geology

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Nature's 'Toilet Bowl' Collapses in Utah

Geological formation also known as 'Double Arch' falls at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

(Newser) - Some bad news for visitors to Utah's Glen Canyon National Recreation Area—nature's "Toilet Bowl" is no more. According to the National Park Service , the geological formation also known as the "Double Arch," "Crescent Pool," and "Hole in the Roof" collapsed on...

Geologist Has a Theory on Where Mona Lisa Is Set

Ann Pizzorusso used da Vinci's diaries to pinpoint a location on Lake Como

(Newser) - For Ann Pizzorusso, the most fascinating mystery of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa sits just over her shoulders. A geologist and Italian Renaissance scholar, Pizzorusso spent years puzzling out the painting's setting, and she used his diaries to track down where he traveled during that period. The CBC...

Scientists Say We're Not in the 'Age of Humans'

Committee of geologists votes down Anthropocene, citing overly narrow definition

(Newser) - The Anthropocene or age of humans will for now remain an unofficial unit of geological time. A committee of scientists has voted down the idea of the Anthropocene epoch marked by humans' significant impact on the planet after some 15 years of debate. A panel of experts was convened in...

The Impact Boiled the Ocean. But It Wasn't All Bad
The Impact Boiled the Ocean.
But It Wasn't All Bad
in case you missed it
Dec 24, 2023 7:39 AM CST

The Impact Boiled the Ocean. But It Wasn't All Bad

Scientists believe S2 impact held some benefits for early life 3.26B years ago

(Newser) - Billions of years before a smaller asteroid slammed Earth, triggering a global blackout that would wipe out the dinosaurs, a rock four times the size of Mount Everest made an even bigger splash. Researchers have long known about the impact, dubbed S2, which occurred 3.26 billion years ago, based...

'Lost Continent' That Broke Off From Australia Is Found
Geologists Have Found
'Lost Continent' of Argoland
new study
Oct 29, 2023 9:30 AM CDT

Geologists Have Found 'Lost Continent' of Argoland

Land that broke away from ancient Australia splintered into massive shards

(Newser) - Before you congratulate yourself on finding your lost keys, know that scientists have located an entire lost continent, piecing together a longstanding geological puzzle. Millions of years ago, a strip of western Australia broke off into a microcontinent known as Argoland due to shifting tectonic plates, IFL Science reports....

Scientists Finish Mapping Earth's Eighth Continent
Too Much Stretching Doomed
Earth's Eighth Continent
NEW STUDY
Sep 29, 2023 11:23 AM CDT

Too Much Stretching Doomed Earth's Eighth Continent

Ultra-thin Zealandia survived an island before it was drowned some 25M years ago

(Newser) - Scientists have finished mapping what has been called Earth's eighth continent , revealing how it formed and why it largely sank to the depths of the ocean. Above the waves, all that's left of the continent known as Zealandia are the South Pacific islands of New Caledonia and the...

Scientists Say We Could Be in a New Epoch

The Anthropocene likely started in the 1950s, scientists say

(Newser) - After 15 years spent working on the question, a scientific panel announced Tuesday it believes that, yes, the planet has entered a new geological epoch . The Anthropocene, derived from the Greek terms for "human" and "new," is described by the New York Times as "the human...

'Plastic Rocks' Found in New, Far-Flung Places

Plastiglomerates are a 'terrifying' signal of humans' impact on the planet: researcher

(Newser) - Humans have made their mark on the geological record with plastiglomerates—"rocks" formed from a mix of natural debris and plastic, fused together with heat. These rocks were first described in Hawaii almost a decade ago, but they've been seen in far-flung places since then, including a remote...

Dino-Killing Asteroid May Have Had a Friend
Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid
May Have Had a Friend
NEW STUDY
Aug 18, 2022 7:30 PM CDT

Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid May Have Had a Friend

Fossils suggest 5-mile-wide crater off West Africa is also 66M years old

(Newser) - The 6-mile-wide asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago may have had a baby cousin that struck on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean. Dr. Uisdean Nicholson of Scotland's Heriot-Watt University discovered a hidden depression of a similar age as the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico...

Century of Research Moved Stonehenge Origin Story 2 Miles
Stonehenge's Smaller Stones
Are the Real Mystery
longform
Feb 19, 2022 8:00 AM CST

Stonehenge's Smaller Stones Are the Real Mystery

'New Yorker' dives into the quest to pinpoint the origins of the monument's bluestones

(Newser) - The quest to fully unlock Stonehenge's origins is an ongoing one, and in a lengthy piece for the New Yorker , Simon Akam recaps some of the current research. His piece focuses largely on the bluestones that make up the monument. The sarsens are the behemoths; the bluestones are the...

