A new study sheds light on the way salty water acts in deep-sea aquifers, paving the way for further research into carbon storage deep beneath the seabed.
Coccolithophores are microscopic algae that form tiny limestone plates, called coccoliths, around their single cells. They are responsible for half of the limestone produced in the oceans and therefore play a major role in the carbon...
Researchers have decoded for the first time the demographic history, genetic structure, and population connectivity of a deep-sea limpet widely distributed in vent and seep ecosystems in the Northwest Pacific. This study not only...
Using observations from NASA's ICON mission, scientists presented the first direct measurements of Earth's long-theorized dynamo on the edge of space: a wind-driven electrical generator that spans the globe 60-plus miles above our heads....
Curtin University researchers have helped unravel the enduring mystery of the origins of the Earth's water, finding the Sun to be a surprising likely source.
A new study has identified serpentinite -- a green rock that looks a bit like snakeskin and holds fluids in its mineral structures -- as a key driver of the oxygen recycling process, which helped create and maintain the sustaining...
Researchers use synchrotron X-ray total scattering and quantum computer simulations to model the crystal structure of amorphous magnesium carbonate as a function of temperature. As a precursor to crystalline magnesium carbonate hydrate...
A team of researchers has developed an effective technology to carry out very accurate, non-invasive groundwater measurements in previously inaccessible areas. Using the new technology, NMR measurements (nuclear magnetic resonance) are...
A scientist has discovered a method for detecting and better defining meteorite impact sites that have long lost their tell-tale craters. The discovery could further the study of not only Earth's geology but also that of other bodies in...
Volcanic gases are helping researchers track large-scale movements in Earth's deep interior. Scientists have discovered anomalous geochemical compositions beneath Panama.
A new study describes a proof of principle for engineering a bacterium, Gluconobacter oxydans, that takes a big first step towards meeting skyrocketing rare earth element demand in a way that matches the cost and efficiency of...
A team of scientists has identified an additional force that likely contributed to a mass extinction event 250 million years ago. Its analysis of minerals in southern China indicate that volcano eruptions produced a 'volcanic winter'...
According to physics, seismic waves from earthquakes should travel in a four-leaf clover pattern, but in the real world they behave more like ripples in a pond. New research has found the pattern hidden among low-frequency seismic waves,...
Climate scientists identify abrupt transitions in climate records that may have been caused by the climate system crossing a tipping point. They devised a statistical method to determine whether these transitions are simply noise or...
New research reveals that after its initial formation 100 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada 'died' during volcanic eruptions that blasted lava across much of the American West 40 million to 20 million years ago. Then, tens of millions...
The mechanism behind one of the first stages of coal creation may not be what we thought it was, according to a team of researchers who found that microbes were responsible for coal formation and production of methane in these areas,...
When tectonic plates sink into the Earth they look like slinky snakes! That's according to a study published in Nature, which helps answer a long standing question about what happens to tectonic plates when they sink - or subduct - into...
Geophysicists can use a new model to explain the behavior of a tectonic plate sinking into a subduction zone in the Earth's mantle: the plate becomes weak and thus more deformable when mineral grains on its underside are shrunk in size.
A study says the Mid-Pleistocene Transition may have been linked to previous erosion of continental soils that subsequently allowed glaciers to stick to the underlying hard bedrock more efficiently.
Hydrocarbons, which are an essential component of crude oil and natural gas, form under pressure and high temperatures in the deep ocean floor. In the Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California, researchers have detected hydrocarbon gas...
Ancient rock forms suggest world’s first stable cratons rose above sea level more than 3bn years ago Get our free news app ; get our morning email briefing The Earth’s first continents rose out of the ocean 700m years earlier than...
A new study strengthens the case that climate change has been the main cause of the growing amount of land in the western U.S. destroyed by large wildfires. And researchers say the trend is likely to worsen.
In a new study, researchers found that during epochs of extreme heat -- 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than today -- Earth may have experienced cycles of dryness followed by massive rain storms hundreds of miles wide that could dump...
They're born. They live once, erupting for a period that might last for days, years or decades. Then, they go dark and die. This narrative describes the life of a monogenetic volcano, a type of volcanic hazard that can pose important...
