Hacker News with Generative AI: Geology

Geothermal power is a climate moon shot beneath our feet (newyorker.com)
North Milford Valley, in western Utah, is home to dormant volcanoes, subterranean lava deposits, and smatterings of obsidian—black volcanic glass—that Paiute peoples once collected for arrowheads and jewelry. Scalding groundwater still bubbles to the surface in places. In such a landscape, you remember that the planet’s hard exterior, where we spend our entire lives, is so thin that we call it a crust. Its superheated interior, meanwhile, burns with an estimated forty-four trillion watts of power.

Geothermal Energy, Climate Change, Renewable Energy, Geology, Utah

297 points by pseudolus 4 days ago | 300 comments

Bifurcation: The secret giant islands formed when rivers split (starkeycomics.com)
As I’m sure you’re aware, rivers usually combine together to make larger and larger rivers until they reach the sea. However, there are some exceptions: rivers do sometimes split up and flow in separate directions.

Geography, Rivers, Geology

118 points by webstrand 8 days ago | 35 comments

Have we been wrong about why Mars is red? (esa.int)
The Red Planet’s iconic rusty dust has a much wetter history than previously assumed, find scientists combining European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA spacecraft data with new laboratory experiments on replica Mars dust. The results suggest that Mars rusted early in the planet’s ancient past, when liquid water was more widespread.

Space Exploration, Mars, Geology, Science

45 points by rntn 9 days ago | 9 comments

Curiosity Mars rover discovers evidence of ripples from ancient Red Planet lake (space.com)

Space Exploration, Mars, Geology, Astronomy

54 points by speckx 14 days ago | 9 comments

NASA rover discovers liquid water 'ripples' carved into Mars rock (livescience.com)

Mars, Space Exploration, Science, Geology, Water

79 points by Brajeshwar 16 days ago | 27 comments

Surprise Magma Chamber Growing Under Mediterranean Volcano (2023) (news.agu.org)
WASHINGTON — Using a novel imaging technique for volcanoes that produces high-resolution pictures of seismic wave properties, a new study reveals a large, previously undetected body of mobile magma underneath Kolumbo, an active submarine volcano near Santorini, Greece.

Volcanoes, Geology, Mediterranean Sea, Greece, Science

47 points by jandrewrogers 23 days ago | 19 comments

Earth's inner core may have changed shape, say scientists (bbc.co.uk)
The inner core of Earth may have changed shape in the past 20 years, according to a group of scientists.

Earth Science, Geology, Research, Inner Core, Planet Earth

52 points by neversaydie 24 days ago | 36 comments

Large magma bodies found beneath dormant volcanoes (phys.org)
New Cornell University led-research challenges the long-standing belief that active volcanoes have large magma bodies that are expelled during eruptions and then dissipate over time as the volcanoes become dormant.

Volcanoes, Geology, Science, Research

101 points by PaulHoule 25 days ago | 29 comments

Why gold loves arsenic (2021) (mining.com)
An international team of geochemists discovered why gold is concentrated alongside arsenic, a phenomenon that explains the formation of most deposits of the precious metal.

Geology, Mining, Chemistry, Gold

52 points by DoreenMichele 27 days ago | 27 comments

Two Grand Canyon-size valleys on far side of the moon formed within 10 minutes (cnn.com)

Space Exploration, Geology, Moon

91 points by pseudolus 27 days ago | 73 comments

A coastal California community is sliding 4 inches a week toward the ocean (sfgate.com)
Residents in scenic communities along the coast of Southern California have known for years that the Palos Verdes Peninsula is prone to landslides, but new research from NASA reveals a startling speed at which the Los Angeles subregion is shifting into the sea.

California, Coastline, Climate Change, Geology, Natural Disasters

12 points by harambae 30 days ago | 1 comments

Natural fission reactors in the Franceville basin, Gabon (sciencedirect.com)
Natural nuclear fission reactors are only known in two uranium deposits in the world, the Oklo and Bangombé deposits of the Franceville basin: Gabon.

Nuclear Physics, Geology, Gabon, Science, Uranium

68 points by nickcotter 34 days ago | 20 comments

The Most Active Volcano in the Northeast Pacific Is Preparing to Erupt (sciencealert.com)
Earth bubbles and broils beneath an underwater peak called Axial Seamount, located 480 kilometers (300 miles) off Oregon's coast, causing it to swell in changing patterns that hint at impending strife.

Volcanoes, Geology, Pacific Ocean, Science

9 points by smitty1e 36 days ago | 1 comments

Evidence suggests megaflood refilled the Mediterranean Sea 5M years ago (southampton.ac.uk)
A new study provides compelling new evidence that a colossal ‘megaflood’ refilled the Mediterranean Sea, ending a period during which the Med was a vast expanse of salt flats.

