News in Brief
Earth Sciences - Sep 18
Olympic costs are comparable to ’deep disasters’ like pandemics, earthquakes, tsunamis and war
Olympic costs are comparable to ’deep disasters’ like pandemics, earthquakes, tsunamis and war
Campus - Sep 18
Gift establishes two professorships aimed at advancing social equality, inclusion at U-M
Gift establishes two professorships aimed at advancing social equality, inclusion at U-M
Innovation - Sep 18
Eagles project launches crowdfunding campaign in bid to continue work through the pandemic
Eagles project launches crowdfunding campaign in bid to continue work through the pandemic
Health - Sep 17
UC San Diego Scientists to Explore New Frontiers in Parkinson’s Disease Research with $7.2M Grant
UC San Diego Scientists to Explore New Frontiers in Parkinson’s Disease Research with $7.2M Grant
Mathematics - Sep 17
U-M professor’s ’fractal simulation tools’ appear in Samuel Jackson’s new ’Enslaved’ TV series
U-M professor’s ’fractal simulation tools’ appear in Samuel Jackson’s new ’Enslaved’ TV series
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Environment - Earth Sciences - 18.09.2020
Earth Sciences - Physics - 17.09.2020 
Detaching and uplifting, not bulldozing
Researchers have used a computer model to test a new hypothesis about the formation of the Alps while simulating seismic activity in Switzerland. This will help improve current earthquake risk models. For a long time, geoscientists have assumed that the Alps were formed when the Adriatic plate from the south collided with the Eurasian plate in the north.
Earth Sciences - Environment - 16.09.2020 
Most landslides in western Oregon triggered by heavy rainfall, not big earthquakes
Researchers at the University of Washington, Portland State University and the University of Oregon have shown that deep-seated landslides in the central Oregon Coast Range are triggered mostly by rainfall, not by large offshore earthquakes. The open-access paper was published Sept. 16 in Science Advances.
Earth Sciences - Environment - 11.09.2020 
Worldwide loss of phosphorus due to soil erosion quantified for the first time
Phosphorus is essential for agriculture, yet this important plant nutrient is increasingly being lost from soils around the world. The primary cause is soil erosion, reports an international research team led by the University of Basel. The study Communications shows which continents and regions are most strongly affected.
Environment - Earth Sciences - 11.09.2020
Environment - Earth Sciences - 10.09.2020
Earth Sciences - 08.09.2020 
Mineral undergoes self-healing of irradiation damage
Several minerals suffer radioactive self-irradiation and hence experience long-term changes of their properties. The mineral monazite virtually behaves "just alike Camembert cheese in which holes are drilled": Existing radiation damage heals itself. An international research team led by Lutz Nasdala, Institute of Mineralogy and Crystallography, University of Vienna, conducted an ion-irradiation study that has unravelled the causes of the self-healing of monazite.
Earth Sciences - Environment - 07.09.2020 
’Wild West’ mentality lingers in US mountain regions
Distinct psychological mix associated with mountain populations is consistent with the theory that harsh frontiers attracted certain personalities. This psychological fingerprint for mountainous areas may be an echo of the personality types that sought new lives in unknown territories Friedrich Götz When historian Frederick Jackson Turner presented his famous thesis on the US frontier in 1893, he described the "coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and acquisitiveness" it had forged in the American character.
Earth Sciences - Physics - 02.09.2020
Environment - Earth Sciences - 02.09.2020 
Innovation needed to overcome biodiversity risks of renewable energy mineral mining
Researchers have warned that mining threats to biodiversity caused by renewable energy production could surpass those averted by climate change mitigation. A University of Queensland study found protected areas, key biodiversity areas and the world's remaining wilderness would be under growing pressure from mining the minerals required for a clean energy transition.
Astronomy / Space Science - Earth Sciences - 28.08.2020 
Space debris observed for the first time during the day
Researchers at the University of Bern are the first in the world to succeed in determining the distance to a space debris object using a geodetic laser in daylight. The distance was determined on June 24, 2020 at the Swiss Optical Ground Station and Geodynamics Observatory Zimmerwald. The number of measurements can be multiplied thanks to the new possibility of observing space debris during the day.
