https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Earth's continental configurations have changed dramatically over its billions of years' history, transforming not only their positions across the planet, but also their topography as expansion and contraction of the crust made a mark on the landscape. Some areas of continental crust have maintained long-term stability from the beginning of Earth's history, with little destruction by tectonic events or mantle convection, known as cratons. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-earth-oldest-continental-crust-disintegrating.html Earth Sciences Tue, 08 Oct 2024 07:00:01 EDT news647513661 The oceanic lithosphere forms at the summit of ocean ridges during seafloor spreading. Still, the formation of ocean basins is complex, influenced by smaller-scale convection, stagnated pieces of the lithosphere, and tectonic motion from nearby plates. These factors can produce a solid, outer layer of Earth with different structures at different depths. https://phys.org/news/2023-02-small-scale-convection-shuffles-oceanic-lithosphere.html Earth Sciences Tue, 21 Feb 2023 12:22:03 EST news596204521 Researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated in the lab how well a mineral common at the boundary between the Earth's core and mantle conducts heat. This leads them to suspect that the Earth's heat may dissipate sooner than previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2022-01-earth-interior-cooling-faster.html Earth Sciences Fri, 14 Jan 2022 08:20:41 EST news561370832 Writing in PNAS, scientists from Cologne university present important new constraints showing that plate tectonics started relatively slow, although the early Earth's interior was much hotter than today. https://phys.org/news/2020-12-plate-tectonics-hot-early-earth.html Earth Sciences Tue, 22 Dec 2020 12:21:07 EST news527862063 Researchers at CU Boulder report that they may have solved a geophysical mystery, pinning down the likely cause of a phenomenon that resembles a wrench in the engine of the planet. https://phys.org/news/2018-10-wrench-earth.html Earth Sciences Mon, 01 Oct 2018 16:11:11 EDT news457629064 A typical desk globe is designed to be a geometric sphere and to rotate smoothly when you spin it. Our actual planet is far less perfect—in both shape and in rotation. https://phys.org/news/2018-09-scientists-id-earth-axis-drift.html Earth Sciences Thu, 20 Sep 2018 08:19:30 EDT news456650364 Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University, have recently discovered unusual thermal convection in a uniform mixture of high- and low-viscosity liquids. Kobayashi and Kurita found that concentration fluctuations are enhanced by thermal convection when the two liquids have a large viscosity difference. Such mixtures are ubiquitously observed in nature, daily life, and manufacturing processes e.g. mantle convection, syrup, polymer products. These results promise further insight into non-equilibrium phenomena in fluid mixtures with contrasting "thickness." https://phys.org/news/2017-12-unusual-thermal-convection-well-mixed-fluid.html Soft Matter Fri, 15 Dec 2017 07:04:50 EST news432543846 New research by Brown University geochemists provides new insights on the scale at which Earth's mantle varies in chemical composition. The findings could help scientists better understand the mixing process of mantle convection, the slow churning that drives the movement of Earth's tectonic plates. https://phys.org/news/2017-11-reveals-scale-earth-mantle-composition.html Earth Sciences Thu, 23 Nov 2017 05:30:02 EST news430637299 Plate tectonics has shaped the Earth's surface for billions of years: Continents and oceanic crust have pushed and pulled on each other, continually rearranging the planet's façade. As two massive plates collide, one can give way and slide under the other in a process called subduction. The subducted slab then slips down through the Earth's viscous mantle, like a flat stone through a pool of honey. https://phys.org/news/2017-08-ancient-earth-hot-interior-graveyard.html Earth Sciences Tue, 22 Aug 2017 06:46:29 EDT news422603173 A team led by geoscientists from Arizona State University and Michigan State University has used computer modeling to explain how pockets of mushy rock accumulate at the boundary between Earth's core and mantle. https://phys.org/news/2017-08-geoscientists-explanation-puzzling-pockets-deep.html Earth Sciences Wed, 02 Aug 2017 05:00:02 EDT news420863765 New insights into