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Geology News
Historical Geology Current Events

An article on the San Francisco Chronicle explores the age of Mammoth Mountain, an area with a volcanic history in California, and considers its future activity.

An article on the Discovery News website reports that the roots of modern geology can be traced back to Copernicus over 500 years ago. It also gives a pitch for the broader recognition of earth science in secondary schools of the United States.

NIH Image

Researchers at Queen’s University have refined a calibration curve used to date carbon-based materials. The curve, called INTCAL09, extends radiocarbon calibration and improves date determinations in the part of the curve that approaches 50,000 years.

During the “Snowball Earth” phase of our planet’s development, Sturtian glaciers covered the tropics and reached the Equator. Rock samples from Yukon Territory, Canada yield evidence of this prehistoric glaciation.

Since very small organisms like plankton form the base of the ocean’s food chain, anything that affects them will impact most marine life. Microscopic aquatic fossils are being used to compile latitudinal details on the mass extinction events of 65 MYA.

“Responding to challenges to the hypothesis that an asteroid impact caused a mass extinction on Earth 65 million years ago, a panel of 41 scientists re-analyzed data and provided new evidence, concluding that an impact in Mexico was indeed the cause of the mass extinction.” Quoted from the University of Texas at Austin press release.

Image by Christian Sidor

A new fossil discovery was made in Tanzania of a dinosaur-like creature that lived about 10 million years before the first dinosaur. Characteristics of this animal suggest that the first dinosaur might have lived earlier than previously believed.

Scientists from three universities have written papers on how the fossilized primate Darwinius masillae (“Ida”) cannot be classified as a haplorhine – the primate category that contains monkeys, apes and humans. Rather, it is more likely a strepsirrhine – of the branch with lorises and lemurs.

Sauropod skulls are extremely rare and only a few complete ones have been found. BYU researchers have found the first complete sauropod skulls known from the Cretaceous of the Western Hemisphere in Dinosaur National Monument in eastern Utah. Listen to how excited these paleontologists are about having these Abydosaurus skulls!

“The chemical composition of our oceans is not constant but has varied significantly over geological time. In a study published in the February 26, 2010 edition of Science, researchers describe a novel method for reconstructing past ocean chemistry using calcium carbonate veins that precipitate from seawater-derived fluids in rocks beneath the seafloor.”

A new discovery by researchers at Oregon State University suggests that it is unlikely that birds descended from known theropod dinosaurs.

The Doushantuo fossil beds in China have provided some clues about the geochemical complexities of the early ocean. It is possible that in the Ediacaran Period, oceans became sulfidic and then ferruginous at greater depths.

When the dinosaurs disappeared, many birds grew bigger and lost their ability to fly. The descendants of these birds, called ratites, now include the ostrich, moa, emu, and rhea. This evolutionary direction likely occurred simultaneously, yet after the separation of Gondwana.

PNL.gov Image

How bacteria became mitochondria is one of the mysteries of early life. Biochemists at Monash University have some new information about this key metamorphosis.

Image: LBL.gov

Could life on Earth have been sparked in deep-sea hydrothermal vents? A paper by Dr. Nick Lane, published in BioEssays, details why this is plausible with chemiosmosis.

As man evolved, his brain size increased. However, not all primates have developed bigger brains through history; the gorilla, for instance, has grown more in body mass. Researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Durham are studying brain and body development in primates to help unravel the enigma of the Homo floresiensis, or the “hobbit” fossil, which has a small brain in comparison to modern-day humans.

Michael Heads, Ph.D., of the Buffalo Museum of Science, has a theory on primate evolution that differs from most others. He believes that primates did not evolve from one singular location, but were dispersed across Pangaea and evolved in independent groups due to geologic events, such as plate tectonics and volcanic activity.

The Gamburtsev Mountains in Antarctica existed for millions of years before they disappeared beneath layers of ice, never to be seen again – until the 21st century, with the help of radar technology.

See also: Antarctica map and satellite image.

There has been a long-standing debate on what caused the extinction of some Australian megafauna in the late Pleistocene – was it humans or climate? Direct dating of some fossilized teeth in Cuddie Springs supports the human intervention theory.

Ice Age climate data has been preserved in calcium carbonate stalagmites at Cave of the Bells, located in the Santa Rita Mountains of Arizona. Findings from the limestone cave share similarities with data taken from Greenland ice cores.

Related: Similar study done at University of California, Davis.

Madagascar separated from the African mainland about 120 MYA, yet some of the island’s mammal species have only been residing there for 60 million years or less. How can this be? One theory is that they were taken across the Mozambique Channel with storm debris.

Scientists have reconstructed what the climate conditions were 3 million years ago, and are using these data as one of the closest analogs to estimate future climate conditions. USGS scientists Harry Dowsett and Marci Robinson discuss some of their findings regarding carbon dioxide’s impact, Arctic conditions, and the deep ocean’s system.

The people of Xuan Wei, China, have a substantially higher risk of developing lung cancer than people living almost anywhere else in the world. Is this because of the coal burned for residential heating and cooking? The bituminous coal found here, under the Permian-Triassic boundary, is extraordinarily high in toxic silica.

Sea level rise and fall has opened and closed the Bering Strait numerous times in the past, affecting ocean circulation and influencing the climate of the Northern Hemisphere.

The Gulf of Corinth rift which runs through the center of Greece is the source of seismic activity in the area. At under 5 million years old, it is a relatively young rift, which makes it useful for observing early rift formation.