Keyword: geology

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  • The Enigma 1,800 Miles Below Us

    05/30/2012 9:29:52 AM PDT · by JerseyanExile · 28 replies
    New York Times ^ | May 28, 2012 | Natalie Angier
    As if the inside story of our planet weren’t already the ultimate potboiler, a host of new findings has just turned the heat up past Stygian. Geologists have long known that Earth’s core, some 1,800 miles beneath our feet, is a dense, chemically doped ball of iron roughly the size of Mars and every bit as alien. It’s a place where pressures bear down with the weight of 3.5 million atmospheres, like 3.5 million skies falling at once on your head, and where temperatures reach 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit — as hot as the surface of the Sun. It’s a place...
  • Why Today's Indonesia Quake Didn't Make a Monster Tsunami

    04/12/2012 7:14:27 PM PDT · by neverdem · 9 replies
    LiveScience ^ | 11 April 2012 | Andrea Mustain
    The red star marks where the quake hit. CREDIT: USGS. The magnitude 8.6 earthquake that struck in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Sumatra today resurrected fears of a repeat of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that proved one of the most devastating natural disasters in modern memory. However, this earthquake, which struck at 2:38 p.m. local time (4:38 a.m. ET), about 270 miles (435 kilometers) off the coast of the Indonesian island was a different animal altogether than the 2004 earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people and left millions homeless. "It...
  • Transverse instability of megaripples

    03/20/2012 8:12:20 PM PDT · by smokingfrog · 17 replies
    physorg.com ^ | 20 March 2012 | Hezi Yizhaq
    Two kinds of sand ripples exist: normal, small ripples and megaripples with wavelengths reaching up to several meters. They differ also in their grain-size distributions (unimodal for sand ripples and bimodal for megaripples). While sand ripples form almost straight lines, megaripples have greater sinuosity due to their transverse instability, a property that causes small megaripple undulations to grow with time. The origin of the instability is due to variations in megaripple height, which do not diminish over time, as well as to the inverse dependence of ripple drift velocity on height. Thus, the taller regions of ripples will move more...
  • Russia Volcano Bezymianny put on Code Red for imminent eruption

    03/08/2012 9:34:43 PM PST · by LucyT · 15 replies
    The Weather Space ^ | March 7, 2012 - 20:05 UT | Staff
    One of the most active volcanoes in the world has been put on aviation color code red, the highest alert given by the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team. KVERT assigned the code on Tuesday and warns of an imminent eruption. "Activity of the volcano continuously increases," says the alert. "Strong ash explosions up to 42,640 ft (13 km) a.s.l. possible at any time. Ongoing activity could affect international and low-flying aircraft.
  • That's a Fact! The Little Grand Canyon

    01/17/2012 8:35:37 AM PST · by fishtank · 46 replies · 1+ views
    That's a Fact - Little Grand Canyon Nearly 5 million people from all over the world visit the Grand Canyon in Arizona every year. Many believe that this 277-mile long gorge had formed over millions of years, but another famous North American landmark shows that the Grand Canyon could have been created much faster and not long ago.
  • (Blessed) Nicolas Steno Google doodle marks his 374th birth anniversary

    01/11/2012 5:29:55 AM PST · by NYer · 15 replies
    Guardian ^ | January 10, 2012
    Nicolas Steno, the Danish anatomist widely regarded as the father of geology, has been commemorated in a Google doodle marking his 374th birth anniversary on 11 January.The doodle illustrated the search engine's six letters in a geological style, with fossils in various bottom layers, with a green surface on top.Steno's work on the formation of rock layers and the fossils they contain was pivotal to the development of modern geology while his catholic piety has also been evaluated in recent decades with a view to his possible canonisation.Born as Niels Stensen, he left his native of Copenhagen in 1660 to...
  • Stonehenge rocks Pembrokeshire link confirmed

    12/19/2011 3:50:17 PM PST · by decimon · 8 replies
    BBC ^ | December 19, 2011
    Experts say they have confirmed for the first time the precise origin of some of the rocks at Stonehenge.It has long been suspected that rhyolites from the northern Preseli Hills helped build the monument. But research by National Museum Wales and Leicester University has identified their source to within 70m (230ft) of Craig Rhos-y-felin, near Pont Saeson. The museum's Dr Richard Bevins said the find would help experts work out how the stones were moved to Wiltshire. For nine months Dr Bevins, keeper of geology at National Museum Wales, and Dr Rob Ixer of Leicester University collected and identified samples...
  • New Technologies Redraw the World’s Energy Picture

