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Tech NewsEarth’s Explosive History Explains Its Strange Chemical Make-Up
If you made a building out of bricks and cinderblocks, then hundreds of years later you’d expect it to still be, well, a building made of bricks and cinderblocks. But planets are not buildings if you haven’t noticed. Earth, for instance, just doesn’t seem to have the same composition as the meteors thought to have … Continued
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Tech News
These Canadian Rocks May Contain the Oldest Known Traces of Life
Researchers working at a sedimentary rock formation in northern Labrador, Canada, say they’ve uncovered evidence of primordial life in 3.95 billion-year-old rocks. The discovery, which is already drawing scrutiny and some skepticism, suggests that microbial life emerged relatively quickly after the formation of our planet. The idea that life could have emerged so long ago—and … Continued
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Tech News
Cool Theory Finally Explains Pluto’s Skyscraper-Sized Ice Shards
When NASA’s New Horizons space probe zipped past Pluto in 2015, it revealed portions of the dwarf planet’s surface were strewn with what could only be described as gigantic blades of ice, many of which extended into the Plutonian sky for hundreds of feet. Finally, after nearly two years of research, a team of scientists … Continued
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Tech News
Indonesian Island Prepares for Devastating Volcanic Eruption
This month has been marked with a staggering number of geological and meteorological catastrophes. Powerful hurricanes have pummeled the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, and a spate of earthquake events rocked Mexico. Now, geologists worry that seismic activity in Indonesia will lead to a powerful volcanic eruption. A 10,000-foot peak on the Indonesian island … Continued
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Tech News
The Hottest Known Temperature On Earth Was Caused By an Ancient Asteroid Strike
Around 36 million years ago, an asteroid smashed into what is now the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. New research suggests that, for a brief time, the temperature at the point of impact exceeded 4,300 degrees F (2,370 C), making it the hottest temperature known to have occurred on Earth. Researchers from Curtin University … Continued
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Tech News
Mexico Rocked By Massive 8.1-Magnitude Earthquake
The strongest earthquake to hit Mexico in a century has struck off the nation’s West Coast, shaking buildings for hundreds of miles and triggering tsunami warnings. At least 16 people have been killed, but officials are expecting the death toll to rise. As the US Geological Survey reports, the quake struck at 11:40 pm local … Continued
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EartherClimate Change
Scientists Think They Know Why the Caspian Sea Is Shrinking
The Caspian Sea is about as strange as a body of water gets. Its surface still sits 27.5 meters (90 feet) below sea level, and water doesn’t flow out of it—it’s isolated from the oceans, and relies on a series of Asian rivers to maintain its levels. A team of researchers from universities around the … Continued
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Tech News
Scientists Discover Trove of Volcanoes Hidden Beneath Antarctic Ice Sheet
Scientists have identified nearly 100 previously unknown volcanoes in West Antarctica, which, in addition to the 47 already known to exist in the region, makes it one of the largest concentration of volcanoes in the world. New research released in a special Geological Society publication series identifies 91 new volcanoes in a region known as … Continued
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io9
The Real Geology Behind the Doom of Valyria and How It Literally Tore Game of Thrones‘ World Apart
There are certain mysterious phenomena in the world of Game of Thrones— like the reappearance of dragons, White Walkers, and the Children of the Forest—that the people of Westeros can neither quite explain nor agree upon if they’re real. Others, though, like the Doom of Valyria, are widely accepted as historical fact. Every man, woman, … Continued
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Tech News
Science Reveals the Secret to Ancient Rome’s Indestructible Concrete
Roman concrete is famous for its durability, lasting for thousands of years and seemingly stronger with each passing year. New research has uncovered the chemical processes responsible for the sturdiness of this ancient building material—a finding that could inspire modern engineers to revive this forgotten technique. If this news about ancient Roman concrete sounds familiar, … Continued
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EartherClimate Change
Hundreds of Giant Seafloor Craters Produced By Explosive Methane Farts
Researchers working in the Barents Sea have discovered hundreds of craters on the Arctic Sea floor, some measuring over a kilometer in width. These craters, which date back to the end of the last Ice Age, were formed when large reserves of methane exploded in the wake of retreating ice sheets. Because methane is a … Continued
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Tech News
How Does a 110-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Still Have Its Skin?
An arresting image of a “mummified” dinosaur went viral this weekend after National Geographic broke the story of the 110-million-year-old armored plant-eater, a newfound species of nodosaur whose exquisite remains are now on display in the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada. The ancient animal is obviously a remarkable specimen—not just a few battered bones, … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherClimate Change
We Just Found Out Antarctica Is Covered in Rivers
In 1908, Ernest Shackleton’s legendary Nimrod team was making its way toward the South Pole when the men were startled by something unexpected: The sound of liquid water, roaring across the frozen wasteland toward the sea. One hundred and nine years later, scientists can confirm that this sound, described by one early explorer as “odd … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
Plants Are Gobbling Up Our Carbon Emissions, But Not Fast Enough
It’s one of the biggest mysteries in this global experiment we’re conducting by pouring 10 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year: What’ll happen to the plants? Will the relentless burning of fossil fuels prompt our leafy green friends to suck down more CO2, tapping the brakes on climate change? Or are the … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
The Original Brexit Was Probably Far More Catastrophic
Britain’s geographical isolation is one of the cornerstones of its identity which, combined with nationalist fervor, probably played at least some role in the country’s recent decision to depart from the European Union. But when the Isles first split from the rest of Europe hundreds of thousands years ago, things were considerably more violent. British … Continued
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Tech NewsSploid
Our Greatest Geological Discovery Is This Chocolate Boulder With Edible Candy Geodes Inside
If you thought Cadbury Creme Eggs were humanity’s greatest confectionery creation, Alex O’Brien Yeatts, a baking and pastry student at the Culinary Institute of America, has come up with a dessert that looks straight out of a geology textbook—not a cookbook. Working with cake decorator Abby Lee Wilcox, Yeatts created what looks like a massive boulder. … Continued
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Tech News
Scientists Found a New Window Into the Hellish Ancient Earth
Four and a half billion years ago, some dust from a cloud orbiting around a star coalesced into a rocky planet. But unlike most of the dusty balls in our solar system, this one was special—it was just the right distance away from the star that one day after the surface had cooled, water could … Continued
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Tech News
Scientists Claim to Have Found Our Planet’s Oldest Fossils
An international team of researchers say they’ve found fossils dating back to at least 3.77 billion years ago, making them the oldest fossils ever found on our planet. The discovery, though sure to attract scrutiny, has implications for our understanding of how life got started on Earth—and how it may have emerged elsewhere. Published today … Continued
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Tech News
Good Luck Repairing the Badly Damaged Oroville Dam
For three weeks in February, torrents of water rushed down the emergency spillway at Oroville dam, prompting fears that the entire structure would collapse. New images show what’s left of the 3,000-foot long concrete spillway—and the tremendous challenge that now confronts repair crews. Aerial photos of the Oroville dam show the bottom portion of the … Continued
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Tech News
Enormous Mudslide Devastates New Zealand Marine Reserve
New Zealand’s Kaikoura Canyon—known for its abundant seabed life—is now an undersea wasteland following a series of earthquake-induced mudslides. Back in November 2016, New Zealand was rocked by a series of strong earthquakes. These quakes triggered a number of landslides, some of which spilled mud and debris into the ocean. Scientists have now learned that … Continued