Posts treating: "continents"
Monday, 30 May 2016
A ten km contour interval? Well yes, if you are mapping the thickness of the earth's crust!
This map brings out beautifully the distribution of the two distinct types of crust on earth. Crust making up the continents is granitic to andesitic in composition, buoyant and is old. Crust making up the ocean basins is mafic in composition, gravitationally unstable (it is heavier and it subducts)
Over the past half-million years, the equatorial Pacific Ocean has seen five spikes in the amount of iron-laden dust blown in from the continents. In theory, those bursts should have turbo-charged the growth of carbon-capturing algae, but a new study shows that the excess iron had little to no
‘We’ve built our entire world around water. Our temperature scale, our bodies. Water shapes our continents, flows through our oceans and rivers, creates atmosphere and weather – this one substance does all of that. And we’ve got to a point … Continue reading
“We had this magic key, this magic magnetic profile,” Pitman said. “We were able to date it and eventually use it not only as a tool that proved continental drift but a tool by which we could actually reconstruct the pattern of drift, that is the relative position of the continents, and the actual timing of the separation of the
Irrigation from agriculture can directly influence climate thousands of kilometers away and even leap across continents, new research finds. Up to 40 percent of the rain in some regions of East Africa can be attributed to irrigation used in agriculture in Asia, according to a new study published in Geophysical Research
So, I don't normally do these "end of the year" recaps, but man, 2015 was BUSY. I travelled to three continents, described a NEW FAMILY of starfish in addition to all the other stuff.. Here are highlights....
1. JAPAN part TWO!
Starting at the end of January I returned to study at Japan's world famous National Museum of Nature and Science in Tsukuba, Japan (outside Tokyo). Among
Last month the Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs) were formally adopted by member states of the United Nations. Building on the Millennium Development Goals, these 17 ambitious goals aim to end global poverty, fight injustice and inequality, and ensure environmental sustainability over a 15 year timeframe (2015-2030). Achieving the SDGs by 2030 will require many sectors to engage, including the geological sciences. Many of the themes within the SDGs are pertinent to geological [...]
From the top to the bottom !!! a real labyrinth !
Then this afternoon great presentations on :
"Miocene climates and oceans": a complexe story with a lot of questions on
-major uplift of the modern mountains
-origin of modern ocean currents
-aridification of the continents and so on ….
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Reading Time: 3 minutesThere are some rock faces that are simply spectacular, including this rock face in Saltstraumen, near Bodø in northern Norway. These fascinating folds have formed under distinct circumstances. About 490 – 390 million years ago the Caledonian Orogeny happened due to the continents of Laurentica, Avalonia and Baltica colliding. In Scandinavia, the collision involved Laurentica and Baltica only. The […]The post Caledonian folding in [...]
'Did the continents move for you?' In this ELI+ activity, pupils plot the movement of continents using apparent polar wandering curves.
By doing this Earthlearningidea pupils can:-
- appreciate that magnetic minerals become magnetised in the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field;
- by recording this remanent magnetisation, it is possible to construct apparent polar wandering curves for
We are in Georgia gearing up for the second phase of field work for the SUGAR project, which will involve collecting seismic refraction data along two profiles spanning eastern Georgia. In the coming weeks, we’ll deploy thousands of small seismometers along county and state roads across the region, which will record sound waves generated by a series of controlled blasts. We can use the sound waves to make pictures of geology beneath the surface. Geological structures beneath Georgia record [...]
Heaved upwards from your deep and watery grave, From the quiet murk onto a chaotic, brine-encrusted ship deck, You’re ever so carefully washed free from the mud, From all the rinsings of continents that settled out of the sea with you Like snow, softly entombing your remains. Now through my looking glass, you lie... read
Simpson (June 16, 1902 - October 6, 1984) is known for his contributions to evolutionary theory and to the understanding of intercontinental migrations of animal species in past geological times. Simpson specialized in early fossil mammals, leading expeditions on four continents and discovering in 1953 the 50-million-year old fossil skulls of dawn horses in Colorado.
Simpson helped develop
It's about this far in when my interest starts to fade. Have you even started to read a novel series, and after number 4 or 5, you say "This guy is pushing it". That's the way I feel, but I soldier on.
So, we had an incredible amount of carbon salted away. How do the continents get this heat under them, and how does it hold up the Rocky Mountains? Again, Plate Tectonics has
Views of the Mahantango [2015-03-21 08:01:00]
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(151 visits) Devonian; DE,US,PL,
Spinatrypa is somewhat common in the lower to middle Devonian of Europe while it is more prevalent in the US during the late middle to upper Devonian. To me this is an indication of the genera originating in Europe and migrating to the US as the continents moved closer during the Devonian. The specimen of Spinatrypa aspera below comes from the Junkerberg formation (Devonian, Eifelian stage), near Gondelsheim, Eifel, Germany. It is a robust, rounded shell with the typical rippled surface that [...]
The Sahara Desert is a near-uninterrupted brown band of sand and scrub across the northern third of Africa. The Amazon rainforest is a dense green mass of humid jungle that covers northeast South America. But after strong winds sweep across the Sahara, a tan cloud rises in the air, stretches between the continents, and ties together the desert and the jungle. It’s dust. And lots of it.
Scientists have not only used a satellite to measure the volume of dust that makes this trans-Atlantic [...]
New ELI today 'Continental split - the opening of the Atlantic Ocean; modelling how continents moved, from Pangaea to today'
Click here for the video clip, created by
Cristina Ginésp { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%;
This activity could be used in any science or geography lesson about sea floor spreading and Wegener's concept of continental drift.
It is one of many activities
The partial shell below is likely from an inarticulate brachiopod called Lindstoemella sp. It came from the Centerfield mbr. of the Ludlowville Fm. near Fayette, NY. This would have been the top valve of the animal since the bottom valve was likely cemented to a hard surface. It is interesting to note the differences in the rock type of the Centerfield member between two geographically distant locations. Normally I collect fossils from this rock unit that are eroding out of a grey [...]
So we got the general picture, that after the Mesozoic, the continents drifted apart and the oceans became more efficient heat pumps. As well, the large carbon-water cycle stopped pumping out. It got colder and colder, and not at all friendly to dinosaurs. At some perfect separation, perhaps exactly equal for the Atlantic and Pacific, the Earth could completely freeze over again. Something
Inspiration
Everywhere we look we see that the continents were increased by the plastering of fresh silicates from island arc complexes. This is the fundamental deep geology of Ontario and Oklahoma, but they ignore it in the States, and for Bruce Deep Holes.
Like Einstein, I believe in a Friendly God, for things that I don't want to think about. For example, we'd all be dead if