Tag Archives: earths

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Magnetic minerals locked inside artifacts from ancient civilizations reveal a snapshot of Earth’s magnetic field at the time. That, in turn, could give us insights into its future. | Credit: Wei-An Jin In 2008, Erez Ben-Yosef unearthed a piece of Iron Age “trash” …

Geologists recently unveiled groundbreaking seismic evidence of massive, ancient “fortresses” located nearly 1,800 miles below the Earth’s surface, in the mantle. These colossal structures are not only older and tougher than the surrounding rock, but they have reshaped our understanding of the planet’s interior. Their discovery was made possible through innovative seismic techniques, and the findings have been published in …

Recent shifts in Earth’s magnetic field have human fingerprints all over them. While it is normal for our planet’s magnetic poles to sporadically wander, new research shows we’ve now amassed enough water behind dam walls to account for at least some of the current movements. Harvard University geophysicist Natasha Valencic and colleagues calculated that the masses concentrated in just under …

In 2008, Erez Ben-Yosef unearthed a piece of Iron Age “trash” and inadvertently revealed the strongest magnetic-field anomaly ever found. Ben-Yosef, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University, had been working in southern Jordan with Ron Shaar, who was analyzing archaeological materials around the Levant. Shaar, a geologist at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was building a record of the area’s …

Deep in an underground, World War Two-era vault, investment manager Louis O’Connor guards his firm’s most valuable assets. The treasure inside? Rare earth elements. “Make no mistake about it, there’s three and a half meter walls and doors and armed security,” says O’Connor, the CEO of Strategic Metals Invest, a firm that lets individual investors buy into stockpiles of rare …

Geologists have stumbled on what they call gigantic fortresses lying almost 1,800 miles below our feet in Earth’s mantle. New seismic evidence shows how these subterranean bulwarks are older and tougher than the cooler debris of dead ocean plates that surround them, turning a long‑running mystery into a concrete data story. Each fortress spans an area comparable to …

Ever been late because you misread a clock? Sometimes, the “clocks” geologists use to date events can also be misread. Unravelling Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history with rocks is tricky business. Case in point: the discovery of an ancient meteorite impact crater was recently reported in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia. The original study, by a different group, made headlines …

For almost ten years, an aftershock linked to the May 30, 2015 magnitude 7.9 Bonin Islands earthquake was touted as the deepest tremor ever measured, reported at 467 miles beneath the Pacific. That label has now been stripped away by a fresh look at the data that places the aftershock, and our understanding of deep seismicity, on firmer ground. …

New research has uncovered a fascinating link between volcanic eruptions and mysterious structures deep within Earth’s interior, challenging long-standing assumptions about the planet’s lower mantle. These structures, known as “BLOBS,” may be the key to understanding some of the most catastrophic volcanic events in Earth’s history. Are Earth’s Deep Secrets Triggering Doomsday Eruptions? Volcanic eruptions can have devastating effects, ranging …

Some of the most familiar atoms in the air above our heads appear to vanish when scientists audit Earth’s interior. Geochemists have spent decades tracing nitrogen’s trail yet always come up billions of tons short. Earth’s rocky shell, the bulk silicate Earth (BSE), holds only one to five parts per million of nitrogen, a tally wildly below the cargo delivered …