October 23, 2015
Energy Notes: April 2014-2015
U.S. Oil & Petroleum Imports (million of barrels per day) ' Oil and petroleum imports data are preliminary numbers taken from the American …
The EARTH archive
October 2015
Explore the archive by subject.
44 articles · Page 1 of 2
October 23, 2015
Mineral Resource of the Month: Pumice and Pumicite
Robert D. Crangle, Jr., a mineral commodity specialist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Minerals Information Center, compiled the …
October 22, 2015
Flaring our way out of a water crisis
In the process of providing the energy we consume, oil and gas producers around the world use large quantities of clean water, generate massive …
October 21, 2015
Bare Earth Elements: In honor of 'Back to the Future Day,' a few things geoscientists might (or might not) have been thinking about in 1985
If you’ve been on the Internet in the last day or two, the odds are good you’ve heard that today, Oct. 21, 2015, is Back to the Future Day. (If …
October 20, 2015
Down to Earth With: Geophysicist Julian Lozos
Julian Lozos, a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with both the U.S. Geological Survey and Stanford University, designs computer models that …
October 20, 2015
Geomedia: Film: Banff Mountain Film Festival is geologic showcase
The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour is a traveling collection of outdoor adventure films that feature the stories of climbers, alpine …
October 20, 2015
Triceratops relative 'Wendi' sported a fantastic frill
The discovery of a 79-million-year-old frilled and horned relative of Triceratops is shedding light on the early evolution of the ceratopsid’s …
October 15, 2015
Santa Ana winds get a fiery boost from the stratosphere
Southern California’s Santa Ana winds have long been implicated in the region’s dangerous and destructive wildfires. Now, a new study in …
October 12, 2015
Peculiar shape of hair ice linked to fungus
If you have ever taken a morning hike through the woods and seen strange, silky-looking ice on fallen logs, you might have been observing a …
October 8, 2015
Rosetta spies cometary sinkholes
Large circular pits seen on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft may be sinkholes rather than …
October 8, 2015
Tree of life reshaped
Since the 1970s, the classic “tree of life” taught in classrooms has portrayed three domains of life — Archaea, Bacteria and Eukaryota — all …
October 8, 2015
Travertine buildup reflects ancient Rome's water usage
By the third century, Rome had 11 aqueducts — engineered rivers enclosed by masonry — that supplied water to more than a million people in the …
October 6, 2015
Owl pellets bridge ancient and modern ecosystems
In Homestead Cave near Utah’s Great Salt Lake, owls have been regurgitating pellets containing the undigested bones and hair of prey — typically …
October 6, 2015
Finding and tracking conflict minerals in the heart of darkness
Deep within the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in a mountainous jungle that is home to volcanoes and silverback gorillas, lies a …
October 6, 2015
A Cambrian-like explosion of mammals in the Mid-Jurassic
Dinosaurs dominated the continents during the Mesozoic, and for a long time, paleontologists assumed our mammalian ancestors kept a low-profile …
October 6, 2015
Campi Flegrei makes its own concrete caprock
In the 1980s, Tiziana Vanorio was a teenager living in the Italian port city of Pozzuoli west of Naples when the Campi Flegrei volcanic complex …
October 2, 2015
Geomedia: Film: 'The Martian' puts the magnificence and messiness of science at the fore
Sweeping in low over rocky outcrops and rust-red sands, the monochrome landscape looks far more peaceful in the dim light of day than it had the …
October 1, 2015
Where on Earth? - October 2015
Clues for October 2015: The pointed hoodoos of this national monument are formed from layers of pumice, tuff, ash and conglomerates that were …
September 22, 2015
Geologic Column: The 'impact factor' of potholes
Last winter was truly severe in the northeastern U.S. Snowfall records were blown away in cities like Boston, which finally saw its last snow …
September 22, 2015
Geomedia: Documentaries: Bearded ladies doing paleontology
A paleontologist at a dig site wipes sweat from her brow, drinks from a water bottle and scratches her beard before peeling it off to expose her …
September 21, 2015
Sauropod skull mystery
It is rare for sauropod skeletons to be found with the skull also preserved; it was only recently that the first complete North American …
September 21, 2015
Benchmarks: October 4, 1915: Dinosaur National Monument Founded
While moving across the country from California to Michigan two years ago, I stopped at Dinosaur National Monument, or “Dinosaur,” which today …
September 21, 2015
Ice (Re)Cap: October 2015
From Antarctica to the Arctic; from polar caps, permafrost and glaciers to ocean-rafted sea ice; and from burly bears to cold-loving microbes, …
September 21, 2015
First fossilized bird of another feather found in Brazil
Delicate bird bones and feathers aren’t easily preserved as fossils, and most known examples of Cretaceous birds and feathers come from a few …