the convection patterns of the Earth's mantle and its chemical makeup have been revealed by a researcher from the University of Leicester. https://phys.org/news/2017-05-whole-mantle-convection-tectonic-plates-long-term.html Earth Sciences Fri, 12 May 2017 08:23:12 EDT news413796183 Geophysicists at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology report in Nature Geoscience a new model for the existence of a deep mantle conveyor belt system that may have operated inside the Earth since its formation about 4.5 billion years ago. https://phys.org/news/2017-02-deep-mantle-conveyor-belt-core.html Earth Sciences Tue, 28 Feb 2017 06:35:48 EST news407486023 For decades, scientists have theorized that the movement of Earth's tectonic plates is driven largely by negative buoyancy created as they cool. New research, however, shows plate dynamics are driven significantly by the additional force of heat drawn from the Earth's core. https://phys.org/news/2017-01-earth-core-underlying-plate-tectonics.html Earth Sciences Wed, 18 Jan 2017 06:48:57 EST news403944530 The search for habitable, alien worlds needs to make room for a second "Goldilocks," according to a Yale University researcher. https://phys.org/news/2016-08-goldilocks-habitable-planets.html Astronomy Fri, 19 Aug 2016 15:08:24 EDT news390838085 In science, the simplest questions often prove themselves the most difficult to answer. Questions such as what killed the dinosaurs, or how many fish are there in the oceans took decades to solve or remain unanswered. https://phys.org/news/2015-12-scientists-mystery-sierra-nevada-age.html Earth Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2015 06:25:48 EST news369296736 Earth's mantle, the large zone of slow-flowing rock that lies between the crust and the planet's core, powers every earthquake and volcanic eruption on the planet's surface. Evidence suggests that the mantle behaves differently below 1 megameter (1,000 kilometers, or 621 miles) in depth, but so far seismologists have not been able to explain why this boundary exists. https://phys.org/news/2015-12-twin-explanations-boundary-earth-mantle.html Earth Sciences Thu, 10 Dec 2015 14:00:09 EST news368975704 Researchers propose an ammonia-water slurry as the basis for Pluto's newly discovered geologic activity and possible volcanism, and offer a new method to predict planetary vigor. https://phys.org/news/2015-11-ammonia-water-slurry-swirl-pluto-icy.html Space Exploration Mon, 09 Nov 2015 17:10:19 EST news366311397 Seismic investigations from the Qinling-Dabie-Sulu orogenic belt in eastern China suggest that this region was affected by extreme mantle perturbation and crust-mantle interaction during the Mesozoic era. The Qinling-Dabie-Sulu orogenic belt formed through the collision between the North and South China blocks, which produced large-scale destruction of the cratonic lithosphere, accompanied by widespread magmatism and metallogeny. https://phys.org/news/2015-01-ancient-deformation-lithosphere-revealed-eastern.html Earth Sciences Fri, 30 Jan 2015 17:25:06 EST news341861098 Scientists from the Magma and Volcanoes Laboratory (CNRS) and the European Synchrotron, the ESRF, have recreated the extreme conditions 600 to 2900 km below the Earth's surface to investigate the melting of basalt in the oceanic tectonic plates. They exposed microscopic pieces of rock to these extreme pressures and temperatures while simultaneously studying their structure with the ESRF's extremely powerful X-ray beam. https://phys.org/news/2014-05-insight-temperature-deep-earth.html Earth Sciences Thu, 22 May 2014 14:25:32 EDT news319987516 Scientists have shown that temperature differences deep within Earth's mantle control the elevation and volcanic activity along mid-ocean ridges, the colossal mountain ranges that line the ocean floor. The findings, published April 4 in the journal Science, shed new light on how temperature in the depths of the mantle influences the contours of the Earth's crust. https://phys.org/news/2014-04-hot-mantle-elevation-volcanism-mid-ocean.html Earth Sciences Thu, 03 Apr 2014 14:10:02 EDT news315751251 Seeking to better understand the composition of the lowermost part of Earth's mantle, located nearly 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) below the surface, a team of Arizona State University researchers has developed new simulations that depict the dynamics of deep Earth. A paper published March 30 in Nature Geoscience reports the team's findings, which could be used