September 29, 2015
Subducted seawater the source of fluid-rich diamonds
Subducting oceanic plates that dive hundreds of kilometers beneath Earth’s surface carry with them cargoes of sediment and seawater. As the plate …
The EARTH archive
September 2015
Explore the archive by subject.
42 articles · Page 1 of 2
September 21, 2015
Aerosols help mitigate ill effects of Amazon fires
Forest fires across the Amazon Basin — many of which are set intentionally to clear land for human use — burn thousands of square kilometers each …
September 21, 2015
Dinosaurs used the same nests repeatedly
Fossil dinosaur eggs and nests offer clues about dinosaur development and behavior: Based on past work, for example, scientists have thought that …
September 18, 2015
Energy Notes: March 2014-2015
U.S. Oil & Petroleum Imports (million of barrels per day) ' Oil and petroleum imports data are preliminary numbers taken from the American …
September 18, 2015
Mineral Resource of the Month: Iodine
Emily K. Schnebele, a mineral commodity specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey, compiled the following information on iodine, which is …
September 4, 2015
Declining U.S. water use a challenge for models
Americans are using less water today than they have at any time since 1970, according to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which has …
September 3, 2015
Vital seconds: The journey toward earthquake early warning for all
It is a cool foggy morning in San Mateo, Calif. A small ray of light has just peeked through my window. I listen to the birds chirping as I …
September 3, 2015
Getting there and getting around Hells Canyon
The closest major airports to Hells Canyon are Missoula, Mont., Boise, Idaho, and Spokane, Wash. If you book a multiday trip with a reputable …
September 3, 2015
Damming the salmon
In the 1940s, the state of Idaho decided that the Salmon River would be left to flow freely while the Snake would be developed for hydroelectric …
September 2, 2015
Travels in Geology: Rafting the Pacific Northwest's heavenly Hells Canyon
Why would you ever visit a place called Hells Canyon? Especially given how hard it is to get there: Few roads and only steep, difficult trails …
September 2, 2015
Injection experiment offers new view of fluid-filled faults
Scientists have known since the late 1960s that injecting fluids underground can cause earthquakes if those fluids find their way into slip-prone …
September 2, 2015
Gender equity in dino bones
Modern birds like cardinals and peacocks offer some of the most dramatic examples of sexual dimorphism on Earth, with males and females varying …
September 2, 2015
Ancient floods degassed Lake Kivu
The deep, cold waters of Lake Kivu — a stratified volcanic lake in the East African Rift Valley on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic …
August 30, 2015
Where on Earth? - September 2015
Clues for September 2015: This cave, along with three others, was carved in the sixth and seventh centuries into fine-grained, horizontally …
August 25, 2015
Red Planet Roundup: September 2015
With two rovers patrolling the surface of Mars, five spacecraft orbiting above it, and scientists here on Earth studying the Red Planet from …
August 25, 2015
Benchmarks: September 26, 1991: Crew sealed inside Biosphere 2
It takes about an hour to drive from Tucson, Ariz., to the Biosphere 2 research facility, perched atop a plateau in the Santa Catalina Mountains. …
August 24, 2015
Getting there and getting around the Whitsundays
The gateway airports to the Whitsundays are on Hamilton Island and near Proserpine on the mainland. Neither hosts direct flights from the U.S., …
August 24, 2015
Travels in Geology: Australia's Whitsunday Islands: Sun, sand and silicic volcanism
In 2009, Tourism Queensland launched a campaign soliciting applications for what they billed as “the Best Job in the World”: “caretaker” of …
August 24, 2015
MESSENGER mission ends with a bang, and more data
After 11 years in space and more than 4,100 laps around Mercury since entering orbit in 2011, NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft was decommissioned in …
August 24, 2015
Sun shapes Titan's atmospheric makeup
Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has a thick atmosphere composed of 98 percent nitrogen and about 1.4 percent methane, as well as small amounts of …
August 24, 2015
Earliest stone tools pre-date Homo
Tool making is thought to be one of the defining characteristics of the transition from apes to early man. Now, the discovery of a set of stone …
August 24, 2015
Ultraviolet lights the way for rare earth recycling
The 17 rare earth elements, widely used in everyday devices from cellphones to magnets and fluorescent lights, aren’t all that rare. They are …
August 21, 2015
Snake forebear had two back legs but no front legs
The more than 3,400 species of snakes alive today may have descended from one ancestor that lacked forelimbs, but which had small vestigial hind …
August 21, 2015
Sea-level rise accelerating
Studies tracking sea-level rise over the past few decades have been all over the map, with reports variously indicating that the rate of rise has …