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A voyage from the Earth’s crust to its mantle and back again
Image Credit: leonello calvetti / Shutterstock From the beginning of time, uranium has been part of the Earth and, thanks to its long-lived radioactivity, it has proven ideal to date geological...
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Iceland rises as its glaciers melt from climate change
Ice cap, Vatnajökull, Iceland. Image: wikipedia The Earth’s crust under Iceland is rebounding as global warming melts the island’s great ice caps, a University of Arizona-led team reports in an...
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Unseen volcanoes may play role in Earth’s long-term climate
Magma from undersea eruptions congealed into these sorts of rock forms, known as striated pillow basalts, at Axial Volcano on the Juan De Fuca Ridge. A new study examining volcanic eruptions at...
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Earth’s surprise inside: Geologists unlock mysteries of the planet’s inner core
A research team from the University of Illinois and colleagues in China found earth’s inner core has an inner core of its own, with crystals aligned in a different direction. CREDIT: Lachina Publishing...
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Research gets to the core of Earth’s formation
This artist’s illustration shows a planetary scale impact on the Moon. Illustration by W.K. Hartmann. Violent collisions between the growing Earth and other objects in the solar system generated...
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Iron rain fell on early Earth, new Z machine data supports
An artist’s concept shows a celestial body about the size of our moon slamming at great speed into a body the size of Mercury. (Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech) Researchers at Sandia National...
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Meteorites key to the story of Earth’s layers
Dr Yuri Amelin. Image: Stuart Hay A new analysis of the chemical make-up of meteorites has helped scientists work out when the Earth formed its layers. The research by an international team of...
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New source of methane discovered in the Arctic Ocean
This image shows the bathymetry of the area of the Arctic Ocean where the new source of methane was found: Knipovich Ridge in the Fram Strait. Credit: CAGE Methane, a highly effective greenhouse gas,...
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Why we live on Earth and not Venus
Images of Earth and Venus. Photo: NASA Compared to its celestial neighbours Venus and Mars, Earth is a pretty habitable place. So how did we get so lucky? A new study sheds light on the improbable...
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Earth’s Mineralogy Unique in the Cosmos
The mineral hazenite, named after Robert Hazen, which is only found in one locality, Mono Lake, California. Like hazenite, 22 percent of known minerals are found in just one locality. The image is...
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New study indicates Earth’s inner core was formed 1-1.5 billion years ago
Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory There have been many estimates for when the earth’s inner core was formed, but scientists from the University of Liverpool have used new data which...
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Study questions dates for cataclysms on early moon, Earth
The deformed lunar zircon at center was brought from the moon by Apollo astronauts. The fractures characteristic of meteorite impact are not seen in most lunar zircons, so the ages they record probably...
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Research sheds new light on the origins of Earth’s water
Earth from the International Space Station. NASA Image. Water covers more than two-thirds of Earth’s surface, but its exact origins are still something of a mystery. Scientists have long been uncertain...
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Earth’s magnetic field is not about to flip
Artistic impression of how auroras could be more widespread under a geomagnetic field much weaker than today’s. Credit: Huapei Wang, with source files courtesy of NASA’s Earth Observatory/NOAA/DOD The...
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Diamonds used to ‘probe’ ancient Earth
A specimen of a Witwatersrand diamond. Credit: Wits University Diamonds dug up from ancient rock formations in the Johannesburg area, between 1890 and 1930 – before the industrialisation of gold mining...
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Volcanoes tied to shifts in Earth’s climate over millions of years
Volcano Licancabur, an active volcano in the Andean continental volcanic arc on the Chile-Bolivia border, looms above flamingos in a nearby lake. Credit: Brian Horton A new study in the April 22...
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Early Earth’s air weighed less than half of today’s atmosphere
The layers on this 2.7 billion-year-old rock, a stromatolite from Western Australia, show evidence of single-celled, photosynthetic life on the shore of a large lake. The new result suggests that this...
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Just What Sustains Earth’s Magnetic Field Anyways?
An illustration of how the diamond anvil cell is used to mimic and study planetary core conditions, courtesy of Stewart McWilliams. Earth’s magnetic field shields us from deadly cosmic radiation, and...
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Possible solution to “faint young Sun paradox” in primordial asteroid impacts
This artistic illustration shows how the early Earth might have looked under bombardment, with circular impact features dotting the daylight side, while hot lava glows on the night side. A thick,...
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Earth’s mantle appears to have a driving role in plate tectonics
Image credit: NASA Deep down below us is a tug of war moving at less than the speed of growing fingernails. Keeping your balance is not a concern, but how the movement happens has been debated among...
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