<![CDATA[Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum - Geophysics, Geology & Oceanography]]>

<![CDATA[Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum - Geophysics, Geology & Oceanography]]> https://www.scivillage.com/ Sun, 03 May 2026 17:25:32 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[Tectonics, subseafloor microbes + Andes volcanoes affect whales millions of years ago]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20221.html Sat, 18 Apr 2026 21:08:57 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20221.html Tectonic “pump” may close the evolutionary loop for subseafloor microbes
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1124649

INTO: In subduction zones, the sites of the world’s largest earthquakes, tectonic activity may generate a “pump” that transports long-buried subseafloor microbes back toward the seafloor, according to research presented at the 2026 SSA Annual Meeting.

These microbes are the world’s most dedicated sleeping beauties, lying dormant for thousands or even millions of years beneath a kilometer-deep blanket of ocean sediment. They survive this prolonged dormancy with the help of a range of specialized adaptations.

But to pass on these adaptations to the next generation, the microbes must eventually reach the shallowest layers of the seafloor where they can eat, grow and disperse. That’s where the tectonic pump comes in, said Zhengze Li, a Ph.D. student at the University of Southern California.

Li and his colleagues suggest that fault slip in subduction zones drives fluid flow that transports long-buried subsurface microbes back toward the seafloor. According to their models, this tectonic pump could circulate more than 1 million gigatons of fluid per million years, potentially transporting up to 1030 microbial cells.

At the meeting, Li explained how this microbial “elevator” might work. In subduction zones, where one tectonic plate descends beneath another, layers of sediment on the downgoing plate are scraped off and accumulate in a wedge against the overriding plate.

Some of the deep, dormant microbes remain on the downgoing plate and continue their descent beneath the overriding plate toward the mantle, a journey Li and his colleagues call “the trip to hell.”

Microbes that avoid that fate, however, may be transported upward through fractures and faults in the sediment wedge, or more diffusely through the sediments, driven by subduction-related slip.

Relocated to the shallow seafloor, the microbes “can now be reactivated and can reproduce,” Li said. “The full cycle—from burial and transport with the subducting plate to eventual return—can take tens of millions of years or longer.” (MORE - no ads)

Andes volcanoes – the missing link between algae blooms, whales and climate millions of years ago
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1124760

INTRO: In 2010, construction workers on the Panamerican Highway traversing Chile's Atacama Desert stumbled upon a nearly perfectly preserved fossilized whale – and once paleontologists rushed to the site to document the ancient treasures in a race against time while the road project was on hold, more were unearthed in quick succession.

Totaling more than 40 specimens – whales, porpoises and other marine mammals – dating from about 6 to 9 million years ago, the site known as Cerro Ballena, or "Whale Hill," is now famously recognized as the world's largest concentration of whale fossils. Paleontologists soon realized the animals perished quickly and in a relatively small area. But why?

As if one mystery wasn't enough, around the same time marine life experienced important changes, whales became bigger and climate data reveal a dramatic shift toward cooler sea surface temperatures. Geologic records from that time, known as the late Miocene, bear witness to intense volcanic eruptions in the wake of tectonic upheaval that led to the building of the Andes mountain range along the western edge of South America.

Now, a study led by researchers at the University of Arizona provides a previously unrecognized piece of the puzzle: The vast amounts of volcanic ashes released into the atmosphere ended up in the ocean, particularly in the Southern Ocean, where they provided a smorgasbord for marine algae to feast on. Volcanic ash is known to contain important nutrients, including phosphorus, iron and silicon. A significant increase in volcanic activity in the Andes peaking between eight and four million years ago, therefore, likely delivered a significant pulse of nutrients – especially iron – to the Southern Ocean.

This induced a chain reaction driving environmental changes by increasing productivity among primary producers – organisms that consume carbon dioxide and use sunlight to create their own food and energy. Increased productivity also supported larger body size in whales. However, in some localities, like Cerro Ballena, nutrients from Andes volcanoes lead to widespread algal blooms, which released toxins that proved detrimental to any whales in the affected areas. The same algal blooms also would have removed large amounts of carbon dioxide, a powerful greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere, which would have helped cool the planet.

Volcanic eruptions have long been recognized as major sources of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere before humans began burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale, thus driving warming. But the role of volcanism in doing the opposite – cooling down the Earth system – has gone largely unrecognized, said Barbara Carrapa, a professor of geosciences in the University of Arizona College of Science and first author of this study, which is published in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment.

"Once you put a lot of very important nutrients coming from volcanoes into the ocean, then your primary producers are going to go crazy, because all of a sudden they have a lot of nutrients available to them, and that, in turn, is going to affect the entire marine ecosystem," she said... (MORE - no ads)]]> <![CDATA[US-Israel-Iran war hits global food production, plunging millions into poverty]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20204.html Thu, 16 Apr 2026 20:04:59 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20204.html The molecules that run the world come from oil
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

US-Israel-Iran war strikes at the heart of global food production, plunging tens of millions of people into abject poverty, new research reveals
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1124522

EXCERPT: The study traces how a single geopolitical flashpoint can simultaneously drive up the cost of producing food, given that fertilizers are derived from natural gas. Countries that now constitute the theater of military operations are not only vulnerable to closures and blockades but also happen to be global players in gas production and exports.

This dynamic, the authors note, makes it “more expensive to process and refrigerate food, inflate shipping costs, spike retail prices on grocery shelves, and ultimately push the world's most vulnerable families into hunger or nutritionally depleted diets.”

The researchers identify the MENA region, already home to tens of millions of people facing acute food insecurity, as particularly exposed and among the most vulnerable. However, they stress that “no country is truly insulated from these cascading shocks,” underscoring the global dimension of the war and its consequences.

The significance of the study lies in both its timing and scope. It provides a real-time analysis of an active conflict, drawing on lessons from three previous crises: the 2007–08 food price surge, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Despite its stark projections, the study argues that the world already possesses the knowledge and the policy tools needed to mitigate the worst impacts of the war if governments act decisively now, rather than responding after irreversible damage has been done.

US-Israel-Iran War is rewriting global diets. Food and energy are inseparable. Modern farming requires roughly 10 fossil fuel calories to produce a single food calorie. “When a war cuts off oil and gas, food gets more expensive almost immediately,” Prof. Naja explained. “The Strait of Hormuz is a food chokepoint, not just an energy chokepoint. Between 20–30% of the world's fertilizer exports pass through it. Since the conflict began, urea prices have already risen ~36% above pre-war levels, and the FAO estimates roughly 3–4 million tonnes of fertilizer trade per month have stalled."

Price shocks do not just mean less food; they mean worse food. Mohamad Alameddine, a co-author and professor of health management and policy, warned that diets were not only changing but also worsening. “When household budgets shrink, families stop buying fruits, vegetables, and proteins first. They shift toward cheaper, ultra-processed, calorie-dense options. This quietly worsens long-term health even when people aren't visibly starving.”

Prof. Alameddine emphasized that children and pregnant women bear the heaviest burden. “Nutritional deficits in the first 1,000 days of life cause irreversible cognitive and developmental damage, and the economic cost to affected countries can reach 2–3% of GDP.”

Unlike localized production shocks, energy and fertilizer-driven shocks affect virtually every stage of the food system simultaneously, stressed Katia Hazim, a research assistant and a co-author. Such shocks, she explained, amplify both the speed and the scale at which food insecurity spreads.

