What goes down, must come up: Geoscientists offer new model for degassing of...
A new analysis of the processes that constantly stir the Earth's deep mantle is helping to explain how the mantle holds onto a portion of ancient noble gases that were trapped during the Earth's...
View ArticleCosmic voyager has a layover in St. Louis
Last January two amateur meteorite hunters dropped by Randy Korotev's office at Washington University in St. Louis to show him their latest purchase, a 17-kilogram pallasite meteorite found in 2006...
View ArticleA new kind of metal in the deep Earth
(PhysOrg.com) -- The crushing pressures and intense temperatures in Earth's deep interior squeeze atoms and electrons so closely together that they interact very differently. With depth materials...
View ArticleExtreme-pressure research explores how Earth's mantle solidified
During the earliest stages of the Earth's formation, the planet's mantle may have taken the form of a giant magma ocean, being fully or partially molten all the way down to the core-mantle boundary....
View ArticleDeep Earth heat surprise
The key to understanding Earth's evolution is to look at how heat is conducted in the deep lower mantle—a region some 400 to 1,800 miles (660 to 2,900 kilometers) below the surface. Researchers at the...
View ArticleSeismologists puzzle over largest deep earthquake ever recorded
A magnitude 8.3 earthquake that struck deep beneath the Sea of Okhotsk on May 24, 2013, has left seismologists struggling to explain how it happened. At a depth of about 609 kilometers (378 miles), the...
View ArticleSystematic shifts in subducting slab behavior with depth
When tectonic plates collide, the less buoyant plate will, in some cases, be forced beneath the other. At such subduction zones the sinking tectonic plate, known as a slab, does not follow a simple...
View ArticleEarth's lower mantle chemistry breakthrough
Breaking research news from a team of scientists led by Carnegie's Ho-kwang "Dave" Mao reveals that the composition of the Earth's lower mantle may be significantly different than previously thought....
View ArticleNew evidence for oceans of water deep in the Earth
Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of New Mexico report evidence for potentially oceans worth of water deep beneath the United States. Though not in the familiar liquid...
View ArticleOur planet's most abundant mineral now has a name
Deep below the earth's surface lies a thick, rocky layer called the mantle, which makes up the majority of our planet's volume. For decades, scientists have known that most of the lower mantle is a...
View ArticleScientists detect evidence of 'oceans worth' of water in Earth's mantle
Researchers have found evidence of a potential "ocean's worth" of water deep beneath the United States.
View ArticleGeo-researchers making diamonds out of odd materials, including peanut butter
(Phys.org) —A team of researchers working in a lab at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut in German is seeking to learn the true composition of Earth's interior, BBC Future reports, and they aren't afraid to...
View ArticleBridgmanite: World's most abundant mineral finally named
A team of geologists in the U.S. has finally found an analyzable sample of the most abundant mineral in the world allowing them to give it a name: bridgmanite. In their paper published in the journal...
View ArticleStudy hints that ancient Earth made its own water—geologically
A new study is helping to answer a longstanding question that has recently moved to the forefront of earth science: Did our planet make its own water through geologic processes, or did water come to us...
View ArticleA stiff new layer in Earth's mantle: Why the planet's conveyor belt hangs up...
By crushing minerals between diamonds, a University of Utah study suggests the existence of an unknown layer inside Earth: part of the lower mantle where the rock gets three times stiffer. The...
View ArticleProbing iron chemistry in the deep mantle
Carbonates are a group of minerals that contain the carbonate ion (CO32-) and a metal, such as iron or magnesium. Carbonates are important constituents of marine sediments and are heavily involved in...
View ArticleCT scan of Earth links deep mantle plumes with volcanic hotspots
University of California, Berkeley, seismologists have produced for the first time a sharp, three-dimensional scan of Earth's interior that conclusively connects plumes of hot rock rising through the...
View ArticleVolcanic rocks hold clues to Earth's interior
The journey for volcanic rocks found on many volcanic islands began deep within the Earth.
View ArticleTwin studies provide first explanations for boundary within Earth's mantle
Earth's mantle, the large zone of slow-flowing rock that lies between the crust and the planet's core, powers every earthquake and volcanic eruption on the planet's surface. Evidence suggests that the...
View ArticleThe temperature 3,000 kilometers below the surface of the Earth is much more...
The temperature 3,000 kilometres below the surface of the Earth is much more varied than previously thought, scientists have found.
View ArticleDiscovery of new iron oxides points to large oxygen source inside the Earth
Using a special high-pressure chamber, scientists have discovered two new iron oxides in experiments at DESY's X-ray light source PETRA III and other facilities. The discovery points to a huge,...
View ArticleConstraining the composition of Earth's interior with mineral elasticity
The composition and temperature of the Earth's interior are fundamental for understanding the Earth's interior and dynamics. Because it's impossible to directly access most areas of the Earth's...
View ArticleBridgmanite sample found to remain stable at lower mantle conditions
(Phys.org)—A diverse team of researchers with members from Germany, France, Russia and the U.S. has subjected a sample of bridgmanite to conditions believed to be present at Earth's lower mantle and...
View ArticleNew model for deep mantle conveyor belt system at the core of the Earth
Geophysicists at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology report in Nature Geoscience a new model for the existence of a deep mantle conveyor belt system that may...
View ArticleDissection of the 2015 Bonin deep earthquake
Researchers at Tohoku University's Department of Geophysics, have been studying the deep earthquake which occurred on May 30, 2015, to the west of Japan's Bonin Islands.
View ArticleStudy suggests mid-mantle holds as much water as Earth's oceans
(Phys.org)—A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Japan and Germany has found evidence that suggests the middle of Earth's mantle holds as much water as the planet's oceans. In...
View ArticleAncient Earth's hot interior created 'graveyard' of continental slabs
Plate tectonics has shaped the Earth's surface for billions of years: Continents and oceanic crust have pushed and pulled on each other, continually rearranging the planet's façade. As two massive...
View ArticleGeophysicists uncover new evidence for an alternative style of plate tectonics
When renowned University of Toronto (U of T) geophysicist J. Tuzo Wilson cemented concepts in the emerging field of plate tectonics in the 1960s, he revolutionized the study of Earth's physical...
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