Geology, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2010

Mount Merapi Mudflows Chase Indonesian Villagers Away

Just because a volcano has stopped erupting doesn't mean it isn't still dangerous. Roughly 341 people have died since Mount Merapi began erupting in central Indonesia on Oct. 26. As of Dec. 3, Indonesia had downgraded the alert level for the volcano, the BBC reports (other Indonesian volcanoes are still...

Nov 30, 2010

Fake Landslides May Help Understand Natural Ones

Using artificial landslides created in a giant outdoor laboratory, scientists have uncovered key details on how these disasters happen — research that could help them improve forecasts of landslides' size and impact. Many landslides are triggered when intense rainfall or snowmelt loosens steep, debris-laden slopes. As the torrentssurge downward, they...

Oct 31, 2010

Nevado Coropuna: Tallest Mountain in Peru

The tallest volcanic peak in Peru is aptly named Nevado (the Spanish word for snowy) Coropuna (the Quechua term for roughly shrine on the plateau), as the volcano is tipped with ice deposits and has long been considered a sacred mountain by locals. Nevado Coropuna is not a typical stratovolcano....

Oct 31, 2010

Child of Krakatau Is Still Smoking

Throughout the summer and fall of this year, the volcano Anak Krakatau has erupted hundreds of times a day. But by Nov. 17, when NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite took this image, activity at the volcano had started to slow at the remnant of one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions...

Aug 31, 2010

Expedition to the Fossilized Ancestor of the Great Barrier Reef

Shipiodpmaya (Image credit: ECORD/IODP.)It looks like smooth sailing for the Greatship Maya, a research vessel that headed to the waters off the edge of the Great Barrier Reef earlier this year. The large tower in the middle of the ship is the mighty drill the researchers used to retrieve ancient,...

Aug 31, 2010

Yellowstone Detectives Find Underground Column of Molten Rock

A plume of molten rock rising from deep beneath Yellowstone National Park is probably what is fueling the region's volcanic activity, as well as tectonic plate oddities across the Pacific Northwest, new research suggests. Building on a growing body of evidence, Mathias Obrebski of the University of California, Berkeley, and...

Aug 31, 2010

Secret to Continents' Survival May Be Dry Rocks

The key to enduring billions of years of hellish punishment from the crushing, searing conditions found miles underground, if you're a rock, is to get drained of any water that might weaken you, scientists now suggest. The new finding would help explain how the continents keep from being swallowed back...

Aug 31, 2010

Earth's Core Covered By Liquid Rock, Experiment Suggests

Oceans of magma may exist deep in the planet's interior, near where the Earth's mantle and core meet, researchers say. Such magma oceans could be relics from the earliest days of the planet, when it might have been almost completely molten. To reach their findings, scientists re-created the kind of...

Jul 31, 2010

Computers Take a Closer Look Inside the Earth

More detailed pictures of the processes that continuously reshape theEarth from the inside out are being generated by new, more sophisticated computer models, yielding new insights into the hidden world beneath our feet. The added resolution that these models provide — down to a single kilometer from a minimum of...

Jul 31, 2010

Trekking the Coastal Mountains of Colombia

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Image credit: Jesse Lewis)The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is the tallest mountain range in Colombia. Isolated from the long chain of the Andes running south like a great snake along South America, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta pokes its head up like an...

Jun 30, 2010

How does a compass work?

If you're lost in the woods, your best chance of finding your way might be a tiny magnet. A magnet is what makes a compass point north — the small magnetic pin in a compass is suspended so that it can spin freely inside its casing and respond to our...

May 31, 2010

How Hot Is Lava?

Ice melts at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Chocolate melts at 90 F. But rock? Now we're talking a lot more heat. Lava, the melted rock that shoots out of volcanoes, can flow at temperatures of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. Lava that's on the cooler side comes out of volcanoes at only...

May 31, 2010

Depth of Himalayan Mountain Roots Revealed

An epic collision between two ancient continents pushed the Himalayas up fom the Earth's surface. That much is known, but a new study reveals how deep the unseen wreckage penetrated underground. Sprawling sections of the Earth's crust — the rocky plates floating on the scorching, molten rock inside the Earth,...

May 31, 2010

This Is Not Mars

This barren, reddish terrain may look like it belongs on Earth's neighbor, but it's no Martian landscape -- it's actually a unique geological feature in Australia. Located in the Northern Territory of Australia, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park hosts some of the world's most spectacular examples of inselbergs, or isolated mountains....

May 31, 2010

Canyons Form Quickly, Recent Gusher Suggests

Some of the most spectacular canyons on Earth and Mars were probably formed in the geologic blink of an eye, suggests a new study that found clues to their formation deep in the heart of Texas. Lake Canyon Gorge, a 23-feet- (7-meter-) deep canyon in Comal County, Texas, was carved...