“Using ice-penetrating radar instruments flown on aircraft, a team of scientists from the U.S. and U.K. have uncovered a previously unknown sub-glacial basin nearly the size of New Jersey beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet near the Weddell Sea. The location, shape and texture of the mile-deep basin suggest that this region of the ice sheet is at a greater risk of collapse than previously thought.” Quoted from the University of Texas at Austin press release.
“Our study describes a methodology to assimilate geologic, seismologic, and geodetic data surrounding a seismic fault to form a physical model of the cycle of earthquakes that has predictive power,” says Sylvain Barbot, a postdoctoral scholar in geology at Caltech. Quoted from the Caltech press release.
The Nevada Geodetic Laboratory has a map showing the displacement of Earth’s surface as measured by GPS stations during the March 11, 2011 Sendai M9.0 Earthquake. “Japan’s coastline has moved up to 5 meters (>16 feet), and the location of the North Pole has been estimated to have moved about 10 cm (4 inches).” Quote from the NGL blog post.
“The chances of rogue fractures due to shale gas fracking operations extending beyond 0.6 kilometres from the injection source is a fraction of one percent, according to new research led by Durham University. The analysis is based on data from thousands of fracking operations in the USA and natural rock fractures in Europe and Africa.” Quoted from the Durham University press release.
The Rio Grande Rift
April 13, 2012 | New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources
“The river’s course through southern Colorado and New Mexico is controlled by a geologic feature known as the Rio Grande rift, which formed when Earth’s crust stretched and thinned in an east-west direction starting about 36 million years ago (36 Ma). The stretching and thinning of the crust allowed hot mantle to well upward, creating youthful volcanoes, hot springs, and mineral deposits, as well as forming a topographically low area along which the river flows.”
“Two new studies into the “plumbing systems” that lie under volcanoes could bring scientists closer to predicting large eruptions.” Quoted from the University of Leeds press release.
“The Atlantis Massif, an undersea mountain, or seamount, formed in a very different way than the majority of the seafloor in the oceans. Unlike volcanic seamounts, which are made of the basalt that’s typical of most of the seafloor, Atlantis Massif includes rock types that are usually only found much deeper in the ocean crust, such as gabbro and peridotite.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation press release.
Small devices that monitor motion in three directions will be installed in buildings to gather data during Japan’s small earthquakes. The data will be used to determine how the building might be damaged in a large earthquake.
Groundwater pumping was curtailed around Venice several decades ago but the city is still subsiding at a rate of about 2mm per year. Combine that with a sea level rise of 2mm per year and the city is still in trouble.
“After decades of little activity, a series of earthquakes and deformation began within the Santorini caldera in January of 2011. Since then, our instruments on the northern part of the island have moved laterally between five and nine centimeters. The volcano’s magma chamber is filling, and we are keeping a close eye on its activity.” Quoted from a Georgia Tech press release.
The Aitken Basin is the Moon’s largest impact structure. It is over 1000 miles across and a is located on the Moon’s far side. The impact might be related to lunar magnetic anomoalies.
According to NOAA’s Space Weather Alerts, the potential impacts of Tuesday’s solar storm, the impact of which should arrive at Earth on Thursday morning, include:
Induced Currents – Power system voltage irregularities possible, false alarms may be triggered on some protection devices.
Spacecraft – Systems may experience surface charging; increased drag on low Earth-orbit satellites and orientation problems may occur.
Navigation – Intermittent satellite navigation (GPS) problems, including loss-of-lock and increased range error may occur.
Radio – HF (high frequency) radio may be intermittent.
Aurora – Aurora may be seen as low as Pennsylvania to Iowa to Oregon. (Quoted from the NOAA announcement.)
Could a partnership between a commercial telecommunications company planning an undersea cable across the Pacific Ocean and science researchers seeing ocean bottom monitoring be a great opportunity for both?
Einstein determined that nothing can be faster than light and his theory was challenged by neutrinos. Again, those neutrino speeds have been called into question – this time favoring Einstein.
