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Geology News
Arctic Current Events

“An international team of scientists has detected that some of the glow of Earth’s aurora is polarized, an unexpected state for such emissions.”

Images of Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis

Last year, the amount of Arctic sea ice that melted had an area equal to that of Texas and California combined. The forecast for 2008 is even more severe - the worst year yet for Arctic ice melting.

This article details the activities of some of the many oil company and contractor workers who are doing the on-site labor of searching for oil in the Arctic. Cold temperatures, snow, and small personal quarters are all part of the job when you are working on Alaska’s North Slope.

A photo gallery accompanies the article

NASA Image

An archive of NASA news releases, image galleries and articles on a variety of topics related to planetary geology, earth observation, global climate change, monitoring volcanoes, looking beyond our solar system, monitoring the oceans and more. A few of the most popular ones are:

• Monitoring Volcanoes from Space
• Photograph of Avalanches on Mars
• Glacial Sediments Add to Louisiana Coastal Subsidence
• Satellite Images of Marine Phytoplankton Blooms
• Sahara Dust Storms Lower Sea Surface Temperatures
• Satellite Measures Pollution From East Asia to North America

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has a slide show titled: “The Hunt for Red Hot Hydrothermal Vents”. It tells the story about their search for the vents on the sea floor of the Arctic and the animals that live around them.

USGS Image

In 2006, one of Greenland’s glacial lakes suddenly disappeared. It seems that the lake drained through a crack in the ice sheet, funneling 11.6 billion gallons of rushing water to the bedrock in less than two hours. Scientists have studied this event and are using it to understand the mechanics of ice flow.

Using the latest satellite observations, NASA researchers and others report that the Arctic is still on “thin ice” when it comes to the condition of sea ice cover in the region. A colder-than-average winter in some regions of the Arctic this year has yielded an increase in the area of new sea ice, while the older sea ice that lasts for several years has continued to decline.

NASA and its partners have begun the most extensive field campaign ever to study the chemistry of the Arctic’s lower atmosphere.

Here is a blog that chronicles a trek from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands - about 4000 miles in cold climate and over very difficult terrain - all by human power. They are traveling by foot, ski and packraft (one person inflatable raft that can be carried in a pack). They have been out there for nearly 300 days.

There are a number of territorial disputes that have brewed in the Arctic for a long time but which are moving closer to political or perhaps military confrontations. All of this is over the enormous oil, gas and other resources that are thought to exist beneath the Arctic Ocean floor.

Geology.com Article: Who Owns the Arctic?

Arctic Oil & Gas, a Las Vegas company has filed a claim with the United Nations to act as the “development agent” of Arctic seabed oil and gas. Some are laughing about this claim but others are shocked that it might work.

Geology.com Article: Who Owns the Arctic?

Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that grow in the sunlit surface waters of the ocean. When enough phytoplankton grow in one place, the bloom can be seen from space. This collection of NASA images features worldwide phytoplankton blooms.

Iceberg Lake, a glacier-dammed lake, used to be a prominent feature of the landscape in the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains. It was three miles long and a mile wide. Leaks in the dam allowed the lake to drain and now University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists are studying sediment cores to obtain information about Alaska’s history.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened and received ten tons of seeds from over 100 countries. This is the first group of seeds that will be kept deep beneath the ground at low temperatures to preserve them into the future.

If the polar bear goes onto the endangered species list it could kill a lot of Alaska drilling opportunities and a natural gas pipeline to serve the North Slope.

A new NOAA map of the Arctic seafloor will support US control of more area than originally thought. Significant oil and gas resources could be present. To officially claim this seafloor the US must ratify the UN’s new Law of the Sea Treaty.

See also: Who Owns the Arctic?

Arctic Ocean Map

Researchers at the University of New Hampshire and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have data suggesting that the foot of the continental slope off Alaska is more than 100 nautical miles farther out than previously assumed. If this is correct it could give the United States exclusive claim to additional valuable energy and mineral resources on and below the sea floor.

Exxon won court orders in Britain, the Netherlands and the Dutch Antilles that froze $12 billion of assets belonging to Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. Exxon’s actions are a response to Venezuela’s nationalization of an Exxon project - Exxon wants to assure payment should it win compensation from Venezuela.

“NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft is aiming its largest telescope at five stars in a search for alien (exosolar) planets as it enters its extended mission, called Epoxi.” Quoted from the NASA release.

Earth Observatory has a very interesting satellite view of the Belcher Islands Archipelago. This is an outcrop of folded and resistant metamorphic rocks that are about two billion years old that protrudes from Hudson Bay.

David Thoreson and Roger Swanson navigated a yacht from east to west through the Northwest Passage and to their surprise they did not encounter any ice.

What is the Northwest Passage?

“An international team of scientists, led by Dr Edward Hanna at the University of Sheffield, has demonstrated that recent warm summers have caused the most extreme Greenland ice melting in 50 years.”

USGS Image

Greenland plans to auction oil and natural gas exploration leases in a number of areas. They recently sold at auction leases to tracts off of their west coast that are now free of ice for at least five months but were once considered close to almost unsuitable for development.

USGS Image

Scientists have found a recently-formed hot spot beneath the northeast corner of the Greenland ice sheet that is possibly responsible for some of the melting there.

An article in National Geographic News explains how the magnetic North Pole is moving towards Russia at a rate of about 25 miles per year. The normal rate of movement is normally a lot slower. Earth’s magnetic field is oscillating.

CIA Image

MSNBC has an article titled “Natural causes may also play role in Arctic thaw” which explores the idea that natural causes contribute to the warming of Earth.

A presentation by Wieslaw Maslowski at the American Geophysical Union meeting predicted that the Arctic Ocean would be ice free by 2013. This past summer had the smallest area of ice cover since records have been kept. Arctic Ocean Maps

This is a time of year when most publications point to their most popular news or stories. We would like to share the list of most popular earth science articles that have been published at geology.com during 2007.

The Most Powerful Volcanic Eruption of the 20th Century
It was Novarupta, a volcano in Alaska that erupted in June of 1912.

The Sliding Rocks of Racetrack Playa
What causes these rocks to move across a lake bed in Death Valley National Park?

Zoom in on the San Andreas Fault
Not an article but this Google map has been very popular.

Who Owns the Arctic?
Nations bordering the Arctic are doing research to expand their claim.

In recent years the geographic extent of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean has declined. This has resulted less sunlight reflection from the white ice and more sunlight penetration into the sea. The result is a warming Arctic Ocean.

Who owns the Arctic Ocean and any resources that might be found beneath those waters? The USGS estimates that up to 25% of the world’s remaining oil and natural gas resource might be held within the seafloor of the Arctic Region. Which nation will control them?

Pen Hadow, Martin Hartley and Ann Daniels are going on a 1200 mile trek across the Arctic sea ice - from Point Barrow to the North Pole. During this trip they will take radar readings that differentiate the thickness of Arctic sea ice and its snow cover. These will be some of the few true measurements of the ice:snow ratio in the Arctic sea ice cover, providing important comparison to satellite and submarine acquired data.

USGS Image

The rate of coastal erosion on the Arctic coast of Alaska is accelerating. Studies by USGS reveal that the rate has doubled in the past 50 years. Part of this increase is in response to the disappearance of sea ice that used to protect the shoreline from waves and currents.