, New Research Suggests

Mar 18, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, a team of researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the...

2020 CD3 is estimated to be only between one and six meters across. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

Study: 70 Million Years Ago Day Lasted 23.5 Hours, Year Had 372 Days

Mar 10, 2020 by News Staff

Torreites sanchezi, an extinct species of rudist clam that lived during the Cretaceous period, some 70 million years ago, grew fast, laying down daily...

An artist’s impression of a water-world planet. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Archean Earth Was Covered by Global Ocean, New Study Suggests

Mar 3, 2020 by News Staff

The surface of Earth was likely covered by a global ocean 3.24 billion years ago (Archean Eon), according to a new study published in the journal Nature...

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.

New Research Reveals Violent Birth of Continent Zealandia

Feb 10, 2020 by News Staff

Zealandia — Earth’s seventh continent — experienced dramatic elevation changes between about 50 million and 35 million years ago, according...

Epifluorescence imagery of a tiny grain within methane hydrate showing internal presence of microbial DNA. Image credit: Snyder et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-58723-y.

Strange Grains in ‘Flammable Ice’ Contain Microbes

Feb 10, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has found bacterial communities within microscopic spheroidal aggregates of dolomite, oil and water found in sheets...

A tiny grain of lunar soil brought back by Apollo 17, magnified under a scanning electron microscope. Image credit: Jennika Greer, Field Museum.

Researchers Find New Way to Analyze Chemistry of Lunar Soil

Feb 7, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of planetary scientists and geochemists from the United States and Switzerland has demonstrated that a technique called atom probe...

The auroral dunes appear as a green-tinged and even pattern of waves resembling a striped veil of clouds or dunes on a sandy beach. Image credit: Kari Saari.

Auroral Dunes: Citizen Scientists Discover New Form of Aurora

Jan 30, 2020 by News Staff

Named the auroral dunes, the phenomenon was discovered by citizen scientists in Finland; it occurs at a relatively low altitude of 100 km (62 miles), in...

These 2.7 billion-year-old meteorites, about half a millimeter across, fell into the ocean and were collected from the deep sea. Image credit: Donald Brownlee / University of Washington.

Archean Earth’s Atmosphere was Rich in Carbon Dioxide, Researchers Say

Jan 27, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Washington and NASA’s Ames Research Center has analyzed iron-rich micrometeorites collected from 2.7 billion-year-old...

A researcher collects gas samples at Soda Springs in the Philippines. Image credit: Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin.

Researchers Discover Bubbling CO2 Hotspot in Philippines

Jan 23, 2020 by News Staff

Groundwater flow from land to sea could have important coastal impacts but it is usually unrecognized. Delicate reefs may be particularly sensitive to...

The newfound petit-spot volcano near Minamitorishima Island, Japan. Image credit: Tohoku University.

New ‘Petit-Spot’ Volcano Discovered beneath Pacific Ocean

Dec 30, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of Japanese scientists has discovered a 3-million-year-old petit-spot submarine volcano in one of the oldest parts of the Pacific Plate. The newfound...

The World Magnetic Model 2020. Image credit: NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information / British Geological Survey.

Earth’s North Magnetic Pole Keeps Drifting towards Siberia, Latest World Magnetic Model Shows

Dec 27, 2019 by News Staff

Researchers from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information and the British Geological Survey earlier this month released a new version of...

Study: Iron Crystals Accumulate and Compact into Thick Layer on Top of Earth’s Inner Core

Dec 20, 2019 by News Staff

Tiny iron particles fall from Earth’s molten outer core and pile on top of the planet’s solid inner core, according to new research published in the...

Bed elevation of the Antarctic ice sheet color coded between minus 2 and 1 km (minus 1.2 and 0.6 miles) above sea level. The white lines delineate the basins from the ice sheet mass balance inter-comparison exercise (IMBIE). Image credit: Morlighem et al, doi: 10.1038/s41561-019-0510-8.

Scientists Create New Bed Topography Map of Earth’s Southernmost Continent

Dec 16, 2019 by News Staff

BedMachine Antarctica is a new bed topography map based on ice thickness data from different research institutes dating back to 1967, encompassing nearly...

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