Geologists

Bathymetric map of Luzon, including the Manila Trench, the North Luzon Trough (NLT), West Luzon Trough (WLT), Stewart Bank (SB), and Philippine Mobile Belt (PMB). Credit: Maglalang et al, 2023 Gas hydrates are great alternative energy sources but they could also harm us and the environment, note geologists from the University of the Philippines. Much…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain For many hundreds of millions of years, the average temperature at the surface of the Earth has varied by not much more than 20° Celsius, facilitating life on our planet. To maintain such stable temperatures, Earth must have a 'thermostat' that regulates the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide over geological timescales, influencing global temperatures. …

When people talk about the ' Anthropocene,' they typically picture the vast impact human societies are having on the planet, from rapid declines in biodiversity to increases in Earth's temperature by burning fossil fuels.Such massive planetary changes did not begin all at once at any single place or time.That's why it was controversial when, after over a decade of study and debate, an international committee of scientists – the Anthropocene Working Group – proposed to mark the Anthropocene as an epoch in the geologic…

Credit: Sabrina J. Kainz If you've driven the mostly flat stretch of I-25 in Colorado from Pueblo to Trinidad, you've seen them: the Spanish Peaks, twin mountains that soar into the sky out of nowhere, reaching altitudes of 13,628 and 12,701 feet above sea level. In a new study, geologists from CU Boulder have laid out a timeline for the emergence of…

The Seattle fault zone, a network of shallow faults threatening the Puget Sound region, has a new origin story based on a study published in Tectonics that suggests its formation around 55 million years ago due to tectonic deformation. This study, revealing ancient volcanic island interactions with the North American plate, aims to enhance hazard modeling for the densely populated area.Magnetic evidence indicates that the dangerous Seattle fault zone may have originated from the continent’s edge splitting in half over 50…

People could be making tracks to see an impressive new exhibit of 320-million-year-old footprints at the Cape Breton Fossil Centre in Sydney Mines, N.S.A group of geologists from Cape Breton University recently found fossilized claw imprints that are remarkable for their size and age."The stuff we get on Cape Breton and in Nova Scotia in general, it runs literally anywhere from an order of under a centimetre to a few centimetres," Jason Loxton, a senior geology instructor at CBU and curator of the Cape Breton Fossil…

Credit: CC0 Public Domain In 1981, newly minted palaeobiologist Jan Zalasiewicz assumed he was headed for a discreet career retrieving and deciphering fossils from Earth's deep past. For three decades the British scientist was, in his words, an itinerant geologist. But then, curiosity and happenstance thrust him into the middle of…

The UCLA researchers gathered data on various landslides, including one that occurred on this mountain in the eastern Himalayas. Credit: Peter Haproff A new technique developed by UCLA geologists that uses artificial intelligence to better predict where and why landslides may occur could bolster efforts to protect lives and property in some of the world's most disaster-prone areas. …

In this hypothetical cross-sectional view of the Earth's crust and mantle during the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia, a mantle plume initiates the peeling away process of the lower mantle. Credit: Lijun Liu The seemingly stable regions of the Earth's continental plates—the so-called stable cratons—have suffered repetitive deformation below their crust since their formation in the remote past, according to new research…

The Bakken Shale Formation has offered a new insight into Earth’s geological history, revealing a major trigger for several biotic crises during the late Devonian Period: euxinia, or oxygen depletion and hydrogen sulfide expansion in large water bodies. This research not only helps understand Earth’s past but also warns of potential consequences of global warming, such as decreased diversity and increased extinction rates.A major oil source in North America reveals insights into one of the planet’s most devastating mass…