A collection of fossil shells from marine snails and clams is challenging a theory that says the world’s deadliest mass extinction was accompanied by severe ocean acidification. Instead of showing […]
University of Texas at Austin
Posted inImpact events
Asteroid Dust Found In Crater Closes Case Of Dinosaur Extinction
Researchers believe they have closed the case of what killed the dinosaurs, definitively linking their extinction with an asteroid that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago by finding a […]
Posted inMars, Press Release
Sustained Planetwide Storms May Have Filled Lakes And Rivers On Ancient Mars
A new study from The University of Texas at Austin is helping scientists piece together the ancient climate of Mars by revealing how much rainfall and snowmelt filled its lake […]
Posted inImpact events, Press Release
Rocks At Asteroid Impact Site Record First Day Of Dinosaur Extinction
When the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs slammed into the planet, the impact set wildfires, triggered tsunamis and blasted so much sulfur into the atmosphere that it blocked the […]
Posted inMars
Massive Ice Discovery Opens A Window Into Mars' History
Newly discovered layers of ice buried a mile beneath Mars’ north pole are the remnants of ancient polar ice sheets and could be one of the largest water reservoirs on […]
Posted inExtremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Press Release
Newly Discovered Deep-sea Microbes Eat Greenhouse Gases and Perhaps Oil Spills
Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin’s Marine Science Institute have discovered nearly two dozen new types of microbes, many of which use hydrocarbons such as methane and butane […]
Posted inHabitable Zones, Press Release
The Dawn Of Plate Tectonics Could Have Turned Earth Into A Snowball
A research duo from The University of Texas at Austin and UT Dallas have put forward a hypothesis that links the dawn of plate tectonics with “snowball Earth”–a period of […]
Posted inAnalog Studies, Press Release
Salty Subglacial Lakes Could Help Search For Life In Our Solar System
Researchers from the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) have helped discover the first subglacial lakes ever found in the Canadian High Arctic. The two new lakes are a […]
Posted inPress Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Fossil Site Shows Impact of Early Jurassic's Low Oxygen Oceans
Using a combination of fossils and chemical markers, scientists have tracked how a period of globally low ocean-oxygen turned an Early Jurassic marine ecosystem into a stressed community inhabited by […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Plant Biology
Symbiotic Fungi Inhabiting Plant Roots Have Major Impact on Atmospheric Carbon
Microscopic fungi that live in plants’ roots play a major role in the storage and release of carbon from the soil into the atmosphere. According to a University of Texas […]