Archive for the ‘Geology’ Category
The inner core (the innermost core of the earth) is fused and solidified simultaneously because of the heat flow in the rocky mantle that covers it, according to results of new research.
The discovery of this study could provide crucial clues to find out how the inner core was formed and exactly how the outer core acts as a dynamo, generating the planet’s magnetic field.
In many ways, the origin of the Earth’s magnetic field is still a mystery to scientists, such as Jon Mound of the University of Leeds, United Kingdom and a member of the research team.
Unable to go to collect samples at the center of the Earth, scientists have to rely on measurements taken well above as well as digital models, to try to get an idea of what’s happening in the nucleus. Read the rest of this entry »
For many years, the majority of scientists who study the Tibet have been thought that, at some depth under the base of the plateau, there is a portion of very hot and weak, bark that flows like a liquid. Now, a team of researchers questioned this entrenched belief and proposes that it is a completely different mechanism which acts there.
The area of Tibet and the Himalayas are among the most dynamic regions in the world. Collisions between tectonic plates in the basement of the Earth, causing earthquakes and the evolution of Tibet and the Himalayas, are common geological processes that have acted on many occasions throughout the history of the Earth, but now another with a vigor and energy just existing in that area. Read the rest of this entry »
Earthquakes are virtually impossible to predict, and capable of causing untold havoc in seconds.
Now, a new tool may enable us to learn from the distant past earthquakes, which could contribute their bit for work aimed at achieving better predictions of future earthquakes.
Seismic data, with some continuity and scientific rigor, which now has about earthquakes, only go back to little more than a century ago.
The team of Shmuel Marco, Eyal Hefetz and Nadav Wetzer, all of the University of Tel Aviv, has invented a new tool that describes as a kind of “Paleo Seismograph”, to help the geophysical and other researchers to obtain valuable data on the patterns of seismic activity in the past. Read the rest of this entry »
A new study provides the first accurate estimate of how much exceeds the speed of rotation of the Earth’s core to the rest of the planet.
Previous research had shown that the Earth’s core rotates faster than the rest of the planet. However, it has now discovered that the previous estimates of 1 degree annual were very inaccurate, and that, with respect to the rest of the planet, the core moves really much more slowly than thought, approximately 1 degree every million years. Read the rest of this entry »
All indications are that the earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on 11 March was unleashed in Japan may have shortened the length of the Earth Day (understood as it takes the Earth to complete a precise return on itself), and moved one of its axes.
Based on an estimate of the USGS (the U.S. geological survey service) about how he slipped the fault responsible for the earthquake, the researcher Richard Gross at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) of NASA in Pasadena, California, has used a complex model to conduct a preliminary theoretical calculations about how much has been disturbed the Earth’s rotation because of the earthquake, the fifth-largest since 1900. Read the rest of this entry »
The earthquake on March 11, 2011, of magnitude 9.0, with its epicenter near the northeast coast of Honshu, the largest island of Japan, took place in a failure of compressive type in, or in the vicinity of the zone of subduction between the Pacific and North American plates. At the latitude of this earthquake, the Pacific plate is moving westward at a speed of 83 millimeters per year for the North American plate approximately and begins its descent towards the West under Japan in the oceanic trench of the Japan. Some scientists divided this region in various microplate, which together define the relative motion between the large Pacific, North American and Eurasian plates; These include the microplate of Okhotsk and Amur are respectively part of the North American and Eurasian plates.
The earthquake of March 11 was preceded by a series of earthquakes during the past two days, beginning March 9 earthquake, of magnitude 7.2, about 40 kilometers of the earthquake on March 11 and continuing on the same day three earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 6. Read the rest of this entry »
The collection of measurements of tsunami waves generated by the earthquake of March 11 in Japan offers a disturbing global picture of the scope of this devastating phenomenon.
The quake generated a tsunami with waves that hit the Japanese coast and spread across the Pacific Ocean basin.
The crescent shape of some ports and coasts, such as the vicinity of Sendai, may serve to concentrate the waves as they approach the shore. And in this case, the form could be one of the parameters involved in the final outcome of the tsunami. Read the rest of this entry »
On March 11, 2011 will go down in history as the day that Japan was beaten by one of the worst earthquakes registered in this country. The earthquake, of magnitude estimated at an early stage of 8.9 on the Richter scale, but that some revisions are now in 9.0, had its epicentre in a maritime zone, about 130 kilometers of Sendai, the capital of the Prefecture of Miyagi. The earthquake generated a tsunami that devastated the coastal town of scarce elevation above sea level, and with a population of approximately one million people. Other locations have also suffered a terrible devastation.
The consequences of the earthquake and its tsunami have been numerous. The deceased may be several thousand. As for damage to property, infrastructure and buildings suffered damage of varying degrees, and not a few areas and towns have been practically wiped urban purposes. Several oil refineries and industrial complexes similar flammability have burned, including facilities in the port of Sendai and petrochemical complex in Shiogama, where there has been a huge explosion. Read the rest of this entry »
Radar seismic activity may help to predict in advance the production of a major earthquake. An article published in the journal Science has launched this possibility after based on data from the large earthquake in Izmit (Turkey) 1999.
The researchers, represented by Michel Bouchon, the CNRS in Grenoble, France, studied a series of repetitive points raised on the radar of seismic activity during the hour before the earthquake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, and believe they could represent the early stages of the event.
During the earthquake in Izmit, the two plates limiting the fault is moved horizontally from one another about three meters. This sudden movement of plates occurred on the crisp crust. Bouchon’s team has identified a pattern of earlier seismic activity originating from the base of the brittle crust near the “hypocenter”, the point where the rupture started. Read the rest of this entry »
The “drumlins” are not the name of a scary movie, but geological formations of glacial origin. A team of Spanish and Argentines several researchers have discovered a new field of drumlins in the eastern part of Lake Viedma, The national park Glacier, located in southern Patagonia.
The drumlins (‘peak’ in Gaelic) are small hills, oval-shaped, formed under the moving glacier ice. Southern Patagonia is one of the southern hemisphere where they had described these landforms, of great interest for paleoclimatic studies.
Researchers have identified a new field of drumlins and other training partners (“flutes” and “megaflutes”) in the eastern part of Lake Viedma, a fairly unknown until now. The research paper describes the component elements of these sub-glacial landforms and identifies three areas-northern, central and south-with different characteristics. This is one of the most important results of scientific effort to determine the paleoclimate of Patagonia and reconstruct the dynamics of ancient glaciers thousands of years. Read the rest of this entry »