Earth Sciences

When a property is suspected of having contaminated soil or groundwater, it is usually a lengthy and costly process to confirm the presence of pollutants and to delineate the extent of the contamination. Soon that process may be simplified considerably.

University of Rhode Island geophysicist Reinhard Frohlich, an associate professor of geosciences, has devised a cost-effective, new method for finding underground contaminants that will reduce drilling and digging beneath the surface. By inse

In an unexpected meeting of the minds, two Dartmouth professors from disparate fields have come together to solve a problem: how to make accurate models of remote landscapes from photographs.

Arjun Heimsath, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences, and Hany Farid, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, have found a way to create three-dimensional models of remote regions using only two-dimensional digital photographs. Once built, these models make it easier for researchers to predict landsl

A new model of mid-ocean ridge propagation: Introducing the process zone

The site of extensive volcanic activity and sea-floor spreading, the Galapagos Rise in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean has yielded groundbreaking research results for the field of plate tectonics. Jacqueline Floyd and her colleagues, all of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, are introducing a new model for the process of mid-ocean ridge propagation (lengthening), which is responsibl

In the Prati del Sirente plain in the heart of the Abruzzo mountains, a small circular lake is clearly visible. A prominent ridge encircles the lake. The peculiar appearance of the lake drew the attention of this papers first author (Jens Ormö) when working in Pescara between 1999 and 2002. Jens did at that time a European Union Marie Curie post-doc as an impact geologist at the International Research School of Planetary Sciences (IRSPS), Universita d’Annunzio. After the years of research that follo

A NASA study finds that perennial sea ice in the Arctic is melting faster than previously thought–at a rate of 9 percent per decade. If these melting rates continue for a few more decades, the perennial sea ice will likely disappear entirely within this century, due to rising temperatures and interactions between ice, ocean and the atmosphere that accelerate the melting process.

Perennial sea ice floats in the polar oceans and remains at the end of the summer, when the ice cover is at its

Collapse in the mines can be foreseen in advance and the caving-in location and time can be identified. This has become possible due to the basic research carried out by scientists of the Ioffe Physical & Engineering Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. Specialists of INTERUNIS company have undertaken to embody the above concepts in a prototype model of the device.

The system will consist of the ’’case on wheels’’ containing the computer and signal processing cards, and several sensors (