New record from stalagmites shows climate history in Central Asia

The climate in Central Asia, currently a semiarid region, has varied over the past 500,000 years. An accurate record of the past climate can help scientists understand current climate and better predict how the climate may ...

2012: Magnetic pole reversal happens all the (geologic) time

Scientists understand that Earth's magnetic field has flipped its polarity many times over the millennia. In other words, if you were alive about 800,000 years ago, and facing what we call north with a magnetic compass in ...

California's Ancient Kelp Forest

(PhysOrg.com) -- The kelp forests off southern California are considered to be some of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on the planet, yet a new study indicates that today's kelp beds are less extensive and lush ...

3.2-Million-Year Temperature History from Tiny Fossils

(PhysOrg.com) -- People often talk about greenhouse gases and their effect on the earth's climate as if those effects were new. But greenhouse gases have been around for hundreds of millennia, playing a key role in the start ...

Scientists discover Amazon river is 11 million years old

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have discovered that the Amazon river, and its transcontinental drainage, is around 11 million years old and took its present shape about 2.4 million years ago.

Bias in the rock record?

(PhysOrg.com) -- The fossil record is known to be biased by the unevenness of geographical and stratigraphical sampling, and the lack of exposed rocks containing fossils. In a recent Perspective in Science [2 January 2009] ...

page 5 from 5