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Deep beneath the thick ice that covers East Antarctica, scientists are revealing new discoveries about a mystery that has been hidden beneath the continent’s frozen exterior for half a billion years. According to newly published research, clues to the formation of a mountain range the size of the Alps tucked away below Antarctic ice are being revealed, offering geologists a unique glimpse at the processes behind their formation. The Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, initially discovered by Soviet scientists during an expedition in 1958, have puzzled researchers for decades. Now, these massive features beneath Antarctica’s frozen surface, which were formed long ago...

Geologists have uncovered a long-lost continental fragment buried beneath the thick ice of Greenland, a discovery that offers new insight into the ancient forces that shaped Earth’s surface. This previously unrecognized microcontinent, formed tens of millions of years ago, is believed to be part of a complex tectonic rift system between Greenland and Canada. The finding not only redefines the geological map of the North Atlantic, but also deepens our understanding of plate tectonic reorganization, continental separation, and how fragments of ancient crust become stranded during the birth of new oceans. Rifting Forces Between Greenland and Canada The region separating...

Scientists have identified mysterious formations deep in Earth’s mantle, raising new questions about the planet’s interior. These strange shapes, often referred to as “blobs,” or “sunken worlds,” resemble ancient fragments of Earth’s mantle but appear in places where such material shouldn’t exist. The discovery, published recently in Scientific Reports, was made possible through a new imaging technique called full-waveform inversion. This method combines data from multiple seismographs into a single, detailed image of Earth’s interior. Unlike traditional seismic imaging, which stitches together data from individual earthquakes, this advanced approach provides a clearer picture of what lies beneath the surface. Use...

The warning of a tremor that could kill more than 320,000 people is forcing Japan to think of the abstract danger of disaster in more concrete terms, says Gearoid Reidy for Bloomberg Opinion.To live in Japan is to live with the risk of a devastating earthquake at any time. Usually, however, people tend to view that threat in the abstract. It’s kind of like thinking about death - I know I’ll die someday, but I hope it won’t be today. And so far, at least, I keep getting lucky. Until we don’t. Thursday’s announcement from Japanese authorities, warning of an...

Cities, towns and vacation spots across the American South are 'drowning' under rapidly rising tides that could soon put them underwater. Ocean levels are at least six inches higher than they were a decade ago along a swathe of the country from Texas to North Carolina. An overall rising ocean is coupled with vicious tidal events that wreak havoc and kill locals, especially when they coincide with storms. The problem is already affecting thousands of Americans living along the coast, and millions more across the US will feel it in the coming decades. Climate change is steadily raising sea levels...

Although it may seem like an eternal feature of Earth, the Atlantic Ocean could be swallowed by a vast subduction zone, dubbed the 'Ring of Fire', a new study warns. Scientists in Portugal say this subduction zone is currently located beneath the Gibraltar Strait, the narrow gap of water between Spain and Morocco. But the experts think it could grow and expand westwards into the Atlantic and eventually become responsible for a 'closing' or shrinking of the ocean basin.

The Melanesian Boundary Plateau was built in four different volcanic phases ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Scientists have unraveled the mystery behind how a volcanic superstructure the size of Idaho formed beneath the Pacific Ocean. Called the Melanesian Border Plateau, a team of international researchers determined the more than 85,00-square-mile structure was created when dinosaurs ruled the Earth 145 to 66 million years ago and is still growing to this day. Researchers used seismic data, rock samples and computer models to identify four periods of volcanic eruptions deep beneath the surface that started 100 million years ago. The submerged structure was also found to...

A very brief video because I want to tell you about this story I learned from William Jason Morgan's obituary. It's a lovely story about how the process of scientific discovery sometimes takes unexpected turns.He looked for gravitational waves, but discovered something entirely different | 3:39Sabine Hossenfelder | 1.03M subscribers | 232,486 views | October 19, 2023her YouTube channel

Using data that's three decades old, NASA scientists say they've figured out what happens to Venus' heat when it's lost to space — and discovered that the planet's surface may be "squishy" enough for it to be hemorrhaging its internal warmth...This Venusian discovery stems from astronomers trying to understand the planet's surface, which unlike Earth does not have tectonic plates to explain where its heat goes.

The giant iron ball at the center of the Earth appears to be spinning a bit faster than the rest of the planet. The solid 1,500-mile-wide inner core, which is surrounded by fluid, rotates about one-quarter to one-half degree more than the rest of the world every year, scientists from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report in today's issue of the journal Science. The spin of the Earth's core is an important part of the engine that creates the planet's magnetic field, and researcher Xiaodong Song said he believes magnetic interaction is responsible...