    10/27/2011 1:36:48 AM PDT · by neverdem · 17 replies · 1+ views
    NY Times ^ | October 25, 2011 | CLIFFORD KRAUSS
    GOLDA MEIR, the former prime minister of Israel, used to tell a joke about how Moses must have made a wrong turn in the desert: “He dragged us 40 years through the desert to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no oil.’ ” As it turns out, Moses may have had it right all along. In the last couple of years, vast amounts of natural gas have been found deep under Israel’s Mediterranean waters, and studies have begun to test the feasibility of extracting synthetic oil from a large kerogen-rich rock field southwest...
  • Perfect fossil could be most complete dinosaur ever

    10/16/2011 7:07:25 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 68 replies
    New Scientists ^ | 13 October 2011 | Jeff Hecht
    Dinosaur fossils don't come much more impressive than this. With 98 per cent of its skeleton preserved, this young predatory theropod from southern Germany may be the most complete dinosaur ever found. Oliver Rauhut, curator of the Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology in Munich, announced the find yesterday. Although Chinese bird and dinosaur fossils are famed for delicate details such as their feathers, they don't match this 72-centimetre-long theropod in terms of clarity and completeness of preservation. The young dinosaur has been dated at 135 million years old, putting it in the early Cretaceous, but it has yet...
  • The Strange Rubbing Boulders of the Atacama

    10/11/2011 3:03:04 PM PDT · by decimon · 22 replies
    Geological Society of America ^ | October 11, 2011 | Unknown
    Boulder, CO, USA – A geologist's sharp eyes and upset stomach has led to the discovery, and almost too-close encounter, with an otherworldly geological process operating in a remote corner of northern Chile's Atacama Desert. The sour stomach belonged to University of Arizona geologist Jay Quade. It forced him and his colleagues Peter Reiners and Kendra Murray to stop their truck at a lifeless expanse of boulders which they had passed before without noticing anything unusual. "I had just crawled underneath the truck to get out of the sun," Quade said. The others had hiked off to look around, as...
  • Half of Earth's Heat from Radioactive Decay

    08/07/2011 10:17:32 AM PDT · by Salman · 22 replies
    Space Daily ^ | Aug 04, 2011 | staff writers
    Nearly half of the Earth's heat comes from the radioactive decay of materials inside, according to a large international research collaboration that includes a Kansas State University physicist. Studying the physical properties of Earth can help astrobiologists understand the mechanisms that caused our planet to become habitable. In turn, this information can then be used to determine where and how to search for habitable worlds throughout the Universe. ...
  • Neb. mine find to challenge China’s dominance of vital rare minerals

    08/07/2011 8:18:28 AM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 29 replies
    The Washington Times ^ | Wednesday, August 3, 2011 | Claire Courchane
    Geologist Matt Joeckel displays a core sample of carbonatite rock containing niobium and rare-earth elements, which was taken from a deposit near Elk Creek, Neb., in early February. (Associated Press) Elk Creek, Neb. (population 112), may not be so tiny much longer. Reports suggest that the southeastern Nebraska hamlet may be sitting on the world’s largest untapped deposit of “rare earth” minerals, which have proved to be indispensable to a slew of high-tech and military applications such as laser pointers, stadium lighting, electric car batteries and sophisticated missile-guidance systems.Canada-based Quantum Rare Earths Developments Corp. last week received preliminary results...
  • Volcano found on the Moon’s farside

    07/25/2011 8:49:24 PM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 44 replies
    watts up with that? ^ | July 25, 2011 | News Staff
    Posted on July 25, 2011 by News Staff Non-mare silicic volcanism on the lunar farside at Compton–Belkovich Bradley L. Jolliff,Sandra A. Wiseman,Samuel J. Lawrence,Thanh N. Tran,Mark S. Robinson,Hiroyuki Sato,B. Ray Hawke,Frank Scholten,Jürgen Oberst,Harald Hiesinger, Carolyn H. van der Bogert,Benjamin T. Greenhagen,Timothy D. Glotch& David A. Paige Nature Geoscience (2011) doi:10.1038/ngeo1212 Abstract Non-basaltic volcanism is rare on the Moon. The best known examples occur on the lunar nearside in the compositionally evolved Procellarum KREEP terrane. However, there is an isolated thorium-rich area—the Compton–Belkovich thorium anomaly—on the lunar farside for which the origin is enigmatic.
  • Agenda 21 - What Is It? Apparently is is a plan to reduce the population

