A new study on “waves (or fronts) of detachment” involved in the process of friction offers a new perspective on an old scientific puzzle and could provide a key to improving predictions of future earthquakes, say scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The work of the scientists, Prof Jay Fineberg, head of the Hebrew University’s Racah Institute of Physics, Dr Gil Cohen and graduate student Shmuel N Rubinstein, is described in an article in the journal Nature entitled “Det
Ice sheet more susceptible to change than previously thought
Scientists have found a remarkable new structure deep within the West Antarctic Ice Sheet which suggests that the whole ice sheet is more susceptible to future change than previously thought. The discovery, by scientists from Bristol University and the British Antarctic Survey in collaboration with US colleagues, is reported this week (September 24) in the international journal Science.
The stability of the West
A team of 27 U.S. marine scientists beginning an intensive program of exploration at the Lau Basin in the South Pacific has discovered a new cluster of hydrothermal vents along a volcanically active crack in the seafloor. About a mile and a half down, the basin could hold answers to questions about the origin of life on Earth, say the scientists, whose plans for their “South Pacific Odyssey” include an unprecedented number of research expeditions to this geologically unique “back-arc basin” duri
With a strong enough jolt — a 7.6 -magnitude earthquake — the seafloor under Catalina Island could be violently thrust upward, causing a tsunami along the Southern California coast, according to researchers at the University of Southern California.
In a pair of journal articles published this month, researchers at the Viterbi School of Engineering described the tsunami hazard associated with offshore faults, including one that lies under Santa Catalina Island, just 25 miles off
Satellite image acquisitions will be synchronised with the tides as part of an ambitious new project to map coastlines from space.
Formally beginning in September, ESA’s COASTCHART project aims to develop and qualify a specialised coastline information system that provides satellite-derived coastal data products suitable for operational use by hydrographic organisations.
Accurate up-to-date marine charts are essential for safe shipping navigation. They also increasingly s
Antarctic glaciers that had been blocked behind the Larsen B ice shelf have been flowing more rapidly into the Weddell Sea, following the break-up of that shelf. Studies based on imagery from two satellites reached similar conclusions, which will be published September 22 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, and NASA’s Goddard Sp
In the future, global warming might not be as severe in the central United States as in other parts of the country, according to scientists at Saint Louis University and Iowa State University (ISU).
Using a detailed regional climate model, these researchers estimate summertime daily maximum temperatures will not climb as high in a Midwestern region — centered on the Missouri/Kansas border — as anywhere else in the United States. The hole stretches for hundreds of miles and inclu
Researchers at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of TU Delft have succeeded in modelling the rotational behaviour of two satellites with unprecedented accuracy. This makes it possible to model the orbit of the satellites much more accurately and this means that changes on earth observed by the satellite are also more accurate, for example, melting of the polar icecaps or the transport of water and atmospheric mass around the globe.
Satellites often have a rotational movement after
South Dakota’s geology hasn’t changed much during the past few thousand years, but our knowledge of it has grown so much since 1953 that a new geological map of the entire state became necessary.
“The map is multidimensional in its use,” Dr. James Martin said. Martin is the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology’s curator of vertebrate paleontology and a professor in the engineering and science university’s Department of Geology and Geological Engineering. Ma
Recent analyses of ESA’s Mars Express data reveal that concentrations of water vapour and methane in the atmosphere of Mars significantly overlap. This result, from data obtained by the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS), gives a boost to understanding of geological and atmospheric processes on Mars, and provides important new hints to evaluate the hypothesis of present life on the Red Planet.
PFS observed that, at 10-15 kilometres above the surface, water vapour is well mixed and
New research published in the September 17 issue of the journal Science sheds light on the evolution of Earth’s climate system by identifying changes in temperature, ocean circulation, and global carbon cycling associated with the rapid growth of Antarctic ice sheets approximately 14 million years ago.
By studying chemical changes in deep sea sediments, scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara discovered that high-latitude Southern Ocean cooling helped to trigg
The first Meteosat Second Generation meteorological satellite is today in operational service as Meteosat-8. The data it streams down from 36000 km over Africa’s Gulf of Guinea assists not just European weather forecasters but also numerous scientific teams.
This dual role was highlighted during a two-day Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) Research Announcement of Opportunity Workshop in Salzburg Austria, last week, running alongside the final two days of ESA’s Envisat S
Remote ‘marine deserts’ and dense plankton blooms could provide scientists with clues for understanding climate change.
A research team will set sail from Southampton, Friday, 17th September 2004, for the start of an expedition to study the interaction between the atmosphere and plankton – tiny floating marine organisms. By monitoring these organisms and the influence of changing climate on their growth, they hope to discover whether they act as a source of carbon dioxide, or a ‘sink’ in
They hadn’t planned it, but Meriwether Lewis and William Clark picked a fine time for a road trip when they set out to find a water route across the American Northwest two centuries ago.
Leading a small group of explorers, known as the Corps of Discovery, Lewis and Clark experienced favorable climatic conditions from 1804 to 1806 in search of an inland “Northwest Passage,” according to a Georgia State University professor.
The timing of the trip was crucial because ha
Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey are closely watching the long, thin barrier islands that comprise the Gulf of Mexico coast of west Florida as Hurricane Ivan approaches. These islands are particularly vulnerable to storm surge and coastal change during hurricanes because of their low elevation. New elevation maps show just how vulnerable.
“If Hurricane Ivan comes ashore on west Florida’s barrier islands as a major hurricane, Category 3 or stronger, most of the coast has the potenti
Even as Thursday’s Salzburg Envisat Symposium discussed the increasingly prominent role of Earth Observation in disaster relief, Envisat played a key part in a multinational emergency exercise taking place hundreds of kilometres to the north.
When is a flood not a flood? For the duration of the International Humanitarian Partnership’s Triplex 2004 exercise, taking place in Norway this week, humanitarian aid groups are taking part in a scenario where the country’s southern Lake Mj?sa
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