Scientists discover ancient seawater preserved from the last Ice Age

Twenty thousand years ago, in the thick of an Ice Age, Earth looked very different. Because water was locked up in glaciers hundreds of feet thick, which stretched down over Chicago and New York City, the ocean was smaller—shorelines ...

Recreating ancient minerals

When it comes to making a lasting impression in geological history, the medium makes all the difference, especially in the Earth's paleo-oceans. Here, during the Archean Eon (4,000-2,500 million years ago) and at times during ...

Researchers uncover new clues to surviving extinction

Scientists are peeking into ancient oceans to unravel the complexities of mass extinctions, past and future. A new examination of Earth's largest extinction by scientists at the California Academy of Sciences and the University ...

Ancient rocks provide clues to Earth's early history

Oxygen in the form of the oxygen molecule (O2), produced by plants and vital for animals, is thankfully abundant in Earth's atmosphere and oceans. Researchers studying the history of O2 on Earth, however, know that it was ...

Looking for LUCA, the last universal common ancestor

Around 4 billion years ago there lived a microbe called LUCA: the Last Universal Common Ancestor. There is evidence that it could have lived a somewhat 'alien' lifestyle, hidden away deep underground in iron-sulfur rich hydrothermal ...

Why did the Earth's ancient oceans disappear?

We think of oceans as being stable and permanent. However, they move at about the same speed as your fingernails grow. Geoscientists at CEED, University of Oslo have found a novel way of mapping the Earth's ancient oceans.

page 3 from 9