    06/22/2011 12:44:33 PM PDT · by TEXOKIE · 651 replies
    Vanity | Various
    Several people have become interested in a quite controversial topic called "AGENDA 21." They have requested being on a ping list for this topic. While I do not have time to do a thorough treatment of this subject, nor am I in any way an expert, I am willing at least for a time,to ping people as I run across articles which might pertain to this concern. It might be good to start with an examination of just what it is or might be. To kick this discussion and exploration off,I did a Google search (just for fun) on "Agenda...
  • Increase in Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes in the Last 24 Hours (Vanity)

    04/29/2011 8:29:46 PM PDT · by Errant · 53 replies
    USGS ^ | NA
    A significant increase in magnitude 5+ earthquakes worldwide has occurred in the last 24 hours, especially in the area around Vanuatu Islands. A similar increase in 5+ earthquakes mainly near the east coast of Honshu, Japan, occurred prior to the magnitude 9.1 earthquake and resulting tsunami. MAP 5.0 2011/04/29 22:31:59 28.838 -113.088 10.5 GULF OF CALIFORNIA MAP 5.3 2011/04/29 22:19:33 38.915 141.932 51.3 NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN MAP 5.1 2011/04/29 20:24:35 -3.502 100.614 29.8 KEPULAUAN MENTAWAI REGION, INDONESIA MAP 5.0 2011/04/29 16:00:41 -19.313 167.705 27.0 VANUATU REGION MAP 5.5 2011/04/29 13:12:46 21.182 121.980 176.7 TAIWAN REGION MAP...
  • Newly Discovered Natural Arch in Afghanistan One of World's Largest

    03/31/2011 7:46:39 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 35 replies
    Science Daily ^ | 03-31-2011 | Staff
    Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society have stumbled upon a geological colossus in a remote corner of Afghanistan: a natural stone arch spanning more than 200 feet across its base. Located at the central highlands of Afghanistan, the recently discovered Hazarchishma Natural Bridge is more than 3,000 meters (nearly 10,000 feet) above sea level, making it one of the highest large natural bridges in the world. It also ranks among the largest such structures known. "It's one of the most spectacular discoveries ever made in this region," said Joe Walston, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Asia Program. "The arch...
  • Wind can keep mountains from growing

    03/28/2011 7:40:41 PM PDT · by decimon · 23 replies · 1+ views
    University of Arizona ^ | March 28, 2011 | Unknown
    Wind is a much more powerful force in the evolution of mountains than previously thought, according to a new report from a University of Arizona-led research team. Bedrock in Central Asia that would have formed mountains instead was sand-blasted into dust, said lead author Paul Kapp. "No one had ever thought that wind could be this effective," said Kapp, a UA associate professor of geosciences. "You won't read in a textbook that wind is a major process in terms of breaking down rock material." Rivers and glaciers are the textbook examples of forces that wear down mountains and influence their...
  • Google releases first satellite images of Japan after quake (includes before images)

    03/13/2011 5:12:46 AM PDT · by NYer · 38 replies
    LA Times ^ | March 12, 2011 | Molly Hennessy-Fiske
    First before-after image (Google and GeoEye / March 12, 2011) Google on Saturday released its first satellite images of Japan since the devastation that followed a massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit the island nation Friday afternoon local time. The images, from Google partner GeoEye, were generated by the IKONOS satellite. Google Earth users may view images from Kamaishi, located to the north of Sendai, an area extremely hard hit by the quake and tsunami. In the images, taken Saturday morning, Kamaishi is somewhat obscured by cloud clover. In addition, Google released satellite images of Tokyo, also taken Saturday...
  • Japan earthquake factbox: Entire Japan coast shifted 2.4 metres, earth axis moves ten inches

    03/12/2011 6:23:38 AM PST · by NYer · 220 replies · 3+ views
    Vancouver Sun ^ | March 11, 2011
    A massive tsunami sweeps in to engulf a residential area after a powerful earthquake in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan March 11, 2011. The biggest earthquake to hit Japan in 140 years struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, cars and farm buildings on fire. Cars and destroyed homes swept by a tsunami are seen on a street after an earthquake in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture March 12, 2011. Japan confronted devastation along its northeastern coast on Saturday, with fires raging and parts of some cities under...
  • Earthquake 4.2 M - ARKANSAS

