Free Republic

Thirty-eight million years ago, tropical jungles thrived in what are now the cornfields of the American Midwest and furry marsupials wandered temperate forests in what is now the frozen Antarctic. The temperature differences of that era, known as the late Eocene, between the equator and Antarctica were half what they are today. A debate has been ongoing in the scientific community about what changes in our global climate system led to such a major shift from the more tropical, greenhouse climate of the Eocene to modern and much cooler climates. New research results published in this week's issue of the...

A team of geologists at the University of Houston College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics believes they have found the lost plate in northern Canada by using existing mantle tomography images—similar to a CT scan of the earth's interior. The findings, published in Geological Society of America Bulletin, could help geologists better predict volcanic hazards as well as mineral and hydrocarbon deposits. "Volcanoes form at plate boundaries, and the more plates you have, the more volcanoes you have," said Jonny Wu, assistant professor of geology in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "Volcanoes also affect climate change. So, when...

Over the course of the past 200 million years, our planet has experienced four major geological periods (the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous and Cenozoic) and one major ice age (the Pliocene-Quaternary glaciation), all of which had a drastic impact on plant and animal life, as well as effecting the course of species evolution. For decades, geologists have also understood that these changes are due in part to gradual shifts in the Earth’s orbit, which are caused by Venus and Jupiter, and repeat regularly every 405,000 years. But it was not until recently that a team of geologists and Earth scientists...

It's called the latitudinal diversity gradient, a phenomenon seen today in most plant and animal species around the world: Biodiversity decreases from the equator to higher latitudes. A new study of fossils representing 63 million of the past 65 million years reveals that -- for North American mammals, at least -- the modern LDG is the exception rather than the rule. The findings, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, point to the importance of not assuming that the way things are today is the way they've always been, the researchers say... It may seem obvious that...

Geology indicates the terrestrial Flood/post-Flood boundary is mostly in the Late Cenozoic by Michael J. Oard Dr Marcus Ross’s recent article on the location of the Flood/post-Flood boundary is based on problematic paleontological data provided by secular paleontologists. His conclusion that the only significant paleontological discontinuity is at or near the K/T boundary is disputable, as are its three underlying assumptions. Geological arguments are preferred, being clearer and more objective. Fourteen criteria, mostly geological, indicate that the end-Flood boundary is in the Late Cenozoic, and examples include the Messinian salinity crisis ‘evaporites’, the Absaroka Volcanics which contain the Yellowstone fossil...

LUCKNOW: "Do you know that the evolution of mighty whales took place in India around 55 million years before present. And, though the Ostrich is not found in India anymore, but according to scientists, the bird also evolved here about 12 million years before present. Interestingly, these facts are part of a science curriculum in the West, but Indian students are largely unaware of the same. This was revealed by Ashok Sahni, emeritus professor, Chandigarh University, in his lecture delivered at a seminar on "Northward Flight of India in the Mesozoic - Cenozoic: Consequences on Biotic Changes and Basin Evolution",...

The formation of the Teays River took place about five million years ago during the Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era, after the age of the dinosaurs. Tucked away securely inland, and no longer buffeted by waves or crashing continents, the plains of Ohio and the craggy peaks of the nearby Appalachian Mountains were most profoundly impacted by the power of running water... the water flowed south to north, east to west until it found its ultimate outlet in the young Gulf of Mexico, which had lapped up over several southern states in a thick finger that traces today’s Mississippi...