“While it has been known for many years that iron is the main element in the core, many questions have remained about just how iron behaves under the conditions found deep in the Earth. Now, a team led by mineral-physics researchers at Caltech has honed in on those behaviors by conducting extremely high-pressure experiments on the element.” Quote from the Caltech press release.
NASA has a new article that explains that over the past 20 million years magnetic reversals have occurred every 200,000 to 300,000 years but it has been more than twice that long since the last reversal.
The University of Washington, the University of California Berkeley and the California Institute of Technology have each received $2 million for developing an earthquake warning system for the Pacific Northwest.
Researchers at Michigan Tech, the University of Rochester and Yale University have determined that Earth’s core could be at least 1.2 billion years older than previously thought.
This isn’t geology but it is a very interesting science development. Researchers at MIT Lincoln Labs have developed a technology that enables them to image real-time human activity on the opposite site of a concrete wall. They believe that it has immediate effective use in urban warefare.
USGS has warned residents of the San Luis Valley in Colorado that a low-flying helicopter with a large boom extending from its nose will be making low-altitude traverses to collect geophysical data in a search for buried faults.
Researchers in Italy believe that they have clocked the speed of neutrinos at faster than the speed of light. If that is confirmed, Einstein’s theory of relativity is uncertain.
Archaeologists have discovered a “gladiator school” about 24 miles east of Vienna, Austria using ground-penetrating radar. This article describes the school and what it has revealed about the life of a gladiator.
The United States Geological Survey has a helicopter flying instruments at low altitude over Mount St. Helens. They are collecting moisture data that will be used to assess the potential for landslides.
“The geomagnetic field is used to explore the dynamics of Earth’s interior and its surrounding space environment, and geomagnetic data are used for geophysical mapping, mineral exploration, risk mitigation, and other practical applications. A global distribution of ground-based magnetic observatories supports those pursuits by providing accurate records of the magnetic-field direction and intensity at fixed locations and over long periods of time.” Quoted from the USGS publication citation.
“For the first time, a spacecraft far from Earth has turned and watched a solar storm engulf our planet. The movie, released today during a NASA press conference, has galvanized solar physicists, who say it could lead to important advances in space weather forecasting.” Quoted from the NASA news release.
“A documentary film highlighting recent and past USGS research in the Lake Tahoe Basin. It features USGS science activities conducted by hydrologists, geologists, geographers, computer modelers, and biologists, among others. The story is told through the use of narration, expert interviews, graphics, animations, incredible video imagery and time-lapse video. USGS science detailed in the story includes water quality monitoring, streamgaging, Lake Tahoe bathymetry, aerial LiDAR, historic use of aerial photography, and the Tahoe Land Use Simulation Model.” Quote from the USGS media release.
This NASA video gives an excellent introduction to solar flares and their potential impact on earth. Powerful flares can create long lasting radiation storms, damage satellites, disable communications systems, and confuse power grids.
After discovering six cannons believed to be part of Captain Henry Morgan’s pirate fleet, university and government researchers ran out of funds needed to sustain their marine archaeology work off the coast of Panama. However, Captain Morgan USA, the rum maker named after the 17th century pirate, kicked in enough money for a magnetometer survey and continued work.
“This report is a new compilation of the location and extent of folds and faults in Cook Inlet Basin, Alaska. [...] Most anticlines in and around the basin have at least shows of oil or gas, and some structures are considered to be seismically active. [...] This area lies adjacent to the subducting and buoyant Yakutat microplate slab.”
“Geologists have used temperature measurements from more than 20,000 boreholes around the world to estimate that some 44 terawatts (44 trillion watts) of heat continually flow from Earth’s interior into space. Where does it come from?” Quoted from the Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory news release.
The Bureau of OceanEnergy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has released a study that describes new seismic assessment methods for gas hydrate deposits in the Gulf of Mexico.
Installing a seismometer in a deep borehole at the South Pole, Antarctica. USGS image.
