Earth's Geologic History

Nasa's SWOT satellite unveils most detailed ocean floor map yet: Watch

More precise maps created using data from the SWOT mission can enhance underwater navigation and provide deeper insights into the movement of heat and marine life across the world's oceans

Spy satellite images lead archeologists to site of historic battle in Iraq

Declassified 1970s-era U.S. spy satellite imagery has led a British-Iraqi archeological team to what they believe is the site of a seventh-century battle that became decisive in the spread of Islam throughout the region. The Battle of al-Qadisiyah was fought in Mesopotamia in present-day Iraq in the A.D. 630s between Arab Muslims and the army of the Sassanid Persian dynasty during a period of Muslim expansion. The Arab army prevailed and continued on its march into Persia, now Iran. A joint team of archeologists from the U.K.'s Durham University and the University of Al-Qadisiyah stumbled across the site while undertaking a remote sensing survey to map the Darb Zubaydah, a pilgrimage route from Iraq's Kufa to Mecca in Saudi Arabia built more than 1,000 years ago. The findings were published Tuesday in the journal Antiquity. While mapping the route, the team noticed that a site some 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Kufa in Iraq's southern Najaf province a desert area with scatter

Earth's geological model reveals its past 100 million years: Study

Scientists today have published new research revealing a detailed and dynamic model of the Earth's surface over the past 100 million years. For the first time, the research provides a high-resolution understanding of how today's geophysical landscapes were created and how millions of tonnes of sediment have flowed to the oceans, according to the research. Climate, tectonics and time combine to create powerful forces that craft the face of our planet. Add the gradual sculpting of the Earth's surface by rivers and what to us seems solid as rock is constantly changing. However, our understanding of this dynamic process has at best been patchy. "To predict the future, we must understand the past. But our geological models have only provided a fragmented understanding of how our planet's recent physical features formed," said lead author Tristan Salles from the University of Sydney School of Geosciences, Australia. "If you look for a continuous model of the interplay between river basi

Length of Earth's day is mysteriously increasing, scientists don't know why

Atomic clocks, combined with precise astronomical measurements, have revealed that the length of a day is suddenly getting longer, and scientists don't know why

Here's what the problem is with classifying human time after rock age

As scientists recognize that humans are now part of stratigraphy, perhaps we need to rethink our criteria in a way that separates geologic time from human time