Curious report suggests calm thousand millennia of ‘Boring Billion’ was more lively than thought Today our planet is a lively place: the climate swings from greenhouse to icehouse and back again, while earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain...
Earth's atmosphere has a unique ability to cleanse itself by way of invisible molecules in the air that act as minuscule cleanup crews. The most important molecule in that crew is the hydroxyl radical (OH), nicknamed the 'detergent of...
Precambrian cratons -- some of Earth's oldest rocks -- were uninhabitable for microbes for much of their existence, with the longest period of habitability not much beyond a billion years, and many only for the past 50 million to 300...
A new study that modeled changes in the world's 45 different 'life zones' from climate change revealed that climate impacts may soon triple over these areas if the earth continues 'business-as-usual' emissions.
It is estimated that about 5-10 volcanoes worldwide are capable of producing a super-eruption that could catastrophically affect global climate. One of these volcanoes hides below the waters of Lake Toba in Sumatra and has caused two...
New research reveals more information about the first and oldest of the 'big five' extinctions. Around 85% of marine species, most of which lived in shallow oceans near continents, disappeared during that time.
Archaeological discoveries are shattering scholars’ long-held beliefs about how the earliest humans organised their societies – and hint at possibilities for our own. By David Graeber and David Wengrow . Continue reading...
A team has updated its asteroid bombardment model of the Earth with the latest geologic evidence of ancient, large collisions. These models have been used to understand how impacts may have affected oxygen levels in the Earth's...
Archaeological discoveries are shattering scholars’ long-held beliefs about how the earliest humans organised their societies – and hint at possibilities for our own In some ways, accounts of “human origins” play a similar role for us...
A multidisciplinary team of materials physicists and geophysicists combine theoretical predictions, simulations, and seismic tomography to find spin transition in the Earth's mantle. Their findings will improve understanding of the...
The more water is dissolved in the magma, the greater the risk that a volcano will explode. A new study now shows that this simple rule is only partially true. Paradoxically, high water content significantly reduces the risk of explosion.
It has long been theorized that hydrogen, helium, and lithium were the only chemical elements in existence during the Big Bang, and that supernova explosions are responsible for transmuting these elements into heavier ones. Researchers...
Researchers have analyzed ancient zeolite specimens collected from the edges of East Iceland to discover that zeolites separate calcium isotopes in a wholly unexpected way.
New research suggests that Earth's 'solid' inner core is, in fact, endowed with a range of liquid, soft, and hard structures which vary across the top 150 miles of the inner core.
Researchers used decades of measurements of earthshine -- the light reflected from Earth that illuminates the surface of the Moon to find that there has been a significant drop in Earth's reflectance over the past two decades. The Earth...
Geologists completed research characterizing the complex geological evolution of the Orphan Basin, offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, using an extensive database of newly available, modern 2D and 3D broadband seismic reflection data....
Using a new mechanistic model of evolution on Earth, researchers can now better explain why the rainforests of Africa are home to fewer species than the tropical forests of South America and Southeast Asia. The key to high species...
Ice melange, a slushy mixture of snow and ice chunks, can heal large rifts in Antarctica's ice shelves. Researchers found that a thinning of ice melange may have enabled a Delaware-sized iceberg to break off from the Larsen C ice shelf...
Geologists have been baffled by perforations in an Australian quartzite (rock), identical in shape to burrows made in sands by crustaceans; the original sandy sediment is a billion years older than the oldest known animals. An...
Dorset’s Inside Out festival brought audiences closer to nature with rock star-guided rambles, dirt-digging dances and a globe suspended in woodland Have you held a seashell to your ear, imagined the sound of the ocean and felt closer to...
The continents, a specific feature of our planet, still hold many secrets. Using chemical data on sedimentary rocks compiled from the scientific literature from the 1980s to the present day, researchers have uncovered a new geological...
Rift Valley lakes within eastern Africa range from freshwater to highly alkaline systems and are homes to diverse ecosystems. These Rift Valley lakes are also sedimentary repositories, yielding a high-resolution environmental record that...