    11/20/2010 11:56:55 AM PST · by Keith in Iowa · 26 replies
    USGS Email | 11/20/10 | USGS
    4.2 M - ARKANSAS Preliminary Earthquake Report Magnitude 4.2 M Date-Time 20 Nov 2010 19:06:35 UTC20 Nov 2010 13:06:35 near epicenter20 Nov 2010 13:06:35 standard time in your timezone Location 35.319N 92.301W Depth 4 km Distances 3 km (2 miles) E (101 degrees) of Guy, AR 10 km (6 miles) SW (227 degrees) of Quitman, AR 11 km (7 miles) E (89 degrees) of Twin Groves, AR 65 km (40 miles) N (2 degrees) of Little Rock, AR 411 km (255 miles) SSW (207 degrees) of St. Louis, MO Location Uncertainty Horizontal: 0.5 km; Vertical 0.5 km Parameters Nph...
  • Mapping Stereotypes

    10/05/2010 5:52:46 AM PDT · by Pride_of_the_Bluegrass · 8 replies
    alphadesigner [beta] ^ | Yanko Tsvetkov
    What the world looks like in stereotypes
  • Geology Picture of Last Week, 08/15-21/2010: El ojo de aguja

    08/22/2010 9:46:38 PM PDT · by cogitator · 16 replies
    I'll do this a bit differently; click the image and go to where you can click on a bigger version. Text accompanying the first: Etretat is well known for its cliffs, including a famous natural arch, which some call "The needle's eye." These cliffs and the beach next to them, attracted many artists (Eugčne Boudin, Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet). Étretat was the birthplace of Elie Halévy (1870-1937), philosopher and historian. In the French coast in the department of Seine-Maritime, Upper Normandy, are the spectacular cliffs of Etretat, only two hours from Paris by car. These are two views of the...
  • Arctic rocks shed light on ancient Earth's inner workings

    08/12/2010 4:26:56 PM PDT · by ConservativeStatement · 16 replies
    Los Angeles Times ^ | August 12, 2010 | Amina Khan
    Geochemists studying Arctic rocks say they have found evidence of ancient rock from the interior of the Earth that is nearly as old as the planet itself. Such material gives scientists an idea of what the mineral structure of the inner Earth used to look like billions of years ago and may force them to adjust their theories about the evolution of the planet's structure over the eons, said Matthew Jackson, a geochemist at Boston University and lead author of the paper.
  • Geologist investigates canyon carved in just three days in Texas flood

    06/21/2010 7:40:31 PM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 38 replies
    PHYSORG ^ | 06/21/2010
    In the summer of 2002, a week of heavy rains in Central Texas caused Canyon Lake -- the reservoir of the Canyon Dam -- to flood over its spillway and down the Guadalupe River Valley in a planned diversion to save the dam from catastrophic failure. The flood, which continued for six weeks, stripped the valley of mesquite, oak trees, and soil; destroyed a bridge; and plucked meter-wide boulders from the ground. And, in a remarkable demonstration of the power of raging waters, the flood excavated a 2.2-kilometer-long, 7-meter-deep canyon in the bedrock.
  • How the ultimate BP Gulf disaster could kill millions

    06/20/2010 8:10:15 PM PDT · by GonzoII · 37 replies · 2+ views
    Helium.com ^ | Terrence Aym
    Disturbing evidence is mounting that something frightening is happening deep under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico—something far worse than the BP oil gusher. Warnings were raised as long as a year before the Deepwater Horizon disaster that the area of seabed chosen by the BP geologists might be unstable, or worse, inherently dangerous. What makes the location that Transocean chose potentially far riskier than other potential oil deposits located at other regions of the Gulf? It can be summed up with two words: methane gas.
  • Prepare to lose metals, says UN group

    05/26/2010 12:48:24 AM PDT · by neverdem · 36 replies · 1,025+ views
    Chemistry World ^ | 20 May 2010 | Andy Extance
    Supplies of speciality metals like lithium, neodymium and indium could become restricted unless recycling rates improve. That's the message from the first two of six reports prepared to assess metal supply sustainability for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 'Scientists should anticipate the possibility that they may not have the whole periodic table to work with in future,' says Thomas Graedel, who led the Global Metal Flows Working Group that compiled the studies.  The report series won't deliver overall supply and demand projections until nearer to the 2012 Rio Earth Summit. Nevertheless Graedel, who is also director of Yale University's Center for Industrial Ecology...
  • Iceland volcano dormant, no ash coming out

