January 5, 2012
Stonehenge's Mysterious Stones
A tale of glaciers, man, rocks and North America Out of the mist that blankets the gently rolling hills of Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge rises …
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1236 articles · Page 51 of 52
January 5, 2012
Shell tectonics may explain Mars mysteries
Mars may be mythologically known as the Red Planet, but its topography can be as captivating as its celestial glow. Several striking features …
January 5, 2012
Rewriting rivers: What it means for river restoration
In 1702, Francis Chadsey and his family bought 200 hectares of meadow and upland on the banks of the Brandywine Creek in southeastern …
January 5, 2012
Redefining Quaternary
Blogging on EARTH The Quaternary Period — the geologic time period that includes human evolution up to the present — is now a bit longer than it …
January 5, 2012
Re-examining the Burgess Shale
About 505 million years ago, the continent that would become North America straddled the equator. With no terrestrial plants or animals, the land …
January 5, 2012
Raising bees and capturing rainwater: U.S. prisons go green
The flagging economy may complicate federal aspirations for a green revolution, but at least one government entity has adopted the movement in …
January 5, 2012
On Hannibal's Trail: The clues are in the geology
Standing at the summit of one of the Alps’ tallest mountain passes in the fall of 218 B.C., Hannibal peered into enemy territory: Italy’s Po …
January 5, 2012
Minerals also evolve
Taxonomy, the science of classification, connects creatures through genealogical relationships. But taxonomist Carl Linné (Linnaeus) didn't stop …
January 5, 2012
Mapping safer drinking water
Beginning in the 1970s, international aid agencies dug hundreds of thousands of wells in Bangladesh to help people access clean drinking water. …
January 5, 2012
Mag.-8.9 quake strikes Japan, tsunami heads for Hawaii
A powerful magnitude-8.9 earthquake struck near the eastern coast of Honshu, Japan, today at 2:46 p.m. local time. The quake sent a tsunami …
January 5, 2012
Lay of the Land: Terrain's Toll on the U.S. Civil War
In the waning days of summer 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee lined his Confederate troops along a grassy ridge on the western side of Antietam Creek in …
January 5, 2012
Large earthquake rocks Iran oil port
Wednesday, Sept. 10, 12:30 p.m. EDT — At 3:30 p.m. local time, a magnitude-6.0 earthquake struck Iran near the southern port city of Bandar …
January 5, 2012
How amphibious whales returned to the sea
Millions of years ago, the first animals emerged from their watery habitat to live on dry land. After becoming fully adapted to a terrestrial …
January 5, 2012
Granite countertops: NOT silent killers
Nothing says class like a thick slab of polished granite. The stone is so durable. So chic. So modern. So...radioactive? On Sept. 2, NBC's Today …
January 5, 2012
Giant dunes, not mega-tsunami deposits?
About four years ago, a group of scientists proposed that a series of giant, wedge-shaped sandy deposits found along the shores of southern …
January 5, 2012
Geology 101: Reading the story in the rocks
David Harwood’s field geology course gives future teachers an introduction to several of geology’s most fundamental principles, including the …
January 5, 2012
FY 2010 budget cuts Yucca, oil and gas programs
Blogging on EARTH The White House Office of Management and Budget released today its FY 2010 budget reductions and savings — what programs it …
January 5, 2012
Extinction-era coal linked to Chinese cancer epidemic
At the close of the Permian, 252 million years ago, conditions on Earth took a turn for the worse, nearly wiping out life on land and at sea in …
January 5, 2012
EIA: Worldwide oil demand will plummet in 2009
Blogging on EARTH The Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration is projecting that the global demand for oil will plummet even …
January 5, 2012
Earthworms churn out calcite crystals
Any gardener can tell you that earthworms play a major role in soil ecology. But that information hasn’t always been common knowledge. Charles …
January 5, 2012
DOE promises $2.4 billion for clean coal
Blogging on EARTH Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today at a meeting of the National Coal Council that $2.4 billion in stimulus money …
January 5, 2012
Do impacts trigger extinctions? Impact theory still controversial
The revolution started with a bang in 1980. For some, this revolution became a religion, even an orthodoxy. The true believers became proselytes …
January 5, 2012
Deciphering mass extinctions
What the planet’s past mass extinctions tell us about the future of life on Earth The crash-landing of a 10-kilometer-wide asteroid 65 million …
January 5, 2012
Danger and wonder in Nat Geo's "Giant Crystal Cave"
Razor-sharp rocks. Deadly crevasses. Unbearable heat. Scalding water. One false step...and you’re history. “Giant Crystal Cave,” the National …