#outer-layers

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fromArs Technica
2 days ago

New fossil deposits show complex animal groups predating the Cambrian

Four protrusions appear to be arranged in pairs, each consisting of two connected branches surrounding a central depression. We really don't understand what any of these features represent anatomically.
OMG science
Science
fromwww.scientificamerican.com
1 week ago

Earth's magnetic field may be more powerful than we thought

Earth's magnetic field extends farther into space than previously believed, providing protection from galactic cosmic rays even beyond the moon.
#climate-change
Environment
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

Earth being pushed beyond its limits' as energy imbalance reaches record high

The Earth is experiencing a record energy imbalance, leading to unprecedented ocean warming and extreme weather, threatening health and food supplies.
OMG science
fromwww.scientificamerican.com
3 weeks ago

Earth's days are getting longer at an unprecedented rate. Climate change is to blame

Rising sea levels from climate change are slowing Earth's rotation, adding 1.33 milliseconds per century to day length at an unprecedented rate for at least 3.6 million years.
#plate-tectonics
OMG science
fromwww.scientificamerican.com
2 weeks ago

When did plate tectonics on Earth begin? New research finds some of the earliest clues

Magnetic evidence from ancient Western Australian crust reveals plate tectonics began at least 3.48 billion years ago, half a billion years earlier than previously documented.
OMG science
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 weeks ago

A molten, mushy state': scientists may have found a new type of liquid planet

Astronomers discovered L98-59d, a molten lava planet 35 light years away that represents an entirely new category of liquid planet with surface temperatures of 1,900°C and a hydrogen sulfide atmosphere.
fromwww.theguardian.com
4 weeks ago

Humanity heating planet faster than ever before, study finds

Climate breakdown is occurring more rapidly with the heating rate almost doubling, according to research that excludes the effect of natural factors behind the latest scorching temperatures. It found global heating accelerated from a steady rate of less than 0.2C per decade between 1970 and 2015 to about 0.35C per decade over the past 10 years.
Environment
OMG science
fromState of the Planet
3 weeks ago

Earth's "Missing" Billion Years: Study Links the Great Unconformity to Early Tectonics

Tectonic forces from early supercontinent formation, rather than Snowball Earth glaciation, caused the Great Unconformity, a billion-year gap in Earth's geologic record.
fromMail Online
3 weeks ago

Sea fossils atop world's mountains fuel claims of Noah's Great Flood

Marine fossils have been discovered on mountain ranges around the world, including the Himalayas, Andes and Rocky Mountains, which scientists say were once covered by ancient seas before being pushed upward as continents collided and mountains formed.
OMG science
#snowball-earth
fromAeon
1 month ago
Philosophy

How the harsh, icy world of Snowball Earth shaped life today | Aeon Essays

fromAeon
1 month ago
Philosophy

How the harsh, icy world of Snowball Earth shaped life today | Aeon Essays

fromMail Online
1 month ago

Earthquake strikes America's Heartland above ancient volcanoes

Although Kansas has no active volcanoes, the region marks the southern reach of the Midcontinent Rift System, a massive tectonic event that nearly split North America apart in Earth's distant past. When magma forced its way through the crust during that period, it left behind hardened igneous rock and deep fractures that remain buried thousands of feet underground.
Science
OMG science
fromNature
1 month ago

Earth's oldest crystals suggest an early start for plate tectonics

Ancient Australian zircon crystals reveal early Earth had more oxygen and water than expected, with tectonic plate movement occurring at least 3.3 billion years ago, suggesting conditions more favorable for life than previously believed.
Artificial intelligence
fromEric Jang
1 month ago

As Rocks May Think

Modern coding agents can autonomously write, modify, and run experiments, transforming research workflows and enabling unconstrained code-space exploration, automated hypothesis generation, and hyperparameter optimization.
fromwww.kaltblut-magazine.com
2 months ago

Terrain

The body is a shifting landscape transformed by surfaces and sensations. Each look captures a different tactile world: the heat of blood, the cool weight of metal, the yielding drift of water. The result is a sculptural study of how the elements carve, shield, and release the self. The materials we embody become the emotions we carry, and the body becomes a materialised exhibition of our emotions, from the pulse of Blood to the discipline of Metal to the surrender of Water.
Fashion & style
Books
fromNature
2 months ago

Beneath acid skies

An android named Gretel faithfully guards a ruined gate for twenty-six years until a survivor, Elijah, returns to awaken memories and offer her rest.
fromwww.scientificamerican.com
1 month ago

Could aliens in another galaxy see dinosaurs on Earth?