    05/24/2010 12:56:41 PM PDT · by Willie Green · 16 replies · 419+ views
    Reuters ^ | Monday, May. 24, 2010 | Omar Valdimarsson
    (Reuters) - An Icelandic volcano that caused air traffic chaos after erupting last month has gone dormant but it is too early to declare the eruption over, an official said Monday. Airlines across Europe stopped flying for days after the volcano under the Eyjafjallajakull glacier erupted in mid-April, spewing high levels of ash. Ash particles can cause serious damage if absorbed into airplane engines. Icelandic meteorological office geographer Sigthrudur Armannsdottir said the volcano, about 120 km southeast of the capital Reykjavik, was now showing only minimal signs of life. "There is no ash coming up and no lava," she told...
  • Is the Earth striking back?

    04/24/2010 12:07:24 AM PDT · by TN4Liberty · 42 replies · 1,146+ views
    CNN.com ^ | April 23, 2010 | Alan Weisman
    ... As we have learned, these gases form an invisible barrier that, like a greenhouse's glass ceiling, keeps reflected heat of the sun from escaping our atmosphere. The denser that gaseous barrier grows, the hotter things get and the faster glaciers melt. As they flow off the land, we are warned, seas rise. Yet something else is lately worrying geologists: the likelihood that the Earth's crust, relieved of so much formidable weight of ice borne for many thousands of years, has begun to stretch and rebound.
  • Geology Picture of the Week, April 11-17, 2010: Creux-du-Van

    04/14/2010 8:27:59 PM PDT · by cogitator · 16 replies · 729+ views
    Panoramio ^ | Various | Various
    Tooling around Panoramio, I found the Creux-du-Van in Switzerland, near Lac de Neuchatel. My first thought when looking at this was: "I'll bet they lost a lot of sheep on this thing." What's the Creux-du-Van? From Magic Places of Switzerland: Creux-du-Van And from Wikipedia: Creux-du-Van It's a cirque. And an impressive one. You can find it with "Creux-du-Van, Switzerland" on Google Maps. This is a good area for Swiss cheese, I believe. Click for full size. Click for full size. Click for full size. Click for full size.
  • Earthquake Prediction? There's an App for That

    04/11/2010 12:55:09 AM PDT · by ErnstStavroBlofeld · 6 replies · 656+ views
    Popular Mechanics ^ | 4/1/2010 | Jeff Wise
    As part of their battle to understand and protect against the destructive force of earthquakes, seismologists have gone to extraordinary lengths. They have bored holes deep into the earth's crust, laid out arrays of sensors hundreds of miles across, and built supercomputers capable of running simulations at teraflop speeds. But the most exciting new effort in cutting-edge seismology involves a piece of instrumentation that's a good deal less exotic. It's called an iPhone. "Each smartphone has an accelerometer built into it," says Robert W. Clayton, a professor of geology at Caltech. "It's primary function is to determine the orientation of...
  • Does The Earth Harbors a Huge, Natural Nuclear Reactor at its Core -New Discovery Proves "No"

    03/31/2010 12:51:24 AM PDT · by ErnstStavroBlofeld · 15 replies · 742+ views
    The Daily Galaxy ^ | 3/30/2010 | The Daily Galaxy
    Using a delicate instrument located under a mountain in central Italy, two University of Massachusetts Amherst physicists are measuring some of the faintest and rarest particles ever detected, geo-neutrinos, with the greatest precision yet achieved. The data reveal, for the first time, a well defined signal, above background noise, of the extremely rare geo-neutrino particle from deep within Earth. The small number of anti-neutrinos detected, however, only a couple each month, helps to settle a long-standing question among geophysicists and geologists about whether our planet harbors a huge, natural nuclear reactor at its core. Geo-neutrinos are anti-neutrinos produced in the...
  • Earth's Movers And Shakers

    03/25/2010 8:33:34 PM PDT · by ErnstStavroBlofeld · 7 replies · 367+ views
    Terra Daily ^ | 3/25/2010 | SPX via Terra Daily
    A new model of the Earth, 20 years in the making, describes a dynamic three-dimensional puzzle of planetary proportions. Created by University of Wisconsin-Madison geophysicist Chuck DeMets and longtime collaborators Richard Gordon of Rice University and Donald Argus of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the model offers a precise description of the relative movements of 25 interlocking tectonic plates that account for 97 percent of the Earth's surface. "This model can be used to predict the movement of one plate relative to any other plate on the Earth's surface," explains DeMets. "Plate tectonics describes almost everything about how the Earth's surface...
  • Does Geothermal Power Cause Earthquakes?