Earth Sciences - Environment - 20.08.2020 
Carbon dioxide ’pulses’ are a common feature of the carbon cycle
Researchers have found that pulse-like releases of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere are a pervasive feature of the carbon cycle and that they are closely connected to major changes in Atlantic Ocean circulation.
History / Archeology - Earth Sciences - 12.08.2020 
Step change in our ability to unlock secrets of the past with radiocarbon dates
Radiocarbon dating, a technique widely used in archaeology and geoscience, is set to become more accurate than ever after an international team of scientists have shared much-anticipated new calibration curves based on data from ancient trees, lake and ocean sediments, cave deposits and more.
Astronomy / Space Science - Earth Sciences - 10.08.2020
Astronomy / Space Science - Earth Sciences - 05.08.2020 
Researchers use InSight for deep Mars measurements
Analysis of NASA lander seismograph data reveals boundaries from crust to core Using data from NASA's InSight Lander on Mars, Rice University seismologists have made the first direct measurements of three subsurface boundaries from the crust to the core of the red planet. "Ultimately it may help us understand planetary formation,” said Alan Levander, co-author of a study available online this week in Geophysical Research Letters.
Earth Sciences - Astronomy / Space Science - 29.07.2020 
A plunge in incoming sunlight may have triggered "Snowball Earths"
Findings also suggest exoplanets lying within habitable zones may be susceptible to ice ages. At least twice in Earth's history, nearly the entire planet was encased in a sheet of snow and ice. These dramatic "Snowball Earth" events occurred in quick succession, somewhere around 700 million years ago, and evidence suggests that the consecutive global ice ages set the stage for the subsequent explosion of complex, multicellular life on Earth.
Earth Sciences - Paleontology - 29.07.2020 
Sheds light on the evolution of the earliest dinosaurs
Geological evidence suggests the known dinosaur groups diverged early on, supporting the traditional dinosaur family tree. The classic dinosaur family tree has two subdivisions of early dinosaurs at its base: the Ornithischians, or bird-hipped dinosaurs, which include the later Triceratops and Stegosaurus ; and the Saurischians, or lizard-hipped dinosaurs, such as Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus .
Earth Sciences - 24.07.2020 
Lockdown reduces seismic noise worldwide
Research recently published in the journal "Science" has shown that lockdown measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 lead to a 50% reduction in seismic noise observed around the world in early to mid-2020. By analysing month-to-years long datasets from over 300 seismic stations around the world, the study, led by Thomas Lecocq from the Royal Observatory of Belgium, was able to show how the seismic noise decreased in many countries and regions since the start of the lockdown measures.
Earth Sciences - 24.07.2020
Earth Sciences - 24.07.2020 
COVID-19 lockdown leads to huge drop in seismic noise
A new study by an international team of scientists has found lockdown measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 led to a 50 per cent reduction in seismic noise observed around the world. It is the largest reduction in human-generated noise ever observed globally. The researchers, including Associate Professor Meghan Miller and Professor Louis Moresi from The Australian National University (ANU), analysed datasets from over 300 seismic stations around the world.
Earth Sciences
Results 1 - 20 of 1555.
Undersea Earthquakes Shake Up Climate Science
Despite climate change being most obvious to people as unseasonably warm winter days or melting glaciers, as much as 95 percent of the extra heat trapped on Earth by greenhouse gases is held in the world's oceans. For that reason, monitoring the temperature of ocean waters has been a priority for climate scientists, and now Caltech researchers have discovered that seismic rumblings on the seafloor can provide them with another tool for doing that.
Despite climate change being most obvious to people as unseasonably warm winter days or melting glaciers, as much as 95 percent of the extra heat trapped on Earth by greenhouse gases is held in the world's oceans. For that reason, monitoring the temperature of ocean waters has been a priority for climate scientists, and now Caltech researchers have discovered that seismic rumblings on the seafloor can provide them with another tool for doing that.
Researchers have used a computer model to test a new hypothesis about the formation of the Alps while simulating seismic activity in Switzerland. This will help improve current earthquake risk models. For a long time, geoscientists have assumed that the Alps were formed when the Adriatic plate from the south collided with the Eurasian plate in the north.
