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UrduDiamonds contain evidence of the mantle rocks that helped buoy and grow the ancient supercontinent Gondwana from below, according to new research from a team of scientists led by Suzette Timmerman.
Tag: PLATE TECTONICS
Plate tectonic surprise: Utrecht geologist unexpectedly finds remnants of a lost mega-plate
Utrecht University geologist Suzanna van de Lagemaat has reconstructed a massive and previously unknown tectonic plate that was once one-quarter the size of the Pacific Ocean. Her colleagues in Utrecht had predicted its existence over 10 years ago based on fragments of old tectonic plates found deep in the Earth’s mantle.
Researchers unearth the mysteries of how Turkey’s East Anatolian fault formed
An international team led by the University of Minnesota Twin Cities has, for the first time, accurately determined the age of the East Anatolian fault, allowing geologists to learn more about its seismic history and tendency to produce earthquakes.
Scientists detect molten rock layer hidden under earth’s tectonic plates
Scientists have discovered a new layer of partly molten rock under the Earth’s crust that might help settle a long-standing debate about how tectonic plates move.
Plate tectonics in the twenty-first century
The emergence of plate tectonics in the late 1960s led to a paradigm shift from fixism to mobilism of global tectonics, providing a unifying context for the previously disparate disciplines of Earth science.
Earthquake seismologist launches international study of oceanic plate
Find out how an NAU team, led by professor Jim Gaherty, will conduct a seismological study of the Cocos tectonic plate deep beneath the Pacific Ocean.
Earliest geochemical evidence of plate tectonics found in 3.8-billion-year-old crystal
Tiny zircons found in South Africa point to an early start for the active global process that shapes Earth’s surface and climate.
Geological cold case may reveal critical minerals
Researchers on the hunt for why cold eclogites mysteriously disappeared from geological records during the early stages of the Earth’s development may have found the answer, and with it clues that could help locate critical minerals today.
The anatomy of a planet
ETH researchers analyse marsquakes
RAS launches new multi-disciplinary journal
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is pleased to announce the launch of its first new journal in almost 100 years. Tentatively titled RAS Techniques and Instruments , it will cover topics in astronomy and geophysics ranging from instrumentation, data science,…
Continental pirouettes
Supervolcano fed from Earth’s mantle caused crustal plates to rotate
Seismic monitoring of permafrost uncovers trend likely related to warming
Seismic waves passing through the ground near Longyearbyen in the Adventdalen valley, Svalbard, Norway have been slowing down steadily over the past three years, most likely due to permafrost warming in the Arctic valley. The trend, reported in a new…
Longest known continuous record of the Paleozoic discovered in Yukon wilderness
Discovery illuminates a 120-million-year record of ancient Earth
Model predicts when rivers that cross faults will change course
Researchers created a model that uses the movement at fault lines to understand river flow and vice versa
New study helps explain ‘silent earthquakes’ along New Zealand’s North Island
Seamounts offer clue to solving a tectonic puzzle
Wastewater did not significantly alter seismic stress direction in southern Kansas
Although wastewater disposal has been the primary driving force behind increased earthquake activity in southern Kansas since 2013, a new study concludes that the disposal has not significantly changed the orientation of stress in the Earth’s crust in the region.…
Crustal block tectonics offer clues to Venus’ geology, study finds
New study that includes contributions by Baylor planetary geophysicist Peter James, identifies previously unrecognized pattern of tectonic deformation on Venus
Balanced rocks set design ground motion values for New Zealand dam
For the first time, researchers have used precariously-balanced rocks to set the formal design earthquake motions for a major existing engineered structure–the Clyde Dam, the largest concrete dam in New Zealand. Mark Stirling of the University of Otago and colleagues…
Machine learning model doubles accuracy of global landslide ‘nowcasts’
Every year, landslides – the movement of rock, soil, and debris down a slope – cause thousands of deaths, billions of dollars in damages, and disruptions to roads and power lines. Because terrain, characteristics of the rocks and soil, weather,…
From burglar alarms to black hole detectors
Super sensors as possible outputs of a quantum gravity experiment
Linked faults under Salt Lake City may elevate risk of building damage
A complex zone of folding and faulting that links two faults underneath downtown Salt Lake City could deform the ground during a large earthquake, according to a new study. The findings, published in the open-access journal The Seismic Record ,…
Tim Ahern honored by SSA for transformative seismic data use
For his unmatched efforts in transforming seismic data sharing, archiving and standardization, the Seismological Society of America (SSA) honors Timothy Ahern with the 2021 Frank Press Public Service Award. Ahern, former director of data services at the Incorporated Research Institutions…
William Ellsworth earns top honor in seismology
The Seismological Society of America (SSA) will present its highest honor, the 2021 Harry Fielding Reid Medal, to William Ellsworth, professor of geophysics at Stanford University. Ellsworth, who will receive the Reid Medal at the 2022 SSA Annual Meeting, is…
An academic role model
Earth science faculty member will apply her early career award to opening up geoscience to others
Dry metastable olivine and slab deformation in a wet subducting slab
While the plates carry water to the Earth’s interior, phase transitions of dry olivine, the main mineral in the plates, are thought to be responsible for deep-focus earthquakes and plate deformation. This study resolves the contradiction of the presence of…
What causes the deep Earth’s most mysterious earthquakes?
The cause of Earth’s deepest earthquakes has been a mystery to science for more than a century, but a team of scientists may have cracked the case.
