Evidence of a variable but progressively drying climate coincides with a major shift in stone-tool-making abilities and the appearance of modern Homo sapiens. A progressively drying climate punctuated by variable wetter episodes may have precipitated the human evolution transition from our hominin ancestors to anatomically modern humans, according to research published in the online edition ...
Economic losses caused by drought losses in China may double if the global temperature rises by 1.5°C to 2.0°C above pre-industrial levels, with increasing drought intensity and areal coverage across China, a new economic assessment study by Chinese scientists found. The study, which was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences based on 30 ...
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 ...
A new analysis of thousands of very small earthquakes that have occurred in the San Bernardino basin near the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults suggests that the unusual deformation of some — they move in a different way than expected — may be due to “deep creep” 10 km below the Earth’s surface, say ...
The interaction between a chemical slurry and ancient shale during hydraulic fracking is producing radioactive waste, according to Dartmouth College research. The study, detailed in twin papers appearing in Chemical Geology, is the first research that characterizes the phenomenon of radium transfer in the widely-used method to extract oil and gas. The findings add to ...
The most severe mass extinction in Earth’s history occurred with almost no early warning signs, according to a new study by scientists at MIT, China, and elsewhere. The end-Permian mass extinction, which took place 251.9 million years ago, killed off more than 96 percent of the planet’s marine species and 70 percent of its terrestrial ...
The Internet has been going wild over the past couple of days after media reported that Iceland’s Katla volcano is about to erupt, an event that would dwarf even the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. However, recent reports suggest that the news was just another case of media sensationalism. The fake news It was the British ...
Many people believe that alternative energy sources weren’t around until fairly recently. However, when you take a look at history, you can find evidence of how the development of these sources was already paving the way thousands of years ago. For example, in the years 2000-1499 B.C., according to the reports of a missionary who ...
Millennia ago, ancient farmers cleared land to plant wheat and maize, potatoes and squash. They flooded fields to grow rice. They began to raise livestock. And unknowingly, they may have been fundamentally altering the climate of the Earth. A study published in the journal Scientific Reports provides new evidence that ancient farming practices led to a rise ...
Some of the clearest, most comprehensive images of the top several miles of the Earth’s crust have helped scientists solve the mystery of why Mount St. Helens is located outside the main line of the Cascade Arc of volcanoes. A giant subsurface rock formation some 20-30 miles in diameter, known as the Spirit Lake batholith, ...
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