Why air pollution plagues a small island deep in the South Pacific
The fresh air of Rapa Nui, an island in the most pristine region of the global ocean, is not as clean as it could be, research suggests. Image: mmmyoso
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Category: Earth Science
The sulfurous dust that helped to do in the dinosaurs
The catastrophic Chicxulub asteroid impact 66 million years ago launched enormous quantities of sulfur into the stratosphere, rock chemistry suggests. This sulfur enhanced global cooling that contributed to the dinosaurs’ demise. Image: Kevin M. Gill
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New insight into magma chambers could improve volcano models
Researchers have discovered a simple and surprising control over the depth of a volcano’s magma chamber: how much water it contains. The finding is significant because water fuels the most devastating eruptions. Image: DANIEL RASMUSSEN/SMITHSONIAN
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Tyrannosaurus rex may actually be three separate species
After analysing the teeth and thigh bones of 38 T. rex fossils, some researchers propose reclassifying them as three different species, but others are unconvinced. Image: Erik Schepers
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Fossil fish reveal timing of asteroid that killed the dinosaurs
Winter began in spring for many animals during the final year of the age of dinosaurs. Palaeontologists studying fossilized fish suggest that spring was in full bloom in the Northern Hemisphere when an asteroid slammed into Earth, triggering a devastating global winter and mass extinction. Image: Joschua Knüppe
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Deepest land-dwelling microbes found at bottom of 5km hole in China
There are microbes near the bottom of the third deepest hole in the world. The cells, recovered from rocks almost 5 kilometres below the surface in China, are the deepest so far found anywhere on land – and they may push beyond the known heat tolerances of life on Earth. Image: Qin Wang et al
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Strange fossil is the first to show an ammonite without its shell
Ammonites are among the most common marine fossils from the age of the dinosaurs, but no one has found one like this before. It shows one of the swimming marine molluscs without its distinctive spiral shell – offering a rare opportunity to study ammonite internal anatomy. Image: Klug et al. (2021)
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Squid-like creature that looked like a giant paperclip lived 200 years
An ancient squid-like animal with a shell that looked like a 1.5-metre-long paperclip may have typically lived for 200 years. Image: Linda Invany
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Earth’s tectonic plates may have sped up three times in its past
At three moments in the past, Earth’s geological activity picked up the pace. Its tectonic plates moved 30 to 50 per cent faster than normal, and there were bursts of volcanic activity and mountain building that helped create supercontinents. Image: NASA Johnson
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Drought once shut down Old Faithful—and might again
Old Faithful wasn’t always so faithful. The geyser, in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park, is famous because it blasts hot water tens of meters into the air at regular intervals. Now, geologists examining petrified wood from the park have found evidence that 800 years ago, Old Faithful stopped erupting entirely for several decades. Image: Photomatt28
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Researchers say they’ve solved the mystery of the missing dinosaur eggs
Fifteen years ago, Mark Norell came across a clutch of dinosaur eggs in southern Mongolia. Frozen in place were at least a dozen embryos of the Triceratops relative Protoceratops. But “something weird” was going on, says the paleontologist, who works at the American Museum of Natural History. Image: M. ELLISON/© AMNH
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All five of Earth’s largest mass extinctions linked to global warming
The second-most severe mass extinction in Earth’s history may have been triggered by global warming. The discovery means that, for the first time, all of the largest known extinctions can be linked to a rapid rise in the planet’s temperature. Image: VSmithUK
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