General Meteorology and Earth Science Thread

Talk about non-anthropogenic climate-change related meteorological news and discoveries and earth science (Geology and its numerous subdisciplines and related fields) here.

edited 27th Oct '14 12:16:15 AM by rmctagg09

Opened this. Might want to have a topic to start off with, though.

The world's newest mineral is unlike anything we've ever seen

Citizen science network produces accurate maps of atmospheric dust

Something Earth-science related: Hawaii is getting some volcano-related trouble now; some towns in the Big Island are about to be overrun by a lava flow from Kilauea volcano. Evacuations already on the way.

For reference purposes, the eruption in question has begun in 1983, is named after its main went (Puʻu ʻŌʻō), has already destroyed several towns and has added almost a whole square kilometre to the island.

New study finds oceans arrived early to Earth

Magma pancakes beneath Indonesia's Lake Toba: Subsurface sources of mega-eruptions

Study of Chile earthquake finds new rock structure that affects earthquake rupture

Massive geographic change may have triggered explosion of animal life

Study shows tectonic plates not rigid, deform horizontally in cooling process

Just How Little Do We Know About The Ocean Floor?

Rare 2.5-billion-year-old rocks reveal hot spot of sulfur-breathing bacteria

Scientists examine mysterious tar mounds in the West African deep ocean

Earth's magnetic field flips more often than ever: "The Earth's magnetic field, which protects us from potentially dangerous solar radiation, is gradually losing its stability. No need to move underground or build space colonies just yet, though: the changes are taking place over millions of years."

Besides, evidence linking magnetic field changes to extinction events is not substantial. There might be some indication that a lack of changes over a long timespan is linked to increased volcanic activity, actually.

'Dark magma' could explain mystery volcanoes: "The magma fueling the volcanoes of Hawaii and Yellowstone National Park pipes up from deep inside the planet. Scientists have struggled to understand why there are hot spots there, so far from the grinding tectonic plate boundaries at which volcanoes normally appear. New research chalks the mystery up to “dark magma”: deep underground pockets of red-hot molten rock that siphon energy from Earth’s core."

Scientist Creates Diamonds From Peanut Butter: "While it might sound a bit on the ridiculous side, Frost’s process is allowing him to explore the composition of Earth’s mantle, and even challenge some long-standing assumptions about where some of these elemental components originated. Meteorites and asteroids are assumed to have brought a large amount of material to early Earth, but the amount of silicon found in those bodies is much higher than what can be found in the planet’s crust. To test if the silicon migrated down into the mantle, Frost needs to replicate the environmental conditions of that region. "

Rocky Mountain storms lead to new findings about hailstones: "Hailstones from three Rocky Mountain storms formed around biological material, then bounced around the clouds picking up layers of ice, according to a new Montana State University study.

The discovery of a biological embryo extends previous findings about the formation of snow and rain, applies to hailstones globally and provides basic information about a little-studied topic, said the researchers who published their findings Nov. 6 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres."

Turbulence in molten core helps amplify Earth's magnetic field: "Researchers have shown that turbulence, random motion that takes place in the molten metal in the Earth's core, makes a contribution to our planet's magnetic field. To obtain this result, they modeled the Earth's outer core using liquid sodium enclosed between two rotating concentric metal spheres. Like many planets and most stars, the Earth produces its own magnetic field by dynamo action, i.e. because of the motion of an electrically conducting fluid-in this case, a mixture of molten iron and nickel."

World's largest landslide?: "For decades, geologists have noted the signs of ancient landslides in southwestern Utah. Although many parts of the landscape don’t look that odd at first glance, certain layers include jumbled masses of fractured rock sandwiched among thick veins of lava, ash, and mud. Now, new fieldwork suggests that many of those ancient debris flows are the result of one of Earth’s largest known landslides, which covered an area nearly 39 times the size of Manhattan"

Sun's rotating 'magnet' pulls lightning towards UK: "The Sun may be playing a part in the generation of lightning strikes on Earth by temporarily 'bending' the Earth's magnetic field and allowing a shower of energetic particles to enter the upper atmosphere. This is according to researchers at the University of Reading who have found that over a five year period the UK experienced around 50% more lightning strikes when the Earth's magnetic field was skewed by the Sun's own magnetic field."

