Free Republic

Archaeologists working on the famed Easter Island have unearthed a previously unknown statue while excavating a dry lake bed. The newly discovered statue is one of the Moai, the well-known megalithic statues believed to have been carved by Polynesian tribes between the 10th and 16th centuries. “We think we know all the moai, but then a new one turns up, a new discovery,” archaeologist Dr. Terry Hunt told Good Morning America (GMA) Feb. 25. Hunt teaches archaeology at the University of Arizona and has been studying the statues and the Rapa Nui for 20 years. “The moai are important because...

The rotation of the Earth's inner core may be reversing, scientists have found in a study that sheds new light on geological processes occurring deep within our planet. The results of the research, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, indicate that changes in the rotation of the inner core could take place on a scale of decades. The study's authors told Newsweek the findings have implications for our understanding of how the core influences the other layers of the Earth.... ...these changes are likely part of an oscillation that takes place over roughly seven decades, with a previous turning point...

Researchers say they've recovered a mineral from deep inside the Earth — one they thought would never see the light of day. Scientists at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, named the mineral "davemaoite," after Ho-kwang "Dave" Mao, a retired experimental geophysicist whose influence on the field is still felt today. "It's an opportunity to give him credit for his big contributions," said Oliver Tschauner, a mineralogist who led a study of the rare mineral, in an interview with NPR's Morning Edition. No one ever expected to see the mineral on the Earth's surface. That's because deep-Earth minerals like davemaoite...

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) – Nine earthquakes, three of them greater than a 3.0 in magnitude, rocked the DFW area on Tuesday afternoon and into early Wednesday, knocking items off of walls, causing cracks to appear in ceilings and generally rattling nerves across the region. “Shook my whole house!” said CBS 11 News viewer Aprille Maganda from her home in the Las Colinas area of Irving.

The paleo-tectonic maps of retired geologist Ronald Blakey are mesmerizing and impossible to forget once you've seen them. Catalogued on his website Colorado Plateau Geosystems, these maps show the world adrift, its landscapes breaking apart and reconnecting again in entirely new forms, where continents are as temporary as the island chains that regularly smash together to create them, on a timescale where even oceans that exist for tens of millions of years can disappear leaving only the subtlest of geological traces. With a particular emphasis on North America and the U.S. southwest—where Blakey still lives, in Flagstaff, Arizona—these visually engaging...

One of the most active volcanoes in the world has been put on aviation color code red, the highest alert given by the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team. KVERT assigned the code on Tuesday and warns of an imminent eruption. "Activity of the volcano continuously increases," says the alert. "Strong ash explosions up to 42,640 ft (13 km) a.s.l. possible at any time. Ongoing activity could affect international and low-flying aircraft.

A new method of capturing detailed, three-dimensional images of minute samples of material under extreme pressures is shedding light on the evolution of the Earth's interior. Early results suggest that the early Earth did not have to be entirely molten to separate into the rocky crust and iron-rich core it has today. Researchers at Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are leading the group pioneering the technique, which could lead to a wide range of new experiments.To answer the big questions, it often helps to look at the smallest details. That is the approach Stanford mineral physicist Wendy Mao...

Earth's internal dynamo generates average field in outer core 50 times that at surface A University of California, Berkeley, geophysicist has made the first-ever measurement of the strength of the magnetic field inside Earth's core, 1,800 miles underground. The magnetic field strength is 25 Gauss, or 50 times stronger than the magnetic field at the surface that makes compass needles align north-south. Though this number is in the middle of the range geophysicists predict, it puts constraints on the identity of the heat sources in the core that keep the internal dynamo running to maintain this magnetic field. "This is...

Using a delicate instrument located under a mountain in central Italy, two University of Massachusetts Amherst physicists are measuring some of the faintest and rarest particles ever detected, geo-neutrinos, with the greatest precision yet achieved. The data reveal, for the first time, a well defined signal, above background noise, of the extremely rare geo-neutrino particle from deep within Earth. The small number of anti-neutrinos detected, however, only a couple each month, helps to settle a long-standing question among geophysicists and geologists about whether our planet harbors a huge, natural nuclear reactor at its core. Geo-neutrinos are anti-neutrinos produced in the...

A new model of the Earth, 20 years in the making, describes a dynamic three-dimensional puzzle of planetary proportions. Created by University of Wisconsin-Madison geophysicist Chuck DeMets and longtime collaborators Richard Gordon of Rice University and Donald Argus of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the model offers a precise description of the relative movements of 25 interlocking tectonic plates that account for 97 percent of the Earth's surface. "This model can be used to predict the movement of one plate relative to any other plate on the Earth's surface," explains DeMets. "Plate tectonics describes almost everything about how the Earth's surface...

Pictures of widespread devastation leave no doubt: Last month's 8.8 magnitude earthquake in coastal Chile was extremely strong. Indeed, say NASA scientists, it might have shifted the axis of Earth itself. "According to our calculations, the quake moved Earth's figure axis by about 3 inches (8 cm)," says geophysicist Richard Gross of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. If the Earth tilted over 3 inches, you probably think you would have noticed. But that's not how the "figure axis" works. "The figure axis defines not how Earth is tilted, but rather how it is balanced," says Gross. Consider the...

