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Categories: Geoscience: Geology, Mathematics: Statistics
Published Scientists propose new theory that explains sand ripples on Mars and on Earth
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Sand ripples are symmetrical. Yet wind -- which causes them -- is very much not. Furthermore, sand ripples can be found on Mars and on Earth. They would be even more fascinating if the same effect found on Mars could be found here on Earth as well. What if one unified theory could explain their formation on both planets?
Published How do neural networks learn? A mathematical formula explains how they detect relevant patterns
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Neural networks have been powering breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, including the large language models that are now being used in a wide range of applications, from finance, to human resources to healthcare. But these networks remain a black box whose inner workings engineers and scientists struggle to understand. Now, a team has given neural networks the equivalent of an X-ray to uncover how they actually learn.
Published New study reveals insight into which animals are most vulnerable to extinction due to climate change
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In a new study, researchers have used the fossil record to better understand what factors make animals more vulnerable to extinction from climate change. The results could help to identify species most at risk today from human-driven climate change.
Published Rock weathering and climate: Low-relief mountain ranges are largest carbon sinks
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source For many hundreds of millions of years, the average temperature at the surface of the Earth has varied by not much more than 20 degrees Celsius, facilitating life on our planet. To maintain such stable temperatures, Earth appears to have a 'thermostat' that regulates the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide over geological timescales, influencing global temperatures. The erosion and weathering of rocks are important parts of this 'thermostat.'
Published Network of quantum sensors boosts precision
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Quantum sensor technology promises even more precise measurements of physical quantities. A team has now compared the signals of up to 91 quantum sensors with each other and thus successfully eliminated the noise caused by interactions with the environment. Correlation spectroscopy can be used to increase the precision of sensor networks.
Published Geologists explore the hidden history of Colorado's Spanish Peaks
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team has collected dozens of samples from across southeastern Colorado, and their results could help to answer an enduring mystery: What made Colorado's High Plains so high?
Published Mercury rising: Study sheds new light on ancient volcanoes' environmental impact
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Massive volcanic events in Earth's history that released large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere frequently correlate with periods of severe environmental change and mass extinctions. A new method to estimate how much and how rapidly carbon was released by the volcanoes could improve our understanding of the climate response, according to an international team.
Published 80 mph speed record for glacier fracture helps reveal the physics of ice sheet collapse
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research documents the fastest-known large-scale breakage along an Antarctic ice shelf. A 6.5-mile crack formed in 2012 over 5-and-a-half minutes, showing that ice shelves can effectively shatter -- though the speed is limited by seawater rushing in. The results help inform large-scale ice sheet models and projections of future sea level rise.
Published UBC Okanagan researchers look to the past to improve construction sustainability
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers are revisiting old building practices -- the use of by-products and cast-offs -- as a way to improve building materials and sustainability of the trade. A technique known as rammed earth construction uses materials that are alternatives to cement and are often more readily available in the environment. One such alternative is wood fly ash, a by-product of pulp mills and coal-fired power plants.
Published Biggest Holocene volcano eruption found by seabed survey
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A detailed survey of the volcanic underwater deposits around the Kikai caldera in Japan clarified the deposition mechanisms as well as the event's magnitude. As a result, the research team found that the event 7,300 years ago was the largest volcanic eruption in the Holocene by far.
Published Early-stage subduction invasion
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Our planet's lithosphere is broken into several tectonic plates. Their configuration is ever-shifting, as supercontinents are assembled and broken up, and oceans form, grow, and then start to close in what is known as the Wilson cycle.
Published New 'time travel' study reveals future impact of climate change on coastal marshes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study offers a glimpse into the possible impact of climate change on coastal wetlands 50 years or longer into the future. Scientists are usually forced to rely on computer models to project the long-term effects of rising seas, but an unexpected set of circumstances enabled a real-world experiment along the Gulf Coast.
Published Researchers studying ocean transform faults, describe a previously unknown part of the geological carbon cycle
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source This study reports widespread mineral carbonation of mantle rocks in an oceanic transform fueled by magmatic degassing of CO2. The findings describe a previously unknown part of the geological carbon cycle in transform faults that represent one of the three principal plate boundaries on Earth. The confluence of tectonically exhumed mantle rocks and CO2-rich alkaline basalt formed through limited extents of melting characteristic of the St. Paul's transform faults may be a pervasive feature at oceanic transform faults in general. Because transform faults have not been accounted for in previous estimates of global geological CO2 fluxes, the mass transfer of magmatic CO2 to the altered oceanic mantle and seawater may be larger than previously thought.
Published Researchers show classical computers can keep up with, and surpass, their quantum counterparts
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team of scientists has devised means for classical computing to mimic a quantum computing with far fewer resources than previously thought. The scientists' results show that classical computing can be reconfigured to perform faster and more accurate calculations than state-of-the-art quantum computers.
Published Ice cores provide first documentation of rapid Antarctic ice loss in the past
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have uncovered the first direct evidence that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet shrunk suddenly and dramatically at the end of the Last Ice Age, around eight thousand years ago. The evidence, contained within an ice core, shows that in one location the ice sheet thinned by 450 meters -- that's more than the height of the Empire State Building -- in just under 200 years.
Published Ancient rocks improve understanding of tectonic activity between earthquakes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Rocks once buried deep in ancient subduction zones -- where tectonic plates collide -- could help scientists make better predictions of how these zones behave during the years between major earthquakes, according to a research team.
Published What turned Earth into a giant snowball 700 million years ago? Scientists now have an answer
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Inspired during field work in South Australia's Flinders Ranges, geoscientists have proposed that all-time low volcanic carbon dioxide emissions triggered a 57-million-year-long global 'Sturtian' ice age.
Published A new origin story for deadly Seattle fault
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The Seattle fault zone is a network of shallow faults slicing through the lowlands of Puget Sound, threatening to create damaging earthquakes for the more than four million people who live there. A new origin story, proposed in a new study, could explain the fault system's earliest history and help scientists improve hazard modeling for the densely populated region.
Published Study challenges the classical view of the origin of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and warns of its vulnerability
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The Circumpolar Current works as a regulator of the planet's climate. Its origins were thought to have caused the formation of the permanent ice in Antarctica about 34 million years ago. Now, a study has cast doubt on this theory, and has changed the understanding of how the ice sheet in Antarctic developed in the past, and what this could mean in the future as the planet's climate changes.
Published Source rocks of the first real continents
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Geoscientists have uncovered a missing link in the enigmatic story of how the continents developed- - a revised origin story that doesn't require the start of plate tectonics or any external factor to explain their formation. Instead, the findings rely solely on internal geological forces that occurred within oceanic plateaus that formed during the first few hundred million years of Earth's history.