Beneath the planet's surface, there lies a wealth of mineral diversity, with materials featuring elements that are extremely rare to come by and that cannot be found inside the crust. For a very long time, geologists have been puzzled by how these chemicals came to exist on the Earth, when geological records poi... |
19 October 2009
03:57 GMT |
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Thanks to the dedication of researchers and experts from the Oregon State University (OSU), we now have the first full map of the electrical conductivity in the Earth's mantle, at a global scale, and in 3D. The find could have some of the most useful applications, such as using disruptions in electrical conducti... |
20 August 2009
06:14 GMT |
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Scientists have taken a new step in better understanding the complex and intricate processes that go on under our planet's crust, when they have recently discovered the first Earth pump, which they say plays a crucial role in the formation of ore deposits, and in creating the best conditions possible for earthqu... |
19 June 2009
07:02 GMT |
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Studying the temperature and heat conductivity patterns that exist under the Earth's crust, some 30 to 40 kilometers beneath our feet, is not an easy task, mostly because of the way rocks influence each other when subjected to high temperatures. Heat is transmitted from one to the other not only through contact,... |
31 March 2009
04:54 GMT |
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Another lucky strike for science came in the form of an accidental discovery of magma, following the drill operations conducted in Hawaii by a commercial geologist. Magma has never before been studied in its original form, and the many computer models were built based on the properties inferred from its cooler, gas-f... |
17 December 2008
08:25 GMT |
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We know how the seven continents are arranged today and we are aware (and it's easy to observe) that they were once grouped up in a single, massive continent, called Pangaea. But what's the mysterious force that caused the division of the continents and keeps moving them apart? New studies associate the con... |
16 December 2008
10:52 GMT |
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Although the birth of an ocean is an extremely rare phenomenon on the largest of historical scales, the geophysics is currently experiencing such an event. Even more dazzling, this occurs in one of the Earth's most inhospitable and arid regions, the Afar Depression in Ethiopia.The African continent is literally ... |
1 October 2008
05:20 GMT |
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Ten years ago, researchers discovered that Earth gives off a constant humming sound, basically imperceptible to the human ear which cannot hear sounds with a frequency below 16 Hertz, and called it the Earth's hum. The sound continues to make itself heard to seismometers even when there is no seismic activity in... |
17 April 2008
08:08 GMT |
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A new study argues that by exerting extreme levels of pressure on insulating crystals, they could be turned into excellent electrical conductors. Manganese oxide, a mineral found in Earth's crust is not an electricity conductor under normal atmospheric pressure and temperature conditions, but, when subjected to ... |
6 February 2008
04:11 GMT |
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The theory of the plate tectonics and continental drift was accepted in the '60s, when the proofs came from the ocean. Earth's external layer is called lithosphere. It is a rigid blanket with a thickness of about 100 km (62 mi). It includes both the oceanic platform and the continental crust, but also the u... |
23 January 2008
14:06 GMT |
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Norwegian researchers have just found the oldest known chunk of Earth crust, located in Greenland, and aged at least 3.8 billion years. It is an ophiolite, an originally oceanic crust that was lifted and exposed within continental crust, that's why it's the best evidence yet that plates have been moving acr... |
23 March 2007
08:39 GMT |
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