geology Archives

This animated artist’s concept depicts a scene of water breaking through the rim of Mars’ Jezero Crater, which NASA’s Perseverance rover is now exploring. Water entered the crater billions of years ago, depositing sediments that built up into a delta. -- NASA

Astrogeology, Mars, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Status Report

Video: Water Enters Jezero Crater Billions of Years Ago (Artist’s Concept)

by Keith CowingDecember 15, 2023December 15, 2023

Since the spacecraft’s landing in February 2021, Perseverance’s exploration of the crater floor and the delta have led to scientists developing a detailed timeline for the crater’s formation. They now […]

Precambrian reconstructed continental carbonate rock flux is within error of the Mesozoic-onward continental carbonate rock flux. The Paleozoic ‘Neritic Age’ stands out as the time of highest sustained continental carbonate rock flux in Earth history. Spikes in carbonate rock flux in the Precambrian may be overestimated due to the crude reconstruction approach used (see methods), which does not account for possible changes in continental volume and freeboard over time. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Extinction events, Status Report

Phanerozoic Biological Reworking Of The Continental Carbonate Rock Reservoir

by Keith CowingDecember 15, 2023December 15, 2023

Understanding the co-evolution of complex life with Earth’s geology is an enduring challenge. The rock record evidences remarkable correlations between changes in biology and the wider Earth system, yet cause […]

The colorful Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park is the park’s largest and the third-largest spring in the world. Research by UW Professor Ken Sims and colleagues has provided new insights into Yellowstone’s hydrothermal system. -- U.S. Geological Survey Photo Larger image

Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

Yellowstone Hydrothermal System Examined In Unprecedented Detail

by Keith CowingDecember 9, 2023December 9, 2023

University of Wyoming Department of Geology and Geophysics Professor Ken Sims made his mark as a National Geographic Explorer conducting research in some of the world’s most extreme locations, from […]

Scanning electron microscope image using material taken in the drill core from the borehole taken in 1981 from the Nördlinger Ries reveals dolomite crystals with rhombohedral shape. Photo: Lingqi Zeng, Göttingen University

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Impact events, Press Release

Limitations Of Asteroid Crater Lakes As Climate Archives

by Keith CowingDecember 6, 2023December 6, 2023

In southern Germany just north of the Danube, there lies a large circular depression between the hilly surroundings: the Nördlinger Ries. Almost 15 million years ago, an asteroid struck this […]

Artist's rendering of a trilobite based on preserved soft body parts. CREDIT Nobu Tamura

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release

Trilobite Fossils Help Draw A Map Of Early Earth

by Keith CowingNovember 26, 2023November 26, 2023

Ten newly discovered species of trilobites, hidden for 490 million years in a little-studied part of Thailand, could be the missing pieces in an intricate puzzle of ancient world geography.

An overview of the inputs for each step in our processing pipeline. a) A region in the HiRISE image of ESP 018707 2205 is shown at the native resolution (0.3m/px) with a blue box highlighting the window size for our classifier network. b) A 256 x 256 pixel window is used as input for our spatial classifier algorithm however the window is at 1/16 the original resolution (1.2m/px). A grid of 8x8 squares is displayed showing how that image gets tiled and preprocessed using parts of a JPEG encoder which involves the discrete cosine transform (d). c) A single 8x8 tile flattened into a 1d array which is used for the DCT transform (d). e) A block of Fourier coefficients is rearranged into a data cube and used as input for our Fourier classifier. Reducing the image size and ultimately the channel size after the first conv. layer significantly shortens the network’s processing time compared to the spatial image input. -- astro-ph.EP

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astrogeology, Fossils & Paleontology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Status Report

Mapping “Brain Coral” Regions On Mars Using Deep Learning

by Keith CowingNovember 22, 2023November 22, 2023

One of the main objectives of the Mars Exploration Program is to search for evidence of past or current life on the planet. To achieve this, Mars exploration has been […]

Illustration of Earth’s interior revealing subducting water and a rising plume of magma. At the interface where subducting water meets the core, a chemical exchange occurs to form a hydrogen-rich layer in the topmost outer core and dense silica in the bottom of the mantle. Image courtesy Yonsei University

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Surface Water Dives Deep And Transforms Earth’s Core’s Outer Layer

by Keith CowingNovember 15, 2023November 15, 2023

A few decades ago, seismologists imaging the deep planet identified a thin layer, just over a few hundred kilometers thick. The origin of this layer, known as the E prime […]

Boundaries of the Habitable Zone under various climate and atmospheric models as a function of radiative flux received from the host star, relative to Earth. Dashed lines represent the extended boundaries due to subglacial liquid water suggested in this work: blue for the inner HZ boundary (nightside ice evaporates due to heat transport, the percentage marks the global transport parameter f) and violet for the outer one (Martian polar lakes). Solid green lines and green shading denote the conservative HZ boundaries: inner one (moist greenhouse) and outer one (maximum CO2 greenhouse), calculated using the 1-D climate model. Also marked is the recent Venus boundary (dashed green line). The orange curve marks the tidal locking radius. Circles denote the terrestrial planets in the solar system and a few Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting M-dwarf stars. -- Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Extended Habitability Of Exoplanets Due To Subglacial Water

by Keith CowingNovember 10, 2023November 10, 2023

Professor Amri Wandel, from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has unveiled research that promises to redefine our comprehension of habitable exoplanets. In a recent study published in the Astronomical Journal, Professor […]

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Mars, Press Release

A Molten Layer Covers Mars’ Core

by Keith CowingOctober 27, 2023October 27, 2023

NASA’s InSight mission to Mars helped scientists map out Mars’ internal structure, including the size and composition of its core, and provided general hints about its tumultuous formation.