Starry Skies Network

New research indicates that one of the largest fresh-water floods in Earth’s history happened about 17,000 years ago and inundated a large area of Alaska that is now occupied in part by the city of Wasilla, widely known because of the 2008 presidential campaign.

“Terra firma.” It’s Latin for “solid Earth.” Most of the time, at least from our perspective here on the ground, Earth seems to be just that: solid. Yet the Earth beneath our feet is actually in constant motion. It moves through time and space, of course, along with the other objects in the universe, but it moves internally as well.

Philippine authorities on Sunday raised the alert status of the country’s most active volcano to level 4 and established an extended danger zone around it, saying an eruption is imminent.

The steadily increasing incidence of thyroid cancer has been attributed mostly to more sensitive thyroid nodule screening. However, various environmental factors, such as those associated with volcanic areas, cannot be excluded as risk factors. We evaluated thyroid cancer incidence in Sicily, which has a homogenous population and a province (Catania) that includes the Mt Etna volcanic area.

The massive eruption of the Thera volcano in the Aegean Sea more than 3,000 years ago produced killer waves that raced across hundreds of miles of the Eastern Mediterranean to inundate the area that is now Israel and probably other coastal sites, a team of scientists has found.

U.S. seismologists have found evidence that the massive 2004 earthquake that triggered killer tsunamis throughout the Indian Ocean weakened at least a portion of California’s famed San Andreas Fault.

At least 75 people confirmed dead as quake of 7.6 brings down hospital, hotels and bridges in western Sumatra.

The potential for a huge Pacific Ocean tsunami on the West Coast of North America may be greater than previously thought.

Princeton University scientists have shown that, in ancient times, the Earth’s magnetic field was structured like the two-pole model of today, suggesting that the methods geoscientists use to reconstruct the geography of early land masses on the globe are accurate. The findings may lead to a better understanding of historical continental movement, which relates to changes in climate.

Scientists say the Greenland ice sheet is losing about 7 billion cubic feet of ice a year. Now, they are just finally beginning to uncover some reasons why its been shrinking.

More and more people are building homes next to natural or man-made water bodies. When nutrient levels and other conditions are right these lakes and canals can host heavy blooms of blue-green algae. These can result in objectionable odors and illness or death of people and animals that come in contact with the algae. A growing number of states now have programs to monitor the problem and educate.

A new study that reports precise ages for glacial moraines in southern Peru links climate swings in the tropics to those of Europe and North America during the Little Ice Age approximately 150 to 350 years ago. The study, published this week in the journal Science, “brings us one step closer to understanding global-scale patterns of glacier activity and climate during the Little Ice Age,” says lead author Joe Licciardi, associate professor of Earth sciences at the University of New Hampshire.

Results of a new study add evidence that climate swings in the northern hemisphere over the past 12,000 years have been tightly linked to changes in the tropics.

Israel’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Tiberias, is also known as the Sea of Tiberias, Lake of Gennesaret, Lake Kinneret, and the Sea of Galilee. The lake measures just more than 21 kilometers (13 miles) north-south, and it is only 43 meters (141 feet) deep. The lake is fed partly by underground springs related to the Jordan sector of the Great Rift Valley, but most of its water comes from the Jordan River, which enters from the north. The river’s winding course can be seen draining the south end of the lake at image bottom.

The September 12, 2009 earthquake offshore of Venezuela occurred at a shallow depth as a result of right-lateral strike-slip faulting. The tectonics of this area are dominated by the eastward motion of the Caribbean plate with respect to the South American plate, at a rate of approximately 20mm/yr.

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