to explain the complex geochemistry of lava from hotspots such as Hawaii. https://phys.org/news/2014-03-reveals-multiple-compositional-components-earth.html Earth Sciences Sun, 30 Mar 2014 13:00:14 EDT news315395065 (Phys.org) —The distortion of the ancient shoreline and flooding surface of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain are the direct result of fluctuations in topography in the region and could have implications on understanding long-term climate change, according to a new study. https://phys.org/news/2013-05-scientist-topography-eastern-seaboard-ancient.html Earth Sciences Thu, 16 May 2013 17:27:11 EDT news287944022 (Phys.org) —Borexino is a liquid scintillator detector mainly built for solar neutrino searches. Due to its high level of radiopurity, a worldwide record, Borexino can also detect rare events such as electron-antineutrinos from the interior of the Earth, namely geo-neutrinos. https://phys.org/news/2013-03-results-geo-neutrinos-borexino.html General Physics Thu, 14 Mar 2013 08:47:22 EDT news282469628 From Earth's surface to hundreds of kilometers deeper than oilmen drill, the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) is investigating the surprising quantity of carbon in the deep, dark Earth beyond photosynthesis. https://phys.org/news/2013-03-deep-carbon-quest-underway-quantity.html Earth Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:38:18 EST news281623083 Magma forms far deeper than geologists previously thought, according to new research results. https://phys.org/news/2013-01-magma-earth-mantle-deeper-thought.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:43:41 EST news278246610 Magma forms far deeper than geologists previously thought, according to new research at Rice University. https://phys.org/news/2013-01-magma-mantle-deep-impact-greater.html Earth Sciences Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:00:09 EST news276954186 Scientists have long speculated about why there is a large change in the strength of rocks that lie at the boundary between two layers immediately under Earth's crust: the lithosphere and underlying asthenosphere. Understanding this boundary is central to our knowledge of plate tectonics and thus the formation and evolution of our planet as we know it today. A new technique for observing this transition, particularly in the portion of Earth's mantle that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean basin, has led Carnegie and NASA Goddard scientist Nick Schmerr to new insight on the origins of the lithosphere and asthenosphere. His work is published March 23 in Science. https://phys.org/news/2012-03-earth-lithosphere-asthenosphere-boundary-beneath-pacific.html Earth Sciences Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:00:05 EDT news251636246 Although solid, the rocks of the Earth's mantle deform very slowly. Professor Patrick Cordier's team at the Materials and Transformation Unit (Université Lille, France) has developed a model that makes it possible, over timescales of several million years, to link the deformation of these rocks with mantle convection, the fundamental driver of plate tectonics. Until now, no experimental method in the laboratory had achieved the real conditions of deformation of mantle rocks. By applying this model to magnesium oxide, a solid present in the Earth's mantle, the scientists were able to show how atomic-scale defects in this mineral could be transmitted on a larger scale and over long periods of time. https://phys.org/news/2012-01-earth-mantle-numerical-tool-deformation.html Earth Sciences Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:01:39 EST news246614488 Earth today is one of the most active planets in the Solar System, and was probably even more so during the early stages of its life. Thanks to the plate tectonics that continue to shape our planet's surface, remnants of crust from Earth's formative years are rare, but not impossible to find. A paper published in Nature Sept. 2 examines how some ancient rocks have resisted being recycled into Earth's convecting interior. https://phys.org/news/2010-09-earth-mantle-key-survival-oldest.html Earth Sciences Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:25:27 EDT news202652693 (PhysOrg.com) -- Heat transport in the earth's mantle and in the atmosphere is probably not as effective as previously thought. https://phys.org/news/2009-12-turbulence.html General Physics Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:40:01 EST news179053848