US And Europe Could Unite Due To Newly Forming Subduction Zone
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online The activation of a passive plate boundary in the Atlantic Ocean could ultimately result in continental Europe moving closer to the US, according to new research appearing in the journal...
Latest Plate tectonics Stories
Is this where the expected Marmara earthquake will originate from? Earthquake researchers have now identified a 30 kilometers long and ten kilometers deep area along the North Anatolian fault zone just south of Istanbul that could be the starting point for a strong earthquake. The group of seismologists including Professor Marco Bohnhoff of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences reported in the current online issue of the scientific journal Nature (Nature Communications, DOI:...
The noble gases get their collective moniker from their tendency toward snobbishness. The six elements in the family, which includes helium and neon, don't normally bond with other elements and they don't dissolve into minerals the way other gases do. But now, geochemists from Brown University have found a mineral structure with which the nobles deign to fraternize. Researchers led by Colin Jackson, a graduate student in geological sciences, have found noble gases to be highly soluble in...
Reassessment of the role of water in plate tectonics Water in the Earth's crust and upper mantle may not play such an important role as a lubricant of plate tectonics as previously assumed. This is a result geoscientists present in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature (13/06/2013) after the examination of water in the mineral olivine. Laboratory experiments over the past three decades have suggested the presence of water greatly weakens the mechanical strength of the...
Seismological Society of America Colombia sits atop a complex geological area where three tectonic plates are interacting, producing seismicity patterns that have puzzled seismologists for years. Now seismologists have identified the "Caldas tear," which is a break in a slab that separates two subducting plates and accounts for curious features, including a "nest" of seismic activity beneath east-central Colombia and high grade mineral deposits on the surface. In a paper published in...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A new collaborative project called FutureVolc is aimed at trying to improve monitoring of Iceland's volcanoes. FutureVolc started October 1, 2012 and is funded by the Environmental/FP7 program of the European Commission. The project says its main objectives are to establish an integrated volcano monitoring system through European collaboration, develop new methods to evaluate volcanic crises, increase scientific understanding of...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online For decades, researchers have used ancient shorelines to predict the stability of today’s largest ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. High shoreline markings from three million years ago as Earth was going through a warm period were thought to be evidence of a high sea level due to ice sheet collapse at the time – an assumption that has led many scientists to believe that if the world’s largest ice sheets collapsed in the...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Scientists have long been baffled by a massive earthquake that struck the western coast of North America in 1700. Since that part of the continent was only sparsely populated by indigenous peoples, the lack of official records has made studying the event quite difficult. According to a new report in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, a research team from the University of Pennsylvania has discovered new details about...
President Obama Vows to Foster SME Growth in Latin America MIAMI, May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Latin Trade Group, the leading provider of information and business services to companies operating in Latin America, announces the participation of leaders of top multinational companies as panelists at the second annual Trade Americas Expo: Creating an Environment for Business Opportunities in the Hemisphere. Hosted in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) at the JW...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Researchers writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters say the western Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami hazard potential is greater than scientists had originally predicted. Scientists from the University of Southampton say the risk from undersea earthquakes and tsunami beneath the Arabian Sea at the Makran subduction zone was underestimated. They said their findings highlight the need for further investigation of...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Authorities in Mexico have raised the alert level for towns in two central states and the capital after an increased amount of explosive activity has occurred at Popocatepetl volcano, Mexico’s second highest peak at 17,900 feet. The volcano, which sits about 50 miles southeast of the capital, began spewing steam and lava Saturday evening. Mexico’s National Disaster Prevention Center said an increase in activity was likely to...
Latest Plate tectonics Reference Libraries
The Pacific Ring of Fire, or Ring of Fire for short, is an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 25,000 mile horseshoe shape, it’s associated with an almost continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic belts, volcanic arcs and/or plate movement. The Ring of Fire contains 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75 percent of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes. It’s sometimes called the circum-Pacific belt or the...
Alfred Lothar Wegener (November 1, 1880 "“ November 2, 1930) was a German scientist, geologist, and meteorologist. He is best known for establishing the theory of the continental drift. His 1915 theory of continental drift surmised that the continents were slowly floating around the Earth. Most of his basis was strictly circumstantial evidence, and further he was not able to exhibit a mechanism for continental drift, which resulted in an unaccepted hypothesis until the 1950s. At that...
Peridotite is a dense, coarse grained ultrabasic rock, consisting mainly of the minerals olivine and pyroxene. Peridotite is also a group of mantle derived igneous rocks. They all are ultramafic or ultrabasic meaning they contain less than 45% silica and are high in iron and magnesium. Members of the peridotite family include: Dunite - predominately composed of olivine, with minor enstatite pyroxene and chromite. Harzburgite - composed of olivine, enstatite, and minor chromite....
Scoria is a term used by geologists to describe an igneous rock containing many gas bubbles, or vesicules. Scoria forms when magma rich in dissolved gases is vented. As the magma encounters lower pressures, the gasses are able to escape and form bubbles. These bubbles are trapped when the magma cools and solidifies. Volcanic cones of scoria can be left behind after eruptions, usually forming mountains with a crater at the summit. An example is Mount Wellington, Auckland in New Zealand....
Earth -- in geology and astronomy, fifth largest planet of the solar system and the only planet definitely known to support life. Gravitational forces have molded the earth, like all celestial bodies, into a spherical shape. However, the earth is not an exact sphere, being slightly flattened at the poles and bulging at the equator. The equatorial diameter is c.7,926 mi (12,760 km) and the polar diameter 7,900 mi (12,720 km); the circumference at the equator is c.24,830 mi (40,000 km)....
