https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. In a new study, a team of researchers suggests that 4 billion years ago, plate tectonics likely looked closer to what we experience today than previously thought. The team published its findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-billion-years-plate-tectonics-closer.html Earth Sciences Thu, 26 Sep 2024 11:53:03 EDT news646570381 Mars wasn't always the cold desert we see today. There's increasing evidence that water once flowed on the red planet's surface, billions of years ago. And if there was water, there must also have been a thick atmosphere to keep that water from freezing. But sometime around 3.5 billion years ago, the water dried up, and the air, once heavy with carbon dioxide, dramatically thinned, leaving only the wisp of an atmosphere that clings to the planet today. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-mars-early-thick-atmosphere-planet.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 25 Sep 2024 14:00:01 EDT news646472268 Sophisticated analysis of tiny bubbles of ancient gas trapped in volcanic rocks, combined with new geophysical modeling, has cast new light on long-held assumptions about the deep Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-afar-mantle-plume-insight-deep.html Earth Sciences Wed, 25 Sep 2024 10:31:04 EDT news646479061 Lavas from hotspots—whether erupting in Hawaii, Samoa or Iceland—likely originate from a worldwide, uniform reservoir in Earth's mantle, according to an evaluation of volcanic hotspots published in Nature Geoscience. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-envisions-earth-mantle-uniform-reservoir.html Earth Sciences Thu, 19 Sep 2024 05:00:01 EDT news645870421 Recent satellite data reveal that the Konya Basin in the Central Anatolian Plateau of Türkiye is continually being reshaped over millions of years, according to a new analysis led by Earth scientists at the University of Toronto. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-geoscientists-earth-crust-beneath-trkiye.html Earth Sciences Wed, 18 Sep 2024 15:56:04 EDT news645893761 The core-mantle boundary (CMB) is a crucial interface within the Earth, marking the boundary between the outer core and the lower mantle. For the past two decades, seismological studies have identified anomalous low-velocity zones above the CMB, such as the large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVPs) beneath Africa and the Pacific. Smaller ultralow-velocity zones (ULVZs) have been detected in these regions, characterized by significantly lower seismic wave speeds and higher densities compared to the surrounding mantle. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-superionic-iron-hydride-key-ultralow.html Earth Sciences Mon, 16 Sep 2024 12:04:50 EDT news645707088 Throughout Earth's history, the planet's surface has been regularly impacted by comets, meteors, and the occasional large asteroid. While these events were often destructive, sometimes to the point of triggering a mass extinction, they may have also played an important role in the emergence of life on Earth. This is especially true of the Hadean Era (ca. 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago) and the Late Heavy Bombardment, when Earth and other planets in the inner solar system were impacted by a disproportionately high number of asteroids and comets. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-comets-blocks-life-ocean-worlds.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Mon, 09 Sep 2024 12:46:05 EDT news645104761 It is widely accepted that the early Earth largely consisted of molten magma, forming a global ocean of magma. This extreme state of Earth was likely caused by the intense heat generated from accretionary impacts, meaning the collision of smaller celestial bodies with Earth. Understanding the formation of this magma ocean is crucial for comprehending Earth's formation. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-uncovering-role-oxygen-formation-early.html Earth Sciences Mon, 26 Aug 2024 10:40:04 EDT news643887601 In 2005, I was navigating winding roads through the Drakensberg Mountains, in Lesotho, Southern Africa. Towering cliff-like features known as escarpments interrupt the landscape, rising up by a kilometer or more. Taken aback by the dramatic scenery, I was struck by a question: how on Earth did it form? https://phys.org/news/2024-08-mountains-mantle-earth.html Earth Sciences Thu, 22 Aug 2024 11:44:14 EDT news643545846 Interactions between neighboring tectonic plates can push parts of Earth's surface up or down to form notable features, such as the Andes and the Himalayas. The forces that sculpt the Earth's surface far from plate edges are less well understood. For instance, multiple hypotheses compete to explain the uplift of the Colorado Plateau in the interior of the North American plate. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-lithospheric-oddities-sculpting-continental-interiors.html Earth Sciences Wed, 21 Aug 2024 13:14:03 EDT news643464841 For the decades since their discovery, seismic signals known as PKP precursors have challenged scientists. Regions of Earth's lower mantle scatter incoming seismic waves, which return to the surface as PKP waves at differing speeds. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-geophysicists-link-seismic-pkp-precursors.html Earth Sciences Sat, 17 Aug 2024 03:31:51 EDT news643084295 The oxygen fugacity (fO2) of the mantle controls the speciation and mobility of volatiles within it, influencing the composition of volatiles released during mantle-derived magmatic activity, and thereby regulating the composition of the atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-parameter-insights-evolution-mantle-redox.html Earth Sciences Tue, 13 Aug 2024 16:05:31 EDT news642783929 If you were to slice through it, you would see the Earth is divided into distinct layers. On top is the relatively thin crust where we live. Beneath that is the 2,900 km thick mantle layer. Then, enclosed within the mantle is the innermost metallic core of our planet. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-biggest-sample-core-material-earth.html Earth Sciences Tue, 13 Aug 2024 11:07:30 EDT news642766045 Scientists have recovered the first long section of rocks that originated in the Earth's mantle, the layer below the crust and the planet's largest component. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-recovery-earth-mantle-reveal-secrets.html Earth Sciences Thu, 08 Aug 2024 14:00:01 EDT news642319773 Scientists at the University of Southampton have answered one of the most puzzling questions in plate tectonics: how and why "stable" parts of continents gradually rise to form some of the planet's greatest topographic features. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-scientists-uncover-hidden-continents.html Earth Sciences Wed, 07 Aug 2024 11:39:51 EDT news642249577 Dense hydrous magnesium silicates (DHMSs) are generally considered as primary water carriers from the shallow lithosphere to the deep mantle transition region (MTR; 410–660 km in depth). Among DHMSs, Superhydrous phase B (hereafter, SuB) holds the chemical formula, Mg10Si3H3O18. https://phys.org/news/2024-08-mantle-aluminum-enriched-hydrated-slabs.html Earth Sciences Wed, 07 Aug 2024 10:34:52 EDT news642245688 A new analysis of rocks thought to be at least 2.5 billion years old by researchers at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History helps clarify the chemical history of Earth's mantle—the geologic layer beneath the planet's crust. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-stable-mantle-chemistry-dating-earth.html Earth Sciences Wed, 24 Jul 2024 11:00:02 EDT news641030101 Because of interactions with Earth's hot mantle, water-logged oceanic plates release water as they slide beneath less dense overriding plates in subduction zones. This water rises and hydrates the mantle above it, contributing to the formation of volcanoes at the surface and limiting the maximum depths of damaging earthquakes. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-mantle-hydration-lifetime-subduction-zone.html Earth Sciences Fri, 19 Jul 2024 11:16:02 EDT news640606561 Mantle convection and associated plate tectonics of planets like the Earth are governed by the deformation of mantle rocks. This deformation occurs through the motion of defects in the crystal lattices of minerals. Thus, the physical properties of these structural defects under pressure have profound implications on the dynamics of Earth-like planets. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-grain-boundaries-weaken-planetary-interiors.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 17 Jul 2024 10:07:37 EDT news640429652 Crust and lithospheric mantle—the thinnest and thickest layers of the Earth's lithosphere—and a wide range of dynamic processes that deform them can be studied by using high precision geodetic data taken directly from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). GNSS data and data products can measure and help the user understand such factors as the Earth's geometric shape, orientation in space, and gravity field. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-forge-access-earth-lithosphere.html Earth Sciences Tue, 16 Jul 2024 12:36:14 EDT news640352171 A recent study in Nature Communications by scientists from China and Belgium suggests that Mercury's core-mantle boundary (CMB) includes a diamond layer, potentially up to 18 kilometers thick, deep within the planet's interior. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-diamond-layer-core-mantle-boundary.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 10 Jul 2024 09:00:01 EDT news639804179 Our present-day moon has an interior structure containing a central metallic core, overlain by a mantle comprised of minerals such as olivine and pyroxene (e.g. Ol+Px mantle) underneath a shell of crust. Such a picture of the moon's interior has been formed from analyses of returning lunar samples and records of deep seismic events collected during missions to the moon. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-garnet-rich-lunar-moon-mantle.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 04 Jul 2024 09:41:10 EDT news639304865 In the Earth's subduction zones, water is transported into the deep mantle by nominally anhydrous minerals (NAMs) and water-bearing minerals in oceanic plates that react with seawater. Therefore, determination of the stability field and water content of water-bearing minerals is very important for understanding the water cycle processes in the Earth's deep interior. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-high-pressure-silica-mineral-deep.html Earth Sciences Wed, 26 Jun 2024 10:25:20 EDT news638616317 Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Johns Hopkins University have unlocked new secrets about the interiors of super-Earth exoplanets, potentially revolutionizing our understanding of these distant worlds. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-magnesium-oxide-dynamic-transition-super.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 12 Jun 2024 13:01:03 EDT news637416061 Ancient, expansive tracts of continental crust called cratons have helped keep Earth's continents stable for billions of years, even as landmasses shift, mountains rise and oceans form. A new mechanism proposed by Penn State scientists may explain how the cratons formed some 3 billion years ago, an enduring question in the study of Earth's history. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-reveals-mechanism-continents-stabilized.html Earth Sciences Wed, 08 May 2024 11:00:01 EDT news634376342 The movement of tectonic plates shapes the rocky features of Earth's surface. Plates' convergence can form mountain ranges or ocean trenches, and their divergence can form oceanic ridges. But it's not just the plates themselves that influence Earth's topography. The mantle layer underneath exerts its own subtle influence, which can be seen even in places located far from tectonic plate edges, and is referred to as residual topography. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-mantle-movements-earth-surface.html Earth Sciences Fri, 03 May 2024 09:58:32 EDT news633949107 The core-mantle boundary (CMB) is crucial for the Earth's magnetic field and rotation. It is known that this boundary harbors complex structures, including ultralow velocity zones (ULVZs), characterized by significantly slowed seismic wave velocities. The origin and structure of these zones are key to unraveling and understanding some secrets in related fields, especially the Earth's science. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-closer-earth-technique-ultralow-velocity.html Earth Sciences Mon, 01 Apr 2024 11:52:02 EDT news631191120 Yale researchers are delving deep beneath the Himalayas to investigate dynamic geological processes near the boundary of Earth's core and mantle. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-ultra-velocity-zone-beneath-himalayas.html Earth Sciences Wed, 27 Mar 2024 09:57:04 EDT news630752222 Research led by Macquarie University sheds new light on how concentrations of metals used in renewable energy technologies can be transported from deep within the Earth's interior mantle by low temperature, carbon-rich melts. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-valuable-green-metals.html Earth Sciences Sat, 23 Mar 2024 03:02:51 EDT news630381760 Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the increase in carbon dioxide emissions has consistently warmed the Earth's climate. At the current warming rate, our planet might potentially be on track toward witnessing a greenhouse climate state with no ice on polar caps. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-highlights-scientific-drilling-songliao-basin.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 18 Mar 2024 17:00:03 EDT news630000001