Vast Portions of Today’s Sahara Desert Were Green Thousands of Years Ago
Past River Activity in Northern Africa Reveals Multiple Sahara Greenings The analysis of sediment cores from the Mediterranean Sea combined with Earth system models tells…
Geoscience
Could the Surface of the Martian Moon Phobos Reveal Secrets of Mars’ Past?
The Martian moon Phobos orbits through a stream of charged atoms and molecules that flow off the Red Planet’s atmosphere, new research shows. Many of…
There’s Lots of Water in the Most Explosive Volcano in the World
Shiveluch, an active volcano located on the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia, has had more major eruptions than any other volcano in our current period…
Centuries Old Climate Records Reconstructed From a 600-Year-Old Marine Sponge
Temperature records show past volcanic activity, current climate warming trends. Scientists used a 600-year-old marine sponge to reconstruct a record of ocean temperature in the…
“Different Than Previously Thought” – Geochemists Measure Composition of Earth’s Mantle
Researchers suspect greater dynamics than previously assumed between the Earth’s surface and its mantle. What is the chemical composition of the Earth’s interior? Because it…
Drying, Less Predictable Climate May Have Spurred Human Evolution
A progressively drying climate punctuated by variable wetter episodes may have precipitated the transition from our hominin ancestors to anatomically modern humans, according to research…
Galileo Reveals Million Fold Increase in the Power of Chorus Waves Near Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede
Listening to electro-magnetic waves around the Earth, converted to sound, is almost like listening to singing and chirping birds at dawn with a crackling campfire…
Geomorphic Evidence for Water on Ancient Mars
The climate of early Mars is a subject of debate. While it has been thought that Mars had a warm and wet climate, like Earth,…
New Research Details the Net Retreat of Antarctic Glacier Grounding Lines
Antarctica’s great ice sheet is losing ground as it is eroded by warm ocean water circulating beneath its floating edge, a new study has found….
Groundbreaking Research Reveals Evidence of Water Deep in Earth’s Mantle
A UNLV scientist has discovered the first direct evidence that fluid water pockets may exist as far as 500 miles deep into the Earth’s mantle….
Geologists Reveal How Magma from Earth’s Mantle Provide Natural Treasures
South Africa’s history and economy has been built on its rich natural treasures of a number of precious metals, stones and minerals. The country’s mineral…
New Study Shows Moon’s Water May Be Widespread and Immobile
A new analysis of data from two lunar missions finds evidence that the Moon’s water is widely distributed across the surface and is not confined…
Geophysicists Reveal Megathrust Fault Off Costa Rica
Geophysicists have obtained detailed three-dimensional images of a dangerous megathrust fault west of Costa Rica where two plates of the Earth’s crust collide. The images…
Ancient Microorganisms Provide Strong Evidence of Life in the Universe
A new analysis of the oldest known fossil microorganisms provides strong evidence to support an increasingly widespread understanding that life in the universe is common….
Astrobiologists Show How a ‘Methane Blanket’ Can Keep an Exoplanet Warm
Somewhere in our galaxy, an exoplanet is probably orbiting a star that’s colder than our sun, but instead of freezing solid, the planet might be…
Unusual Melting May Affect Key Processes Deep Within the Earth
New research from Yale University suggests that the unusual melting behavior of the second most abundant mineral in the Earth may affect key processes deep…
Impact Simulations Show How Massive Collisions Delivered Metal to Early Earth
Planetary collisions are at the core of our solar system’s formation. Scientists have long believed that after the Moon’s formation, the early Earth experienced a…
MRO Shows That Recurring Martian Streaks Are Flowing Sand, Not Water
Dark features on Mars previously considered evidence for subsurface flowing of water are interpreted by new research as granular flows, where grains of sand and…