Geology

Despite rising sea levels, around 173,000 square kilometers of land have been gained across planet Earth, mostly thanks to human activity. And this whole process has taken place in just 30 years, from 1985 to the present. This is what emerges from a recent study carried out by the Dutch Deltares institute published in the … Read more

The other day we were talking about how it was discovered that the mainland does not stop moving, and that millions of years ago there was only one continent, a single form of land: Pangea. However, that movement does not stop occurring. Towards what point is it evolving? Some researchers prophesy that within 250 million … Read more

Using data from the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program (GVP-SI), we can affirm that there are a total of 1,555 volcanoes on our planet. To measure the fierceness of a volcano’s eruption, the Volcanic Explosive Index (IEV) is used, a scale that ranges from 0 to 8, based on the volume of material ejected, the … Read more

The images have been taken on the ground and in the air, and show the Kilauea lava flow in 2016, in the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. You can see additional images here . But the most important thing is that the video has been recorded in 4k Ultra HD: from the 800 lines of the … Read more

Gold is expensive because, fundamentally, it is scarce. In reality, however, it is not that it is as scarce as it seems, but that it is scarce that we can obtain cheaply. Because gold, on Earth, there is much more than glitters . For example, if we were to extract all the gold from the … Read more

According to a comprehensive survey of microfossils in the desert of northwestern Australia, long before trees and lichens evolved, the soils of the emerged lands contained life . This is suggested by research by Gregory Retallack of the University of Oregon, lead author of a study published in the December issue of the journal Gondwana … Read more

Geological times are so slow that one thinks that rivers, seas and oceans are always what they are throughout their lives, and that they will not need to change their map (another thing is that we have acquired a political map, which is already flour from another sack). However, this is not always true. At … Read more

The most gigantic rock in the world is not Ayers Rock, Australia, as most people believe, but Mount Augustus (or Burringurrah), located in a remote area of ​​Western Australia. It is two and a half times the size of Ayers Rock, rising 858 meters and its crest is more than five miles long. It is … Read more

In the following video you can see an animation on the globe of all the earthquakes that have taken place between 2001 and 2015. Animation has been produced by Science on a Sphere (part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ) A circle of different size according to its magnitude (colors indicate depth; red … Read more

The oldest water we have ever discovered on Earth has recently been located by geoscientists at the University of Toronto: it is 2 billion years old and is located 1.5 miles away in a Kidd Creek mine , located in Timmins, Ontario. Surprisingly, this water flowed freely, and was not encapsulated in a rock formation … Read more

It is under Alaska and Siberia and it is a river of liquid iron, but it is not on the surface, but in the depths of the Earth. Specifically in the outer core of the Earth, and is capable of influencing the behavior of the magnetic field of our planet. This current moves about 50 … Read more

Its caldera is 12 kilometers long and showed no signs of activity for 500 years , but now the most destructive supervolcano in Europe has awakened. It is Campi Flegrei (which means "burning fields"), an extensive volcanic area that is located just 9 kilometers northwest of Naples, Italy. According to a study published now in … Read more

A human eye is able to see an object of about 10 meters at a distance of 36 kilometers. The width of the Great Wall, however, is about 2 meters wide. So despite urban legend, the Great Wall is not something that can be seen from space. However, we can see many other works of … Read more

Everest is the highest mountain in the world, at 8,848 meters . 6,208 people have ascended it and at least 240 have died. Still, it is debatable that it is the highest point on Earth. To all this is added now that perhaps Everest has ostensibly changed its height due to an earthquake that has … Read more

The underwater depths are practically unknown and, in addition, many of the meteorological and geological events that occur daily depend on them, as well as predict our future on this planet . Here are some examples of the importance of this watery soil that we know almost nothing about: Svalbard The underwater relief of the … Read more

Etna is an active volcano on the east coast of Sicily, between the provinces of Messina and Catania. It is around 3,322 meters high, although this varies due to constant eruptions. The Etna volcano, the most active in Europe , once again offers an impressive spectacle. Its last eruption, without danger to the population, is … Read more

Three new minerals have been identified in a small sample of the Khatyrka meteorite by researchers led by Caltech mineralogist Chi Ma . Ma, director of the Analysis Department in Caltech’s Geological and Planetary Sciences division, and his colleagues have discovered 35 new minerals to date, including 32 in meteorite samples. Minerals in meteorites Of … Read more

Human beings emit twice as much sulfur dioxide as all volcanoes on Earth put together, which shows our extraordinary capacity to pollute the air . These data are those revealed by the ozone monitoring instrument on NASA’s Aura satellite in a study carried out by researchers at Michigan Technological University and published in Scientific Reports … Read more

A unique 3D view of Antarctica has been the fruit of six years of work by ESA’s CryoSat. This mission has taken about 250 million measurements . CryoSat’s radar altimeter detects small variations in ice height across the continent. The satellite’s orbit takes it to latitudes within 200 kilometers of the north and south poles. … Read more

We hardly know anything about what is under our feet. If the Earth were an apple, all the mines and other holes we have made on the planet would only make up a tenth … of the thin skin of the apple. The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) will lead an international … Read more

Located in the Czech Republic, the Hranice Chasm has been confirmed as the deepest underwater cave in the world. Since it was discovered in 1999, the Polish caver Krzysztof Starnawski has visited it many times. Hranice After 17 years of research, finally, Krzysztof Starnawski has found that the Hranice abyss is 404 meters , which … Read more

Blood Falls is an iron oxide stream located on the tongue of the Taylor Glacier, in the Taylor Valley, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Victoria Land, eastern Antarctica. A study by the research team led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Colorado College, published in the Journal of Glaciology , describes the 100-meter path of the … Read more

The world is not, geologically , a safe place for humans. And it is that 2.700 million people live exposed to earthquakes, around one billion in 155 countries to floods and 414 million live near one of the 220 most dangerous volcanoes. These are the conclusions of the 2017 edition of the Atlas of the … Read more