Dust deposits give new insights into the history of the Sahara
The Sahara is the world's largest desert and dust source with significant impacts on trans-Atlantic terrestrial and large-scale marine ecosystems.
Category : Geology
HeritageDaily – Geology news and geology press releases from across the globe
Sea cave preserves 5,000-year snapshot of tsunamis
An international team of scientists digging in a sea cave in Indonesia has discovered the world's most pristine record of tsunamis, a 5,000-year-old sedimentary snapshot
Research opens fresh view on volcanic plumbing systems
Volcanic eruptions such as Mount St. Helens' in 1980 show the explosiveness of magma moving through the Earth's crust.
A map that fills a 500-million year gap in Earth’s history
Earth is estimated to be around 4.5 billion years old, with life first appearing around 3 billion years ago.
‘Bulges’ in volcanoes could be used to predict eruptions
A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed a new way of measuring the pressure inside volcanoes, and found that it can
Volcanic eruptions triggered dawn of the dinosaurs
Huge pulses of volcanic activity are likely to have played a key role in triggering the end Triassic mass extinction, which set the scene for
Crystals once deep inside a volcano offer new view of magma, eruption timing
Volcanologists are gaining a better understanding of what's going on inside the magma reservoir that lies below New Zealand's Mount Tarawera volcano. They're finding a
New evidence reveals source of 1586 Sanriku, Japan tsunami
A team of researchers, led by Dr. Rhett Butler, geophysicist at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (UHM), re-examined historical evidence around the Pacific and
Naracoorte, where half a million years of biodiversity and climate history are trapped in caves
In 1857, guided by the flickering light of a candle deep in a cave at Naracoorte in South Australia, the Reverend Julian Tenison-Woods stumbled across
How the Arctic Ocean became saline
The Arctic Ocean was once a gigantic freshwater lake. Only after the land bridge between Greenland and Scotland had submerged far enough did vast quantities
Deep magma reservoirs are key to volcanic ‘super-eruptions’, new research suggests
Large reservoirs of magma stored deep in the Earth's crust are key to producing some of the Earth's most powerful volcanic eruptions, new research has
Volcanoes, referees for the life on Earth
At the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, 200 million years ago, some 60% of species living on Earth disappeared. Scientists suspected that magmatic activity and the release of
Researchers discover hottest lavas that erupted in past 2.5 billion years
An international team of researchers led by geoscientists with the Virginia Tech College of Science recently discovered that deep portions of Earth's mantle might be
Ash from ancient Russian eruption blown into Norwegian Arctic
Geochemical fingerprinting links microscopic ash found on the bottom of a Svalbard lake to volcanic event happening 7000 years ago and 5000 km away.
Sea level as a metronome of Earth’s history
Sedimentary layers record the history of the Earth. They contain stratigraphic cycles and patterns that precisely reveal the succession of climatic and tectonic conditions that
Large volcanic eruption may have caused the first mass extinction
Researchers in the USA and Japan say they may have found the cause of the first mass extinction of life.
New study documents aftermath of a supereruption, and expands size of Toba magma system
The rare but spectacular eruptions of supervolcanoes can cause massive destruction and affect climate patterns on a global scale for decades - and a new
Falkland Islands basin shows signs of being among world’s largest craters
A basin in the Falkland Islands exhibits traits of a large impact crater, according to a new analysis by a team of scientists. The structure
Norway’s oldest ice found in central Norway
Parts of the ice of the Juvfonne snow patch in Jotunheimen are 7600 years old, which makes it the oldest dated ice on mainland Norway.
Rock samples indicate water is key ingredient for crust formation
By examining the cooling rate of rocks that formed more than 10 miles beneath the Earth's surface, scientists led by The University of Texas at
Researchers solve the century-old mystery of Blood Falls
A research team led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Colorado College has solved a century-old mystery involving a famous red waterfall in Antarctica.
Stalagmites store paleoclimate data
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is the dominant atmospheric pressure mode over the North Atlantic that plays a significant role in determining the winter climate