Researchers at the University of Washington, Portland State University and the University of Oregon have shown that deep-seated landslides in the central Oregon Coast Range are triggered mostly by rainfall, not by large offshore earthquakes. The open-access paper was published Sept. 16 in Science Advances.
Phosphorus is essential for agriculture, yet this important plant nutrient is increasingly being lost from soils around the world. The primary cause is soil erosion, reports an international research team led by the University of Basel. The study Communications shows which continents and regions are most strongly affected.
Loss of sea otters accelerating the effects of climate change
The impacts of predator loss and climate change are combining to devastate living reefs that have defined Alaskan kelp forests for centuries, according to new research published in Science. "We discovered that massive limestone reefs built by algae underpin the Aleutian Islands' kelp forest ecosystem," said Douglas Rasher, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the lead author of the study.
The impacts of predator loss and climate change are combining to devastate living reefs that have defined Alaskan kelp forests for centuries, according to new research published in Science. "We discovered that massive limestone reefs built by algae underpin the Aleutian Islands' kelp forest ecosystem," said Douglas Rasher, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the lead author of the study.
66 million years of Earth’s climate uncovered from ocean sediments
Changes in the Earth's climate over the last 66 million years have been revealed in unprecedented detail by a team involving UCL researchers, highlighting four distinctive climatic states and the natural millionand thousand-year variability that Earth's climate has experienced. , the new global "climate reference curve" created by the team is the first record to continually and accurately trace how the Earth's climate has changed since the great extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Changes in the Earth's climate over the last 66 million years have been revealed in unprecedented detail by a team involving UCL researchers, highlighting four distinctive climatic states and the natural millionand thousand-year variability that Earth's climate has experienced. , the new global "climate reference curve" created by the team is the first record to continually and accurately trace how the Earth's climate has changed since the great extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Several minerals suffer radioactive self-irradiation and hence experience long-term changes of their properties. The mineral monazite virtually behaves "just alike Camembert cheese in which holes are drilled": Existing radiation damage heals itself. An international research team led by Lutz Nasdala, Institute of Mineralogy and Crystallography, University of Vienna, conducted an ion-irradiation study that has unravelled the causes of the self-healing of monazite.
Distinct psychological mix associated with mountain populations is consistent with the theory that harsh frontiers attracted certain personalities. This psychological fingerprint for mountainous areas may be an echo of the personality types that sought new lives in unknown territories Friedrich Götz When historian Frederick Jackson Turner presented his famous thesis on the US frontier in 1893, he described the "coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and acquisitiveness" it had forged in the American character.
Lab-Grown Earthquakes Reveal the Frictional Forces Acting Beneath Our Feet
A new study provides a comprehensive look at the motions and frictional laws driving destructive thrust-fault earthquakes Simulating an earthquake on a miniature scale in a laboratory known unofficially as the "seismological wind tunnel," engineers and seismologists have produced the most comprehensive look to date at the complex physics of friction driving destructive thrust-fault earthquakes.
A new study provides a comprehensive look at the motions and frictional laws driving destructive thrust-fault earthquakes Simulating an earthquake on a miniature scale in a laboratory known unofficially as the "seismological wind tunnel," engineers and seismologists have produced the most comprehensive look to date at the complex physics of friction driving destructive thrust-fault earthquakes.
Researchers have warned that mining threats to biodiversity caused by renewable energy production could surpass those averted by climate change mitigation. A University of Queensland study found protected areas, key biodiversity areas and the world's remaining wilderness would be under growing pressure from mining the minerals required for a clean energy transition.
Researchers at the University of Bern are the first in the world to succeed in determining the distance to a space debris object using a geodetic laser in daylight. The distance was determined on June 24, 2020 at the Swiss Optical Ground Station and Geodynamics Observatory Zimmerwald. The number of measurements can be multiplied thanks to the new possibility of observing space debris during the day.
Researchers have found that pulse-like releases of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere are a pervasive feature of the carbon cycle and that they are closely connected to major changes in Atlantic Ocean circulation.