For example, reader David Erickson had this on his mind: If there were aliens 66 million light-years from Earth, how big a telescope would they need to see dinosaurs? Ha! I love this question. I've thought of it myself but never worked out the mathexcept to think, Probably pretty big, which turns out to dramatically underestimate the actual answer.
Science
Environment
fromNature
1 month ago

Tree rings and salt lakes give clues about ancient rainfall

Replace hazardous pesticides and apply diverse paleoclimate measurement methods to reconstruct past climate changes.
fromConde Nast Traveler
2 months ago

Chasing Lava as the Earth Shifts

Land is one of those things that can disappear even as you see it. It falls away beneath you, becoming merely the ground under your feet, because you're thinking about where you're going, or a place slowly blurring out of focus from the airplane window. Land is a primal word, primordial even, like lava. And it is a loaded word if, say, you're Indigenous or descend from a people whose land was taken from them.
Environment
#deep-time
Environment
fromFuturism
1 month ago

Earth on Track to Become Uninhabitable, Scientists Say

Multiple Earth systems are approaching destabilization, risking cascading tipping points that could commit the planet to a high-temperature 'hothouse Earth' trajectory.
fromHigh Country News
2 months ago

How geology not only shapes the world, it shapes us - High Country News

My father was a petroleum geologist. A lot of my childhood, he was gone, away on oil rigs in the Powder River Basin and remote parts of Wyoming, living in man camps long before cellphones. We had to wait days to talk to him. When he went into the nearest town to shower, he'd find a payphone and call us. I was always breathless with news.
Science
fromNature
2 months ago

Volcanic personality: the man who recognized volcanoes as a planet-shaping force of nature

Remembering the life and work of the geologist George Poulett Scrope, and salmon stories in this week's pick from the Nature archive.
Science
fromwww.nature.com
1 month ago

Atmospheric H2 variability over the past 1,100 years

Warwick, N., Griffiths, P., Keeble, J., Archibald, A., & Pyle, J. Atmospheric implications of increased Hydrogen use. GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/atmospheric-implications-of-increased-hydrogen-use (2022).
Environment
fromFuturism
2 months ago

Scientists Scramble to Set Up Outpost on Rapidly Melting Glacier

During a rare break in the weather, the NYT says helicopters airlifted the researchers and their equipment 19 miles to their planned outpost site on top of the glacier. The two helicopters involved flew a dozen total loads of cargo from the icebreaker ship to the camp site, while glacial scientists and engineers erected a small tent city, complete with bathrooms, generators, and a mess hall.
Environment
Environment
fromMail Online
1 month ago

Inside mysterious vault built to save life after planetary extinction

A Colossal Biosciences–UAE BioVault will cryogenically store genetic material from thousands of species using robotics and AI to preserve biodiversity and enable future restoration.
#urban-geology
Science
fromNature
1 month ago

A universal concept for melting in mantle upwellings - Nature

High-pressure multi-anvil experiments simulate volatile-bearing mantle melting at 7 GPa and 1,420–1,630°C using CO2–graphite buffering and Re/Pt capsules.
fromWIRED
1 month ago

Two Titanic Structures Hidden Deep Within the Earth Have Altered the Magnetic Field for Millions of Years

A team of geologists has found for the first time evidence that two ancient, continent-sized, ultrahot structures hidden beneath the Earth have shaped the planet's magnetic field for the past 265 million years. These two masses, known as large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVPs), are part of the catalog of the planet's most enormous and enigmatic objects. Current estimates calculate that each one is comparable in size to the African continent, although they remain buried at a depth of 2,900 kilometers.
Science
Science
fromwww.scientificamerican.com
2 months ago

Life's evil twins, called mirror cells, could wipe us out if scientists don't stop them

Engineered mirror-image bacteria used to manufacture durable drugs can evade immune detection and cause uncontrollable infections and environmental spread.
Science
fromNature
2 months ago

A mysterious ancient fingerprint and a lemon-shaped planet - the stories you've missed

A 4,400-kilometre undersea fibre-optic cable can detect seismic waves by measuring light reflections from glass impurities along its length.
fromFuturism
2 months ago

Meteorologist Warns That Winter Storm Means Trees Are About to Start Exploding

With a major winter storm about to blast pretty much every US state east of the Rocky Mountains, many are scrambling to prepare for the cold, ice, and snow. And according to popular meteorology influencer Max Schuster, there's yet another winter-weather hazard to watch out for: trees exploding in the frigid air. On a viral post on X-formerly-Twitter, Schuster - who holds a meteorology degree
Science
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