Latest Volcanoes Stories

Measuring the movement of nutrients in Alaska's glacial streams is a "hot topic" for an NSF-supported research teamBeing on top of an Alaskan glacier was not as cold as Michael Nassry expected.Nassry grew up hunting, fishing, hiking and camping in western Pennsylvania, near his home in Hopwood. "I like the outdoors," he said.With that motivation, he decided he wanted to be an environmental engineer, and found himself in the agricultural and biological engineering program...

For decades, scientists have accumulated ever-larger datasets that suggest an enormous space rock crashed into the ocean off the Yucatan Peninsula more than 65 million years ago, resulting in the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction.Recent research, supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), suggested that the impact could have occurred 300,000 years prior to the K-Pg extinction, and that another cause--perhaps a second impact, or the long-lasting volcanic activity at the...

A mysterious basin off the coast of India could be the largest, multi-ringed impact crater the world has ever seen. And if a new study is right, it may have been responsible for killing the dinosaurs off 65 million years ago.Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University and a team of researchers took a close look at the massive Shiva basin, a submerged depression west of India that is intensely mined for its oil and gas resources. Some complex craters are among the most productive hydrocarbon...

In the small village of Dengboche at the foot of Nepal's Himalayas, residents have watched for years as a glacier-fed lake has continued to grow, an undeniable sign that the glacier is gradually melting.According to an AFP report, elderly residents who have spent their entire lives in the village attest to the fact that the lake simply did not exist at all a mere 50 years ago.The Imja Glacier, which looms ominously above Dengboche, has been retreating at a rate of roughly 230 feet per year...

Data is conclusive, says Keller, who hopes to move on from decades-old controversy A Princeton University geoscientist who has stirred controversy with her studies challenging a popular theory that an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs has compiled powerful new evidence asserting her position.Gerta Keller, whose studies of rock formations at many sites in the United States, Mexico and India have led her to conclude that volcanoes, not a vast meteorite, were the more likely culprits in the...

Impact didn't lead to mass extinction 65 million years ago, geologists findThe enduringly popular theory that the Chicxulub crater holds the clue to the demise of the dinosaurs, along with some 65 percent of all species 65 million years ago, is challenged in a paper to be published in the Journal of the Geological Society on April 27, 2009.The crater, discovered in 1978 in northern Yucutan and measuring about 180 kilometers (112 miles) in diameter, records a massive extra-terrestrial...

When volcanoes erupt, pinpointing the regions at high risk for lethal hazards and deciding whether or not to evacuate a resistant population comprise the most difficult problems faced by hazards managers. Now a team of volcanologists has a program that maps potential problem areas quickly, taking much of the guesswork out of decision making and evacuations."We wanted to be able to predict the areas affected by pyroclastic flows from volcanoes," said Christina Widiwijayanti,...

A U.S. geosciences professor says dinosaurs died gradually from climate change caused by volcanic eruptions in India and not because of a meteor strike. Gerta Keller of Princeton University admits her theory contradicts the long-held hypothesis that dinosaurs died due to climate change after a giant meteor hit the Yucatan region of Mexico. Keller bases her theory on her National Science Foundation-funded field work in India and Mexico that uncovered geologic evidence that the mass extinction...

By WINDER, Virginia This article was written by a contributor. It is not to be reproduced without permission from the Taranaki Daily News and charges may be incurred. ---------------- IT could be happening right now, this moment, as cloudbursts turn the mountain into a torrent. A rain- triggered lahar may be forming, ready to slow- roar down the slopes in a tumble of rock, sand, water and shingle. This is all part of the ongoing erosion highlighted on the front page of the Taranaki Daily...

The impactor believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs and other life forms on Earth some 65 million years ago has been traced back to a breakup event in the main asteroid belt. The finding provides insights into one of the most important extinction events in Earth's history. Known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) extinction, this impact event signaled a dramatic change in the evolutionary history of Earth. Understanding the origins and effects of this event can not only teach us about the...