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11 December 2013
Seismologists showcase model for profiling underground nuclear blasts
Since the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) opened for signatures in 1996, there has been a growing interest in monitoring for underground nuclear test explosions. When a nuclear bomb goes off underground, it produces enough force for seismographs to detect it.
‘Butterflies of the sea’ record ocean conditions in their shells
The shell of a tiny marine mollusk carries evidence of the ocean conditions that formed it, researchers have found. These “butterflies of the sea” could be used to determine the temperature and carbon dioxide levels of ancient oceans, they said this week at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting
Buoyant rover records Arctic ice from beneath
Researchers have developed a rover that floats beneath the surface of the ice and photographs it from underneath. The upside down images could help scientists understand the source of methane bubbles trapped in Arctic ice, and how much of this powerful global warming gas is seeping from the permafrost.
Magnetic patterns give away the oldest ocean fragment’s age, origins
Continents have re-shaped and seas have parted, but one fragment of the ocean floor has remained locked in place for more than 200 million years. The Ionian basin – a patch of seafloor under the Mediterranean – is the oldest-known section of the seabed to have remained static, held by irregular-shaped continental joints that prevent its motion. The Ionian Sea carries its years well – scientists have debated its true …
Mythical microbes at the deep Earth interface
In ancient Greek portrayals of Hades, the underworld is a shadowy, unforgiving subterranean expanse, whose five rivers include Phlegethon, a river of fire. At Yanartas in modern-day Turkey, that mythological river of fire flows up into the living world. Methane gas from Earth’s mantle seeps to the surface, fueling flames in the side of Mount Chimera, once believed to be the home of a fire-breathing monster. While scientists are unlikely …
10 December 2013
Trawling is a drag for continental shelf’s sediments
While GPS is normally deployed to home in on lost cell phones or navigate tricky driving routes, satellite tracking may help ocean researchers better understand how fishermen’s trawls scrape away the sediment compositions of the continental shelf.
Airborne viruses implicated in algal die-offs
Researchers think they might know one of the reasons why microscopic ocean-dwelling creatures get sick and die: they sneeze, spraying droplets containing a virus into the air. Algal blooms cover massive swathes of the ocean, converting carbon dioxide into oxygen, and playing an important role in nutrient regulation. Scientists know that a virus is often responsible for the die-off of a common algal species, a single-celled coccolithophore known as Emiliania …
Hey, it’s weird up here – there must be an earthquake in the atmosphere
Months before the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, warning signs could be detected hundreds of miles above the Earth’s surface, according to new data presented Monday at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting. There were strange disturbances in a layer of the atmosphere called the ionosphere up to one month before the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck about 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, according to Pierre-Richard Cornely, an atmospheric …
Students collecting space dust may help find distant planets
NASA’s fastest spacecraft collects dust like no other scientific instrument. Hurtling through space on its one-way trip toward Pluto, New Horizons is measuring space dust — a technique that could help astronomers find planets in other solar systems.
13 December 2012
Secret tsunamis of the South Pacific
The crumbling volcanic islands of the southern Pacific Ocean could be a major source of undocumented – and potentially dangerous – tsunamis.
GeoSpace is a blog on Earth and space science, managed by AGU’s Public Information staff. The blog features posts by AGU writers and guest contributors on all sorts of relevant science topics, but with a focus on new research and geo and space sciences-related stories that are currently in the news.