Ocean experts had predicted a large “dead zone” area in the Gulf of Mexico this year, and according to the results from a Texas A&M University researcher just back from studying the region, those predictions appear to be right on target. Steve DiMarco, professor of oceanography and one of the world’s leading experts on the […]
Archive for June, 2013
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Research Helps Paint Finer Picture of Massive 1700 Earthquake
June 29th, 2013 
Riffin In 1700, a massive earthquake struck the west coast of North America. Though it was powerful enough to cause a tsunami as far as Japan, a lack of local documentation has made studying this historic event challenging. Now, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have helped unlock this geological mystery using a fossil-based technique. Their […]
Location of Upwelling in Earth’s Mantle Discovered to Be Stable
June 28th, 2013 Riffin A study published in Nature today shares the discovery that large-scale upwelling within Earth’s mantle mostly occurs in only two places: beneath Africa and the Central Pacific. More importantly, Clinton Conrad, Associate Professor of Geology at the University of Hawaii — Manoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) and colleagues revealed that […]
A Stepping-Stone for Oxygen On Earth
June 27th, 2013 Riffin For most terrestrial life on Earth, oxygen is necessary for survival. But the planet’s atmosphere did not always contain this life-sustaining substance, and one of science’s greatest mysteries is how and when oxygenic photosynthesis — the process responsible for producing oxygen on Earth through the splitting of water molecules — first began. Now, a team […]
Pareiasaur: Bumpy Beast Was a Desert Dweller
June 26th, 2013 Riffin During the Permian era, Earth was dominated by a single supercontinent called Pangea — “All-Earth.” Animal and plant life dispersed broadly across this land, as documented by identical fossil species found on multiple modern continents. But a new study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology supports the idea that there was an isolated desert […]
Two Mutations Triggered an Evolutionary Leap 500 Million Years Ago
June 25th, 2013 Riffin Evolution, it seems, sometimes jumps instead of crawls. A research team led by a University of Chicago scientist has discovered two key mutations that sparked a hormonal revolution 500 million years ago. In a feat of “molecular time travel,” the researchers resurrected and analyzed the functions of the ancestors of genes that play key roles […]
Slow Earthquakes: It’s All in the Rock Mechanics
June 24th, 2013 Riffin Earthquakes that last minutes rather than seconds are a relatively recent discovery, according to an international team of seismologists. Researchers have been aware of these slow earthquakes, only for the past five to 10 years because of new tools and new observations, but these tools may explain the triggering of some normal earthquakes and could […]
Oddest Couple Share 250 Million Year Old Burrow
June 23rd, 2013 Riffin Scientists from South Africa, Australia and France have discovered a world first association while scanning a 250 million year old fossilised burrow from the Karoo Basin of South Africa. The burrow revealed two unrelated vertebrate animals nestled together and fossilised after being trapped by a flash flood event. Facing harsh climatic conditions subsequent to the […]
Himalayan Tsunami 2013 : Nature’s Fury OR Human negligence?
June 22nd, 2013 Riffin Melting glaciers and rising temperatures are forming a potentially destructive combination in the deep ravines of Nepal’s Himalayan foothills, and the Phulping Bridge — on the Araniko Highway linking Kathmandu with the Chinese border — is a good place to see just how dangerous the pairing can be. A bare concrete pillar stands there, […]
New ‘Embryonic’ Subduction Zone Found
June 22nd, 2013 Riffin A new subduction zone forming off the coast of Portugal heralds the beginning of a cycle that will see the Atlantic Ocean close as continental Europe moves closer to America. Published in Geology, new research led by Monash University geologists has detected the first evidence that a passive margin in the Atlantic ocean is becoming […]