"The costs of institutional inaction fall most heavily on the world's most food-insecure populations,” Hazim said. “Strengthening multilateral food security governance remains a moral and strategic imperative regardless of the prevailing geopolitical climate."

The world will pay huge price in case of inaction. The study cites multiple real-world indicators of international engagement. These include warnings issued by Yara International, one of the world's largest fertilizer producers, which has publicly flagged the conflict's impact on food security amid the ongoing war. The study also references key multilateral institutions such as the FAO, IEA, IFPRI, WFP, and World Bank as actively monitoring and reporting in real time on the conflict's implications for food and energy systems.

"Geopolitical conflict in the Arabian Gulf carries profound implications for global food security that extend far beyond the immediate theater of hostilities,” said Prof. Naja. “The costs of institutional inaction fall most heavily on the world's most food-insecure populations, and strengthening multilateral food security governance remains a moral and strategic imperative regardless of the prevailing geopolitical climate."

To address the food security crisis, the study proposes a concrete, three-pronged framework outlining measures to mitigate global food price volatility and rising food insecurity: interventions at the household and community level, at the national level, and at the international level... (MORE - details, no ads)]]> The molecules that run the world come from oil
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

US-Israel-Iran war strikes at the heart of global food production, plunging tens of millions of people into abject poverty, new research reveals
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1124522

EXCERPT: The study traces how a single geopolitical flashpoint can simultaneously drive up the cost of producing food, given that fertilizers are derived from natural gas. Countries that now constitute the theater of military operations are not only vulnerable to closures and blockades but also happen to be global players in gas production and exports.

This dynamic, the authors note, makes it “more expensive to process and refrigerate food, inflate shipping costs, spike retail prices on grocery shelves, and ultimately push the world's most vulnerable families into hunger or nutritionally depleted diets.”

The researchers identify the MENA region, already home to tens of millions of people facing acute food insecurity, as particularly exposed and among the most vulnerable. However, they stress that “no country is truly insulated from these cascading shocks,” underscoring the global dimension of the war and its consequences.

The significance of the study lies in both its timing and scope. It provides a real-time analysis of an active conflict, drawing on lessons from three previous crises: the 2007–08 food price surge, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Despite its stark projections, the study argues that the world already possesses the knowledge and the policy tools needed to mitigate the worst impacts of the war if governments act decisively now, rather than responding after irreversible damage has been done.

US-Israel-Iran War is rewriting global diets. Food and energy are inseparable. Modern farming requires roughly 10 fossil fuel calories to produce a single food calorie. “When a war cuts off oil and gas, food gets more expensive almost immediately,” Prof. Naja explained. “The Strait of Hormuz is a food chokepoint, not just an energy chokepoint. Between 20–30% of the world's fertilizer exports pass through it. Since the conflict began, urea prices have already risen ~36% above pre-war levels, and the FAO estimates roughly 3–4 million tonnes of fertilizer trade per month have stalled."

Price shocks do not just mean less food; they mean worse food. Mohamad Alameddine, a co-author and professor of health management and policy, warned that diets were not only changing but also worsening. “When household budgets shrink, families stop buying fruits, vegetables, and proteins first. They shift toward cheaper, ultra-processed, calorie-dense options. This quietly worsens long-term health even when people aren't visibly starving.”

Prof. Alameddine emphasized that children and pregnant women bear the heaviest burden. “Nutritional deficits in the first 1,000 days of life cause irreversible cognitive and developmental damage, and the economic cost to affected countries can reach 2–3% of GDP.”

Unlike localized production shocks, energy and fertilizer-driven shocks affect virtually every stage of the food system simultaneously, stressed Katia Hazim, a research assistant and a co-author. Such shocks, she explained, amplify both the speed and the scale at which food insecurity spreads.

"The costs of institutional inaction fall most heavily on the world's most food-insecure populations,” Hazim said. “Strengthening multilateral food security governance remains a moral and strategic imperative regardless of the prevailing geopolitical climate."

The world will pay huge price in case of inaction. The study cites multiple real-world indicators of international engagement. These include warnings issued by Yara International, one of the world's largest fertilizer producers, which has publicly flagged the conflict's impact on food security amid the ongoing war. The study also references key multilateral institutions such as the FAO, IEA, IFPRI, WFP, and World Bank as actively monitoring and reporting in real time on the conflict's implications for food and energy systems.

"Geopolitical conflict in the Arabian Gulf carries profound implications for global food security that extend far beyond the immediate theater of hostilities,” said Prof. Naja. “The costs of institutional inaction fall most heavily on the world's most food-insecure populations, and strengthening multilateral food security governance remains a moral and strategic imperative regardless of the prevailing geopolitical climate."

To address the food security crisis, the study proposes a concrete, three-pronged framework outlining measures to mitigate global food price volatility and rising food insecurity: interventions at the household and community level, at the national level, and at the international level... (MORE - details, no ads)]]> <![CDATA[The molecules that run the world come from oil]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20127.html Mon, 06 Apr 2026 02:18:51 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20127.html https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/techno...d-come-oil

EXCERPTS: Besides being critical for transportation, oil is the source of the chemicals that can be converted into pharmaceuticals, synthetic fibres, plastics, detergents, cosmetics, adhesives, lubricants, paints, roofing materials and asphalt. Without oil, modern civilization grinds to a halt. That makes for a fascinating story.

First, some terms need clarification. Although “petroleum” and “oil” are often used interchangeably, they are not the same. [...] oil is only part of petroleum, which also contains heavy hydrocarbons that have the consistency of tar, and light ones that are referred to as natural gas. So “oil” means “crude oil,” the liquid part of petroleum.

[...] Around 1000 BCE, the Chinese fitted bamboo poles with metal bits to drill into the ground and bring oil and natural gas to the surface that they then ignited to evaporate sea water and collect the salt that was left. By the 10th century, the Chinese had extensive bamboo pipelines connecting gas wells with salt springs. Persian chemists had also learned to distil petroleum and isolate highly flammable components that were used in warfare as well as distillates that were used as medicine.

[...] In the 1800s, chemists had also shown that compounds distilled from petroleum or from the tar left when coal burns could through various reactions be transformed into dyes and pharmaceutical products. The demand for these distillates increased significantly with the invention in 1906 of the first synthetic plastic, Bakelite, followed by nylon in the 1930s, both of which required petroleum components for production.

Clearly, without oil, we can say bye-bye not only to our cars, ships and planes, but also to numerous consumer items ranging from plastics and drugs to fertilizer and heating oil on which our society depends. It is obvious why “black gold” made Jed a millionaire. And why the Iran war is causing such turmoil... (MORE - missing details)]]> https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/techno...d-come-oil

EXCERPTS: Besides being critical for transportation, oil is the source of the chemicals that can be converted into pharmaceuticals, synthetic fibres, plastics, detergents, cosmetics, adhesives, lubricants, paints, roofing materials and asphalt. Without oil, modern civilization grinds to a halt. That makes for a fascinating story.

First, some terms need clarification. Although “petroleum” and “oil” are often used interchangeably, they are not the same. [...] oil is only part of petroleum, which also contains heavy hydrocarbons that have the consistency of tar, and light ones that are referred to as natural gas. So “oil” means “crude oil,” the liquid part of petroleum.