    03/23/2010 10:14:15 PM PDT · by ErnstStavroBlofeld · 12 replies · 843+ views
    Popular Science ^ | 3/23/2010 | Elizabeth Svoboda
    , Markus Häring caused some 30 earthquakes -- the largest registering 3.4 on the Richter scale -- in Basel, Switzerland. Häring is not a supervillain. He's a geologist, and he had nothing but good intentions when he injected high-pressure water into rocks three miles below the surface, attempting to generate electricity through a process called enhanced geothermal. But he produced earthquakes instead, and when seismic analysis confirmed that the quakes were centered near the drilling site, city officials charged him with $9 million worth of damage to buildings. The geothermal drill in Switzerland was shut down after it caused 100...
  • Icelandic fissure eruption triggers worries-A unique Iceland volcanic eruption covered by BBC.

    03/21/2010 8:02:07 PM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 27 replies · 1,380+ views
    Wattsupwiththat.com ^ | March 21, 2010 | Anthony Watts
    The eruption split a 1km chasm in the iceAn Icelandic volcano, dormant for 200 years, has erupted, ripping a 1km-long fissure in a field of ice.The volcano near Eyjafjallajoekull glacier began to erupt just after midnight, sending lava a hundred metres high.Icelandic airspace has been closed, flights diverted and roads closed. The eruption was about 120km (75 miles) east of the capital, Reykjavik. What volcanic scientists fear is the fact that this eruption could trigger an eruption of Katla, one of the most dangerous volcanic systems in the world.Eruptive events in Eyjafjallajökull are often followed by a Katla eruption. The...
  • As China and US Plan to Exploit "Burning Ice" for Fuel, the Ice Race Is On

    03/21/2010 1:29:01 AM PDT · by ErnstStavroBlofeld · 42 replies · 1,202+ views
    Popular Science ^ | 3/11/2010 | Stuart Fox
    When methane and freezing cold water fuse under tremendous pressure, they create a substance as paradoxical as it coveted: burning ice. Earlier in the year, a report from the National Research Council identified the combustible water, also known as methane hydrate, as a potential source of natural gas. Now, according to the Chinese news organization Xinhau, China is joining the US, Japan, and South Korea in the hunt for this weird mineral. Icy Hot : courtesy of NASAAs explained in this comic, there's 85.4 trillion cubic feet of methane hydrate buried under Alaska. That's equivalent to 3 billion tons of...
  • Did The Chilean Quake Shift Earth's Axis

    03/15/2010 7:58:12 PM PDT · by ErnstStavroBlofeld · 54 replies · 1,489+ views
    Terra Daily ^ | 3/12/2010 | Dr. Tony Phillips
    Pictures of widespread devastation leave no doubt: Last month's 8.8 magnitude earthquake in coastal Chile was extremely strong. Indeed, say NASA scientists, it might have shifted the axis of Earth itself. "According to our calculations, the quake moved Earth's figure axis by about 3 inches (8 cm)," says geophysicist Richard Gross of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. If the Earth tilted over 3 inches, you probably think you would have noticed. But that's not how the "figure axis" works. "The figure axis defines not how Earth is tilted, but rather how it is balanced," says Gross. Consider the...
  • Big quake question: Are they getting worse?

    02/27/2010 6:36:15 PM PST · by winoneforthegipper · 113 replies · 1,937+ views
    MSNBC ^ | 02/27/10
    Seismic shockers are to be expected, but planet seems to be more active. SNIP While the Chilean earthquake wasn't directly related to Japan's 7.0-magnitude temblor, the two have some factors in common. For one, any seismic waves that made their way from Japan to the Chilean coast could play a slight role in ground-shaking. "It is too far away for any direct triggering, and those distances also make the seismic waves as they would pass by from the Haiti or Japan events pretty small because of attenuation," Arrowsmith told LiveScience. (Attenuation is the decrease in energy with distance.) "Nevertheless, if...
  • North Atlantic Ridge Earthquakes

    02/12/2010 10:05:27 PM PST · by winoneforthegipper · 45 replies · 1,166+ views
    USGS ^ | 01/13/10 | USGS
    Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 04:30:45 UTC Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 01:30:45 AM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 29.725°N, 42.582°W Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program Region NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE Distances 1605 km (1000 miles) WSW of Horta, Azores, Portugal 2685 km (1670 miles) ENE of SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico 3225 km (2000 miles) W of LISBON, Portugal Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 21.8 km (13.5 miles); depth fixed by location program Parameters NST= 42, Nph= 42, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=1.22 sec, Gp=176°, M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=7 Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D) Event...
  • Haiti Earthquake Disaster Little Surprise to Some Seismologists

