In The News: Department of Geoscience
Diamonds, the super-strong and brilliant crystals of carbon atoms produced under the Earth’s crushing pressures, are typically valued for their beauty and durability. But scientists also value them for another reason: They contain all kinds of hidden messages about the Earth’s mantle. You just need the right tools to read them.
Small pockets of water exist deep beneath Earth’s surface, according to an analysis of diamonds belched from hundreds of kilometers within our planet. The work, which also identifies a weird form of crystallized water known as ice VII, suggests that material may circulate more freely at some depths within Earth than previously thought. Geophysical models of that flow, which ultimately influences the frequency of earthquakes driven by the scraping of tectonic plates at Earth’s surface, may need to be substantially tweaked, scientists say. Such models also help scientists estimate the long-term rates of heat flow through Earth’s surface and into space.
A new report published today in Science suggests that pockets of liquid water may exist up to 500 miles beneath Earth’s surface—far deeper that previous estimates. This conclusion was reached after scientists discovered a rare form of crystalized water known as ice VII in diamond samples recovered in Africa and China. These ice VII samples are the first time this form of crystalized water has been seen in nature and led the International Mineralogical Association to declare ice VII as a new type of mineral.
Trapped in the rigid structure of diamonds formed deep in the Earth's crust, scientists have discovered a form of water ice that was not previously known to occur naturally on our planet.
A team of researchers from the U.S., China and Canada has found evidence in diamonds of free-flowing water in the boundary between Earth's upper and lower mantle. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes analyzing inclusions in diamonds spewed from volcanoes and what they found.
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The Curiosity rover made big news in late 2014 when it first detected organic matter on Mars. But in detailed studies of the sites in Gale Crater studied by Curiosity, called Yellowknife Bay and Sheepbed Mudstone, the concentration of organic molecules were much lower than scientists had expected.
Motorists will be able to cruise a brand-new section of Interstate 11 next Tuesday. It's the Railroad Pass interchange and it will be open for business Feb. 20.
The ice age treasures of Tule Springs are back home in Las Vegas after a decades-long detour to Southern California.
Coming out of the last glacial period, there was a sudden climate reversal observed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the Earth. The cause of these changes during this interval so enigmatic, so much so, the interval was informally referred to as the “Mystery Interval.” Many large shifts in climates in the past seem to be synchronized with climate in the poles as expressed in ice core records.
“Is this something we’ve seen before?” We asked Dr. Josh Bonde. He grinned. “No, this is going to be something new.”
Sabertooth cats once roamed Las Vegas, mammoths towered over the valley, and now, you can see them.
A new study shows that even low doses of asbestos fibers found around the Lake Mead area make mice sick. The study was conducted to understand whether rocks in Boulder City are toxic and cause negative health effects.