New scenario proposed for birth of Pacific Plate
Science News, July 2016A three-way tectonic tango may have led to the birth of what is now the largest chunk of Earth’s crust.
Ancient air bubbles could revise history of Earth’s oxygen
Science News, July 2016Whiffs of ancient air trapped in rock salt for hundreds of millions of years are shaking up the history of oxygen and life on Earth.
Adapted for Science News for Students.
How dinosaurs hopped across an ocean
Science News, July 2016Two land bridges may have allowed dinosaurs to saunter between Europe and North America around 150 million years ago.
Phytoplankton’s response to climate change has its ups and downs
Science News, July 2016Armor-plated marine microbes surprised scientists a few years ago by recovering their shell-building prowess in levels of ocean acidification expected under future climate change. But those gains were short-lived, new research shows.
Underwater city was built by microbes, not people
Science News, July 2016When snorkelers discovered what appeared to be ancient stonework off the coast of the Greek island of Zakynthos in 2013, archaeologists sent to the site thought the odd rocks might be the ruins of an ancient city. But among the columns, bagel-shaped rings and paving stone‒like rocks, they found no telltale pottery shards or other artifacts. Soon after, geochemist Julian Andrews of England’s University of East Anglia and colleagues dove down to the supposed ruins and collected samples.
Nuclear bomb debris can reveal blast size, even decades later
Science News, July 2016A new type of fallout forensics can reconstruct nuclear blasts decades after detonation. By measuring the relative abundance of various elements in debris left over from nuclear explosions, researchers say they can accurately estimate the amount of energy released during the initial blast.
World will struggle to keep warming to 2 degrees by 2100
Science News, June 2016The world’s current game plan to combat climate change will miss the mark. Crunching the numbers on 187 nations’ climate action proposals announced in advance of the December 2015 Paris Agreement, researchers estimate that the efforts will limit global warming to 2.6 to 3.1 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. That’s far above the goal agreed upon in Paris of limiting warming to well below 2 degrees by 2100.
Winning helium hunt lifts hopes element not running out
Science News, June 2016The world’s known helium reserves just ballooned. Applying gas-finding techniques from the oil industry, scientists uncovered a vast reservoir of more than a trillion liters of helium gas beneath Tanzania. That’s enough to satisfy the world’s helium needs for around seven years, the researchers announced June 28 at the Goldschmidt Conference, a geochemistry meeting being held in in Yokohama, Japan. The find may allay fears that a global helium shortage will hit when the U.S. Federal Helium Reserve — currently the world’s largest helium source — runs dry within the next few years.
Adapted for Science News for Students.
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents more abundant than thought
Science News, June 2016The deep, dark ocean bottom teems with far more oases of life than once thought. Searching along the sunless seafloor where tectonic plates pull apart, regions known as spreading ridges, researchers discovered that heat-spewing hydrothermal vents are at least three to six times as abundant as previously assumed. The finding also significantly boosts the likely number of marine ecosystems huddled around vents, the researchers report in the Sept. 1 Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
Adapted for Science News for Students.
Long-lost ‘extinct’ meteorite found
Science News, June 2016A long-lost sibling to one of Earth’s most common kinds of meteorite has finally been found. The discovery could help scientists piece together a half-billion-year-old hit-and-run, the researchers propose online June 14 in Nature Communications.