Earth Sciences

An international team of researchers has announced the discovery of new fossils from the highlands of Ethiopia. The fossils fill a long-standing gap in scientists’ understanding of the evolution of African mammals. The results are reported in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

The team is composed of researchers from several U.S. universities, including the University of Texas, Washington University, and the University of Michigan, as well as Addis Ababa University and the N

Pioneering worldwide research has unearthed a major new source of data for weather forecasters hoping to predict future climate changes

For the past three years a team of international experts, led by the University of Sunderland, have been examining a vast array of ships’ logs – from 1750 to 1850 – which has given one of the most accurate pictures yet of daily weather over the oceans.

These logs have never before been examined in such detail and the findings have given scie

Two of the nation’s premier atmospheric scientists, after reviewing extensive research by their colleagues, say there is no longer any doubt that human activities are having measurable-and increasing-impacts on global climate. Their study cites atmospheric observations and multiple computer models to paint a detailed picture of climate changes likely to buffet Earth in coming decades, including rising temperatures and an increase in extreme weather events, such as flooding and drought. The study

Using qualitative modelling, the risk of earthquakes due to gas extraction can be determined more clearly. “This is done by using three dimensional modelling software to calculate and simulate the forces and movements around geological faults deep under the ground,” says Frans Mulders who, on 3 December, will defend his PhD thesis at TU Delft. “Currently, the KNMI determines the probability of earthquakes primarily through statistical data,” says Mulders. “It is important to complement that data wit

The “Great Dying”, a time of earth’s greatest number of extinctions, appears to have been caused by the impact of a large meteor, according to a research team that includes Luann Becker, a scientist with the Institute for Crustal Studies in the Department of Geology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The theory, recently published by the team in the journal Science (Nov. 21, 2003), explains that this extinction event, which occurred approximately 251 million years ago, is m

A $5 million University of Colorado at Boulder satellite dubbed the “Little Satellite That Did” now is expected to re-enter the atmosphere and burn up in early December following a successful six-year mission.

The Student Nitric Oxide Explorer, or SNOE, is carrying instruments that have measured nitric oxide in the upper atmosphere that affects Earth’s ozone layer, the intensity of X-rays from the sun and ultraviolet light from Earth’s aurora. Developed at CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmosp