Beneath

A beach sand sample collection site near Augusta. Credit: Curtin University By firing lasers finer than a human hair at tiny grains of a mineral extracted from beach sand, Curtin researchers have found evidence of an almost four billion-year-old piece of the Earth's crust that lies beneath the South-West of WA. …

The Fagradalsfjall eruption site viewed from above. The photo shows lava emanating from multiple vents. Tourists for scale. Credit: Alina V. Shevchenko and Edgar U. Zorn, GFZ Germany. The recent Fagradalsfjall eruption in the southwest of Iceland has enthralled the whole world, including nature lovers and scientists alike. The eruption was especially important as it provided geologists with a unique opportunity to study…

The Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii is said to be the world's most active volcano, and yet we still don't really know how it was born.New research suggests the original womb of magma lies more than 90 kilometers beneath the hotspot. While previous studies have found two shallow chambers of magma beneath Kīlauea, they weren't big enough to explain all the liquid rock this volcano spews.   A larger chamber, about 11 kilometers deep (that's 6.8 miles), was detected using seismic waves in 2014, and yet now it seems the original…

Cristian Mungiu has returned to the Cannes competition with this dour, gloomy psychodrama of central European xenophobia: a Romanian-Brexity hostility which has taken up residence in the brains of people in a multi-ethnic region of Transylvania. They are people who can’t decide which racial identity among their neighbours they dislike the most, or how much to dislike the EU from which so much financial help still comes, but whose richer countries are very racist indeed towards them. For all that it is a little contrived…

Modern technology pulses with a heartbeat measured in microseconds. From global positioning systems to communications networks, it's vital every component falls into near-perfect synch.  Based on standards determined by a specialized task group, signals sent through optic fiber or down from an orbiting satellite tend to ensure time-sensitive technology matches moments down to the nanosecond.Yet this isn't always going to be the case. Reliant on fallible electronics, separated by vast distances, hidden beneath waves and…

Spatial map depicting mean geothermal heat flow in and around Greenland derived from machine learning results. Heat anomalies appear off the coast of the capital area in the southwest, which might be interesting in relation to harvesting geothermal energy. In general, though, the heat flow from beneath Greenland is lower than previously estimated. Credit: Colgan and Wansing, 2022 In our understanding of global geothermal heat…

The Antarctic ice is finding its secrets harder and harder to keep.Deep below the ice of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, the largest ice sheet in the world, scientists have confirmed the existence of a huge lake of liquid water.  Researchers have named it Lake Snow Eagle, and believe that sediments within it could contain information about the evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet from its very earliest formation."This lake is likely to have a record of the entire history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, its initiation over…

Book: Vichhoda Author: Harinder Sikka There is a life beyond sorrow and pain where you’re in complete control of your fate. You understand how life takes unexpected turns and the only way to deal with it is to keep marching forward. Bibi Amrit Kaur, a Sikh married to a Muslim, is one such character in Harinder Sikka’s latest novel Vichhoda (pain of separation), who has to accept the surreal developments around her in order to survive. She is much more than just a wife remembering her husband, or a mother…

Lead author Chloe Gustafson and mountaineer Meghan Seifert install geophysical instruments to measure groundwater below West Antarctica’s Whillans Ice Stream. Credit: Kerry Key/Lamont-Doherty Earth ObservatoryThe study proves the value of electromagnetic techniques in a new polar environment.Researchers have made the first detection of groundwater beneath an Antarctic ice stream. The discovery confirms what scientists had already suspected but had been unable to verify until now.Scientists require data from all parts of…

Beneath a fast-flowing ice stream in West Antarctica, scientists have discovered a vast aquifer brimming with seawater that's likely been locked down there for thousands of years.   This is the first time scientists have detected groundwater beneath an ice stream in Antarctica, and the discovery could reshape our understanding of how the frigid continent reacts to climate change and what kinds of mysterious organisms lurk beneath its many ice shelves.   The newfound groundwater system can be thought of as a giant sponge,…