One of the greatest mysteries facing humans is how life originated on Earth. Scientists have determined approximately when life began (roughly 3.8 billion years ago), but there is still intense debate about exactly how life ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 9, 2014
8
1
By some estimates, a third of the Earth's organisms by mass live in our planet's rocks and sediments, yet their lives and ecology are almost a complete mystery. This week, microbiologist James Holden at the University of ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 6, 2012
2
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Sedimentary rocks created more than 2.4 billion years ago sometimes have an unusual sulfur isotope composition thought to be caused by the action of ultra violet light on volcanically produced sulfur dioxide ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 16, 2009
2
0
Gold is a precious metal that has always fascinated humans. From Priam's Treasure to the legend of El Dorado, gold—regarded as the noblest of metals—has been a symbol of splendor and wealth in many civilizations. Historically, ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 12, 2023
0
19
Underwater volcanoes on the Earth's crust are active contributors of many different elements to the oceanic environment. Hence, they play an important role in biogeochemical and chemosynthetic cycles of the ocean. Although ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 1, 2023
0
121
Most visitors to Paliochori Beach on the Greek island Milos may not be aware of the bay's shallow-water hydrothermal community, a veritable Greek salad of microbes, that is within snorkeling distance from the shoreline.
Ecology
Apr 22, 2022
0
58
The seafloor near a mid-ocean ridge is often home to rising hydrothermal fluids from the deep crust that deposit minerals on the ocean bottom. These seafloor massive sulfide deposits offer new sources of copper, zinc, lead, ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 15, 2022
0
58
A team of international researchers, led by the University of Bologna, has discovered the fossilized remains of methane-cycling microbes that lived in a hydrothermal system beneath the seafloor 3.42 billion years ago.
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 14, 2021
4
209
Changes in groundwater millions of years ago created alternating layers of vivid yellow and brown in the mineral sphalerite, and those variations align with movements in Earth's orbit that impacted climate in the deep past, ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 12, 2019
0
285
On May 29, 2006, mud started erupting from several sites on the Indonesian island of Java. Boiling mud, water, rocks and gas poured from newly-created vents in the ground, burying entire towns and compelling many Indonesians ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 17, 2017
3
368
