News tagged with carbon isotopes

Paleoecologists suggest mass extinction due to huge methane release

(PhysOrg.com) -- Micha Ruhl and colleagues from the University of Copenhagen's Nordic Center for Earth Evolution have published a paper in Science where they contend that the mass extinction that occurred at the ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jul 22, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (21) | comments 32 | with audio podcast report

The rise of oxygen caused Earth's earliest ice age

(PhysOrg.com) -- Geologists may have uncovered the answer to an age-old question - an ice-age-old question, that is. It appears that Earth's earliest ice ages may have been due to the rise of oxygen in Earth's ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 07, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (20) | comments 6

Supervolcano eruption -- in Sumatra -- deforested India 73,000 years ago

A new study provides "incontrovertible evidence" that the volcanic super-eruption of Toba on the island of Sumatra about 73,000 years ago deforested much of central India, some 3,000 miles from the epicenter, ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 23, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (17) | comments 3

Big freeze plunged Europe into ice age in months

In the film, 'The Day After Tomorrow' the world enters the icy grip of a new glacial period within the space of just a few weeks. Now new research shows that this scenario may not be so far from the truth after all.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (18) | comments 7

Dog skull dates back 33,000 years

If you think a Chihuahua doesn't have much in common with a Rottweiler, you might be on to something.

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Jan 23, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (15) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Physicists explain the long, useful lifetime of carbon-14

The long, slow decay of carbon-14 allows archaeologists to accurately date the relics of history back to 60,000 years.

Physics / General Physics

created May 26, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (14) | comments 33 | with audio podcast

Neanderthals died out earlier than originally believed

(PhysOrg.com) -- According to a newly released report in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a newly refined method of radiocarbon dating has found that Neanderthals died off much earlier than o ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created May 10, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (14) | comments 24 | with audio podcast report

Stalagmite reveals carbon footprint of early Native Americans

A new study led by Ohio University scientists suggests that early Native Americans left a bigger carbon footprint than previously thought, providing more evidence that humans impacted global climate long before ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Apr 15, 2010 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (16) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

The Carbon Cycle Before Humans

Geoengineering -- deliberate manipulation of the Earth's climate to slow or reverse global warming -- has gained a foothold in the climate change discussion. But before effective action can be taken, the Earth's ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Feb 16, 2010 | popularity 3.1 / 5 (19) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Early hominid first walked on two legs in the woods

Among the many surprises associated with the discovery of the oldest known, nearly complete skeleton of a hominid is the finding that this species took its first steps toward bipedalism not on the open, grassy ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Oct 08, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 1

Scientists link ocean acidification to prehistoric mass extinction

(PhysOrg.com) -- New evidence gleaned by analyzing calcium embedded in Chinese limestone suggests that volcanoes, which spewed massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for a million years, caused the biggest ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Apr 27, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (13) | comments 10 | with audio podcast

Global warming: New study challenges carbon benchmark

The ability of forests, plants and soil to suck carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air has been under-estimated, according to a study on Wednesday that challenges a benchmark for calculating the greenhouse-gas ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Sep 28, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (12) | comments 28

Giant fossil Prototaxites: Unraveling a 400-million-year-old mystery

Contradictions and puzzles surround the giant fossil Prototaxites. The fossils resemble tree trunks, and yet they are from a time before trees existed. The stable carbon isotope values are similar to those of fungi, but th ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Feb 10, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (10) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Fossil record receives new timeline

Beginning around 542 million years ago, a profusion of animals with shells and skeletons began to appear in the fossil record. So many life forms appeared during this time that it is often referred to as the ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 10, 2010 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (9) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Alchemy in Tanzania? Gas Becomes Solid at Surface of Oldoinyo Lengai Volcano

(PhysOrg.com) -- Science has unearthed the secret to what might have been alchemy at Oldoinyo Lengai volcano in Tanzania.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 06, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (8) | comments 0