Category: Earth's Interior

Months of Gravity Changes Preceded the Tōhoku Earthquake

9/19/2022

Earthquakes caused by subducting tectonic plates can be highly destructive events. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake caused immense damage to population centers in eastern Japan. Constant monitoring of faulted regions with seismographs and space geodesy measurements can indicate when land deformations are occurring in shallow or surficial systems, giving researchers a hand with hazard mitigation work. But for subduction zones, much of the deformation occurs deep within Earth, making it difficult to detect on the surface. - EOS

Foot floating in a Yellowstone hot spring leaves more questions than answers

8/21/2022

A foot found floating in a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park has been linked to a July 31 death. On Aug. 16, a park employee found the foot, still encased in a shoe, in Abyss Pool, one of the deepest hot springs in Yellowstone. In a statement today (Aug. 19), authorities said that the foot is linked to an incident involving a single individual on the morning of July 31 and that they do not suspect foul play. They did not elaborate on why they do not suspect foul play, nor did they identify the person who died. An investigation is ongoing. - LiveScience

A magnetic field reversal 42,000 years ago may have contributed to mass extinctions

4/7/2022

A flip-flop of Earth’s magnetic poles between 42,000 and 41,000 years ago briefly but dramatically shrank the magnetic field’s strengthand may have triggered a cascade of environmental crises on Earth, a new study suggests. With the help of new, precise carbon dating obtained from ancient tree fossils, the researchers correlated shifts in climate patterns, large mammal extinctions and even changes in human behavior just before and during the Laschamps excursion, a brief reversal of the magnetic poles that lasted less than a thousand years. It’s the first study to directly link a magnetic pole reversal to large-scale environmental changes. - Science

Radical Plan to Make Earth's Deepest Hole Could Unleash Limitless Energy

3/16/2022

Since its launch in 2020, a pioneering energy company called Quaise has attracted some serious attention for its audacious goal of diving further into Earth's crust than anybody has dug before. Following the closure of first round venture capital funding, the MIT spin-off has now raised a total of US$63 million: a respectable start that could potentially make geothermal power accessible to more populations around the world. The company's vision for getting closer to the center of the Earth is to combine conventional drilling methods with a megawatt-power flashlight inspired by the kind of technology that could one day make nuclear fusion energy possible here to edit. - Science Alert

Don’t Call It a Supervolcano

8/13/2021

Scientists dismantle the myths of Yellowstone: Yellowstone National Park, the world’s first and arguably most famous national park, is home to one of the planet’s largest and potentially most destructive volcanoes. The 50- by 70-kilometer Yellowstone caldera complex is so massive that it can really be appreciated only from the air. But although the caldera isn’t always visible on the ground, it’s certainly no secret: Copious thermal features like hot springs and geyser basins dot the landscape and have attracted people to the uniquely beautiful and ecologically rich area for at least 11,000 years. - EOS

Right - The movement of the North American tectonic plate over the Yellowstone hot spot has created a trail of volcanic activity across southern Idaho into Wyoming over the past 16.5 million years. Credit: USGS. Click image for larger version.

WHAT ROLE CAN GEOTHERMAL ENERGY PLAY IN THE ENERGY TRANSITION?

3/16/2021

Transitioning away from fossil fuels to 100 percent renewable energy is essential to staving off the worst effects of the climate crisis. Wind and solar are currently leading the charge – but they may only get us so far. There is a less-talked-about, under-explored renewable out there that can generate clean, base load energy around the clock. “Geothermal electricity is always on,” said Jefferson Tester, a professor of sustainable energy systems at Cornell University and a leading expert on geothermal energy. “It can provide fully dispatchable power or heat and is scalable in the same way other renewables are.” - Climate Reality

Geologists Raise the Speed Limit for How Fast Continental Crust can Form

10/9/2020

Scientists have thought that the Earth's mountain ranges are formed through this process over many millions of years. But MIT geologists have now found that the planet can generate new land far more quickly than previously thought. In a paper published in the journal Geology, the team shows that parts of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California rose up surprisingly fast, over a period of just 1.39 million years—more than twice as fast as expected for the region. The researchers attribute the rapid formation of land to a massive flare-up of magma.- Phys.Org