A study published Tuesday suggests that Earth has an additional inner core that may tell the tale of a “significant global event from the past.” The highly specialized study published in Nature found that there is a giant metal ball sitting within the Earth’s inner core, known as the innermost inner core (IMIC). The ball is roughly 800 miles, and has been part of geological theory for quite some time, but the results from the study almost conclusively prove its existence (since we can’t get down there and check with our own eyes). The study was conducted by a team...

A new study published in Nature Geoscience by geophysicists Yi Yang and Xiadong Song of Peking University in Beijing explored the nature of movement of Earth’s inner core, largely made up of iron and molten liquids. They found the inner core’s movement recently reduced enough they consider it “paused,” all part of what “seems to be associated with a gradual turning back of the inner core as a part of an approximately seven-decade oscillation.” The last turning point was in the early 1970s. The new study further tracked seismic waves through the core to see how they played out on...

Imagine Earth’s inner core — the dense center of our planet — as a heavy, metal ballerina. This iron-rich dancer is capable of pirouetting at ever-changing speeds. That core may be on the cusp of a big shift. Seismologists reported Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience that after brief but peculiar pauses, the inner core changes how it spins — relative to the motion of Earth’s surface — perhaps once every few decades. And, right now, one such reversal may be underway. This may sound like a setup for a world-wrecking, blockbuster movie. But fret not: Precisely nothing apocalyptic will...

deepest hole ever drilled, the Kola Deep borehole in the Russian Arctic, reaches only 0.2 percent the way to the center...even the best scientific maps didn’t look much better than your middle-school textbook cartoon showing an outer crust, an inner core and a thick layer called the mantle in between But that picture is changing. Researchers... are...seeing is full of complex detail...The mantle appears to be layered like an onion, with major transitions 250 miles and 410 miles down. At the 410-mile level, researchers recently identified a tremendous interior mountain range, with peaks perhaps even taller than Mount Everest. “...

(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) During a recent expedition to the largely unexplored depths of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, marine researchers stumbled upon something odd: tiny holes excavated in the sediment, all arranged in dozens of relatively straight lines. Holes on the sea floor wouldn't usually be too perplexing, but these were dotted in an incredibly neat and evenly spaced pattern. If not for the fact they're located roughly 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, in the middle of nowhere, they could have been engineered by human hands. Researchers on board the US National Oceanic...

"Our new model for tectonic plates better explains the spatial distribution of 90 per cent of earthquakes and 80 per cent of volcanoes from the past two million years whereas existing models only capture 65 percent of earthquakes...." Dr. Derrick Hasterok, Lecturer, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Adelaide.

New models that show how the continents were assembled are providing fresh insights into the history of the Earth and will help provide a better understanding of natural hazards like earthquakes and volcanoes. "We looked at the current knowledge of the configuration of plate boundary zones and the past construction of the continental crust," said Dr Derrick Hasterok, Lecturer, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Adelaide who led the team that produced the new models. "The continents were assembled a few pieces at a time, a bit like a jigsaw, but each time the puzzle was finished it was cut...

In the 1960-70s, every geology textbook was rewritten, as the previous verities were DESTROYED! Alfred Wegner (1880-1930) was, posthumously, proven correct, in the face of the academia that scoffed at him. What was needed, was the mechanism, that the technology of WW2 provided.

Earth is far from a solid mass of rock. The outer layer of our planet – known as the lithosphere – is made up of more than 20 tectonic plates; as these gargantuan slates glide about the face of the planet, we get the movement of continents, and interaction at the boundaries, not least of which is the rise and fall of entire mountain ranges and oceanic trenches. Yet there's some debate over what causes these giant slabs of rock to move around in the first place. Amongst the many hypotheses put forward over the centuries, convection currents generated by...

A geological secret passage beneath Panama may explain why rocks from Earth's mantle are found more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) from where they originated.This opening, located some 62 miles (100 km) below Earth's surface, may allow a flow of mantle materials to travel all the way from beneath the Galápagos Islands to beneath Panama.This never-before-discovered form of transport may also help explain why Panama has very few active volcanoes. On the west coast of Central America, the Cocos tectonic plate is diving down and pushes oceanic crust under the continental crust of the North American, Caribbean and Panama tectonic...