Radiocarbon dating, a technique widely used in archaeology and geoscience, is set to become more accurate than ever after an international team of scientists have shared much-anticipated new calibration curves based on data from ancient trees, lake and ocean sediments, cave deposits and more.
Satellite Record Gives Unprecedented View of Antarctic Ice Shelf Melt Pattern over 25 Years
New estimates of ice shelf melting around Antarctica since the 1990s show where and when ice has been lost and where meltwater entered the Southern Ocean A science team led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has created a detailed history of mass loss from Antarctica's floating ice shelves.
New estimates of ice shelf melting around Antarctica since the 1990s show where and when ice has been lost and where meltwater entered the Southern Ocean A science team led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has created a detailed history of mass loss from Antarctica's floating ice shelves.
Analysis of NASA lander seismograph data reveals boundaries from crust to core Using data from NASA's InSight Lander on Mars, Rice University seismologists have made the first direct measurements of three subsurface boundaries from the crust to the core of the red planet. "Ultimately it may help us understand planetary formation,” said Alan Levander, co-author of a study available online this week in Geophysical Research Letters.
Findings also suggest exoplanets lying within habitable zones may be susceptible to ice ages. At least twice in Earth's history, nearly the entire planet was encased in a sheet of snow and ice. These dramatic "Snowball Earth" events occurred in quick succession, somewhere around 700 million years ago, and evidence suggests that the consecutive global ice ages set the stage for the subsequent explosion of complex, multicellular life on Earth.
Geological evidence suggests the known dinosaur groups diverged early on, supporting the traditional dinosaur family tree. The classic dinosaur family tree has two subdivisions of early dinosaurs at its base: the Ornithischians, or bird-hipped dinosaurs, which include the later Triceratops and Stegosaurus ; and the Saurischians, or lizard-hipped dinosaurs, such as Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus .
Research recently published in the journal "Science" has shown that lockdown measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 lead to a 50% reduction in seismic noise observed around the world in early to mid-2020. By analysing month-to-years long datasets from over 300 seismic stations around the world, the study, led by Thomas Lecocq from the Royal Observatory of Belgium, was able to show how the seismic noise decreased in many countries and regions since the start of the lockdown measures.
COVID-19 lockdown caused 50 percent global reduction in human-linked Earth vibrations
The lack of human activity during lockdown caused human-linked vibrations in the Earth to drop by an average of 50 percent between March and May 2020. The lack of human activity during lockdown caused human-linked vibrations in the Earth to drop by an average of 50 percent between March and May 2020.
The lack of human activity during lockdown caused human-linked vibrations in the Earth to drop by an average of 50 percent between March and May 2020. The lack of human activity during lockdown caused human-linked vibrations in the Earth to drop by an average of 50 percent between March and May 2020.
A new study by an international team of scientists has found lockdown measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 led to a 50 per cent reduction in seismic noise observed around the world. It is the largest reduction in human-generated noise ever observed globally. The researchers, including Associate Professor Meghan Miller and Professor Louis Moresi from The Australian National University (ANU), analysed datasets from over 300 seismic stations around the world.
News in Brief
Earth Sciences - Sep 18
Olympic costs are comparable to ’deep disasters’ like pandemics, earthquakes, tsunamis and war
Olympic costs are comparable to ’deep disasters’ like pandemics, earthquakes, tsunamis and war
Campus - Sep 18
Gift establishes two professorships aimed at advancing social equality, inclusion at U-M
Gift establishes two professorships aimed at advancing social equality, inclusion at U-M
Innovation - Sep 18
Eagles project launches crowdfunding campaign in bid to continue work through the pandemic
Eagles project launches crowdfunding campaign in bid to continue work through the pandemic
Health - Sep 17
UC San Diego Scientists to Explore New Frontiers in Parkinson’s Disease Research with $7.2M Grant
UC San Diego Scientists to Explore New Frontiers in Parkinson’s Disease Research with $7.2M Grant
Mathematics - Sep 17
U-M professor’s ’fractal simulation tools’ appear in Samuel Jackson’s new ’Enslaved’ TV series
U-M professor’s ’fractal simulation tools’ appear in Samuel Jackson’s new ’Enslaved’ TV series