Feature Channels: Geology

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Click here to go directly to the DOE Science News Source

• share
• favorite_border

As the United States prepares to visit the surface of the Moon once again, scientists from the RIS4E node of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), led by researchers from the Stony Brook University College of Arts and Sciences, are partnering with Astrobotic Technology to demonstrate the robotic technologies needed to explore and study our nearest neighbor’s most interesting and challenging destinations.

• share
• favorite_border

SLU scientists report that reservoir water played a role in causing earthquakes in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region of China.

• share
• favorite_border

The area where streams meet land is important for maintaining water quality. The September 7th Sustainable, Secure Food blog explains how use of buffer strips can protect water quality and ecosystems.

• share
• favorite_border

Evidence left by a volcano under the ice sheet suggests that the observed bulging of ice in West Antarctica is a short-term feature that may not affect the glacier’s motion over the long term.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Among the lions and zebras in Tanzania in the summer heat, a West Virginia University environmental geoscience student explored the geography of the land. Weirton, West Virginia, native Francesca Basil (BA Environmental Geoscience, 2018) traveled to the East African country in summer 2018.

• share
• favorite_border

In a paper published today in Nature Communications, a worldwide team of researchers has used tree ring dating to confirm that two significant "cosmic events" occurred in 774 and 993 CE. Cross-cultural eyewitness accounts of red or "blood" aurora correspond with these years. The study measured carbon-14 content in 44 wood samples taken from five continents, including two samples from Mongolia provided by West Virginia University geographer Amy Hessl, a co-author on the paper.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have released the most accurate, high-resolution terrain map of Antarctica ever created. The new map has a resolution of 2 to 8 meters, compared to 1,000 meters, which was typical for previous maps. “It is the highest-resolution terrain map by far of any continent,” said Ian Howat, professor of earth sciences at The Ohio State University.

• share
• favorite_border

Flashes of brightness known as solar flares can be followed by coronal mass ejections that send plasma from the sun into space. These charged particles can then travel to Earth, and when they arrive they wreak havoc on Earth’s magnetic field. The result can be beautiful but also destructive: auroras and geomagnetic storms. In the journal Chaos, researchers report a method for analyzing magnetic field data that might provide better short-term forecasting of geomagnetic storms.

• share
• favorite_border

Volcanic craters, fumeroles and hot springs mark the rugged landscape of São Miguel island, in the remote Portuguese Azores, where undergraduate students from Washington University in St. Louis traveled to study field geology techniques.

• share
• favorite_border

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti highlighted Cedars-Sinai's groundwater conservation program Thursday, citing it as an example of innovative conservation as the city seeks to reduce water consumption.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

On the night of Jan. 16, 2018, a meteor burst in the skies over Michigan, producing a fireball that was seen by people across seven U.S. states and in Ontario province.

• share
• favorite_border

Laughing gas and the mystery of Carl Sagan's Faint Young Sun Paradox: When the sun shone dimmer an eon ago, Earth remained warm in spite of it likely thanks to a mix of greenhouse gases. Biogeochemists have now shown how N20, known today for its use as a dental anesthetic, may have made it into the mix.

• share
• favorite_border

The 1987 Montreal Protocol and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol called for countries around the world to phase out substances that deplete the ozone layer and cause global warming, but many HVAC systems still use synthetic refrigerants that violate those international agreements and inflict environmental damage. Recently, Iranian researchers investigated how natural refrigerants could be used in geothermal heat pumps to reduce energy consumption and operating costs. They report their findings in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Savannah River National Laboratory have developed a low-cost method for real-time monitoring of pollutants using commonly available sensors.

• share
• favorite_border

A new approach to find unmarked gravesites could help narrow the scope and potentially speed up the search for clues during crime scene investigations. Geospatial researchers with the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and forensic scientists at University of Tennessee used LIDAR to detect telltale signs of recently buried human remains.

• share
• favorite_border

Four scientists from the University of Rhode Island are among 100 researchers from 30 institutions who shipped out of Seattle today to embark on a month-long expedition to study microscopic organisms that live deep in the ocean and play a critical role in removing carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere.