Thursday, June 09, 2005

A New Ocean Being Created

Research at the University of Leicester Department of Geology is confirming how a plume of hot mantle rock rising beneath Africa is splitting the continental crust apart and driving a plate tectonic sequence that could eventually form a new ocean in Ethiopia..........

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Friday, June 03, 2005

Early Earth a Wet Place

Using a newly developed thermometer made of zircon, researchers have found evidence that environmental conditions on early Earth, within 200 million years of the solar system's formation, were characterized by liquid-water oceans and continental crust similar to those of the present day.

The findings are reported in the May 6 issue of the journal Science.
"Our data support recent theories that Earth began a pattern of crust formation, erosion, and sediment recycling as early in its evolution as 4.35 billion years ago, which contrasts with the hot, violent environment envisioned for our young planet by most researchers and opens up the possibility that life got a very early foothold," said Bruce Watson, a geochemist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York..........


ScienceDaily, June 1, 2005