Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Scooting on a Wet Bottom: Some undersea landslides ride a nearly frictionless slick of water
New computer simulations suggest that hydroplaning may be responsible for the unexpectedly large distances traversed by some undersea avalanches.
- Earth
Two microbes team up to munch methane
Aggregates of two different microorganisms in methane-bearing ocean sediments collected off the Oregon coast appear to collaborate to consume methane despite a lack of oxygen.
- Earth
Even Nunavut gets plenty of dioxin
Within a few weeks, some of the dioxin generated by industrial activities in the United States and Mexico falls out in the high Arctic.
- Earth
Bogged Down: Ancient peat may be missing methane source
Massive peat bogs in Russia may have been a major source of atmospheric methane just after the end of the last ice age.
- Earth
This pollutant fights lupus
A hormone-mimicking pollutant that leaches out of some plastics appears to fight lupus.
- Earth
When testosterone gets down and dirty
Testosterone excreted by livestock can pass through soils, which may explain new findings of fish-altering hormonal activity in water downstream of cattle feedlots.
- Earth
Infrasonic Symphony
Scientists are eavesdropping on volcanoes, avalanches, earthquakes, and meteorites to discern these phenomena's infrasound signatures and see what new information infrasound might reveal.
- Earth
Blasts from the Past: Orbiting radar spots old nuclear-test sites
A technique that analyzes satellite images to detect subtle ground motions often can perceive subsidence over underground nuclear-test sites, sometimes even if those tests occurred decades ago.
- Earth
My Own Private Bad-Air Day: Outdoor data underrate pollutant exposure
Most people breathe in substantially more organic contaminants than airborne concentrations of such substances in their homes and communities would suggest.
- Earth
New technique dates glaze on desert rocks
Scientists have developed a quick, easy, portable, and nondestructive way to determine the age of desert varnish, the mysterious dark coating that slowly develops on rocks in many arid regions of the world.
- Earth
Newfound fault may explain quakes
Tsunami simulations suggest that a newly discovered fault zone beneath the Atlantic Ocean could have released most of the seismic energy from three earthquakes that destroyed Lisbon, Portugal, on the morning of Nov. 1, 1755.
- Earth
Alaska shook, mountains spoke
Small pulses in atmospheric pressure detected in Fairbanks soon after the magnitude 7.9 Denali quake on Nov. 3, 2002, suggest that the temblor literally moved mountains.
