June 28, 2016
Geoscience on Film: The view from outside Kathmandu
Doug Prose, formerly a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and his wife, Diane LaMacchia, have produced documentaries showcasing Earth and …
The EARTH archive
June 2016
Explore the archive by subject.
40 articles · Page 1 of 2
June 24, 2016
Geoscience on Film: Revisiting an earthquake-ravaged region, one year on
Doug Prose, formerly a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and his wife, Diane LaMacchia, have produced documentaries showcasing Earth and …
June 24, 2016
Saving Mongolian wildlife, 80 million years after extinction
In the time of_ Velociraptor_, 80 million years ago, southern Mongolia looked surprisingly like the Gobi Desert that exists there today. Animals …
June 17, 2016
Comment: What's a map worth? The big cost and bigger benefit of three-dimensional elevation data
High-resolution topographic data are critical for a number of tasks — from managing flood risks to ensuring aviation safety to mapping hiking …
June 17, 2016
Down to Earth With: Planetary scientist Steven Squyres
Squyres already considered himself a scientist, and, with his father’s help, would conduct rudimentary experiments with a chemistry kit. By the …
June 16, 2016
Slow-moving super-eruptions still travel great distances
When Hollywood movies depict the destruction unleashed by volcanic eruptions, they usually focus on red-hot lava, but even more dangerous are …
June 16, 2016
Take a stand (or sit) for better water quality management
The average person urinates four to seven times over a 24-hour period, producing about 1.5 liters of urine per day. Here are some things you can …
June 16, 2016
'P' is for phosphate: Could urine solve a fertilizer shortage?
Whether you’re enjoying a juicy burger from a fast-food drive-thru or digging into a brightly colored salad at a backyard barbecue, your meal …
June 15, 2016
Bringing geoscience to bear on the problem of abandoned mines
Not much happened around the Silverton Caldera in southwestern Colorado between 26 million years ago — when hydrothermal alteration of the …
June 15, 2016
Giant armadillo look-alikes really were giant armadillos
Due to coincidences of evolution, extinct creatures sometimes resemble living animals, even if they’re not actually related. But in a new study …
June 15, 2016
Fossil dinosaur illuminates evolution of tyrannosauroid body sizes
Tyrannosauroid dinosaurs were the dominant predators of the terrestrial ecosystems in which they roamed for much of the Late Cretaceous, from …
June 15, 2016
Statistics shine light on T. rex family tree
Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the most recognizable dinosaurs, but the tyrannosauroid family tree is also occupied by many lesser-known cousins — …
June 15, 2016
Searching for the ancestors of meandering rivers
It might be difficult to imagine Earth devoid of vegetation, but for billions of years the sun shone, winds blew and rivers flowed on a planet …
June 15, 2016
A new gravity map of Earth
Gravity differs from place to place around Earth because of the uneven distribution of mass across and within the planet. Scientists can study …
June 15, 2016
A labyrinth of silver mines uncovered on the shores of the Aegean Sea
By the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., silver mines under the ancient Greek city of Thorikos, now known as Lavrio, were the most important mines …
June 14, 2016
Geomedia: Television: 'NOVA' for the earth science enthusiast
“NOVA,” the weekly prime-time science series that airs on PBS, is known for producing high-quality TV documentaries on subjects ranging from …
June 8, 2016
New fossils illuminate 'hobbit' evolutionary history
Scientists first discovered fossils of Homo floresiensis — a species of extinct 1-meter-tall hominins nicknamed “hobbits” — in Liang Bua cave on …
June 1, 2016
Getting there and getting around Turkey
Turkey has two major airports — Istanbul and Ankara — and many smaller regional ones. Istanbul Ataturk Airport offers nonstop flights on Turkish …
June 1, 2016
Travels in Geology: Turkey's storied Turquoise Coast
We visited Turkey in June 2015, prior to the heightening of the Syrian refugee crisis. At the time, there were few security concerns, but due to …
June 1, 2016
Dating of landslides around Oso reveals recurring patterns
On March 22, 2014, after a period of heavy rain, a hillside near the town of Oso, Wash., collapsed, sending 7.6 million cubic meters of mud and …
May 31, 2016
Where on Earth? - June 2016
Clues for June 2016: This tiny promontory — the southeasternmost location on a peninsula that is the southwesternmost tip of a country and a …
May 26, 2016
Geomedia: Books: 'Floodpath' recounts the deadly collapse of California's St. Francis Dam
The catastrophic collapse of the St. Francis Dam, located 80 kilometers north of downtown Los Angeles and east of the town of Santa Clarita, just …
May 26, 2016
Benchmarks: June 4, 1783: The era of aviation launches with the first balloon flight
In the small French town of Gonesse in August 1783, a large, spherical and nebulous object painted with red and yellow stripes fell from the sky …
May 20, 2016
Seeing the seafloor in high definition: Modern mapping offers increasing clarity on Earth's vast underwater landscape
Gliding through pitch-black waters 50 meters off the ocean bottom, the “D. Allan B” can sense the seafloor below in striking clarity, despite the …