Taxonomy term

geology

Cracking the temperature of columnar jointing

When molten rock cools and contracts, it sometimes cracks to form geometrically shaped columns. This process, called columnar jointing, has led to several famous geological structures.

20 Jul 2018

Mountaintops get less lonely for alpine plants

It takes a hardy plant to live on top of a mountain, but new research shows that summits in the Alps are hosting more species of plants than ever before. Long-term botany surveys conducted on 302 European mountaintops over the past 145 years show that the variety of plant species living on the harsh summits has markedly increased over the last 10 years due to climate change.

18 Jul 2018

Getting There And Getting Around Vancouver

Most visitors to Vancouver and the surrounding area arrive via Vancouver International Airport (YVR) or by road, approaching the city from the east along the Trans-Canada Highway or from a U.S. border post to the south. Although flights into YVR are often good value, especially as a stopover for trans-Pacific flights, it’s often cheaper for U.S. travelers to fly into Seattle, as we did, and then drive across the border. 

16 Jul 2018

Travels in Geology: From sea to sky in British Columbia

About 200 million years ago, myriad exotic terranes began accreting to form what is now British Columbia in southwest Canada. Today, the region’s tremendous topography, which rises from sea to sky over just a few kilometers, allows outdoor pursuits year-round.
16 Jul 2018

Cretaceous volcanic ash seeded U.S. oilfields

Petroleum and natural gas stores are often found amid rocks — particularly ashbeds — deposited during the Cretaceous, when dinosaurs roamed Earth and abundant volcanic arcs lined the edges of the continents.

10 Jul 2018

Ice (Re)Cap: July 2018

From Antarctica to the Arctic; from polar caps, permafrost and glaciers to ocean-rafted sea ice; and from burly bears to cold-loving microbes, fascinating science is found in every nook and crevasse of Earth’s cryosphere, and new findings are announced often. 

09 Jul 2018

Diamonds reveal water in deep mantle

Inclusions in diamonds often render them undesirable to consumers, but they can provide researchers with striking insights into Earth’s composition. Recently, scientists probing diamond samples for the presence of carbon dioxide stumbled instead upon inclusions of ice-VII — a type of crystallized water that forms at very high pressures, and has never before been found in nature.

07 Jul 2018

Trio of studies track stone tool technology in Kenya

About 300,000 years ago, East Africa was a hotbed of human evolution and innovation. Sweeping ecological changes contributed to the emergence of modern humans, and spurred the first long-distance trade routes and novel toolmaking technologies. Three new studies published in Science shine a spotlight on Kenya’s Olorgesailie Basin, where the clunkier Acheulean tool technology gave way to the smaller, sleeker Middle Stone Age tool technology famously associated with Homo sapiens.

05 Jul 2018

Comment: The changing shape of local climates

Climate is changing globally, but how will it be experienced locally? Researchers are developing the techniques needed to understand and predict the local consequences of global change.

02 Jul 2018

Did a massive eruption spur Christianity in Iceland?

The landscape and culture of Iceland, more so than any other country, have been shaped by volcanism. In a new study, researchers have refined the dates for the massive 10th-century Eldgjá eruption, which occurred just a few decades after the island was first settled. The findings may support a connection between the violent volcanism depicted in Iceland’s most celebrated medieval poem and the island’s conversion from paganism to Christianity.

29 Jun 2018

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