Current Events

  • Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education
    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of ...Read more

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    Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education

    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of sustainability. Here is a link to the one-page bill: http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/measures/documents/hb2366_00_0000.pdf. See report on Bloomberg News.
  • Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows
    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 ...Read more

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    Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows

    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 degrees hotter than in a previous experiment run 20 years ago. These measurements confirm geophysical models that the temperature difference between the solid core and the mantle above, must be at least 1500 degrees to explain why the Earth has a magnetic field. For more information about this study, see the press release from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
  • Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust
    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials fr...Read more

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    Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust

    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth’s crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago. Their work is published in Nature. Oceanic crust sinks into the Earth’s mantle at so-called subduction zones, where two plates come together. Much of what happens to the crust during this journey is unknown. Model-dependent studies for how long subducted material can exist in the mantle are uncertain and evidence of very old crust returning to Earth’s surface via upwellings of magma has not been found until now. For more information about these results, see the press release from the Carnegie Institution.

Craters on Earth


(308K GIF)
This is the Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona. The diameter is 1.2 kilometers, and it is 49,000 years old. (Courtesy of D. Roddy and LPI)

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This is Wolfe Creek Crater in Australia. It is partly buried under wind blown sand. Its crater rim rises 25 meters (82 feet) above the land and the crater floor is 50 meters (164 feet) below the rim. (Courtesy of V. L. Sharpton, LPI)

(316K GIF)
These twin impact craters are Clearwater East and West craters located in Quebec, Canada. They were formed at the same time by two separate but probably related meteorite impacts. This rarely occurs on Earth. The larger Clearwater Lake West (left) shows a ring of islands that has a diameter of about 10 kilometers (6 miles). They constitute a raised area and are covered with impact melts. The central peak of the smaller Clearwater Lake East (right) is submerged. (Courtesy NASA/LPI)

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This is Roter Kamm Crater located in South West Africa in the Namibia Desert. Scientists believe that a meteorite hit this area about 5 million years ago. The crater floor is covered by sand dunes. (Courtesy of W. U. Reimold and LPI)

(218K GIF)
This is a space radar image of the Roter Kamm Crater. The data were acquired by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) instrument onboard space shuttle Endeavour on April 14, 1994. The area shown is approximately 25.5 kilometers (15.8 miles) by 36.4 kilometers (22.5 miles.) (Courtesy NASA/JPL)


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