Magnitude 6.5 - KEPULAUAN OBI, INDONESIA 2007 February 20 08:04:27 UTC Earthquake Details Magnitude 6.5 (Strong) Date-Time Tuesday, February 20, 2007 at 08:04:27 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Tuesday, February 20, 2007 at 5:04:27 PM = local time at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 1.059°S, 127.066°E Depth 31.3 km (19.4 miles) Region KEPULAUAN OBI, INDONESIA Distances 210 km (130 miles) S of Ternate, Moluccas, Indonesia 315 km (195 miles) NNW of Ambon, Moluccas, Indonesia 1320 km (820 miles) NNW of DARWIN, Northern Territory, Australia 2325 km (1440 miles) ENE of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia Location Uncertainty...

Earth's future was determined at birth. Using refined techniques to study rocks, researchers at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (DTM) found that Earth's mantle--the layer between the core and the crust--separated into chemically distinct layers faster and earlier than previously believed. The layering happened within 30 million years of the solar system's formation, instead of occurring gradually over more than 4 billion years, as the standard model suggests. The new work was recognized by Science magazine, in its December 23 issue, as one of the science breakthroughs for 2005. Carnegie scientists Maud Boyet and Richard Carlson analyzed isotopes--atoms...

North America isn't exactly coming apart. But it is constantly on the move, and the latest discovery of geologic creep has surprised scientists. During the last Ice Age, large portions of North America were blanketed by giant glaciers. Although they’ve been gone for more than 10,000 years, the land they once rested upon is still recovering from the weight. Parts of North America and other continents are slowly rising due to an effect called post-glacial rebound. That much geologists knew. But it turns out this slow recovery is also causing a very small horizontal shift, said Eric Calais, a geophysicist...

As the earth turns, the center of the earth turns even faster. Confirming assertions first made in 1996, a team of geophysicists are presenting data in the journal Science today showing that the earth's inner core, a ball of solid iron larger than the moon, spins faster than the rest of the planet. Over a period of 700 to 1,200 years, the inner core appears to make one full extra spin. That extra spin could give scientists information about how the earth generates its magnetic field. The inner core, 1,500 miles wide, sits at the center of the planet, ensconced...

Earthquake Hazards Program: Northridge, California 1994 01 17 "The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program provides earthquake information for current and past earthquakes, hazards and preparedness information, and education resources for teachers and students." Latest Quakes   EQ Facts & Lists   Hazards & Preparedness   For Kids Only   Regional Websites   Science & Technology    HOME | ABOUT US | EQ GLOSSARY | FOR TEACHERS | PRODUCTS & SERVICES | DID YOU FEEL IT? | FAQ | SEARCH    EQ Facts & Lists Large Earthquakes in the United States Northridge, California 1994 01 17 12:30:55 UTC (local time: 4:30 a.m.)...

Mysterious tremors deep beneath the San Andreas Fault near the quake-prone town of Parkfield are shaking the earth's brittle crust, far below the region where earthquakes normally strike -- and scientists say they can't understand what's happening or what the motions mean. Seismic researchers are monitoring the strange vibrations closely. But whether the faint underground tremors -- termed "chatter" by some seismologists -- portend an increased likelihood of a major quake in the area is an unsolved puzzle. Robert Nadeau, a geophysicist at the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, charted more than 110 of the faint vibrations since they were first...

Study: Alaska earthquake affected geysersBy BECKY BOHRER The Associated Press5/29/2004, 5:55 a.m. ET BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A major earthquake that hit Alaska in 2002 set off a flurry of smaller quakes in far-off Yellowstone National Park and changed eruption intervals in several geysers, according to a new study. Scientists say the Denali fault earthquake, which registered a magnitude 7.9 and hit in November 2002, is believed to be the first in modern times in North America to trigger large-scale changes in geysers and hot springs so far away."What's really kind of interesting ... is the recognition that large earthquakes...

Mark Grasmueck can see underground and, without hardly anyone noticing, he has been peeking below downtown Miami. Grasmueck, a University of Miami geophysicist, is quietly working with archaeologists on the planned One Miami development in the heart of Miami just north of the Dupont Plaza hotel -- a site that almost certainly harbors ancient treasure. What he sees as far as 20 feet under the asphalt -- and how he sees it -- could revolutionize archaeology, help experts assure the purity of our drinking water and reveal new details of South Florida's 120,000-year-old limestone foundation. ''The deeper you go, the...

EGS-AGU-EUG Joint Assembly, Nice, April 2003 Mass-extinction controversy flares again Core from asteroid crater fuels debate on what wiped out the dinosaurs. 10 April 2003 REX DALTON [photo] The dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago. © alamy.com A claim that the asteroid that struck Mexico 65 million years ago did not cause the mass extinction that wiped out dinosaurs triggered heated debate at a meeting this week. The announcement is based on preliminary analysis of the first core drilled into the 185-kilometre Chicxulub asteroid crater near the Yucatan Peninsula. Gerta Keller of Princeton University in New Jersey says...