Sedimentation is the physical phenomenon in which suspended particles in a fluid (liquid or gas) undergo gravitational settling or deposition due to differences in density and hydrodynamic drag. It is governed by forces including gravity, buoyancy, and viscous resistance, often approximated for small, spherical particles at low Reynolds numbers by Stokes’ law. Sedimentation influences particle-size fractionation, concentration gradients, and stratification in natural and engineered systems, and is a key process in sediment transport, basin infilling, water and wastewater treatment, and laboratory separations, where it interacts with turbulence, flocculation, and chemical conditions to determine deposition rates and spatial distribution.
Caltech researchers have identified geological features on Mars that could point to the existence of a long-dried ocean that once covered a third of the Red Planet's surface. The research was conducted by former Caltech postdoctoral ...
Astrobiology
Apr 15, 2026
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The search for life on Mars involves the efforts of scientists from many different disciplines. An important aspect of that search is to study Martian sedimentary rocks for information about the planet's environment when ...
Astrobiology
Apr 2, 2026
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30
Scientists have long sought to explain a key mismatch in Earth's early history: oxygen-producing photosynthesis evolved hundreds of millions of years before atmospheric oxygen began to rise during the Great Oxidation Event. ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 19, 2026
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A new study shows that during the last two deglaciations, i.e., the transition from an ice age to the warm interglacial periods, meltwater from the Antarctic ice sheet intensified stratification in the Southern Ocean. The ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 14, 2026
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Using images from cameras on Mars orbiters, an international research team has discovered structures on Mars that are very similar to classic river deltas on Earth. These are traces of rivers that have deposited their sediments ...
Astrobiology
Jan 12, 2026
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250
In Earth's fossil record, soft-bodied organisms like jellyfish rarely stand the test of time. What's more, it's hard for any animal to get preserved with exceptional detail in sandstones, which are made of large grains, are ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jan 8, 2026
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56
Mars is a dusty planet dominated by vast, dry deserts, with no easily accessible sources of liquid water. Much like on Earth, dust is lifted from Mars's surface by wind and rotating air columns, transported through the atmosphere, ...
Space Exploration
Dec 17, 2025
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35
For decades, researchers seeking to understand global climate change have analyzed ice cores drilled deep within the Antarctic ice sheet. This ice traps chemicals and bubbles of ancient air that tell the story of how Earth's ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 21, 2025
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78
Deep beneath the ocean's surface lies Earth's largest carbon reservoir: marine sediments that have accumulated organic matter over millions of years. Long assumed to be permanently "locked away," this vast carbon pool is ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 21, 2025
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51
On May 12, 2008, the magnitude 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake shook central China, its destructive tremors spreading from the flank of the Longmen Shan, or Dragon's Gate Mountains, along the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau.
Earth Sciences
Aug 13, 2025
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