news 2016

The raggedness of the ocean floors could be the key to triggering some of the Earth's most powerful earthquakes, scientists from Cardiff University have discovered. In a new study published today the team, also from Utrecht University, suggest that large bumps and mounds on the sea floor could be the trigger point that causes the crust in the Earth's oceans to drastically slip beneath the crust on the continent and generate a giant earthquake.

'Tiny earthquakes' help scientists predict mountain rock falls The risk of mountain rock falls in regions with sub-zero temperatures, such as the Swiss Alps and parts of Canada, could be better predicted by using technology which measures 'tiny earthquakes' - according to a group of international experts.

An international team of researchers has found that the Antarctic Ice Sheet plays a major role in regional and global climate variability - a discovery that may also help explain why sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere has been increasing despite the warming of the rest of the Earth. The Antarctic Ice Sheet has experienced much greater natural variability in the past than previously anticipated.

How ice forms on the surfaces of mineral dust particles in the atmosphere has been revealed by a team from UCL and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. More than 90% of precipitation over land relies on the formation of ice crystals on airborne aerosol particles but why only a tiny fraction of all atmospheric particles can initiate ice growth is unknown.

Researchers from China, Canada, and the University of Bristol have discovered a dinosaur tail complete with its feathers trapped in a piece of amber. The finding reported today in Current Biology helps to fill in details of the dinosaurs' feather structure and evolution, which can't be surmised from fossil evidence.

Scientists have found cosmic dust for the first time in urban places, on rooftops in three of the world's major cities. "When Jon first came to me I was dubious. Many people had reported finding cosmic dust in urban areas before, but when they were analysed scientists found that these particles were all industrial in origin.

Analysis of the quahog clam reveals how the oceans affected the climate over the past 1000 years A study of the longest-living animal on Earth, the quahog clam, has provided researchers with an unprecedented insight into the history of the oceans. By studying the chemistry of growth rings in the shells of the quahog clam, experts from the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences have pieced together the history of the North Atlantic Ocean over the past 1000 years and discovered how its role in driving the atmospheric climate has drastically changed.

Scientists approach the broken, steaming ground around the Cordón Caulle vent, which was hugely uplifted during the 2011 eruption. Little of the slope seen behind the black lava flow would have been visible before the uplift occurred. Courtesy of Dr Hugh Tuffen. Research has identified, for the first time, a new type of hazard caused by explosive volcanic eruptions.

The Northeastern coast of the USA could be struck by more frequent and more powerful hurricanes in the future due to shifting weather patterns, according to new research. Hurricanes have gradually moved northwards from the western Caribbean towards northern North America over the past few hundred years, the study led by Durham University, UK, found.

An international team of scientists have shown how a massive crater caused by the impact of the asteroid which killed the dinosaurs also deformed rocks in a way that may have produced habitats for early life. Around 65 million years ago, a massive asteroid crashed into the Gulf of Mexico causing an impact so huge that the blast and subsequent knock-on effects wiped out around 75 per cent of all life on Earth, including most of the dinosaurs.

Scientists studying the Chicxulub crater have shown how large asteroid impacts deform rocks in a way that may produce habitats for early life. Around 65 million years ago a massive asteroid crashed into the Gulf of Mexico causing an impact so huge that the blast and subsequent knock-on effects wiped out around 75 per cent of all life on Earth, including most of the dinosaurs.

The erosion rates of cliffs along the Sussex coast have rapidly sped up in the last 200 years, a new study has found. The research shows that the erosion rates along Beachy Head and Seaford Head in Sussex had remained relatively stable, at around two to six centimetres each year, for thousands of years.

New research on how the Sussex coast has eroded over the last seven millennia could help provide insight into how climate change might affect UK cliffs in the future. In a new paper published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Colorado, Imperial College London, the British Geological Survey and the Environment Agency describe how they have used a process known as cosmogenic dating to learn how rapidly the chalk cliffs at Beachy Head and Seaford Head have eroded.

Researchers have identified the first known example of fossilised brain tissue in a dinosaur from Sussex. The tissues resemble those seen in modern crocodiles and birds. The chances of preserving brain tissue are incredibly small, so the discovery of this specimen is astonishing. Alex Liu An unassuming brown pebble, found more than a decade ago by a fossil hunter in Sussex, has been confirmed as the first example of fossilised brain tissue from a dinosaur.

An unassuming brown pebble, found more than a decade ago by a fossil hunter in Sussex, has been confirmed as the first example of fossilised brain tissue from a dinosaur. The fossil, most likely from a species closely related to Iguanodon, displays distinct similarities to the brains of modern-day crocodiles and birds.

A team of researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Leeds collected soils from an 'alien-like' post-glaciation landscape in the Norwegian archipelago, Svalbard, which had only recently been uncovered after several thousand year old ice had melted away. Upon laboratory-based analyses of these soils, they found that incredibly diverse communities of microbes, the smallest and simplest forms of life on Earth, colonised these habitats, despite freezing temperatures and relative starvation from nutrients.

Researchers have developed a new method for making effective calculations in 'high-dimensional space' - and proved its worth by using it to solve a 93-dimensional problem. In most cases you are like a blindfolded person, walking around drunk in the energy landscape. Stefano Martiniani Researchers have developed a new technique for making calculations in 'high-dimensional space' - mathematical problems so wide-ranging in their scope, that they seem at first to be beyond the limits of human calculation.

An international research project led by the University of Bath is investigating the impact of waves on coastlines using novel laser measurement devices. EPSRC-funded international collaboration This innovative equipment is similar to laser measurement devices used in construction, except it is able to measure 37,500 points a second.

New study suggests the frequency of landslides in storm-affected areas will not increase as a result of climate change The frequency of common landslides is not likely to increase as a result of more rainstorms brought about by future climate change, new research from Cardiff University has shown. Experts at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences have shown that while the frequency of rainstorms may increase by up to 10% according to climate change projections, this would produce a long-term increase in shallow landslide frequency of less than 0.

It has long puzzled scientists why, after 3 billion years of nothing more complex than algae, complex animals suddenly started to appear on Earth. Now, a team of researchers has put forward some of the strongest evidence yet to support the hypothesis that high levels of oxygen in the oceans were crucial for the emergence of skeletal animals 550 million years ago.