Earth Sciences

The discovery, by an international team of scientists led by University College London (UCL), the Open University (OU), and the Free University of Berlin, of a frozen sea close to the equator of Mars has brought the possibility of finding life on Mars one step closer. This is the first evidence of there having been recent liquid water on Mars. Higher levels of methane over the same area mean that primitive micro-organisms might survive on Mars today. The 3D images of pack ice near the Martian e

The retreat of Antarctic ice shelves is not new according to research published this week (24 Feb) in the journal Geology by scientists from Universities of Durham, Edinburgh and British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

A study of George VI Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula is the first to show that this currently ‘healthy’ ice shelf experienced an extensive retreat about 9500 years ago, more than anything seen in recent years. The retreat coincided with a shift in ocean currents t

A reconstruction of land movements and changes in sea levels for three massive historic earthquakes in Alaska gives clues that may help scientists forecast future earthquakes and earthquake-triggered tsunami. To be published in this week’s Journal of Quaternary Science¹ the findings should help reduce losses from future catastrophic events.

Investigators Sarah Hamilton and Ian Shennan from the University of Durham, England, studied three earthquakes that occurred around 1400-15

It will be possible to forecast any natural or social cataclysm by attentively observing the speed of the Earth’s rotation and shift of its poles.

The Earth rotates non-uniformly, its poles move, and the rotation axis fluctuates in space. According to the opinion of N.S. Sidorenkov, Doctor of Science (Physics&Mathematics), knowledge of reasons and regularities of our planet’s movement gives the opportunity to forecast with high precision the weather, earthquakes, convulsion of

Surrounded by winter snow and ice, melting seems like a good thing, but, on a global scale, the melting of ice sheets and glaciers is a sign of global warming, according to a Penn State glaciologist.

“The really big picture shows change in the ice and those changes look like what we get is a world that is a little warmer,” says Dr. Richard B. Alley, the Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences. “We currently do not include all these processes in the models that predict the global future.

Harvard researcher to report at AAAS meeting on projected decline in cleansing summer winds

While science’s conventional wisdom holds that pollution feeds global warming, new research suggests that the reverse could also occur: A warming globe could stifle summer’s cleansing winds over the Northeast and Midwest over the next 50 years, significantly worsening air pollution in these regions.

Loretta J. Mickley, a research associate at Harvard University’s Divi