Geology
Interactive Map of Earth’s Asteroid and Meteor Impact Craters
Across the history of our planet, around 190 terrestrial impact craters have been identified that still survive the Earth’s geological processes, with the most recent event occurring in 1947 at the Sikhote-Alin Mountains of south-eastern Russia.
Chemistry
Organic Molecules Found in 3.5 Billion-Year-Old Rocks
A research team including the geobiologist Dr. Helge Missbach from the University of Cologne has detected organic molecules and gases trapped in 3.5 billion-year-old rocks.
Geology
Study Shows Tasmanian Aboriginals Witnessed the Laschamp Geomagnetic Excursion.
Drilling a 270,000-year old core from a Tasmanian lake has provided the first Australian record of a major global event where the Earth's magnetic field 'switched '- and the opportunity to establish a precedent for developing new paleomagnetic dating tools for Australian archaeology and paleosciences.
Geology
How Rocks Rusted on Earth and Turned Red
How did rocks rust on Earth and turn red? A Rutgers-led study has shed new light on the important phenomenon and will help address questions about the Late Triassic climate more than 200 million years ago, when greenhouse gas levels were high enough to be a model for what our planet may be like in the future.
Climate Change
Geologists Produce New Timeline of Earth’s Paleozoic Climate Changes
The temperature of a planet is linked with the diversity of life that it can support. MIT geologists have now reconstructed a timeline of the Earth's temperature during the early Paleozoic era, between 510 and 440 million years ago -- a pivotal period when animals became abundant in a previously microbe-dominated world.
Climate Change
A Lost Paradise in the Sahara Desert
Large parts of today's Sahara Desert were green thousands of years ago. Prehistoric engravings of giraffes and crocodiles testify to this, as does a stone-age cave painting in the desert that even shows swimming humans.
Geology
Mars Crater Offers Window on Temperatures 3.5 Billion Years Ago
Once upon a time, seasons in Gale Crater probably felt something like those in Iceland. But nobody was there to bundle up more than 3 billion years ago.
Geology
Understanding Origins of Arizona’s Sunset Crater Eruption 1,000 Years Ago
Around AD 1085 AD, along the southern rim of Northern Arizona's elevated Colorado Plateau a volcano erupted, forever changing ancient Puebloan fortunes and all nearby life.
Climate Change
Volcanic Eruptions Directly Triggered Ocean Acidification During Early Cretaceous
Around 120 million years ago, the earth experienced an extreme environmental disruption that choked oxygen from its oceans.
Geology
Crystals May Help Reveal Hidden Kilauea Volcano Behaviour
Scientists striving to understand how and when volcanoes might erupt face a challenge: many of the processes take place deep underground in lava tubes churning with dangerous molten Earth. Upon eruption, any subterranean markers that could have offered clues leading up to a blast are often destroyed.
Geology
Cluster of Alaskan Islands Could be a Super Volcano
Scientists suggest that a small group of volcanic islands in Alaska's Aleutian chain might be part of a single, undiscovered giant volcano.
Geology
Geoscientists Use Zircon to Trace Origin of Earth’s Continents
Geoscientists have long known that some parts of the continents formed in the Earth's deep past, but the speed in which land rose above global seas -- and the exact shapes that land masses formed -- have so far eluded experts.