Geology News And Research

Earth's most prominent rainfall feature creeping northward

Saturday, July 04, 2009 00:00 MST

The rain band near the equator that determines the supply of freshwater to nearly a billion people throughout the tropics and subtropics has been creeping north for more than 300 years. If the band continues to migrate at just less than a mile a year, which is the average for all the years it has been moving north, then some Pacific islands near the equator may be starved of freshwater by midcentury or sooner.

Plants save the earth from an icy doom

Friday, July 03, 2009 00:00 MST

Fifty million years ago, the North and South poles were ice-free and crocodiles roamed the Arctic. Since then, a long-term decrease in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has cooled the Earth. Researchers at Yale University, the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the University of Sheffield now show that land plants saved the Earth from a deep frozen fate by buffering the removal of atmospheric CO2 over the past 24 million years.

The least sea ice in 800 years

Thursday, July 02, 2009 00:00 MST

New research, which reconstructs the extent of ice in the sea between Greenland and Svalbard from the 13th century to the present indicates that there has never been so little sea ice as there is now. The research results from the Niels Bohr Institute, among others, are published in the scientific journal Climate Dynamics.

Geologists to help communicate the dangers of Colombian volcano

Wednesday, July 01, 2009 00:00 MST

During the past decade, residents of Pasto, Colombia, and neighboring villages near Galeras, Colombia's most dangerous volcano, have been threatened with evacuation, but compliance varies. With each new eruption Colombian officials become increasingly concerned about the safety of the residents who live within striking there. Now, geologists from the University at Buffalo and the Universidad de Nari�o have organized a special workshop in Colombia designed to tackle the communication issue.

First riser-drilling research operations undertaken

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 00:00 MST

IODP drilling vessel CHIKYU has resumed operations in the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone off the Kii Peninsula of Japan using riser technology successfully for the first time in scientific ocean research.

Subseafloor sediment in South Pacific Gyre

Friday, June 26, 2009 00:00 MST

Biomass, metabolic activity much lower than at previously explored sites

Sudden collapse in ancient biodiversity: Was global warming the culprit?

Thursday, June 25, 2009 00:00 MST

Scientists discover early warning signs of ecosystems at risk

Ice sheets can retreat 'in a geologic instant,' study of prehistoric glacier shows

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 00:00 MST

Modern glaciers, such as those making up the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, are capable of undergoing periods of rapid shrinkage or retreat, according to new findings by paleoclimatologists at the University at Buffalo.

Close relationship between past warming and sea-level rise

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 00:00 MST

Scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, along with colleagues from Tuebingen and Bristol have reconstructed sea-level fluctuations over the last 520,000 years. Comparison of this record with data on global climate and CO2 levels from Antarctic ice cores suggests that even stabilization at today's CO2 levels may commit us to much greater sea-level rise over the next couple of millennia than previously thought.

Ancient drought and rapid cooling drastically altered climate

Monday, June 22, 2009 00:00 MST

Two abrupt and drastic climate events, 700 years apart and more than 45 centuries ago, are teasing scientists who are now trying to use ancient records to predict future world climate. The events -- one, a massive, long-lived drought believed to have dried large portions of Africa and Asia, and the other, a rapid cooling that accelerated the growth of tropical glaciers -- left signals in ice cores and other geologic records from around the world.

When palm trees gave way to spruce trees

Sunday, June 21, 2009 00:00 MST

One long-standing climate puzzle relates to the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene. Profound changes were underway. Globally, carbon dioxide levels were falling and the hothouse warmth of the dinosaur age and Eocene Period was waning. In Antarctica, ice sheets had formed and covered much of the southern polar continent. But what exactly was happening on land, in northern latitudes? An international team that included Dr. David Greenwood, an NSERC-funded researcher at Brandon University, now provides some of the very first detailed answers.

Researchers survey earthquake faults through downtown Reno

Saturday, June 20, 2009 00:00 MST

Seismological Lab doing a portion of USGS project to discover and accurately map fault lines

Geologists demonstrate extent of ancient ice age

Friday, June 19, 2009 00:00 MST

Team investigates the climate of planet Earth 440 million years ago

Natural deep earth pump fuels earthquakes and ore

Friday, June 19, 2009 00:00 MST

For the first time scientists have discovered the presence of a natural deep earth pump that is a crucial element in the formation of ore deposits and earthquakes.

New study closes in on geologic history of Earth's deep interior

Thursday, June 18, 2009 00:00 MST

UC Davis team calculates distribution of iron isotopes in Earth's mantle 4.5 billion years ago, opening door to new studies of planet's geologic history