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.
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.
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.
Curiosity Mars rover discovers evidence of ripples from ancient Red Planet lake (space.com)
NASA rover discovers liquid water 'ripples' carved into Mars rock (livescience.com)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Two Grand Canyon-size valleys on far side of the moon formed within 10 minutes (cnn.com)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Watch carved from meteorite that hit Earth a million years ago (cnn.com)
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.
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.
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.
The dent in Earth's gravitational field created by the death of an ancient ocean (livescience.com)