Results from KamLAND, an underground neutrino detector in central Japan, show that anti-electron neutrinos emanating from the earth, so-called geoneutrinos, can be used as a unique window into the interior of our planet, revealing information that is hidden from other probes.
“This is a significant scientific result,” said Stuart Freedman, a nuclear physicist with a joint appointment at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of Californi
Earth’s cool, rigid upper layer, known as the lithosphere, rides on top of its warmer, more pliable neighbor, the asthenosphere, as a series of massive plates. Plates continuously shift and break, triggering earthquakes, sparking volcanic eruptions, sculpting mountains and carving trenches under the sea.
But what, exactly, divides the lithosphere and the asthenosphere? In the latest issue of Nature, a trio of geophysicists from Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of
In Jules Verne’s nineteenth century classic Journey to the Centre of the Earth, an Edinburgh professor and colleagues follow an explorer’s trail down an extinct volcano to the Earth’s core. Ah, fantasy! Here’s reality: For more than a century after Verne wrote his novel, geophysicists have had only one tool with which to peer into our planet’s heart-seismology, or analysis of vibrations produced by earthquakes and sensed by thousands of instrument stations worldwide. But now, geophysicists have
Hurricane Emily’s 140-mile-per-hour winds, which last week blew roofs off hotels and flattened trees throughout the Caribbean, owed their force to an unlikely culprit – ocean spray.
According to a new study by two University of California, Berkeley, mathematicians and their Russian colleague, the water droplets kicked up by rough seas serve to lubricate the swirling winds of hurricanes and cyclones, letting them build to speeds approaching 200 miles per hour. Without the l
The Arctic and Antarctic evoke images of virgin territories playing host to a rich variety of flora, fauna and indigenous populations, but also a hardy group of intrepid researchers and explorers. A special issue of RTD info, produced with the International Polar Foundation, joins the exploration of the poles’ vast scientific wonders.
The European Commission’s flagship research publication RTD info takes readers on a journey to the ends of the Earth in its exploration of polar r
Geothermal heat from a depth of 4,000 metres to generate power in the future
Why roam far afield, when the good is so close at hand? Humankind burns coal, gas and oil to generate energy. It splits atoms, converts sunlight into electricity and tries to capture the wind. Yet, the earth beneath our feet contains energy enough to satisfy even the greatest demand, because 99% of the Earth is hotter that 1000°C, while 99% of the rest is actually hotter than 100°C. Only the Earth’s surf
The Earth’s magnetic field is strong enough for some kinds of analyses – this opens up new opportunities for carrying out examinations under difficult conditions
Where x-rays no longer manage to see, magnets allow us to look inside. Patients know what that means: they lay down in the “tube” surrounded by an enormous electromagnet, the so-called MRI scanner. Such large pieces of equipment artificially create strong magnetic fields which enable doctors to take the pictures inside
Researchers Track Underwater Noise Generated by December 26 Earthquake
When the sea floor off the coast of Sumatra split on the morning of December 26, 2004, it took days to measure the full extent of the rupture. Recently, researchers at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory analyzed recordings of the underwater sound produced by the magnitude 9.3 earthquake. Their unique approach enabled them to track the rupture as it moved along the Sumatra-Andaman Fault,
The intense mechanical testing period is finally over for the CryoSat satellite, and with launch just a couple of months away – the very last checks are being made before the spacecraft is packed up and shipped to the launch site in Plesetsk, Russia.
During the last 12 months the satellite has been undergoing stringent mechanical and environmental tests at the Space Test Centre at IABG (Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH) in Ottobrunn, Germany. Unfortunately, some concerns w
NASA satellites improve understanding of urban effects on climate and weather
Just how does society’s desire to live in densely populated areas have the potential to change our Earth’s climate? According to a new paper, satellites can help us answer that question.
“More and more people live in cities. This means that cities will grow rapidly over the next several decades. Evidence continues to mount that cities affect the climate,” said J. Marshall Shepherd, Deputy
Researchers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and several other government and academic institutions have created four new supercomputer simulations that for the first time combine their mathematical computer models of the atmosphere, ocean, land surface and sea ice. These simulations are the first field tests of the new Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF), an innovative software system that promises to improve and accelerate U.S. predictive capability ranging from short-ter
The chance discovery of a vast ecosystem beneath the collapsed Larsen Ice Shelf will allow scientists to explore the uncharted life below Antarctica’s floating ice shelves and further probe the origins of life in extreme environments. Researchers discovered the sunless habitat after a recent underwater video study examining a deep glacial trough in the northwestern Weddell Sea following the sudden Larsen B shelf collapse in 2002.
“This is definitely the biggest thing I’
Thanks to extensive GPS measurements and analyses by TU Delft and its scientific partners, unique images showing the development of the earthquake on 26 December 2004 in South East Asia have been created. This is the first time that a quake of such magnitude has been recorded and made visible using GPS. Today, Thursday 14 July 2005, an article on this subject will be published in the scientific journal Nature.
In the past few years, working together with French, Indonesian, Malaysia
Researchers at the Kentucky Geological Survey are studying options to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is produced by the burning of coal, gasoline, and natural gas and has been linked to global warming. Sequestration involves the injection of carbon dioxide gas captured from the burning of fossil fuels into underground geologic structures to store it rather than allow it to be released into the atmosphere. Potential geologic sites include deep sal
Unusually preserved fossils shed new light on how macroscopic, complex life evolved and lived 550 million years ago
Scientists interested in ancient life have a wealth of fossils and impressions frozen in rocks that they can study from as far back as 540 million years ago – when animals with shells and bones began to become plentiful. But evidence of complex life older than 540 million years is scant and difficult to study.
Now, a research team from Virginia Tech in
Stories of two-headed serpents and epic battles between Thunderbird and Whale, common among Northwest native peoples, have their root in the region’s seismic history. New research led by a University of Washington scientist has found stories that could relate to a large Seattle fault earthquake around A.D. 900 and specific eyewitness accounts linked to a mammoth 1700 earthquake and tsunami in the Cascadia subduction zone.
The stories come from people living in areas from nort
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