[...] Around 1000 BCE, the Chinese fitted bamboo poles with metal bits to drill into the ground and bring oil and natural gas to the surface that they then ignited to evaporate sea water and collect the salt that was left. By the 10th century, the Chinese had extensive bamboo pipelines connecting gas wells with salt springs. Persian chemists had also learned to distil petroleum and isolate highly flammable components that were used in warfare as well as distillates that were used as medicine.

[...] In the 1800s, chemists had also shown that compounds distilled from petroleum or from the tar left when coal burns could through various reactions be transformed into dyes and pharmaceutical products. The demand for these distillates increased significantly with the invention in 1906 of the first synthetic plastic, Bakelite, followed by nylon in the 1930s, both of which required petroleum components for production.

Clearly, without oil, we can say bye-bye not only to our cars, ships and planes, but also to numerous consumer items ranging from plastics and drugs to fertilizer and heating oil on which our society depends. It is obvious why “black gold” made Jed a millionaire. And why the Iran war is causing such turmoil... (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[Technological space aliens may be rare because coal is rare]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20111.html Fri, 03 Apr 2026 18:04:57 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20111.html Scientists say fossil fuels may be vital for technological civilisations to emerge
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/...ssil-fuels

EXCERPTS: Central to their argument is the role of fossil fuels in driving the Industrial Revolution that ultimately gave rise to our current advanced technological civilisation. The geological formation of fossil fuels – specifically large deposits of easily accessible coal – came down to a series of contingencies that might not occur on other Earth-like planets.

[...] Coal played a crucial role through the 19th century in driving the Industrial Revolution, in smelting iron ore, forging steel tools and machine parts, and powering steam engines. In 1720, iron production in Britain alone would have needed 830,000 tonnes of wood turned into charcoal to fuel the furnaces – that would have required a forest almost the size of Great Britain to be felled every year.

It was ancient forests, dug up as coal, that supplied this critical energy gap. They point out that deposits of other fossil fuels – oil and gas – lie much deeper underground, so the earlier coal-fired stage of industrialisation was necessary to enable them to be exploited.

Similarly, alternatives such as hydropower or solar power could only be developed to deliver sufficient energy by the complex metallurgy and infrastructure that came out of the Industrial Revolution. They believe it unlikely that any civilisation could leapfrog over fossil fuels entirely and go straight to such renewable energy sources.

[...] This particular combination of plate tectonic and climatic conditions, they say, is so unusual that it’s unlikely to have been common on other Earth-like planets... (MORE - missing details)

PAPER: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/...72B73204EF]]> Scientists say fossil fuels may be vital for technological civilisations to emerge
https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/...ssil-fuels

EXCERPTS: Central to their argument is the role of fossil fuels in driving the Industrial Revolution that ultimately gave rise to our current advanced technological civilisation. The geological formation of fossil fuels – specifically large deposits of easily accessible coal – came down to a series of contingencies that might not occur on other Earth-like planets.

[...] Coal played a crucial role through the 19th century in driving the Industrial Revolution, in smelting iron ore, forging steel tools and machine parts, and powering steam engines. In 1720, iron production in Britain alone would have needed 830,000 tonnes of wood turned into charcoal to fuel the furnaces – that would have required a forest almost the size of Great Britain to be felled every year.

It was ancient forests, dug up as coal, that supplied this critical energy gap. They point out that deposits of other fossil fuels – oil and gas – lie much deeper underground, so the earlier coal-fired stage of industrialisation was necessary to enable them to be exploited.

Similarly, alternatives such as hydropower or solar power could only be developed to deliver sufficient energy by the complex metallurgy and infrastructure that came out of the Industrial Revolution. They believe it unlikely that any civilisation could leapfrog over fossil fuels entirely and go straight to such renewable energy sources.

[...] This particular combination of plate tectonic and climatic conditions, they say, is so unusual that it’s unlikely to have been common on other Earth-like planets... (MORE - missing details)

PAPER: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/...72B73204EF]]> <![CDATA[Earth began shifting: Study shows movement of tectonic plates 3.5 billion years ago]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20029.html Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:50:57 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-20029.html https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1120327

INTRO: The history of the Earth is written on the great tablets of tectonic plates. The motions of plates shaped land masses, formed oceans, and created the varied climates and habitats that set the stage for evolution and the diversity of life.

But this grand drama begins with a deep mystery: just when did the continental and oceanic plates begin to drift? Did the lithosphere begin to move soon after the formation of the Earth 4.5 billion years ago or only in the last billion years?

A new study by Harvard geoscientists shows the oldest-yet direct evidence of plate movement by 3.5 billion years ago. In a study published March 19 in Science, the team found that plate movements—though not necessarily the modern type—shaped the early history of our planet.

“There has been a huge range of ages suggested for timing,” said lead author Alec Brenner, PhD ’24, who conducted the research in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) in the Harvard University Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “With this study, we're able to say three and a half billion years ago, we can see plates moving around on the Earth surface.”

The new revelations came from some of the oldest well-preserved rocks in the world, the Pilbara Craton in western Australia, which contains formations from the Archean Eon when the Earth was hosting early microbial life and under heavy bombardment by astronomical objects. The Pilbara area contains evidence of some of the earliest known life, stromatolites and microbialite rocks deposited by single-celled organisms such as cyanobacteria.

A team led by Roger Fu, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, has been conducting research in East Pilbara since 2017. Fu specializes in paleomagnetism, a branch of geophysics that examines changes in the Earth’s magnetic fields to reconstruct the early history of the planet. Last year, they published a paper about an ancient meteor impact at the same site.

In addition to revealing the properties of the Earth’s magnetic field, paleomagnetism can also be used to track the motions of plates. By analyzing the magnetic signals of ancient mineral grains, the researchers can infer the orientation and latitude of the rocks at the time of formation—thus using the ancient samples like paleo GPS units.

“Almost everything unique about the Earth has something to do with plate tectonics at some level,” said Fu. “At some point, the Earth went from something not that special, just another planet in the solar system with similar materials, to something very special. A very strong suspicion is that plate tectonics started Earth down this divergent track.” (MORE - details, no ads)]]> https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1120327

INTRO: The history of the Earth is written on the great tablets of tectonic plates. The motions of plates shaped land masses, formed oceans, and created the varied climates and habitats that set the stage for evolution and the diversity of life.

But this grand drama begins with a deep mystery: just when did the continental and oceanic plates begin to drift? Did the lithosphere begin to move soon after the formation of the Earth 4.5 billion years ago or only in the last billion years?

A new study by Harvard geoscientists shows the oldest-yet direct evidence of plate movement by 3.5 billion years ago. In a study published March 19 in Science, the team found that plate movements—though not necessarily the modern type—shaped the early history of our planet.

“There has been a huge range of ages suggested for timing,” said lead author Alec Brenner, PhD ’24, who conducted the research in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) in the Harvard University Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “With this study, we're able to say three and a half billion years ago, we can see plates moving around on the Earth surface.”

The new revelations came from some of the oldest well-preserved rocks in the world, the Pilbara Craton in western Australia, which contains formations from the Archean Eon when the Earth was hosting early microbial life and under heavy bombardment by astronomical objects. The Pilbara area contains evidence of some of the earliest known life, stromatolites and microbialite rocks deposited by single-celled organisms such as cyanobacteria.

A team led by Roger Fu, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, has been conducting research in East Pilbara since 2017. Fu specializes in paleomagnetism, a branch of geophysics that examines changes in the Earth’s magnetic fields to reconstruct the early history of the planet. Last year, they published a paper about an ancient meteor impact at the same site.

