Latest Plate tectonics Stories
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Clouds of volcanic ash from Anak Krakatau, or child of Krakatau, have become so prominent in recent days that Indonesian authorities have issued a warning for local residents and tourists. "The ash was carried by wind from the southeast to the south, reaching Bandarlampung," Nurhuda, head of the observation and information section of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in Lampung province told state news agency...
Exposure to volcanic ash can increase respiratory symptoms such as an extreme cough, or phlegm, according to a new study. The research, which will be presented today (4 September 2012) at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Vienna, investigated the effects of living close to the Icelandic Volcano, Eyjafjallajökull. Eyjafjallajökull erupted in April 2010 and created a huge ash cloud which spread across Europe, causing widespread disruption to air travel on the...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Over the last 50 million years, the Caribbean islands have been pushed east, driven by the movement of the Earth's viscous mantel against the more rooted South American continent. A new study by University of Southern California (USC) geophysicists, published in Nature Geoscience, gives us a better understanding of how continents resist the constant movement of the Earth's plates and what effect the continental plates have in...
The growth of high topography on the Tibetan Plateau in Sichuan, China, began much earlier than previously thought, according to an international team of geologists who looked at mountain ranges along the eastern edge of the plateau. The Indian tectonic plate began its collision with Asia between 55 and 50 million years ago, but "significant topographic relief existed adjacent to the Sichuan Basin prior to the Indo-Asian collision," the researchers report online in Nature Geoscience....
[ Video 1 ] | [ Video 2 ] Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online For decades, scientists thought the only place in our solar system that consisted of plate tectonics was right here on Earth. But a UCLA scientist has discovered, analyzing data from two instruments, that the Red Planet has also shown evidence of tectonic plate movement. The science of plate tectonics revolves around the idea that huge crustal plates beneath a planet’s surface are constantly moving,...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A long-dormant New Zealand volcano erupted on Monday, spewing an ash cloud that disrupted flights and closed highways. The Mount Tongariro volcano located in the middle of the North Island erupted for the first time after lying dormant for more than a century. The last activity the volcano had shown at the site was in 1897, officials said. Witnesses in the area reported seeing "flame-like explosions and a cloud of ash coming from a...
A comprehensive analysis of the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the Pacific Northwest coast confirms that the region has had numerous earthquakes over the past 10,000 years, and suggests that the southern Oregon coast may be most vulnerable based on recurrence frequency. Written by researchers at Oregon State University, and published online by the U.S. Geological Survey, the study concludes that there is a 40 percent chance of a major earthquake in the Coos Bay, Ore., region during the next...
On a time scale of tens to hundreds of millions of years, the geomagnetic field may be influenced by currents in the mantle. The frequent polarity reversals of Earth's magnetic field can also be connected with processes in the mantle. These are the research results presented by a group of geoscientists in the new advance edition of "Nature Geoscience" on Sunday, July 29th. The results show how the rapid processes in the outer core, which flows at rates of up to about one millimeter per...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online The most dangerous fault line on the island of New Zealand is the Alpine Fault. It is approximately 80 miles northwest of the islands main city of Christchurch. Research published in the prestigious journal Science, co-authored by University of Nevada, Reno's Glenn Biasi and colleagues at GNS Science in New Zealand, shows that very large earthquakes have been occurring regularly on the Alpine Fault along the southwest coastline of...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online In addition to being fairly unpredictable, volcanoes can eject a wide range of material, from mile-high plums of black ash to a deadly hail of fist-sized pumice. These ejections travel extremely fast and can reach internal temperatures between 750 to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The prevailing theory has been that the difference in particle size determined when bubbling magma deep below the volcano converts into a rising stream of gas and...
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)....