    01/17/2010 2:37:31 AM PST · by ErnstStavroBlofeld · 24 replies · 1,733+ views
    Scientific American ^ | 1/13/2010 | Katherine Harmon
    The devastating magnitude 7.0 quake that ripped through Haiti Tuesday, reportedly killing thousands, did not catch everyone by surprise. In an interview last week for an unrelated story, Robert Yeats, a professor emeritus in geoscience at Oregon State University in Corvallis and co-author of a June 1989 article for Scientific American "Hidden Earthquakes," said that an imminent big west coast earthquake concerned him far less than a "big one" that might occur in Haiti, due to the large fault near the capital city of Port-au-Prince—and the poverty-driven low level of earthquake-preparedness there. "If they have an earthquake on this fault...
  • Why young-age creationism is good for science

    12/07/2009 7:30:12 PM PST · by GodGunsGuts · 170 replies · 3,384+ views
    Journal of Creation ^ | Brett W. Smith
    The current treatment of young-age creationists in the scientific community and society at large is unfair and unwise. Scientists and philosophers of science, including old-age creationists and naturalists, should respect youngage creationists as legitimate contributors to science. Young-age creationists offer to the current origins science establishment a competing rational viewpoint that will augment fruitful scientific investigation through increased accountability for scientists, introduction of original hypotheses and general epistemic improvement...
  • Raising the Banner for Creation Truth (according to the evos, these men and women aren't scientists)

    12/07/2009 8:33:19 AM PST · by GodGunsGuts · 234 replies · 3,999+ views
    ICR ^ | December 2009 | Various Authors
    Dr. Henry M. Morris founded the Institute for Creation Research in 1970 with a vision to uncover and present evidence for the accuracy and authority of the Bible. For almost 40 years, ICR has distinguished itself as the leader in creation science research and education, ably assisted by the many fine scientists whom God has led to work here. These men and women have dedicated their training and skills to raising the banner for the truth of our Creator God. We would like you to meet our current on-site scientists and hear their thoughts on the purpose, significance, and importance...
  • Deep structure imaged under Hawaii

    12/03/2009 7:25:30 PM PST · by neverdem · 20 replies · 1,457+ views
    Nature News ^ | 3 December 2009 | Brendan Borrell
    Seismic experiment gives best evidence yet for mantle plumes. Geologists have obtained the best image yet of a plume of hot rock that rises from Earth's deep mantle and fuels the volcanoes of the Hawaiian islands. The study, led by geophysicist Cecily Wolfe at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, reveals the structure of the plume down to at least 1,500 kilometres. Critics have questioned in recent years whether such plumes even exist. "This is a spectacular experiment that succeeded in getting data for putting the plume theory to the test," says Wolfe. The results are published this...
  • Evolutionists retreating from the arena of science

    12/03/2009 8:35:52 AM PST · by GodGunsGuts · 371 replies · 5,254+ views
    CMI ^ | December 1, 2009 | Dave Woetzel
    Evolutionists retreating from the arena of science --snip-- Today, the Darwinian scientific consensus persists within almost every large university and governmental institution. But around the middle of the 20th century an interesting new trend emerged and has since become increasingly established. Evolutionary theorists have been forced, step by step, to steadily retreat from the evidence in the field. Some of the evidences mentioned earlier in this article were demonstrated to be frauds and hoaxes. Other discoveries have been a blow to the straightforward expectations and predictions of evolutionists. Increasingly, they have been forced to tack ad hoc mechanisms onto Darwin’s...
  • Darwin Was Wrong About Geology

    12/02/2009 7:13:55 PM PST · by GodGunsGuts · 148 replies · 2,561+ views
    CEH ^ | December 2, 2009
    Dec 2, 2009 — Field geologists have revisited a site Darwin visited on the voyage of the Beagle, and found that he incorrectly interpreted what he found.  A large field of erratic boulders in Tierra del Fuego that have become known as “Darwin’s Boulders” were deposited by a completely different process than he thought.  The modern team, publishing in the Geological Society of America’s December issue of the GSA Today,1 noted that “Darwin’s thinking was profoundly influenced by Lyell’s obsession with large-scale, slow, vertical movements of the crust, especially as manifested in his theory of submergence and ice rafting to...
  • Tweaking the Genetic Code: Debunking Attempts to Engineer Evolution

