Russia on EARTH Magazine

Mangroves sprouted in Arctic during Eocene

Fri, 13 Oct 2017 13:51:03 -0400

Evidence of ancient mangrove plants was found in lignite seams, such as in this outcrop on Faddeevsky Island. Credit: Guillaume Suan.

Mangrove trees, which today thrive in tropical and subtropical climates in the low and midlatitudes, grew in the high Russian Arctic about 56 million years ago, scientists reported in Geology. It’s the northernmost occurrence of mangrove trees ever documented.

Benchmarks: July 15-24, 1975: Apollo-Soyuz mission launches space collaboration

Thu, 22 Jun 2017 09:50:39 -0400

The crew of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project included Apollo commander Thomas P. Stafford (standing, left), docking module pilot Donald K. "Deke" Slayton (seated, left) and command module pilot Vance D. Brand (seated, center), and Soyuz commander Alexei A. Leonov (standing, right) and flight engineer Valeriy N. Kubasov (seated, right). Credit: NASA.

The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union spurred innovations and historic firsts for humankind from Sputnik to the moon landing. However, much of the drive to break through those technological barriers and explore the vast, starry landscape of space was rooted in a desire to display military dominance in space amid the competition and animosity of the Cold War.

A front-row seat at a fire-and-ice show

Mon, 09 Mar 2015 12:09:48 -0400

A slow-moving eruption in Russia gave scientists a rare opportunity to safely study interactions between lava and snow in the field. Credit: Benjamin R. Edwards.

Many of the world’s volcanoes are high enough and cold enough to sport seasonal snow, and some even boast year-round glaciers. But what happens when those volcanoes erupt and molten lava hits snow and ice? Observing such extreme interactions of hot and cold is often dangerous in the field, but a slow-moving basaltic eruption in Russia in 2012 provided the right conditions to give scientists a close-up view on one fire-meets-ice display.

Mineral in Chelyabinsk meteorite reveals past collision

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 10:55:28 -0500

This fragment of the Chelyabinsk meteorite was retrieved from Lake Chebarkul in Russia. Credit: ©Shutterstock.com/Migel.

A new analysis of fragments of the Chelyabinsk meteorite — which burst over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 2013 — reveals that its parent asteroid collided with another asteroid nearly 300 million years before it struck Earth.

Russian earthquake ruptures superfast and deep

Mon, 06 Oct 2014 09:31:09 -0400

Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Aivazovsky

A “superfast” magnitude-6.7 earthquake was detected off the coast of Kamchatka, Russia, in May. The earthquake, called a “supershear” quake, is one of a handful of superfast earthquakes noted by researchers over the years, but this is the first identified at such great depth.

Early results

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Although our final results won’t begin to be published until early next year, our team met in May to review all the data we had collected so far.

We had drilled several types of cores. Our initial pilot cores, taken in 1998 and 2003, provided proof of concept, demonstrating the importance of these cores as a climate record, as they contain climate data that extend back in time 300,000 years — roughly three times longer back in time than the oldest portions of the Greenland ice core records.

The Thirsty Dragon and the Wealthy Bear

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline carries crude oil 1,768 kilometers from an oilfield in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. BP

How China, Russia and High Oil Prices Influence Global Dynamics

The world is changing. Gone are the days of Middle Eastern sheikhs controlling the world’s oil and our purse strings. Russia and China are changing the rules of the game.

The Thirsty Dragon and the Wealthy Bear

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

How China, Russia and High Oil Prices Influence Global Dynamics

It’s a brave new world. China and Russia are changing the terms of energy geopolitics, and in the process, changing everyone’s place in the world.

These growing powers are gaining influence and shifting foreign policy relationships by currying favors with oil-producing states, building regional influence and dependency, and disregarding human rights abuses. By extending their unique brands of “democracy” into the energy game, the two nations are compromising U.S. efforts to promote its foreign policy agenda.

The thrill to drill in the chill

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Sunrise at the scientists' field camp on the western shore of Lake El'gygytgyn. El'gygytgyn International Science Crew

One of the tents at the drilling platform. El'gygytgyn International Science Crew

Lake El'gygytgyn as it might have looked during the last peak glaciation 21,000 years ago. El'gygytgyn International Science Crew

Lake El'gygytgyn as it looks today in summer, during the present interglacial. El'gygytgyn International Science Crew

This meteorological station in Chukotka records temperature and precipitation data. El'gygytgyn International Science Crew

The drilling team. El'gygytgyn International Science Crew

Nearly 3.6 million years ago, a large asteroid slammed into Earth in what is today northeastern Russia. Within minutes, the impact formed an 18-kilometer-wide hole in the ground that then filled with water. The sediments that collected in the bottom of that lake since the impact may provide one of the best stratigraphic records of high-latitude climate change over the last 3.6 million years. Last year, we traveled to this remote region to drill into these sediments to see what we could learn about Arctic change.

Travels in Geology: Exploring Lake Baikal, the Sacred Sea

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Lake Baikal David B. Williams

Williams displays a giant specimen of mica from Sludyanka, Russia. David B. Williams

The all-marble train station at Sludyanka, Russia. The white-blue marble comes from quarries outside of town. David B. Williams

A tunnel on the Circumbaikal train route, the last-completed section of the Trans-Siberian Railway. David B. Williams

Deepest. Oldest. Most biologically diverse. Siberia’s superlative-laden Lake Baikal is one of the planet’s great geological treasures. Located 4,200 kilometers east of Moscow and 2,100 kilometers west of Vladivostok, the lake known locally as the Sacred Sea is like no other.