In addition to revealing the properties of the Earth’s magnetic field, paleomagnetism can also be used to track the motions of plates. By analyzing the magnetic signals of ancient mineral grains, the researchers can infer the orientation and latitude of the rocks at the time of formation—thus using the ancient samples like paleo GPS units.

“Almost everything unique about the Earth has something to do with plate tectonics at some level,” said Fu. “At some point, the Earth went from something not that special, just another planet in the solar system with similar materials, to something very special. A very strong suspicion is that plate tectonics started Earth down this divergent track.” (MORE - details, no ads)]]> <![CDATA[1st evidence that North Sea ‘Lost World’ had habitable forests before submerging]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19958.html Thu, 12 Mar 2026 21:29:53 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19958.html 1st evidence that North Sea ‘Lost World’ had habitable forests during the last ice age
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1119582

EXCERPTS: : Forests were growing on the now-submerged landmass of Doggerland thousands of years earlier than previously believed, according to a major new sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) study led by the University of Warwick.

The findings suggest that Doggerland may have provided a surprisingly hospitable refuge for plants, animals, and potentially humans, thousands of years before forests became widespread across Britain and northern Europe.

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research reveals that temperate trees such as oak, elm, and hazel were present more than 16,000 years ago - and even detected DNA from a tree genus thought to have vanished from the region 400,000 years ago. The findings also show that parts of Doggerland survived major flooding events, including the Storegga tsunami around 8,150 years ago, and parts of the landscape remained above water as late as 7,000 years ago.

[...] Doggerland once connected Britain to mainland Europe before rising seas submerged it, creating today’s North Sea. Although the landscape was forested before flooding, scientists have long debated when trees first became established and how suitable the region was for prehistoric communities.

Using sedimentary ancient DNA from 252 samples taken from 41 marine cores along the prehistoric Southern River (chosen for its well-preserved sediments and potential to reveal past habitats) researchers reconstructed Doggerland’s ecological history from around 16,000 years ago until its final submergence.

Temperate woodland species, including oak, elm, and hazel, were found to be present thousands of years earlier than indicated by British pollen records. Lime (Tilia), a warmth-loving tree, also appears around 2,000 years earlier than previously recorded in mainland Britain, suggesting localities in Doggerland may have acted as a northern refuge during the last Ice Age.

In a further surprise, the team found DNA from Pterocarya - a walnut relative thought to have disappeared from north-western Europe 400,000 years ago - showing this tree survived in the region far longer than anyone expected... (MORE - missing details, no ads)

Did a Tsunami Swallow Part of Europe?
https://youtu.be/H5XVxKNzhjQ

VIDEO INTRO: What happened to the piece of prime prehistoric real estate known as Doggerland? While a massive megatsunami might have drowned it for good, the underlying reason that it now lies under the sea may have actually been the same thing that made it so great in the first place.

Life On Doggerland Documentary | ft Miniminuteman (History with Kayleigh) ... https://youtu.be/GvOiEBCBqYA

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/GvOiEBCBqYA]]> 1st evidence that North Sea ‘Lost World’ had habitable forests during the last ice age
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1119582

EXCERPTS: : Forests were growing on the now-submerged landmass of Doggerland thousands of years earlier than previously believed, according to a major new sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) study led by the University of Warwick.

The findings suggest that Doggerland may have provided a surprisingly hospitable refuge for plants, animals, and potentially humans, thousands of years before forests became widespread across Britain and northern Europe.

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research reveals that temperate trees such as oak, elm, and hazel were present more than 16,000 years ago - and even detected DNA from a tree genus thought to have vanished from the region 400,000 years ago. The findings also show that parts of Doggerland survived major flooding events, including the Storegga tsunami around 8,150 years ago, and parts of the landscape remained above water as late as 7,000 years ago.

[...] Doggerland once connected Britain to mainland Europe before rising seas submerged it, creating today’s North Sea. Although the landscape was forested before flooding, scientists have long debated when trees first became established and how suitable the region was for prehistoric communities.

Using sedimentary ancient DNA from 252 samples taken from 41 marine cores along the prehistoric Southern River (chosen for its well-preserved sediments and potential to reveal past habitats) researchers reconstructed Doggerland’s ecological history from around 16,000 years ago until its final submergence.

Temperate woodland species, including oak, elm, and hazel, were found to be present thousands of years earlier than indicated by British pollen records. Lime (Tilia), a warmth-loving tree, also appears around 2,000 years earlier than previously recorded in mainland Britain, suggesting localities in Doggerland may have acted as a northern refuge during the last Ice Age.

In a further surprise, the team found DNA from Pterocarya - a walnut relative thought to have disappeared from north-western Europe 400,000 years ago - showing this tree survived in the region far longer than anyone expected... (MORE - missing details, no ads)

Life On Doggerland Documentary | ft Miniminuteman (History with Kayleigh) ... https://youtu.be/GvOiEBCBqYA

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/GvOiEBCBqYA]]> <![CDATA[We finally know what tore a 500-km 'Grand Canyon' into the Atlantic seafloor]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19901.html Thu, 05 Mar 2026 19:10:37 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19901.html https://www.sciencealert.com/we-finally-...c-seafloor

INTRO: The King's Trough complex, about 1,000 kilometers (roughly 600 miles) off the coast of Portugal, is known as the 'Grand Canyon of the Atlantic' because of its vast size, and a new study details the monumental forces that formed it.

Experts have long debated how this gigantic network of trenches and basins, extending some 500 kilometers across the seafloor, was created. One plausible explanation was that the features were simply the result of the oceanic crust being pulled apart.

The researchers behind the new study, led by a team from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Germany, wanted to take a closer look – and they say the reality is rather more complicated.

Based on new, comprehensive datasets, the team suggests that a combination of weakening from heat from an existing mantle plume and the immense pressure of a temporary plate boundary caused the King's Trough complex (KTC) to form in this spot.

"Researchers have long suspected that tectonic processes – that is, movements of the Earth's crust – played a central role in the formation of the King's Trough," says marine geologist Antje Dürkefälden, from GEOMAR.

"Our results now explain for the first time why this remarkable structure developed precisely at this location." (MORE - details)]]> https://www.sciencealert.com/we-finally-...c-seafloor

INTRO: The King's Trough complex, about 1,000 kilometers (roughly 600 miles) off the coast of Portugal, is known as the 'Grand Canyon of the Atlantic' because of its vast size, and a new study details the monumental forces that formed it.

Experts have long debated how this gigantic network of trenches and basins, extending some 500 kilometers across the seafloor, was created. One plausible explanation was that the features were simply the result of the oceanic crust being pulled apart.

The researchers behind the new study, led by a team from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Germany, wanted to take a closer look – and they say the reality is rather more complicated.

Based on new, comprehensive datasets, the team suggests that a combination of weakening from heat from an existing mantle plume and the immense pressure of a temporary plate boundary caused the King's Trough complex (KTC) to form in this spot.

"Researchers have long suspected that tectonic processes – that is, movements of the Earth's crust – played a central role in the formation of the King's Trough," says marine geologist Antje Dürkefälden, from GEOMAR.

"Our results now explain for the first time why this remarkable structure developed precisely at this location." (MORE - details)]]> <![CDATA[Newer groundwater associated with higher risk of Parkinson’s disease]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19879.html Mon, 02 Mar 2026 21:29:00 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19879.html https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1118185

KEY POINTS: A new study has found people whose drinking water came from newer groundwater had a higher risk of Parkinson’s disease than those whose water came from older groundwater. The study does not prove that newer groundwater causes Parkinson’s; it only shows an association.

