Rocks mined from the seafloor have been confirmed as a viable source for rare earth metals, and thus a tiny piece of the ocean might soon find its way into a cell phone or computer chipboard near you. The finding, published in the April 2014 issue of Applied Geochemistry, all but guarantees a new round of focus on overcoming the challenges—both industrial and environmental—of extracting mineral riches from the ocean depths.
French engineers have been experimenting with a technique that could redirect seismic energy away from structures such as cities, dams, and nuclear power plants, sparing them from damage. It involves digging large, cylindrical boreholes into the ground, forming a defensive geometry of lace-like arrays that, researchers hope, could deflect seismic waves and thus make whole landscapes "invisible" to earthquakes.
In the debut issue of a new journal called The Anthropocene Review, University of Leicester geologist Jan Zalasiewicz leads a team of five writers in discussing the gradual fossilization of human artifacts, including industrial machines, everyday objects, and even whole cities. They refer to these as "technofossils," and they’re destined to form a whole new layer of the earth’s surface.
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In a story that united geologists with rare car enthusiasts last month, a massive sinkhole opened up
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Chocolate hills, fairy chimneys, stone forests—this isn’t a children’s story, but a selection of the most impressive geological features in the world.
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This battered diamond has survived a "journey to hell and back," and it has a pretty specular story to tell. Spat out from deep inside the earth, it is our first direct evidence for a scientific theory that says that vast amounts of water are trapped deep inside Earth’s mantle.
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Think this polar vortex part deux is bad? Here’s a little perspective, courtesy the wonderful PTAK Science Books: A map of the glacier that once covered New York City in thick ice some 20,000 odd years ago, carving out the landscape we know today.
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The ice sheet that covers Antarctica is ancient, hiding a whole landscape of mountains and valleys that once teemed with life. Using radar and satellite footage, scientists are studying this hidden world—and they just found a two-mile-deep canyon down there.
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For the last four years, the Dredge Research Collaborative has been looking at dredging and erosion control as a form of often unacknowledged landscape architecture. Part of their work is a series of festivals they’re calling DredgeFest that celebrate and examine the role that dredging plays in landscaping. Their next event is in Louisiana. Gizmodo asked them to explain why.
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Do you have a cute and cuddly stuffed animal near you? If not, you might want to find one because what you’re about to read will scare you silly. And not the good kind of silly either. We’re talking The-End-Is-Coming sort of silly.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
