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Geology News
Europe Current Events

Spain has been suffering their most severe drought in at least 60 years; the country has even resorted to importing water by ship. As the water level of the Sau reservoir lowered, a new sight emerged: the remains of a medieval village. This article includes a short video showing footage of the ruins.

Italy’s Mount Etna, located on the island of Sicily, showed signs of activity on Tuesday. The volcano had some minor eruptions and seismic activity.

Movement on the banks of the River Spey in the north-east of Scotland, has produced a 120-foot high cliff above the river. Officials fear that it will collapse and produce a large wave that might overwhelm anyone in or along the river.

Royal Dutch Shell is scaling down its North Sea operations where well yields are declining and costs are increasing. About 180 jobs will be cut. Shell employs about 8500 people in the UK.

Archaeologists unexpectedly found a huge amount of Viking treasure near Stockholm, Sweden. It was discovered in a Bronze Age tomb, but the loot itself is more recent, dating perhaps to 850 A.D. The treasure trove contains more silver coins than any other Viking stash discovered from this time period. The age of the find suggests that Vikings were involved in overseas trade earlier than previously thought.

They have not found an impact structure yet, but researchers have determined that an unusual layer within the Torridonian sedimentary rock sequence is an eject blanket. They have found shocked quartz, elevated iridium and chromium 53. They think that the impact occurred about 1.2 billion years ago and formed a crater about 4 miles across.

Lack of rainfall over the past 18 months has caused a severe drought in Spain. This has led to regional disputes over the dwindling water resources. Additionally, if more rain doesn’t come soon, the damage to crops may be catastrophic. What can be done?

Archaeologists are currently excavating Stonehenge for the first time in nearly half a century. They hope to find some clues to help them more accurately discern the age and purpose of this amazing landmark. The BBC has devoted a webpage to chronicling the progress of this endeavor. There you can find news updates, video clips, theories about the monument, and more.

Researchers believe that they have found the site of the largest asteroid impact in the UK. The impact occurred about 1.2 billion years ago near the present-day town of Ullapool. There is no obvious crater at the site. Instead it is beneath the Minch, a waterway near Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake occurred on the island of Crete at 2:16 AM Friday morning local time. The USGS PAGER reports estimates that about 79,000 people could be exposed to VI Modified Mercalli Intensity.

Scientists in Spain have found a jawbone that they believe to be of the oldest known human. It was found in a cave and believed to be 1.3 million years old. The significance: it suggests that people were in Europe much earlier than previously believed.

Subsidence began in the town of Staufen, located in southwestern Germany after a geothermal heating system was installed in a public building. Now, at least 68 buildings have been damaged.

The extreme floods that hit the UK during 2007 were of unusual extent and severity. The UK’s Centre for Ecology & Hydrology has issued a report stating that they were singular weather events and unrelated to climate change. We link to a webpage with a summary where you can choose to download the full pdf report.

A fault in the eastern Mediterranean may be the source of multiple tsunamis with a recurrence interval of about 800 years.

The North Sea has yielded enormous quantities of gas and oil. Now many of the wells are starting to play out. However, before they are abandoned it is possible that they could be recycled as carbon storage sites.

NASA Landsat

There has been a lot of recent debate over building a bridge across the Straight of Gibraltar to connect Europe to Africa. This website explores several of the most ambitious bridge projects.

A strong wind storm swept across Europe with gusts up to 166 kilometers per hour. It downed trees, damaged buildings, cut power lines, overturned vehicles and triggered landslides. (Many news reports are using the term “hurricane”. In the United States that term is used for “tropical cyclones”. In other areas the word is often used for any strong wind storm.)

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake shook the UK on Wednesday, damaging some buildings but with few injuries. It was the strongest quake in that country in 25 years. An article in the Telegraph summarizes the damage (don’t miss the links to photos, the city-by-city stats or other related information).

Although Wednesday morning’s UK earthquake was small compared to world standards, it was a strong one for the UK. It was felt throughout the country and across the Channel in France. Buildings were damaged and one injury was reported in an early news story.

USGS Report

Subsidence of about 1 mm per week has been experienced in the town of Staufen, located in southwestern Germany after a geothermal heating system was installed in a public building.

The Bonhomme Richard was a Revolutionary War ship under the command of American captain, John Paul Jones. In July, 2007, scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution used modern technology to search for the ship at the bottom of the North Sea.

USBM Image

Researchers at the University of Southampton have shown that the Bristol Dinosaur, Thecodontosaurus, lived on subtropical islands around Bristol, instead of in a mainland desert as previously thought. The researchers believe that the dinosaur’s small size of two meters in length compared to mainland equivalents being ten meters might have been caused by island dwarfing.