Older groundwater typically contains fewer contaminants because it is usually deeper and better shielded from contaminants. Researchers found drinking water drawn from carbonate aquifers was associated with a 24% higher risk of Parkinson’s disease compared to other aquifer types.

It was also associated with a 62% higher risk compared to drinking water from glacial aquifers. Researchers also found newer groundwater, from the past 75 years, in carbonate systems was associated with an 11% higher risk of Parkinson’s compared to groundwater older than 12,000 years from the ice age... (MORE - details, no ads)]]> https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1118185

KEY POINTS: A new study has found people whose drinking water came from newer groundwater had a higher risk of Parkinson’s disease than those whose water came from older groundwater. The study does not prove that newer groundwater causes Parkinson’s; it only shows an association.

Older groundwater typically contains fewer contaminants because it is usually deeper and better shielded from contaminants. Researchers found drinking water drawn from carbonate aquifers was associated with a 24% higher risk of Parkinson’s disease compared to other aquifer types.

It was also associated with a 62% higher risk compared to drinking water from glacial aquifers. Researchers also found newer groundwater, from the past 75 years, in carbonate systems was associated with an 11% higher risk of Parkinson’s compared to groundwater older than 12,000 years from the ice age... (MORE - details, no ads)]]> <![CDATA[Antarctica sits above Earth’s strongest “gravity hole.” How it got that way]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19801.html Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:40:33 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19801.html https://news.ufl.edu/2026/02/antarctic-gravity-hole/

PRESS RELEASE: Gravity feels reliable — stable and consistent enough to count on. But reality is far stranger than our intuition. In truth, the strength of gravity varies over the Earth’s surface. And it is weakest beneath the frozen continent of Antarctica after accounting for Earth’s rotation

A new study reveals how achingly slow rock movements deep under the Earth’s surface over tens of millions of years led to today’s Antarctic gravity hole. The study highlights that the timing of changes in the Antarctic gravity low overlaps with major changes in Antarctica’s climate, and future research could reveal how the shifting gravity might have encouraged the growth of the frozen continent’s climate-defining ice sheets.

“If we can better understand how Earth’s interior shapes gravity and sea levels, we gain insight into factors that may matter for the growth and stability of large ice sheets,” said Alessandro Forte, Ph.D., a professor of geophysics at the University of Florida and co-author of the new study recreating the Antarctic gravity hole’s past.

Caused by different densities of rock far beneath the Earth’s surface, these variations in gravity are small in absolute terms. But they can have particularly large effects on the oceans. Where gravity is weaker, the ocean surface can sit slightly lower relative to Earth’s center because water flows away toward areas of stronger gravity. Due to its gravity hole, the sea-surface height around Antarctica is measurably lower than it would otherwise be.

In the study, published recently in Scientific Reports, Forte and Petar Glišović, Ph.D., of the Paris Institute of Earth Physics, mapped the Antarctic gravity hole and revealed how it developed over millions of years. They relied on an Earth-spanning scientific project that combined global earthquake recordings with physics-based modeling to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure inside Earth.

“Imagine doing a CT scan of the whole Earth, but we don’t have X-rays like we do in a medical office. We have earthquakes. Earthquake waves provide the ‘light’ that illuminates the interior of the planet,” Forte said.

Accounting for all the rocks their earthquake waves could illuminate within Earth and physics-based modeling to predict the gravity pattern, Forte and Glišović reconstructed the gravitational map of the entire planet. The reconstructed map closely matched the gold-standard gravitational data captured by satellites, supporting the realism of their underlying models.

Then came the hard part: turning the clock backward to see how Antarctica’s gravity hole developed over eons. With sophisticated computer models, they used physics-based reconstructions to rewind the flow of rocks in the interior and track changes back 70 million years, back to the time of the dinosaurs.

Those past snapshots revealed that the gravity hole started off weaker. Then, between about 50 and 30 million years ago, the gravity hole started to gain strength. The timing overlaps with major changes in Antarctica’s climate system, including the onset of widespread glaciation.

Going forward, Forte hopes to test for a causal connection between this strengthening gravity hole and the ice sheets, using new modeling that links gravity, sea level and continental elevation changes. The aim is to address one big question: “How does our climate connect to what’s going on inside our planet?” Forte said.]]> https://news.ufl.edu/2026/02/antarctic-gravity-hole/

PRESS RELEASE: Gravity feels reliable — stable and consistent enough to count on. But reality is far stranger than our intuition. In truth, the strength of gravity varies over the Earth’s surface. And it is weakest beneath the frozen continent of Antarctica after accounting for Earth’s rotation

A new study reveals how achingly slow rock movements deep under the Earth’s surface over tens of millions of years led to today’s Antarctic gravity hole. The study highlights that the timing of changes in the Antarctic gravity low overlaps with major changes in Antarctica’s climate, and future research could reveal how the shifting gravity might have encouraged the growth of the frozen continent’s climate-defining ice sheets.

“If we can better understand how Earth’s interior shapes gravity and sea levels, we gain insight into factors that may matter for the growth and stability of large ice sheets,” said Alessandro Forte, Ph.D., a professor of geophysics at the University of Florida and co-author of the new study recreating the Antarctic gravity hole’s past.

Caused by different densities of rock far beneath the Earth’s surface, these variations in gravity are small in absolute terms. But they can have particularly large effects on the oceans. Where gravity is weaker, the ocean surface can sit slightly lower relative to Earth’s center because water flows away toward areas of stronger gravity. Due to its gravity hole, the sea-surface height around Antarctica is measurably lower than it would otherwise be.

In the study, published recently in Scientific Reports, Forte and Petar Glišović, Ph.D., of the Paris Institute of Earth Physics, mapped the Antarctic gravity hole and revealed how it developed over millions of years. They relied on an Earth-spanning scientific project that combined global earthquake recordings with physics-based modeling to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure inside Earth.

“Imagine doing a CT scan of the whole Earth, but we don’t have X-rays like we do in a medical office. We have earthquakes. Earthquake waves provide the ‘light’ that illuminates the interior of the planet,” Forte said.

Accounting for all the rocks their earthquake waves could illuminate within Earth and physics-based modeling to predict the gravity pattern, Forte and Glišović reconstructed the gravitational map of the entire planet. The reconstructed map closely matched the gold-standard gravitational data captured by satellites, supporting the realism of their underlying models.

Then came the hard part: turning the clock backward to see how Antarctica’s gravity hole developed over eons. With sophisticated computer models, they used physics-based reconstructions to rewind the flow of rocks in the interior and track changes back 70 million years, back to the time of the dinosaurs.

Those past snapshots revealed that the gravity hole started off weaker. Then, between about 50 and 30 million years ago, the gravity hole started to gain strength. The timing overlaps with major changes in Antarctica’s climate system, including the onset of widespread glaciation.

Going forward, Forte hopes to test for a causal connection between this strengthening gravity hole and the ice sheets, using new modeling that links gravity, sea level and continental elevation changes. The aim is to address one big question: “How does our climate connect to what’s going on inside our planet?” Forte said.]]> <![CDATA[Life on Earth is lucky: Rare chemical fluke made our planet habitable]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19775.html Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:05:26 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19775.html Life on Earth is lucky: A rare chemical fluke may have made our planet habitable
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/...-habitable

EXCERPTS: Life on Earth may exist thanks to an incredible stroke of luck — a chemical sweet spot that most planets miss during their formation but ours managed to hit.

