Earth

Many models of continental extension and rifting call upon crustal heating from magmatism or other processes to trigger and localize rifting (active rift models).

However, it is often difficult to measure the thermal structure of the crust directly for ancient rift zones, so such models have been difficult to evaluate.

Debris avalanches caused by the collapse of volcanic flanks may permanently change the surrounding landscape and its drainage systems. Deposits of a two- to three-cubic-kilometer debris avalanche exposed along the Hautapu River about 50 km southeast of Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand, reflect the largest known collapse event of the stratovolcano, followed by a regrowth phase that produced pyroclastic eruptions and pumice-rich lahars.

The slip rate of the Garlock fault in southeastern California has accelerated through time to the modern rate of 9 mm per year.

Left-lateral strike-slip displacement of 64 km on the Garlock fault began 11 million years ago as an accommodation structure to Basin and Range extension. The Garlock fault subsequently changed geometry and rates when dextral shear initiated inboard of the San Andreas plate boundary.

New research on the central Oregon coast reveals that 11 subduction zone earthquakes and associated tsunamis have affected the Newport, Oregon, USA, area in the past 4,500 years.

This research adds to a growing body of knowledge that implicates great subduction zone earthquakes recurring on average every 420-580 years.

Each earthquake is accompanied by abrupt land-level lowering of the coastal region of at least half a meter and by incursion of tsunami waves to the Yaquina Bay region.

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Making something new is never easy. Scientists constantly theorize about new materials, but when the material is manufactured it doesn't always work as expected. To create a new strategy for designing materials, scientists at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory combined two different approaches at two different facilities to synthesize new materials.

This new strategy gives faster feedback on what growth schemes are best, thus shortening the timeframe to manufacture a new, stable material for energy transport and conversion applications.

NOAA's GOES-West satellite keeps a continuous eye on the Eastern Pacific and has been covering Hurricane Marie since birth. NASA's GOES Project uses NOAA data and creates animations and did so to show the end of Hurricane Marie.

Boulder, Colo., USA - The rise of the Tibetan plateau -- the largest topographic anomaly above sea level on Earth -- is important for both its profound effect on climate and its reflection of continental dynamics. In this study published in GSA Bulletin, Katharine Huntington and colleagues employ a cutting-edge geochemical tool -- "clumped" isotope thermometry -- using modern and fossil snail shells to investigate the uplift history of the Zhada basin in southwestern Tibet.

Bend them, stretch them, twist them, fold them: modern materials that are light, flexible and highly conductive have extraordinary technological potential, whether as artificial skin or electronic paper.

Making such concepts affordable enough for general use remains a challenge but a new way of working with copper nanowires and a PVA "nano glue" could be a game-changer.

Previous success in the field of ultra-lightweight "aerogel monoliths" has largely relied on the use of precious gold and silver nanowires.

Coastal regions under threat from climate change and sea-level rise need to tackle the more immediate threats of human-led and other non-climatic changes, according to a team of international scientists.

Electronic circuits are based on electrons, but one of the most promising technologies for future quantum circuits are photonic circuits, i.e. circuits based on light (photons) instead of electrons. First, it is necessary to be able to create a stream of single photons and control their direction. Researchers around the world have made all sorts of attempts to achieve this control, but now scientists at the Niels Bohr Institute have succeeded in creating a steady stream of photons emitted one at a time and in a particular direction.

When NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an image of what is now Tropical Storm Marie, weakened from hurricane status on August 28, the strongest thunderstorms were located in the southern quadrant of the storm.

RENO, Nev. – Climate change is hurting reproduction of the endangered Devils Hole pupfish, threatening the survival of this rare species that has numbered as few as 35 individuals, new research by the University of Nevada, Reno and Desert Research Institute shows.

Scientists report that geothermal water on a small shelf near the surface of an isolated cavern in the Nevada desert where the pupfish live is heating up as a result of climate change and is likely to continue heating to dangerous levels.

Glass has many applications that call for different properties, such as resistance to thermal shock or to chemically harsh environments. Glassmakers commonly use additives such as boron oxide to tweak these properties by changing the atomic structure of glass. Now researchers at the University of California, Davis, have for the first time captured atoms in borosilicate glass flipping from one structure to another as it is placed under high pressure.

Spin-charge converters are important devices in spintronics, an electronic which is not only based on the charge of electrons but also on their spin and the spin-related magnetism. Spin-charge converters enable the transformation of electric into magnetic signals and vice versa. Recently, the research group of Professor Jairo Sinova from the Institute of Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in collaboration with researchers from the UK, Prague, and Japan, has for the first time realised a new, efficient spin-charge converter based on the common semiconductor material GaAs.