Geologists May Have Solved a Grand Canyon Mystery
Geologists May Have Solved
a Grand Canyon Mystery
in case you missed it
Aug 22, 2021 8:00 AM CDT

Geologists May Have Solved a Grand Canyon Mystery

The 'Great Unconformity' of rocks has been a puzzle for 150 years

(Newser) - The Grand Canyon may be a geologic marvel, but it's also a geological puzzle—one that may have finally been cracked. The puzzle is known as the Great Unconformity, explains a release at Phys.org . In parts of the canyon, layers of rock about 520 million years old sit...

'MYSTERY SOLVED!' on Origin of Stonehenge's Megaliths

Scientists say most of the giant sandstone slabs came from West Woods in Marlborough Downs

(Newser) - In the 1500s, a British antiquities expert examined Stonehenge's biggest slabs and said he knew where they came from. Now, more than four centuries later, scientists are saying that William Lambarde was right on the money, solving one of the world's great archaeological and geological mysteries. The New ...

Too Much Rain May Have Triggered Kilauea Eruption
Scientists: We Know Why
Kilauea Got Triggered
in case you missed it
Apr 26, 2020 10:23 AM CDT

Scientists: We Know Why Kilauea Got Triggered

Theory suggests heavy rain increased pore pressure, but other scientists are doubtful

(Newser) - Climate change could usher in more volcanic eruptions, according to new research focusing on the 2018 Kilauea eruptions in Hawaii. The research published Wednesday in Nature suggests the Kilauea eruptions were triggered by months of extreme rainfall, which included a 24-hour period that set a US record. The idea is...

Scientists Piece Together Hints of a Lost Continent
Scientists Piece Together
Hints of a Lost Continent
in case you missed it
Sep 21, 2019 3:16 PM CDT

Scientists Piece Together Hints of a Lost Continent

'Greater Adria' disappeared beneath Europe eons ago

(Newser) - A lost continent isn't quite as lost as it used to be. Scientists have painstakingly fit together clues spread across Europe to unravel the story of Greater Adria, reports Live Science . This continent was about the size of Greenland when it rammed into what's now southern Europe about...

Visit This Natural Wonder, Face $740K Fine

'Sarlacc's Pit' is dangerous, mostly unexplored

(Newser) - A massive cave discovered in British Columbia's Wells Gray Provincial Park and said to be among Canada's largest has been given an unofficial name. "Sarlacc's Pit" resembles the lair of Sarlacc in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, though Star Wars fans—and everyone else—should...

Giant Crack in Africa Suggests an 8th Continent Is Coming

Rift in Kenya means Africa might split in 2, but it will take millions of years

(Newser) - Some 250 million years ago, Earth had one continent—Pangaea. Today, there are seven, and in another 50 million years or so, there could be eight. That's according to geologists studying a massive crack that recently appeared in southwestern Kenya, taking out homes and a section of highway, after...

'Incredible' Ice Age Cave Network Found Below Montreal

It stretches the length of 2 football fields

(Newser) - At the end of the last ice age, glaciers rapidly receded across Canada, putting so much pressure on the land below that solid rock split apart. Perhaps nowhere is that more evident than a newly discovered cave system some 20 feet below Montreal, Quebec. Suspecting that a cave beneath a...

Yellowstone's Supervolcano Could Erupt in a 'Geologic Snap'

Eruption process could take just decades, rather than centuries

(Newser) - Should it ever erupt, a supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park could blanket North America in an ash cloud, wipe out communications, and alter the climate. Given that eruptions of supervolcanoes buried on our planet—and there are several—are thought to occur every 100,000 years or so, however, the...

Creationist Sues Grand Canyon for Religious Discrimination

He wants to take rocks out of the park to study further, NPS declined request

(Newser) - Somewhere between 15% and 40% of Americans believe our planet is only 10,000 years old, in spite of the literal heaps of evidence that it is far older. One such American, young-Earth creationist Andrew Snelling, is suing the National Park Service for not letting him remove rocks from the...

Geologists Find Evidence of a Real Brexit
Geologists
Find Evidence
of a Real Brexit
NEW STUDY
Apr 5, 2017 3:33 PM CDT

Geologists Find Evidence of a Real Brexit

Britain cut off from Europe 150K years ago: study

(Newser) - "Without this dramatic breaching Britain would still be a part of Europe," says Sanjeev Gupta—and no, he's not talking about Brexit. In what he dubs "Brexit 1.0—the Brexit nobody voted for," the Imperial College London researcher reveals two massive floods were responsible...

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