Latest Plate tectonics Stories
Researchers studying the highest mountain range in the continental United States have been able to detect the rate at which it is growing and perhaps how old the mountains that are found there using new technology from space. The team of researchers from University of Nevada’s Geodetic Laboratory in Reno and University of Glasgow in the UK, said the Sierra Nevada mountains are steadily growing at the rate of about 1 inch every two decades across the entire 400-mile-long range on the...
Nevada Geodetic Lab uses GPS and radar for most precise measurements over entire mountain range From the highest peak in the continental United States, Mt. Whitney at 14,000 feet in elevation, to the 10,000-foot-peaks near Lake Tahoe, scientific evidence from the University of Nevada, Reno shows the entire Sierra Nevada mountain range is rising at the relatively fast rate of 1 to 2 millimeters every year. "The exciting thing is we can watch the range growing in real time," University of...
Brett Smith for Redorbit.com New research is casting doubts on the frequency or even the possibility of a ‘super-eruption’ that could blot out the sun from the Earth with a thick veil of volcanic ash. A joint research team from Washington State University and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre said the biggest Yellowstone eruption on record was actually two different eruptions at least 6,000 years apart. According to the study published in the June 2012 issue...
[ Watch the Video ] Mexico's Popocatepetl Volcano has re-awakened and has been emitting gas and ash. NOAA's GOES-13 satellite has been viewing the ash cloud, and it was documented in a short new video released by NASA's GOES Project on Friday. NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-13, captures visible and infrared images of weather over the eastern U.S. every 15 minutes, and spotted an ash and gas cloud streaming from Mexico's Popocatepetl Volcano over several...
The Popocatepetl volcano located outside of Mexico City has started spewing ash and fragments of glowing, molten rock thousands of feet down its slopes, forcing officials at one of the world's largest cities to increase the volcano's alert level, BBC News and the Associated Press (AP) are reporting. The volcano, which is also commonly referred to as 'Popo,' has been expelling small amounts of ash on an almost daily basis since entering a round of eruptive activity back in 1994, the AP...
Two new studies into the "plumbing systems" that lie under volcanoes could bring scientists closer to understanding plate ruptures and predicting eruptions—both of which are important steps for protecting the public from earthquake and volcanic hazards. International teams of researchers, including two scientists from the University of Rochester, have been studying the location and behavior of magma chambers on the Earth's mid-ocean ridge system—a vast chain of volcanoes along which...
Report finds massive spending, limited security impact, and growing humanitarian crisis WASHINGTON, April 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by the Washington Office on Latin America: What: Press Conference to Release the Washington Office on Latin America's New Report, "Beyond the Border Buildup: Security and Migrants along the U.S.-Mexico Border." When: Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 9:30 a.m. Where: Lisagor Room, The National Press Club, 529 14th...
Two new studies into the "plumbing systems" that lie under volcanoes could bring scientists closer to predicting large eruptions. International teams of researchers, led by the University of Leeds, studied the location and behavior of magma chambers on the Earth's mid-ocean ridge system - a vast chain of volcanoes along which the Earth forms new crust. They worked in Afar (Ethiopia) and Iceland - the only places where mid-ocean ridges appear above sea level. Volcanic ridges (or...
The April/May GSA Today science article is now online at www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/. In this issue, Simon Williams and colleagues from the Earthbyte Group of the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney present GPlates, a powerful new method for analyzing geological and geophysical data sets within the context of tectonic reconstructions. GPlates is part of a new generation of plate reconstruction software that incorporates functionality familiar from GIS software with the added...
A new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience is suggesting that the human species may have taken much longer to evolve thanks to plate tectonics that changed Africa’s landscape millions of years before experts previously believed. Scientists from James Cook University, Ohio University, and Michigan State University said their findings show evidence that a major tectonic event occurred in East Africa as far back as 25 - 30 million years ago, reshaping large rivers such as the...
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)....