“The Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory supports the Global Seismographic Network Program and the Advanced National Seismic System through the installation, operation, and maintenance of seismic stations around the world and serves as the premier seismological instrumentation test facility for the U.S. Government.” Quoted from the USGS press release.
“Observations have shown, however, that magnetic effects on Earth due to the sun, effects that cause the aurora to appear, did not go down in synch with the cycle of low magnetism on the sun. [...] These effects on Earth did in fact reach a minimum — indeed they attained their lowest levels of the century — but some eight months later.” Quoted from the NASA press release.
“The Salton Seismic Imaging Project, will create images of underground stucture and sediments in the Imperial and Coachella Valleys and adjacent mountain ranges to investigate the earthquake hazards they pose to cities in this area. Importantly, the images will determine the underground geometry of the San Andreas Fault, how deep the sediments are, and how fast earthquake energy can travel through the sediments. All of these factors determine how hard the earth will shake during a major earthquake.” Quoted from the USGS Fact Sheet.
Caltech researchers publish surprising information about the Magnitude 9.0 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake that occurred offshore of Sendai, Japan on March 11, 2011. No other great earthquake has more data from satellites, seismograph networks and tsunami monitoring stations.
Researchers at Caltech’s Seismological Laboratory “are using data from GPS satellite systems in an entirely new way: to measure the solid earth’s response to the movements of ocean tides—which place a large stress on Earth’s surface—and to estimate separately the effects of Earth’s density and the properties controlling response when a force is applied to it (known as elastic moduli).”
“Riddles locked deep within the Antarctic ice and underlying continent may hold answers to some of the planet’s most enigmatic questions. New Mexico Tech scientists are among a small army of researchers seeking to unlock the geological and climate workings of Planet Earth from the frozen continent.” Quoted from the New Mexico Tech press release.
“University of Utah geophysicists made the first large-scale picture of the electrical conductivity of the gigantic underground plume of hot and partly molten rock that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano. The image suggests the plume is even bigger than it appears in earlier images made with earthquake waves.” Quoted from The University of Utah press release.
“After just two years in orbit, ESA’s GOCE satellite has gathered enough data to map Earth’s gravity with unrivalled precision. Scientists now have access to the most accurate model of the ‘geoid’ ever produced to further our understanding of how Earth works.” Quoted from the European Space Agency press release.
In the latest evidence of the vastness remaining to be explored in the world’s oceans, scientists aboard Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego’s research vessel Melville are mapping a series of colossal and previously uncharted undersea mountains in remote areas of the South Atlantic Ocean.
“These particular seamounts are so steep that it was nerve-wracking to go from 3,000 meters (9,840 feet) of water to less than 500 meters (1,640 feet) in 15 or 20 minutes!”
Mapping the Earth’s magnetic field – to find oil, track storms or probe the planet’s interior – typically requires expensive satellites. University of California, Berkeley, physicists have now come up with a much cheaper way to measure the Earth’s magnetic field using only a ground-based laser.
Researchers have discovered the loggerhead turtles have a sense of Earth’s magnetic field that they use to migrate on a clockwise loop around the Atlantic Ocean.
The magnetic North Pole is moving at a speed of about 40 miles per year as changes occur in the core of the Earth. In response to the movement, navigation systems that rely on magnetic north must be adjusted. The Tampa, Florida airport is repainting runway designators and changing signs to accommodate the change.
Welcome to Geology News!
Every day you can find links to several earth science news topics right here.
Bookmark this page and visit often. You can also receive our news for free by RSS feed or in a daily email message.
Advertising
Popular From Geology.com
Marcellus Shale: The most overlooked resource in the eastern United States!
Diamonds from Coal? Diamonds form under a variety of conditions that rarely involve coal as a source of carbon.
Mineral Rights / Oil & Gas: Who owns the minerals under your land? Have they been sold? Can someone mine without permission?
The Many Uses of Gold: Learn how the unique properties of gold make it extremely suited for a large number of industrial uses.
