Latest Structure of the Earth Stories

WASHINGTON -- The giant iron ball at the center of the Earth appears to be spinning a bit faster than the rest of the planet. The solid core that measures about 1,500 miles in diameter is spinning about one-quarter to one-half degree faster, per year, than the rest of the world, scientists from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report in Friday's issue of the journal Science. The spin of the Earth's core is an important...

Researchers at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory recently resolved a long-standing contradiction about the workings of the deep Earth. For years, many geochemists have argued that parts of the deep mantle remain unchanged since the formation of the Earth, whereas many geophysicists and geodynamicists have held that the entire mantle has been convecting (moving and mixing) over geological time. Based on a synthesis of data on global oceanic magmatism, Cornelia Class and...

Some of the highest quality images ever taken of the Earth's lower crust reveal that the upper and lower crust form in two distinctly different ways. A team led by researchers from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory will publish the results of their work in the August 25 issue of the journal Nature. The Earth's oceanic crust is formed from magma bodies located beneath mid-ocean ridges. Although axial magma chambers, magma bodies located in the mid-crust, are known to be...

The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) reached a significant goal on Aug. 2 when scientists drilled into a seismically active section of the fault approximately two miles below the surface of the Earth. "This is a milestone for SAFOD," says Mark Zoback, a professor of geophysics at Stanford University. "For the first time, scientists have drilled directly into the San Andreas Fault Zone at a depth that will allow us to observe earthquakes up close for decades to...

PARKFIELD, Calif. (AP) -- Geologists drilling a borehole into the San Andreas Fault to better understand the physics of earthquakes have hit a seismically active section of the fault for the first time. The scientists, who began drilling in 2004, finally entered the fault zone about two miles below the surface of the Earth on Tuesday. The entire borehole will be covered with steel and cement at the end of the month so scientists can later install instruments to measure future temblors....

PROVIDENCE, R.I. "” Earth's cool, rigid upper layer, known as the lithosphere, rides on top of its warmer, more pliable neighbor, the asthenosphere, as a series of massive plates. Plates continuously shift and break, triggering earthquakes, sparking volcanic eruptions, sculpting mountains and carving trenches under the sea.But what, exactly, divides the lithosphere and the asthenosphere? In the latest issue of Nature, a trio of geophysicists from Brown University and the Massachusetts...

Could Earth have had an even more violent infancy than previously imagined? New isotope data suggest that the Earth not only had a very violent beginning but also point to new information about our planet's chemical evolution.New and precise measurements of a neodymium isotope ratio (142Nd/144Nd) led Maud Boyet and Rick Carlson of Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism to the discovery that all terrestrial rocks have an excess of 142Nd compared to the expected building...

Could Earth have had an even more violent infancy than previously imagined? New isotope data suggest that the Earth not only had a very violent beginning but also point to new information about our planet's chemical evolution. New and precise measurements of a neodymium isotope ratio (142Nd/144Nd) led Maud Boyet and Rick Carlson of Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism to the discovery that all terrestrial rocks have an excess of 142Nd compared to the expected building...

TEMPE, Ariz. - Deep within Earth, researchers are finding hints of exotic materials and behaviors unrivaled anywhere else on the planet. Now a team of researchers is making connections between the dynamic activities deep inside Earth and geologic features at its surface. The researchers, which include two seismologists from Arizona State University, have detected a relatively small and isolated patch of exotic material, called an ultra low velocity zone (ULVZ), that may in fact be a...

TROY, N.Y. -- Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Australian National University have found new evidence that environmental conditions on early Earth, within 200 million years of solar system formation, were characterized by liquid-water oceans and continental crust similar to those of the present day. The researchers developed a new thermometer that made the discovery possible. "Our data support recent theories that Earth began a pattern of crust formation, erosion, and...