Once a massive volcanic eruption is finished, the underlying system can remain active for thousands of years. New research illuminates how supereruption cycles work.
Geochronology
Posted inNews
Longer Days Likely Boosted Earth’s Early Oxygen
Microbial mats in a Lake Huron sinkhole, combined with modeling work, suggest that the changing length of Earth’s day could have played a key role in oxygenating the atmosphere.
Posted inGeoFIZZ
Meet Jane, the Zircon Grain—Geochronology’s New Mascot
In a children’s book written by geochronologist Matthew Fox, he condenses 400 million years of history into 34 playfully poetic pages as he follows the travels of a single grain of sand.
Posted inScience Updates
Earth’s Continents Share an Ancient Crustal Ancestor
How did today’s continents come to be? Geological sleuths found clues in grains of sand.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Simulating 195 Million Years of Global Climate in the Mesozoic
An ensemble of climate simulations identifies factors that drove long-term trends of a prehistoric greenhouse climate.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Irtysh River Drove Arctic Sea Ice Expansion 3 Million Years Ago
The Siberian river’s creation caused a massive influx of fresh water into the Kara Sea and radically changed the Arctic Ocean and Earth’s climate.
Posted inNews
The Rocky Roads of Colombian Paleontology
Colombia has a wealth of fossils, and geologists are leading the charge to both collect data and share ancient history with local communities.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Antarctic Lava Yields Clues to Earth’s Past Magnetic Field
A new analysis suggests that a widely accepted approximation of ancient magnetic field strength may be less accurate for the past 5 million years than previously thought.
Posted inNews
Hurricane Maria Killed Mangroves Months After Storm
An overgrown channel between a lagoon and the ocean on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques created a backup of freshwater, disrupting the delicate balance of salinity in coastal mangrove forests.