A new study shows that Earth formed under an unusually precise set of chemical conditions that allowed it to retain two elements essential for life as we know it: phosphorus and nitrogen. Without a perfect balance of these elements, a rocky planet could appear habitable on the surface yet be fundamentally incapable of supporting biology, according to the study.

Earth seems to have hit this delicate chemical sweet spot during its formation nearly 4.6 billion years ago, and the new findings could change how scientists search for alien life, the researchers said.

When young planets form, they are often partially or fully molten. As heavy metals sink inward to form a core, lighter materials remain closer to the surface. During this chaotic stage, known as core formation, the amount of oxygen present plays a decisive role in determining where other elements end up — and whether they remain accessible for future life.

The study suggests that oxygen levels must fall within a surprisingly narrow range for both phosphorus and nitrogen to stay in a planet's mantle and crust. Too little oxygen, and phosphorus bonds with iron and is dragged into the core, depriving the surface of a key ingredient for DNA, cell membranes and energy transfer. Too much oxygen, and nitrogen is more easily lost to space. Either way, the chemistry needed for life never fully comes together.

Using models of planetary formation and geochemical behavior, the researchers found that Earth sits squarely inside this narrow range of medium-level oxygen, which they called the chemical Goldilocks zone. Ultimately, our planet retained enough phosphorus and nitrogen to later fuel biology — a result that may be far from common among rocky worlds.

[...] he findings challenge the traditional focus on the habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water can exist. While water is critical, the study suggests it may be only part of the story. A planet could orbit at the right distance from its star and still lack the internal chemical inventory required for life to ever emerge... (MORE - missing details)]]> Life on Earth is lucky: A rare chemical fluke may have made our planet habitable
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/...-habitable

EXCERPTS: Life on Earth may exist thanks to an incredible stroke of luck — a chemical sweet spot that most planets miss during their formation but ours managed to hit.

A new study shows that Earth formed under an unusually precise set of chemical conditions that allowed it to retain two elements essential for life as we know it: phosphorus and nitrogen. Without a perfect balance of these elements, a rocky planet could appear habitable on the surface yet be fundamentally incapable of supporting biology, according to the study.

Earth seems to have hit this delicate chemical sweet spot during its formation nearly 4.6 billion years ago, and the new findings could change how scientists search for alien life, the researchers said.

When young planets form, they are often partially or fully molten. As heavy metals sink inward to form a core, lighter materials remain closer to the surface. During this chaotic stage, known as core formation, the amount of oxygen present plays a decisive role in determining where other elements end up — and whether they remain accessible for future life.

The study suggests that oxygen levels must fall within a surprisingly narrow range for both phosphorus and nitrogen to stay in a planet's mantle and crust. Too little oxygen, and phosphorus bonds with iron and is dragged into the core, depriving the surface of a key ingredient for DNA, cell membranes and energy transfer. Too much oxygen, and nitrogen is more easily lost to space. Either way, the chemistry needed for life never fully comes together.

Using models of planetary formation and geochemical behavior, the researchers found that Earth sits squarely inside this narrow range of medium-level oxygen, which they called the chemical Goldilocks zone. Ultimately, our planet retained enough phosphorus and nitrogen to later fuel biology — a result that may be far from common among rocky worlds.

[...] he findings challenge the traditional focus on the habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water can exist. While water is critical, the study suggests it may be only part of the story. A planet could orbit at the right distance from its star and still lack the internal chemical inventory required for life to ever emerge... (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[The cataclysmic flood that wasn’t (Bye, bye Julian May SF novels of 1980s?)]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19762.html Tue, 10 Feb 2026 20:40:39 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19762.html Saga of Pliocene Exile
- - - - - - - - - -

The cataclysmic flood that wasn’t
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/art...iterranean

INTRO: On October 6, 1970, the deep-sea drilling vessel Glomar Challenger returned to port in Lisbon, Portugal, bearing a cargo that would revise history. During its 54-day voyage, the Challenger had punched 28 holes into the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

The recovered cores pointed toward a startling conclusion: About 6 million years ago, the sea had turned into a desert: a vast, barren, salt-filled bowl more than two kilometers deep. Half a million years after that, the Atlantic Ocean had burst through what is now the Strait of Gibraltar and unleashed the largest flood in history.

Kenneth Hsü, an oceanographer who was one of the two lead scientists on the Challenger expedition, imagined the scene vividly in the December 1972 issue of Scientific American:

“Cascading at a rate of 10,000 cubic miles per year, the Gibraltar Falls would have been 100 times bigger than Victoria Falls and 1,000 times more so than Niagara.… What a spectacle it must have been for the African ape-men, if any were lured by the thunderous roar.”

The catastrophe story was a hit: David Attenborough filmed a documentary about it, and Gibraltar even issued a 5-pence stamp portraying the “3,000-metre waterfall.” The two hypotheses — first, that the Mediterranean Sea became landlocked during a half-million-year period known as the Messinian salinity crisis, and second, that it was restored by a cataclysmic deluge through the Strait of Gibraltar, dubbed the Zanclean flood — have been conventional wisdom among geologists for more than 50 years.

However, fresh doubts have arisen recently about every part of this story, from the mega-desert to the mega-Niagara. Many geologists have argued for a much briefer desiccation followed by a far more gradual refilling of the Mediterranean. Some think that the Mediterranean never completely disconnected from the Atlantic at all. “The idea of a megaflood, and the data that supports it, are mostly flawed,” says Guillermo Booth Rea of the University of Granada in Spain.

The most startling recent twist is that the floodway, if there was one, may not have been anywhere near the present-day Strait of Gibraltar, which separates southern Spain from Morocco. For 50 years, new research suggests, we have been looking for signs of a megaflood in the wrong place... (MORE - details)]]> Saga of Pliocene Exile
- - - - - - - - - -

The cataclysmic flood that wasn’t
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/art...iterranean

INTRO: On October 6, 1970, the deep-sea drilling vessel Glomar Challenger returned to port in Lisbon, Portugal, bearing a cargo that would revise history. During its 54-day voyage, the Challenger had punched 28 holes into the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

The recovered cores pointed toward a startling conclusion: About 6 million years ago, the sea had turned into a desert: a vast, barren, salt-filled bowl more than two kilometers deep. Half a million years after that, the Atlantic Ocean had burst through what is now the Strait of Gibraltar and unleashed the largest flood in history.

Kenneth Hsü, an oceanographer who was one of the two lead scientists on the Challenger expedition, imagined the scene vividly in the December 1972 issue of Scientific American:

“Cascading at a rate of 10,000 cubic miles per year, the Gibraltar Falls would have been 100 times bigger than Victoria Falls and 1,000 times more so than Niagara.… What a spectacle it must have been for the African ape-men, if any were lured by the thunderous roar.”

The catastrophe story was a hit: David Attenborough filmed a documentary about it, and Gibraltar even issued a 5-pence stamp portraying the “3,000-metre waterfall.” The two hypotheses — first, that the Mediterranean Sea became landlocked during a half-million-year period known as the Messinian salinity crisis, and second, that it was restored by a cataclysmic deluge through the Strait of Gibraltar, dubbed the Zanclean flood — have been conventional wisdom among geologists for more than 50 years.