Geology, Science, Climate Change, Mediterranean Sea

13 points by geox 42 days ago | 0 comments

3,600-Foot-Tall Undersea Volcano Expected to Blow This Year but Nobody's Worried (cowboystatedaily.com)
Nearly 300 miles off the coast of Oregon, a massive volcano is showing signs of an imminent eruption. The 3,600-foot-tall, 1.24-mile-wide Axial Seamount is swelling and rumbling at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Volcanoes, Natural Disasters, Geology, Oceanography, Pacific Northwest

6 points by LinuxBender 46 days ago | 2 comments

Groundwater Movement (Interactive) (concord.org)
Use the buttons and sliders below to explore permeability of each layer and how water moves through the layers. Follow a water drop. Where do aquifers form? Drill wells and explore which type of well is sustainable and which isn't.

Groundwater, Interactive, Science, Environmental Science, Geology

88 points by jdwg 50 days ago | 6 comments

Why did a frozen Earth coincide with an evolutionary spurt? (colorado.edu)
CU Boulder geologists Lizzy Trower and Carl Simpson win $1 million in support from W.M. Keck Foundation to try to solve an evolutionary puzzle and to extend Earth’s temperature record by 2 billion years

Earth Science, Evolution, Geology, Research Funding

4 points by isaacfrond 53 days ago | 3 comments

Roaming Rocks (aeon.co)
As geological sites go, this one is easy to miss. It’s just a low rise of exposed rock along a back road in northern Wisconsin, outside a town whose one claim to fame is a tavern that the gangster John Dillinger used as a hideout in the 1930s.

Geology, Wisconsin, History

40 points by Vigier 70 days ago | 5 comments

Thermodynamic model identifies how gold reaches Earth's surface (phys.org)
A research team including a University of Michigan scientist has discovered a new gold-sulfur complex that helps researchers understand how gold deposits are formed.

Geology, Chemistry, Gold, Earth Science, Scientific Research

70 points by wglb 70 days ago | 8 comments

Gondwanaland: The search for a land before (human) time (australiangeographic.com.au)
The Gondwana supercontinent broke up millions of years ago. Now, researchers are piecing it back together again.

Geology, Paleontology, Supercontinents, Australia

63 points by bryanrasmussen 70 days ago | 46 comments

Earth's subsurface may hold up to 5.6 × 10⁶ million metric tons of hydrogen (phys.org)
A pair of geologists with the U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, has created a model that shows Earth's subsurface may hold up to 5.6 × 106 million metric tons of natural hydrogen.

Earth Science, Geology, Natural Resources

57 points by wglb 73 days ago | 71 comments

Exploring an undersea terrain sculpted by glaciers and volcanoes (arstechnica.com)
On May 2, 2008, the Chaitén volcano in Chile awoke with unexpected fury after more than 9,000 years of dormancy.

Volcanoes, Geology, Geography, Chile

17 points by pseudolus 76 days ago | 0 comments

The Bering Land Bridge was more like a swamp (gizmodo.com)
During the last Ice Age, modern-day Siberia and Alaska were connected by a landmass that allowed animals—and ancient humans—to migrate across what is now the Bering Sea.

Paleontology, Geology, History, Archaeology

60 points by bikenaga 80 days ago | 29 comments

Internal Ocean Tides (2021) (nasa.gov)
Across a long swath of the North Pacific Ocean sits the Hawaiian Ridge, a massive underwater structure, high enough in a few places to reach the ocean surface and form the islands of America's 50th state.

Oceanography, Geology, Hawaii

32 points by raattgift 84 days ago | 3 comments

Through-the-Earth Mine Communications (wikipedia.org)
Through-the-Earth (TTE) signalling is a type of radio signalling used in mines and caves that uses low-frequency waves to penetrate dirt and rock, which are opaque to higher-frequency conventional radio signals.

Mining, Radio Communication, Technology, Geology

39 points by slow_typist 86 days ago | 9 comments

Watch carved from meteorite that hit Earth a million years ago (cnn.com)

Space, Science, Geology, History

41 points by cratermoon 89 days ago | 32 comments

Kyawthuite is so rare it's only ever been found once (sciencealert.com)
There's a mineral so rare that only one specimen of it has ever been found in the entire world.

Geology, Minerals, Science, Rare Earth

216 points by pseudolus 96 days ago | 97 comments

Man Keeps a Rock for Years Hoping It's Gold.Turns Out to Be More Valuable (sciencealert.com)
In 2015, David Hole was prospecting in Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne, Australia.

Geology, History, Australia

8 points by amrrs 97 days ago | 1 comments

Quantification of record-breaking subsidence in California's San Joaquin Valley (nature.com)
In California’s San Joaquin Valley, groundwater overdraft has caused dramatic and continued land subsidence during two main periods, 1925–1970 (“the historic period”) and post-2006.

Environmental Science, Geology, California, Water Resources

5 points by Stratoscope 101 days ago | 1 comments

The dent in Earth's gravitational field created by the death of an ancient ocean (livescience.com)

Earth Science, Geology, Astronomy, History

6 points by Brajeshwar 103 days ago | 0 comments