Geological riddle solved: Roof of the World has gotten higher
There has long been controversy about whether the world’s highest region, Tibet, has grown taller during the recent geological past. New results from the University of Copenhagen indicate that the ‘Roof of the World’ appears to have risen by up to 600 met
‘Slow slip’ earthquakes’ hidden mechanics revealed
Slow slip earthquakes, a type of slow motion tremor, have been detected at many of the world’s earthquake hotspots, including those found around the Pacific Ring of Fire, but it is unclear how they are connected to the damaging quakes…
Electromagnetic anomalies that occur before an earthquake
It has been documented over hundreds of years that various electromagnetic anomalies occur during a few weeks before the occurrence of a large earthquake. These electromagnetic anomalies are variations that appear in telluric current, geomagnetism, electromagnetic waves etc. before the…
New study shines light on hazards of Earth’s largest volcano
Researchers find that a large earthquake could set off eruption of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano
Colonization of the Antilles by South American fauna: Giant sunken islands as a passageway
Fossils of land animals from South America have been found in the Antilles, but how did these animals get there? According to scientists from the CNRS, l’Université des Antilles, l’Université de Montpellier and d’Université Côte d’Azur, land emerged in this…
Discovery of new geologic process calls for changes to plate tectonic cycle
Geoscientists at the University of Toronto (U of T) and Istanbul Technical University have discovered a new process in plate tectonics which shows that tremendous damage occurs to areas of Earth’s crust long before it should be geologically altered by known plate-boundary processes, highlighting the need to amend current understandings of the planet’s tectonic cycle.
UM professor awarded $430,000 NASA grant
MISSOULA – A University of Montana geosciences professor who studies the structure and evolution of the Earth has received a prestigious grant from NASA’s Earth Surface and Interior Division. Hilary Martens, assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences, housed in…
Previously unrecognized tsunami hazard identified in coastal cities
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. –A new study found overlooked tsunami hazards related to undersea, near-shore strike-slip faults, especially for coastal cities adjacent to faults that traverse inland bays. Several areas around the world may fall into this category, including the San Francisco…
Earthquake, tsunami hazards from subduction zones might be higher than current estimates
Two of the most destructive forces of nature – earthquakes and tsunamis – might actually be more of a threat than current estimates according to new research conducted by scientists at The University of New Mexico and the Nanyang Technological…
Scientists warn: Humanity does not have effective tools to resist the tsunami
This threatens with sudden destruction of coastal cities and numerous human casualties
How do slow anomalies beneath subducting slabs affect giant megathrust earthquakes?
Earthquakes and volcanoes in subduction zones may cause great human catastrophe. Previous studies on subduction zone structure and causal mechanisms of giant megathrust earthquakes (M ≥ 9.0) have mainly focused on aspects like subducting plates and plate interfaces. In contrast,…
Seasonal water cycle fluctuations may trigger earthquakes in Taiwan
Synchronized and asynchronous modulation of seismicity by hydrological loading: A case study in Taiwan
Mountain growth influences greenhouse effect
Weathering of rocks can bind or release carbon dioxide — in active mountain ranges, carbon-dioxide release strongly dominates
Early indicators of magma viscosity could help forecast a volcano’s eruption style
2018 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano in Hawai’i provided scientists with an unprecedented opportunity to identify new factors that could help forecast the hazard potential of future eruptions
Deep diamonds contain evidence of deep-Earth recycling processes
Findings allow us to trace how minerals from the surface are drawn down into the mantle
Early Earth’s hot mantle may have led to Archean ‘water world’
WASHINGTON–A vast global ocean may have covered early Earth during the early Archean eon, 4 to 3.2 billion years ago, a side effect of having a hotter mantle than today, according to new research. The new findings challenge earlier assumptions…
An overlooked strand of the Southern San Andreas Fault may pose a major earthquake risk
A revised position for primary strand of the Pleistocene-Holocene San Andreas Fault in Southern California
Weird earthquake reveals hidden mechanism
The wrong type of earthquake in an area where there should not have been an earthquake led researchers to uncover the cause for this unexpected strike-slip earthquake — where two pieces of crust slide past each other on a fault…
Virtues of modeling many faults: New method illuminates shape of Alaskan quake
A University of Tsukuba research team find that the irregular behavior of the conjugate fault system responsible for the 2018 Gulf of Alaska earthquake was linked to pre-existing features of the ocean floor
New basalt type discovered beneath the ocean
A new type of rock created during large and exceptionally hot volcanic eruptions has been discovered beneath the Pacific Ocean. An international team of researchers including the University of Leeds unearthed the previously unknown form of basalt after drilling through…
Melting glaciers contribute to Alaska earthquakes
In 1958, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake triggered a rockslide into Southeast Alaska’s Lituya Bay, creating a tsunami that ran 1,700 feet up a mountainside before racing out to sea. Researchers now think the region’s widespread loss of glacier ice helped…
A new view on plate tectonics
Nature study finds transform faults play active role in shaping ocean floors
Icy ocean worlds seismometer passes further testing in Greenland
The NASA-funded Seismometer to Investigate Ice and Ocean Structure (SIIOS) performed well in seismic experiments conducted in snowy summer Greenland, according to a new study by the SIIOS team led by the University of Arizona published this week in Seismological…
Tracking past earthquakes along the Japan Trench
IODP Expedition 386 focuses on the record of giant earthquakes of the past preserved in deep marine sediments