However, fresh doubts have arisen recently about every part of this story, from the mega-desert to the mega-Niagara. Many geologists have argued for a much briefer desiccation followed by a far more gradual refilling of the Mediterranean. Some think that the Mediterranean never completely disconnected from the Atlantic at all. “The idea of a megaflood, and the data that supports it, are mostly flawed,” says Guillermo Booth Rea of the University of Granada in Spain.

The most startling recent twist is that the floodway, if there was one, may not have been anywhere near the present-day Strait of Gibraltar, which separates southern Spain from Morocco. For 50 years, new research suggests, we have been looking for signs of a megaflood in the wrong place... (MORE - details)]]> <![CDATA[Geologists solve 150-year American mystery of ‘uphill’ river]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19735.html Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:15:24 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19735.html https://www.newsweek.com/geologists-solv...s-11459025

EXCERPTS: Scientists may have cracked the mystery behind one of North America’s most significant river systems, understanding how a river managed to cut through a Utah mountain range that’s been around for millions of years.

The question of how the Green River, the largest tributary of the Colorado River, formed a canyon around 2,296 feet-deep through Utah’s 13,123 foot-high Uinta Mountains, instead of flowing around them, has perplexed geologists for more than a century and a half.

What’s even more baffling is that while the Uinta Mountains are 50 million years old, the Green River has been following this "uphill" route for less than eight million years, noted researchers led from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

A phenomenon known as “lithospheric dripping,” which causes mountains to subside and rebound over millions of years, is likely to be the reason for the Green River’s surprising route, the team now believe. [...] The study shows that the Green River carved out its path through the Uinta Mountains by running over land that had been temporarily lowered when a lithospheric drip occurred beneath the mountains several million years ago.

Lithospheric drips occur when dense, mineral‑rich material forms at the base of the crust of the Earth, later becoming heavy enough to sink into the mantle below, which is a thick layer of rock between the crust and core of the Earth.

“As they sink, they can drag down the land above them, pulling parts of mountain ranges downward,” the researchers explained. “When the drip breaks off and continues to sink on its own, the mountain range rebounds, leaving behind a distinctive ‘bullseye’‑patterned zone of uplift across the landscape above the drip’s point of origin.”

Based on how far the drip had fallen and the speed of its descent, the geologists believe that the drip broke off between two and five million years ago... (MORE - missing details)]]> https://www.newsweek.com/geologists-solv...s-11459025

EXCERPTS: Scientists may have cracked the mystery behind one of North America’s most significant river systems, understanding how a river managed to cut through a Utah mountain range that’s been around for millions of years.

The question of how the Green River, the largest tributary of the Colorado River, formed a canyon around 2,296 feet-deep through Utah’s 13,123 foot-high Uinta Mountains, instead of flowing around them, has perplexed geologists for more than a century and a half.

What’s even more baffling is that while the Uinta Mountains are 50 million years old, the Green River has been following this "uphill" route for less than eight million years, noted researchers led from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

A phenomenon known as “lithospheric dripping,” which causes mountains to subside and rebound over millions of years, is likely to be the reason for the Green River’s surprising route, the team now believe. [...] The study shows that the Green River carved out its path through the Uinta Mountains by running over land that had been temporarily lowered when a lithospheric drip occurred beneath the mountains several million years ago.

Lithospheric drips occur when dense, mineral‑rich material forms at the base of the crust of the Earth, later becoming heavy enough to sink into the mantle below, which is a thick layer of rock between the crust and core of the Earth.

“As they sink, they can drag down the land above them, pulling parts of mountain ranges downward,” the researchers explained. “When the drip breaks off and continues to sink on its own, the mountain range rebounds, leaving behind a distinctive ‘bullseye’‑patterned zone of uplift across the landscape above the drip’s point of origin.”

Based on how far the drip had fallen and the speed of its descent, the geologists believe that the drip broke off between two and five million years ago... (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[Greenland is rich in natural resources – a geologist explains why]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19698.html Thu, 29 Jan 2026 19:28:54 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19698.html https://theconversation.com/greenland-is...why-273022

EXCERPTS: Geologically speaking, it is highly unusual (and exciting for geologists like me) for one area to have experienced all three key ways that natural resources – from oil and gas to REEs and gems – are generated. These processes relate to episodes of mountain building, rifting (crustal relaxation and extension), and volcanic activity.

Greenland was shaped by many prolonged periods of mountain building. These compressive forces broke up its crust, allowing gold, gems such as rubies, and graphite to be deposited in the faults and fractures. Graphite is crucial for the production of lithium batteries but remains “underexplored”, according to the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, relative to major producers such as China and South Korea.

But the greatest proportion of Greenland’s natural resources originates from its periods of rifting – including, most recently, the formation of the Atlantic Ocean from the beginning of the Jurassic Period just over 200 million years ago.

[...] Greenland’s onshore sedimentary basins such as the Jameson Land Basin appear to hold the greatest potential of oil and gas reserves, analogous to Norway’s hydrocarbon-rich continental shelf. However, prohibitively high costs have limited commercial exploration. There is also a growing body of research suggesting potentially extensive petroleum systems ringing the entirety of offshore Greenland.

Metals such as lead, copper, iron and zinc are also present in the onshore (mostly ice-free) sedimentary basins, and have been worked locally, on a small scale, since 1780.

While not as intimately related to volcanic activity as nearby Iceland – which, uniquely, sits at the intersection of a mid-ocean ridge and a mantle plume – many of Greenland’s critical raw materials owe their existence to its volcanic history... (MORE - missing details)]]> https://theconversation.com/greenland-is...why-273022

EXCERPTS: Geologically speaking, it is highly unusual (and exciting for geologists like me) for one area to have experienced all three key ways that natural resources – from oil and gas to REEs and gems – are generated. These processes relate to episodes of mountain building, rifting (crustal relaxation and extension), and volcanic activity.

Greenland was shaped by many prolonged periods of mountain building. These compressive forces broke up its crust, allowing gold, gems such as rubies, and graphite to be deposited in the faults and fractures. Graphite is crucial for the production of lithium batteries but remains “underexplored”, according to the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, relative to major producers such as China and South Korea.

But the greatest proportion of Greenland’s natural resources originates from its periods of rifting – including, most recently, the formation of the Atlantic Ocean from the beginning of the Jurassic Period just over 200 million years ago.

[...] Greenland’s onshore sedimentary basins such as the Jameson Land Basin appear to hold the greatest potential of oil and gas reserves, analogous to Norway’s hydrocarbon-rich continental shelf. However, prohibitively high costs have limited commercial exploration. There is also a growing body of research suggesting potentially extensive petroleum systems ringing the entirety of offshore Greenland.

Metals such as lead, copper, iron and zinc are also present in the onshore (mostly ice-free) sedimentary basins, and have been worked locally, on a small scale, since 1780.

While not as intimately related to volcanic activity as nearby Iceland – which, uniquely, sits at the intersection of a mid-ocean ridge and a mantle plume – many of Greenland’s critical raw materials owe their existence to its volcanic history... (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[Evidence of ‘lightning-fast’ evolution found after dino-killing asteroid impact]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19656.html Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:35:19 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19656.html https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1113542

INTRO: The asteroid that struck the Earth 66 million years ago devastated life across the planet, wiping out the dinosaurs and other organisms in a hail of fire and catastrophic climate change. But new research shows that it also set the stage for life to rebound astonishingly quickly.

