Does the surface of the Earth, part of the tectonic plates, move because of motion in the mantle, or is the mantle driven by the movement of the plates? Or could it be that this question is ill-posed? This is the point of view adopted by scientists at the École Normale Supérieure — PSL, the ...
Most people only ever encounter rubidium as the purple color in fireworks, but the obscure metal has helped two University of Chicago scientists propose a theory of how the Moon may have formed from studying Moon rocks. Conducted in the lab of Prof. Nicolas Dauphas, whose pioneering research studies the isotopic makeup of rocks from Earth ...
Vast rings of electrically charged particles encircle the Earth and other planets. Now, a team of scientists has completed research into waves that travel through this magnetic field, an electrically charged environment, known as the magnetosphere, deepening our understanding of the region and its interaction with our own planet, and opening up new ways to ...
Powering a massive biosphere on Earth, photosynthesis is the light-mediated reaction that converts carbon dioxide and water to carbohydrates and oxygen. About 2.3 billion years ago, this reaction led to the dramatic oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere. Evidence exists for oxygen-releasing photosynthesis evolving much earlier — perhaps as early as 3 billion years ago. However, the ...
The huge magnetic field that surrounds the Earth, protecting it from radiation and charged particles from space — which many animals even use for orientation purposes — is changing all the time, which is why geoscientists constantly keep it under surveillance. The old well-known sources of the Earth’s magnetic field are the Earth’s core — ...
When the landmass that is now the Indian subcontinent slammed into Asia about 50 million years ago, the collision changed the configuration of the continents, the landscape, the global climate, and more. Now, a team of Princeton University scientists has identified one more effect: The oxygen in the world’s oceans increased, altering the conditions for ...
ANU scientists have found that Earth is made of the same elements as the Sun, but it has less of the volatile elements such as hydrogen, helium, oxygen, and nitrogen. Lead author of the study, Dr. Haiyang Wang, said they made the best estimate of the composition of Earth and the Sun with the aim ...
A new study by researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) could help us understand how our planet was formed. Associate Professor Hrvoje Tkalčić and Ph.D. Scholar Thanh-Son Phạm are confident they now have direct proof the Earth’s inner core is solid. They came up with a way to detect shear waves, or “J waves,” ...
In a study published in Nature Geoscience, the team explored the physics of “stagnant slabs.” These geophysical oddities form when huge chunks of Earth’s oceanic plates are forced deep underground at the edges of certain continental plates. The chunks sink down into the planet’s interior for hundreds of miles until they suddenly — and for reasons ...
Thin ribbons of purple and white light that sometimes appear in the night sky were dubbed a new type of aurora when brought to scientists’ attention in 2016. But new research suggests these mysterious streams of light are not an aurora at all, but an entirely new celestial phenomenon. Amateur photographers had captured the new ...
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