    12/01/2009 9:22:15 AM PST · by GodGunsGuts · 26 replies · 1,287+ views
    ACTS & FACTS ^ | December 2009 | Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D.
    A new concept making its way through the scientific community holds that just a few key changes in the right genes will result in a whole new life form as different from its progenitor as a bird is from a lizard![1] This idea is being applied to a number of key problems in the evolutionary model, one of which is the lack of transitional forms in both the fossil record and the living (extant) record. The new concept supposedly adds support to the "punctuated equilibrium" model proposed by the late Harvard paleontologist Stephen J. Gould. Dr. Gould derived his ideas...
  • Geology Picture of the Week, Nov. 22-28, 2009: Rooms with a View (reader participation)

    11/23/2009 11:16:25 PM PST · by cogitator · 10 replies · 739+ views
    Various
    Sorry about not putting up an image last week -- circumstances intervened. But I had already come up with this idea, and I think it's appropriate for a holiday (at least in the U.S.) week where there are a lot of travelers. Also, this is a user participation thread. I invite readers to find other examples and post them here. If you've never done that before, if you find an image, you can (in Windows) click on it and get an option to "Copy Image Location". If you do that, then in a response you use HTML code: img src="image...
  • Early Volcanoes Minted Nickel

    11/22/2009 9:59:56 AM PST · by neverdem · 16 replies · 821+ views
    ScienceNOW Daily News ^ | 20 November 2009 | Phil Berardelli
    Enlarge ImageGreen gold. A complex geological process produced this sample of nickel sulfide. Credit: Marco Fiorentini, Science Those spare nickels in your pocket might not be there without the help of ancient volcanoes that blasted sulfur dioxide into the sky billions of years ago. The discovery solves a mystery that has dogged researchers for decades, says geochemist Edward Ripley of Indiana University, Bloomington, who was not affiliated with the study. The nickel in ore deposits is actually nickel sulfide, a compound that is rich in sulfur. The sulfur is "critically important," says geochemist Douglas Rumble of the Carnegie Institution...
  • A Global Catastrophic Event Wiped Out Ancient Forests

    11/22/2009 8:10:55 AM PST · by GodGunsGuts · 129 replies · 2,942+ views
    ICR News ^ | November 7, 2009 | Brian Thomas, M.S.
    Fungi are single or multi-celled organisms that break down organic materials, such as rotting wood, in order to absorb their nutrients. Neither plant nor animal, they range from mushrooms to single-celled yeast. Scientists were investigating organic chemicals trapped in an Italian sedimentary rock formation when they found evidence that an extinct fungus feasted on dead wood during a time when the world’s forests had been catastrophically eradicated.[1] What could have caused such a universal effect on forests, and why does organic material remain in rocks that are supposedly 251.4 million years old?...
  • "Not to mince words - the modern synthesis is gone" (another Evo abandons the HMS Beagle)

    11/20/2009 8:17:43 AM PST · by GodGunsGuts · 19 replies · 948+ views
    Science Literature ^ | November 18, 2009 | David Tyler, Ph.D.
    Not to mince words - the modern synthesis is gone --snip-- "The discovery of pervasive HGT and the overall dynamics of the genetic universe destroys not only the tree of life as we knew it but also another central tenet of the modern synthesis inherited from Darwin, namely gradualism. In a world dominated by HGT, gene duplication, gene loss and such momentous events as endosymbiosis, the idea of evolution being driven primarily by infinitesimal heritable changes in the Darwinian tradition has become untenable." ...
  • Amber-Trapped Spider Web Too Old for Evolution

    11/20/2009 8:37:04 AM PST · by GodGunsGuts · 56 replies · 2,508+ views
    ICR News ^ | November 20, 2009 | Brian Thomas, M.S.
    Amateur fossil hunters Jamie and Jonathan Hiscocks were looking for dinosaur remains in East Sussex, UK, when they instead found tiny spider webs trapped inside a piece of ancient amber. Oxford University paleobiologist Martin Brasier inspected the amber, which was assigned an age of over 100 million years. He concluded that spiders back then were able to spin webs just like today’s garden spiders.The amber-encased webbing formed concentric circles like those that contemporary orb-weaver spiders manufacture. Also evident were “little sticky droplets along the web threads to trap prey,” Brasier told the Daily Mail. He added, “You can match the...