New species of plankton appeared fewer than 2,000 years after the world-altering event, according to research led by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin and published in Geology.

Lead author Chris Lowery, a research associate professor at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) at the Jackson School of Geosciences, said that it’s a remarkably quick evolutionary feat that has never been seen before in the fossil record. Typically, new species appear on roughly million-year time frames.

“It’s ridiculously fast,” said Lowery. “This research helps us understand just how quickly new species can evolve after extreme events and also how quickly the environment began to recover after the Chicxulub impact.”

Although previous studies that Lowery and his team have conducted on the Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico have shown that surviving life returned quickly after the catastrophic event, it has been widely accepted that it took tens of thousands of years for the first new species to appear after impact... (MORE - details, no ads)]]> https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1113542

INTRO: The asteroid that struck the Earth 66 million years ago devastated life across the planet, wiping out the dinosaurs and other organisms in a hail of fire and catastrophic climate change. But new research shows that it also set the stage for life to rebound astonishingly quickly.

New species of plankton appeared fewer than 2,000 years after the world-altering event, according to research led by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin and published in Geology.

Lead author Chris Lowery, a research associate professor at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) at the Jackson School of Geosciences, said that it’s a remarkably quick evolutionary feat that has never been seen before in the fossil record. Typically, new species appear on roughly million-year time frames.

“It’s ridiculously fast,” said Lowery. “This research helps us understand just how quickly new species can evolve after extreme events and also how quickly the environment began to recover after the Chicxulub impact.”

Although previous studies that Lowery and his team have conducted on the Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico have shown that surviving life returned quickly after the catastrophic event, it has been widely accepted that it took tens of thousands of years for the first new species to appear after impact... (MORE - details, no ads)]]> <![CDATA[Tiny earthquakes reveal hidden faults under northern California]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19619.html Fri, 16 Jan 2026 03:00:38 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-19619.html https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/tiny-earthq...california

PRESS RELEASE: By tracking swarms of very small earthquakes, seismologists are getting a new picture of the complex region where the San Andreas fault meets the Cascadia subduction zone, an area that could give rise to devastating major earthquakes. The work, by researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of California, Davis and the University of Colorado Boulder, is published Jan. 15 in Science.

“If we don’t understand the underlying tectonic processes, it’s hard to predict the seismic hazard,” said coauthor Amanda Thomas, professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis.

Three of the great tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s crust meet at the Mendocino Triple Junction, off the Humboldt County coast. South of the junction, the Pacific plate is moving roughly northwest against the North American plate, forming the San Andreas fault. To the north, the Gorda (or Juan de Fuca) plate is moving northeast to dive under the North American plate and disappear into the Earth’s mantle, a process called subduction.

But whatever is going on at the Mendocino Triple Junction is clearly a lot more complex than three lines on a map. For example, a large (magnitude 7.2) earthquake in 1992 occurred at a much shallower depth than expected.

First author David Shelly of the USGS Geologic Hazards Center in Golden, Colo., compared it to studying an iceberg. “You can see a bit at the surface, but you have to figure out what is the configuration underneath,” Shelly said.

Shelly, Thomas, Kathryn Materna at CU Boulder and Robert Skoumal at USGS’s Earthquake Science Center at Moffett Field, Calif., used a network of seismometers in the Pacific Northwest to measure very small, “low-frequency” earthquakes occurring where the plates rub against or over each other. These earthquakes are thousands of times less intense than any shaking we could feel at the surface.

They confirmed their model by looking at how the plates respond to tidal forces. The gravitational forces of the Sun and Moon pull on tectonic plates just as they do on the waters of the ocean. When tidal forces align with the direction in which a plate wants to move, you should see more small earthquakes, Thomas said.

Five moving pieces. The new model includes five moving pieces, not just three plates – and two of them are out of sight from the Earth’s surface. At the southern end of the Cascadia subduction zone, a chunk has broken off the North American plate and is being pulled down with the Gorda plate as it sinks under North America, the team found.

South of the triple junction, the Pacific plate is dragging a blob of rock called the Pioneer fragment underneath the North American plate as it moves northwards. The fault boundary between the Pioneer fragment and the North American plate is essentially horizontal and not visible from the surface at all.

The Pioneer fragment was originally part of the Farallon plate, an ancient tectonic plate that once ran along the coast of California but is now mostly gone. The new model explains the shallowness of the 1992 earthquake, because the subducting surface is shallower than previously thought, Materna said.

“It had been assumed that faults follow the leading edge of the subducting slab, but this example deviates from that,” Materna said. “The plate boundary seems not to be where we thought it was.”

The work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. GRAPHICS: https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/1109806]]> https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/tiny-earthq...california

PRESS RELEASE: By tracking swarms of very small earthquakes, seismologists are getting a new picture of the complex region where the San Andreas fault meets the Cascadia subduction zone, an area that could give rise to devastating major earthquakes. The work, by researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of California, Davis and the University of Colorado Boulder, is published Jan. 15 in Science.

“If we don’t understand the underlying tectonic processes, it’s hard to predict the seismic hazard,” said coauthor Amanda Thomas, professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis.

Three of the great tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s crust meet at the Mendocino Triple Junction, off the Humboldt County coast. South of the junction, the Pacific plate is moving roughly northwest against the North American plate, forming the San Andreas fault. To the north, the Gorda (or Juan de Fuca) plate is moving northeast to dive under the North American plate and disappear into the Earth’s mantle, a process called subduction.

But whatever is going on at the Mendocino Triple Junction is clearly a lot more complex than three lines on a map. For example, a large (magnitude 7.2) earthquake in 1992 occurred at a much shallower depth than expected.

First author David Shelly of the USGS Geologic Hazards Center in Golden, Colo., compared it to studying an iceberg. “You can see a bit at the surface, but you have to figure out what is the configuration underneath,” Shelly said.

Shelly, Thomas, Kathryn Materna at CU Boulder and Robert Skoumal at USGS’s Earthquake Science Center at Moffett Field, Calif., used a network of seismometers in the Pacific Northwest to measure very small, “low-frequency” earthquakes occurring where the plates rub against or over each other. These earthquakes are thousands of times less intense than any shaking we could feel at the surface.

They confirmed their model by looking at how the plates respond to tidal forces. The gravitational forces of the Sun and Moon pull on tectonic plates just as they do on the waters of the ocean. When tidal forces align with the direction in which a plate wants to move, you should see more small earthquakes, Thomas said.

Five moving pieces. The new model includes five moving pieces, not just three plates – and two of them are out of sight from the Earth’s surface. At the southern end of the Cascadia subduction zone, a chunk has broken off the North American plate and is being pulled down with the Gorda plate as it sinks under North America, the team found.

South of the triple junction, the Pacific plate is dragging a blob of rock called the Pioneer fragment underneath the North American plate as it moves northwards. The fault boundary between the Pioneer fragment and the North American plate is essentially horizontal and not visible from the surface at all.

The Pioneer fragment was originally part of the Farallon plate, an ancient tectonic plate that once ran along the coast of California but is now mostly gone. The new model explains the shallowness of the 1992 earthquake, because the subducting surface is shallower than previously thought, Materna said.

“It had been assumed that faults follow the leading edge of the subducting slab, but this example deviates from that,” Materna said. “The plate boundary seems not to be where we thought it was.”

The work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. GRAPHICS: https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/1109806]]>