Latest Michael Barton Stories

Complex computational modeling provides clues to Neanderthal extinction Computational modeling that examines evidence of how hominin groups evolved culturally and biologically in response to climate change during the last Ice Age also bears new insights into the extinction of Neanderthals. Details of the complex modeling experiments conducted at Arizona State University and the University of Colorado Denver will be published in the December issue of the journal Human Ecology, available...

By Pam Frost Gorder, Ohio State UniversityOhio State University researchers have found a new way to gauge the depth of the magma chamber that forms the Hawaiian Island volcanic chain, and determined that the magma lies much closer to the surface than previously thought.The finding could help scientists predict when Hawaiian volcanoes are going to erupt. It also suggests that Hawaii holds great potential for thermal energy.Julie Ditkof, an honors undergraduate student in earth sciences at Ohio...

Computational modeling techniques provide new and vast opportunities to the field of archaeology. By using these techniques, archeologists can develop alternative computerized scenarios that can be compared with traditional archaeological records, possibly enhancing previous findings of how humans and the environment interact.An article published in the April 2010 issue of the journal American Antiquity by researchers at Arizona State University and North Carolina State University describes...

For the first time, researchers have taken a detailed look at what lies beneath all of Iceland's volcanoes "“ and found a world far more complex than they ever imagined.  They mapped an elaborate maze of magma chambers - work that could one day help scientists better understand how earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in Iceland and elsewhere in the world.Knowing where magma chambers are located is a key first step to understanding the chemical composition of the molten rock that is...