A project to build a tunnel under the 8 miles of ocean that separates Europe from Africa at the Straight of Gibraltar is expected to being work this year. Various routes are being considered between Spain and Morocco, each with their own special challenges.

GEOTIMES has a feature article that spotlights oil exploration and production in five settings:

Norway Looks North for Oil and Gas
Oil and Politics in Iraq
Squabbles over the South China Sea
Putting India on the World’s Petroleum Map
Oil Rushes Back to Libya

GEOTIMES has an article titled “Geo-temptations on the Emerald Isle”. It features a number of interesting locations and facts related to the geology of Ireland.

An international team of geologists has discovered that an active fault is creating new Dalmatian Islands off the Croatian coast in the Adriatic Sea.

A study by the Spanish Oceanographic Institute reports on a rising Mediterranean Sea and the impact that it might have on coastal areas and environment.

Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have achieved a major agreement on a natural gas pipeline that will be built from Turkmenistan to southern Russia through Kazakhstan. The project is expected to complete in 2010. Many in the EU are disappointed because they wanted the Turkmenistan gas to reduce their dependence on Russian gas.

About 30 miles of tunnels have been driven through the Rock of Gibraltar. Some of these tunnels were built as early as the 1700’s to open gun ports facing the Isthmus. This is another VOX article by Freddie Gomez and it describes some of the tunneling methods used for these early tunnels.

Freddie Gomez has his third article on the geology of Gibraltar on the VOX website. This one is on the geology of urban development. It features building stones, construction materials and a little engineering geology.

Netherlands Satellite Image

The Dutch have been fighting to hold the sea back for a long time and global climate change is expected to make their job a lot more difficult in the coming years. This article explores what’s ahead for them and how they might respond.

A New York Times article reports that a more farmers in Greenland are for the first time engaging in commercial agriculture. They are growing broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, potatoes and other crops. An agricultural adviser says that someday southern Greenland could have a lot of vegetable farms.

MSN Travel has a photo gallery of thirteen spectacular bridges from around the world. These include: Millau Viaduct, France; Puente de Alamillo, Spain; Kintai-kyo, Japan; Sydney Harbor Bridge, Australia; Golden Gate Bridge, California; Pont Neuf, France; San Diego-Coronado Bridge, California; Vasco da Gama Bridge, Portugal; Tower Bridge, England; Bridge of the Americas, Panama; Oberbaumbrücke, Germany; Zakim Bridge, Massachusetts; and Erasmusbrug, Netherlands.

An underground source of hot water was just one of the resources found as part of the Tellus Project - a resource assessment of Northern Ireland. The water is about 90 degrees Celsius and at a depth of 3000 feet.

Norway completed a feasibility study for storing carbon dioxide produced by two gas-fired power plants located near Kaarsto and Mongstad in deep wells under the North Sea.

Kevin Lange © iStockphoto.com

A petroglyph is an image that has been carved into a rock. People have been making them for thousands of years. This photographic collection of petroglyphs includes rock art from Arizona, British Columbia, California, Hawaii, India, Namibia, New Mexico, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Utah, Virgin Islands and Washington.

NASA Image

Numerous wildfires on the west coast of Greece’s Peloponnesus Peninsula have burned hundreds of homes and thousands of acres. At least 60 people have been killed and the government has declared a national emergency. The satellite image shows the locations of the fires and enormous plumes of heavy smoke that are blowing over the Ionian Sea.

Netherlands Satellite Image

About 55 percent of the Netherlands is already below sealevel and global warming promises higher sealevels with every passing year. Their vast system of dikes, seawalls and storm-surge barriers is an expensive protection system to keep out the sea. How will the Dutch cope with rising sealevels and steady subsidence - which together could increase the sealevel problem by up to one centimeter per year.

“Global Warning: The World’s Endangered Destinations” is a photo presentation of sixteen locations where global warming is expected to have a significant impact. These include: The Everglades; Kenai Fjords National Park; Great Barrier Reef; The Netherlands; Mt. Kilimanjaro; Tuvalu; South Georgia Island; Dalian, China; Venice; Tokyo, Japan; Wengen, Switzerland; Manhattan, New York City; Halong Bay, Vietnam; New Orleans; London, England; and Northwest Territories, Canada.

Iceland Map

Iceland sits atop the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and an enormous amount of renewable heat is immediately below. An agreement has been reached for the Icelandic Energy Authority to supply geothermal-generated electricity to a German utility through a sea-bed cable.