Diamonds Provide Evidence of Liquid Water Deep Inside Earth
Take a diamond with impurities to a jeweler, and you will probably be told it is worth little or nothing. But some impure diamonds that pushed up to the surface from the Earth’s interior in China, the Republic of South Africa, and Botswana are priceless to a group of scientists, who studied them. The researchers […]
Scientists Find Traces of Early Earth in Volcanic Rock
According to most scientists, Earth was formed between 4.5 and 4.6 billion years ago after gravity forced gas and dust left over from the creation of the Sun accreted into an object called a planetesimal. Over time, the planetesimal continued to gather more and more material and eventually became a planet. Scientists say heat produced […]
Science Scanner: Cat Videos Can Help You, Permanent Dust Cloud Surrounds Moon
Watching Cat Videos Can Give You a Boost You can hardly surf the Internet without stumbling across a cat video, and new research suggests those videos could actually be good for you. Of all the categories of YouTube video content, videos of cats have had more views per video. It’s been suggested that there were […]
Giant Magma Reservoir Found Beneath Yellowstone Supervolcano
Yellowstone National Park’s many geothermal features, including its estimated 10,000 hot springs and geysers, draw millions of visitors each year. There’s good reason why the approximately 8,983 square km park has such a high level of geothermal activity. You see, the park sits atop one of the world’s largest active volcanic systems. According to the […]
Science Scanner: MAVEN Finds Surprises, Iron Rain, Exercise Boosts Cancer Treatment
NASA’S MAVEN Gives Scientists Double Surprise Scientists studying data transmitted by NASA’s ‘Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution’ or MAVEN spacecraft were surprised when they spotted unforeseen dust clouds that formed in an area about 150-300 kilometers above the surface of Mars and an aurora that glowed across the planet’s northern hemisphere. “If the dust originates […]
Science Scanner: Leonardo da Vinci Might be Wrong and is Planet Mercury a Hit-and-run Victim?
Scientists Catch Photosynthesis in Action Researchers have snapped the very first images of photosynthesis as it happens. Photosynthesis is the process which plants use to convert light energy into chemical energy, which is then stored as sugar. Using the U.S. Department of Energy’s LCLS x-ray laser, the world’s most powerful, the researchers imaged the part […]
Vast Oceans Detected Deep Beneath Earth’s Surface
New evidence suggests there might be oceans of water far beneath Earth’s surface. Northwestern University geophysicist Steve Jacobsen, along with University of New Mexico seismologist Brandon Schmandt, found evidence of water in pockets of hot magma about 645 km beneath North America within the transition zone between Earth’s upper and lower mantle. “It alters our […]
Scientists Explore Mystery of Antarctica’s Rising
An altered Antarctic landscape is one of the rarely discussed side effects of accelerated ice melting. For years as the ice grew in Antarctica, its weight compressed the ground beneath it. But when the ice melted and this weight was reduced, the ground sprang back, rebounding over time. However, the ground in the Northern Antarctic […]
Are Oceans of Water Hiding Beneath Earth’s Surface?
Scientists have discovered the first-ever earthly sample of a water-rich mineral they say provides new proof that there are vast oceans of water deep beneath the Earth’s surface. The team, led by Graham Pearson from Canada’s University of Alberta, found a mineral called ringwoodite in a sample of rock taken from a Brazilian riverbed. Ringwoodite […]