Researchers prove for the first time that ash clouds can cross Atlantic Ocean: "Scientists at Queen's University Belfast have led the discovery of a volcanic ash cloud that travelled from Alaska to Northern Ireland and beyond - overturning previously held assumptions about how far ash deposits can drift, with major implications for the airline industry.

The discovery, which was made in partnership with an international team of academics and has been published in the journal Geology, is the first evidence that ash clouds can travel across the Atlantic Ocean, confirming Queen's as a global leader in research. This particular ash, found in sites across Europe, including Sluggan Bog near Randalstown, Co Antrim, has been traced to an eruption from Mount Bona-Churchill in Alaska, around AD 847."

Geologists discover ancient buried canyon in South Tibet: "A team of researchers from Caltech and the China Earthquake Administration has discovered an ancient, deep canyon buried along the Yarlung Tsangpo River in south Tibet, north of the eastern end of the Himalayas. The geologists say that the ancient canyon—thousands of feet deep in places—effectively rules out a popular model used to explain how the massive and picturesque gorges of the Himalayas became so steep, so fast."

Deep-earth carbon offers clues on origin of life on Earth: "For decades scientists have had little understanding of how carbon behaved deep below the Earth's surface even as they learned more and more about the element's vital role at the planet's crust. Using a model created by Johns Hopkins geochemist Dimitri Sverjensky, he, Vincenzo Stagno of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and Fang Huang, a Johns Hopkins graduate student, have become the first to calculate how much carbon and what types exist in fluids at 100 miles below the Earth's surface at temperatures up to 2,100 degrees F.

In an article published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience, Sverjensky and his team demonstrate that in addition to the carbon dioxide and methane already documented deep in subduction zones, there exists a rich variety of organic carbon species that could spark the formation of diamonds and perhaps even become food for microbial life."

edited 20th Nov '14 10:32:21 PM by rmctagg09

Time-lapse photos and synched weather data unlock Antarctic secrets: "In preparation for his upcoming fieldwork, Brown University research analyst Jay Dickson took 10,000 pictures of the inside of his freezer. He wasn't investigating disappearing food or making sure the light went off when he closed the door. Dickson was making sure his new camera and timer would function properly for long periods in sub-freezing temperatures.

'Everything worked great in the freezer for five weeks,' Dickson said, 'so hopefully it will all work in the field.'

That camera's next stop: a remote Antarctic outpost, where it will left to take two-month's worth of time-lapse images of geological features in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Dickson's trip to the Dry Valleys this December will mark his seventh field season and Antarctica, and his sixth season using automated camera stations to gather scientific data."

Rocks get super-heated to 1000C under new mountains: "Deep underneath newly-forming mountains, the rocks can heat up to over 1000C. Geologists have suspected this happens for some time. Now a study of ancient rocks reveals that they really were once heated to these unimaginable temperatures.

Mountains form when rocks are forced upwards. But before this happens, the rocks that will make up the mountains first melt, over many millions of years.

In effect, these forming mountains have roots, 'rather like icebergs floating in the sea', says Simon Redfern at the University of Cambridge in the UK, who was not involved in the new study. 'If you build up a mountain it needs to have an equivalent amount of mountain root at its base.'"

Thanks, volcanoes! Earth cooler than expected due to recent eruptions: "Minor volcanic eruptions substantially slowed Earth’s warming between 2000 and 2013, a new study suggests. The small particles, or aerosols, were spewed high into the atmosphere and scattered sunlight back into space, preventing the global average temperature from rising from 0.05°C to 0.12°C. That cooling effect represents between 25% and 50% of the expected temperature rise during that period because of rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, the scientists say, so the finding helps explain the so-called hiatus in global warming over the last 15 years."

Scientists may be cracking mystery of big 1872 earthquake: "Geologists may be close to cracking one of the biggest seismological mysteries in the Pacific Northwest: the origin of a powerful earthquake that rattled seven states and provinces when Ulysses S. Grant was president.

Preliminary evidence points to a newly discovered fault near the town of Entiat in Chelan County, Wash. The find adds to a growing body of evidence that Central and Eastern Washington are more quake-prone than previously thought, and will help refine seismic risks in an area that's home to 1.5 million people, more than a dozen hydropower dams and the Hanford nuclear reservation, said Craig Weaver, regional chief of the U.S. Geological Survey's earthquake programs."