The location of Earth’s north magnetic pole appears to be controlled from deep within Earth by 2 competing blobs in the magnetic field. One is under Canada, and the other is under Siberia. “The Siberian blob is winning,” according to scientists. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/magnetic-north-rapid-drift-blobs-flux…
Tag: geoscience
Study suggests Earth and Moon not identical oxygen twins
Scientists at The University of New Mexico have found that the Earth and Moon have distinct oxygen compositions and are not identical in oxygen as previously thought according to a new study released today in Nature Geoscience. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-03-earth-moon-identical-oxygen-twins.html…
Earth May Have Been a ‘Water World’ 3 Billion Years Ago, Scientists Find
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Scientists have found evidence that Earth was covered by a global ocean that turned the planet into a “water world” more than 3 billion years ago. Telltale chemical signatures were spotted in an ancient chunk of ocean crust which point to a planet once devoid of continents, the largest landmasses on Earth….
Marsquakes: InSight lander shows active faults in planet’s crust
The results from its NASA’s Mars InSight lander’s first 10 months on the martian surface have been published in a series of papers. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-quakes-insight-lander-shows-active-faults…
Mars Is a Seismically Active World, First Results From NASA’s InSight Lander Reveal
The first results from NASA’s quake-hunting InSight Mars lander just came out, and they reveal that Mars is a seismically active planet. Space.com reports: Martian seismicity falls between that of the moon and that of Earth, [says InSight principal investigator Bruce Banerdt, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory]. “In fact, it’s probably close to the kind of seismic activity you would expect…
The seismicity of Mars
On 26 November 2018, the NASA InSight lander successfully set down on Mars in the Elysium Planitia region. Seventy Martian days later, the mission’s seismometer SEIS began recording the planet’s vibrations. A team of researchers and engineers at ETH Zurich, led by ETH Professor Domenico Giardini, had delivered the SEIS control electronics and is responsible for the Marsquake Service. The latter…
Permafrost Is Thawing So Fast, It’s Gouging Holes In the Arctic
According to a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, rapidly-thawing permafrost in the Arctic is causing sinkholes in a process called thermokarst. “That’s the land that gets ravaged whenever permafrost thaws rapidly,” reports Wired. “As the ice that holds the soil together disappears, hillsides collapse and massive sinkholes open up.” From the report: Today in the journal Nature Geoscience,…
California Coastal Waters Rising In Acidity At Alarming Rate, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Los Angeles Times: Waters off the California coast are acidifying twice as fast as the global average, scientists found, threatening major fisheries and sounding the alarm that the ocean can absorb only so much more of the world’s carbon emissions. A new study led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also made an…
Why Nile hasn’t changed course in 30 million years
Scientists say they’ve solved the geologic mystery of the Nile River’s unchanging path, and also discovered the river is about 30 million years old – 6 times older than previously believed. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/why-nile-river-hasnt-changed-course-age…
Curiosity finds an ancient oasis on Mars
Scientists working with the Curiosity rover have found salt-enriched rock at a place called Sutton Island on Mars. The rocks suggest ponds with briny water on Mars, billions of years ago. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/curiosity-rover-ancient-oasis-mars-sutton-island…