Latest news with #volcanic
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Yellowstone is hiding more than 80,000 earthquakes below its surface
Researchers at the University of Western Ontario have uncovered over 86,000 earthquakes moving in chaotic swarms through rough, young fault lines beneath Yellowstone. The findings are significantly higher than the previously known number of earthquakes in the area. The study appears in the journal Science Advances. 'With these new insights, we're getting closer to decoding Earth's volcanic heartbeat and improving how we predict and manage volcanic and geothermal hazards,' the authors write in a statement. Researchers used a machine learning algorithm to process and identify earthquake signals within 15 years of seismic data from the Yellowstone caldera, which was formed by a volcanic eruption more than 630,000 years ago. Previously, researchers manually inspected earthquake data—a process that was both expensive and time-consuming. By automating the detection and classification of seismic events, machine learning allowed the Western team to uncover many more earthquakes in the dataset, revealing ten times more seismic activity than previously known. That brings the historical catalogue for the Yellowstone caldera up to 86,276 earthquakes between 2008 and 2022 and paints a much clearer picture of what's going on beneath the surface, researchers say. "To a large extent, there is no systematic understanding of how one earthquake triggers another in a swarm. We can only indirectly measure space and time between events," Western engineering professor Bing Li, one of the study's authors, says. "But now, we have a far more robust catalogue of seismic activity under the Yellowstone caldera, and we can apply statistical methods that help us quantify and find new swarms that we haven't seen before, study them, and see what we can learn from them." Header image: File photo of Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic Spring. (U.S. Geological Survey)
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Fire cults and burning banshees: has Avatar: Fire and Ash sent Pandora all the way to hell?
Say what you like about James Cameron, but the man has somehow made three films, umpteen extraterrestrial biomes, and one endlessly grieving smurf wolf pack out of the phrase 'don't touch that tree'. Now, the veteran sci-fi film-maker returns with Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third instalment in cinema's shiniest blue 3D eco fable. And from a preview of the trailer (to be released before showings of The Fantastic Four: First Steps this weekend) this is going to be yet another jaw-dropping, box-office smashing triumph of elemental, stereoscopic worldbuilding – or possibly a very long and very heavy bioluminescent deforestation story, depending on your point of view. Where The Way of Water took us out to sea to commune with whales who cry in subtitles, Fire and Ash drags us into the scorched heart of Pandora's volcanic badlands. Here we meet the Ash People – an angry, soot-streaked Na'vi clan who appear to have spent the last two films building up a healthy mistrust of outsiders. Imagine running into the scariest-looking Great Plains warriors Hollywood ever dreamed up, then dipping them in tar and relocating them to Mordor. They ride screaming banshees through smoke clouds, and if the trailer is anything to go by, they've had just about enough of Sam Worthington's Jake Sully, his adoptive family and the entire colonial project of humanity in general. Which is why it's a little strange to see Stephen Lang's Colonel Miles Quaritch, or at least the reborn recombinant that carries the returning villain's memories, apparently sporting the same scarlet war paint as these newcomers to the franchise. Have the Ash People been conned by humanity into fighting their Na'vi brethren, or are they just the latest poor fools to fall victim to humankind's time-honoured tradition of co-opting Indigenous resistance to fight its proxy wars? Either way, this is a first glimpse of Fire and Ash that in terms of sheer scale, spectacle and blue-on-blue action looks likely to match anything the series has so far delivered. Oona Chaplin's Varang, leader of the new clan, tells a terrified Kiri (the Na'vi born from the dormant Avatar left behind by Sigourney Weaver's late Grace Augustine) that her goddess 'has no dominion here', which must be a pretty scary thing to hear when you've spent your entire life communing with Eywa-infused floating jellyfish. The Sullys appear to be caught up in their own family conflict, and at one point Sully basically tells Zoe Saldaña's Neytiri to stop trying to solve all their life problems with arrows and screaming. It is all incredibly intense and unapologetically Cameron. Yet there's a nagging feeling that if everyone on Pandora would just put aside their problems and try to get along, the extrasolar moon is such a gorgeous vision of eco-spiritual luxury real estate (if you'll forgive the Trumpian gaze) that they could probably all do quite well financially from low-impact glow-in-the-dark wellness tourism. Surely this is the sort of place that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are really trying to get to with all those expensive, celebrity-strewn missions to the 'edge of space'. Or perhaps that's just where Cameron is planning to take us with the next episode – a scorching allegory for climate guilt, where hordes of spiritually curious billionaires arrive at Eywa's doorstep in 3D-printed linen and wide-brimmed hats, demanding personalised banshee rides and artisan root-based cleansing rituals. It will be the final defeat of the Na'vi – not by war, but by a full season of White Lotus: Pandora, starring Amy Adams as a well-meaning but culturally disastrous grief yogi who accidentally destroys the Tree of Souls with her Tesla-branded personal eco-hoverpod. In the meantime, Avatar: Fire and Ash. If you liked the last two movies, this one will most likely boil your eyeballs and your conscience in roughly equal measure. If you thought the whole thing was a load of weepy, whale-whispering space guff, you'll probably spend three hours wondering why the trees are crying again.
The Guardian
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Fire cults and burning banshees: has Avatar: Fire and Ash sent Pandora all the way to hell?
Say what you like about James Cameron, but the man has somehow made three films, umpteen extraterrestrial biomes, and one endlessly grieving smurf wolf pack out of the phrase 'don't touch that tree'. Now, the veteran sci-fi film-maker returns with Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third instalment in cinema's shiniest blue 3D eco fable. And from a preview of the trailer (to be released before showings of The Fantastic Four: First Steps this weekend) this is going to be yet another jaw-dropping, box-office smashing triumph of elemental, stereoscopic worldbuilding – or possibly a very long and very heavy bioluminescent deforestation story, depending on your point of view. Where The Way of Water took us out to sea to commune with whales who cry in subtitles, Fire and Ash drags us into the scorched heart of Pandora's volcanic badlands. Here we meet the Ash People – an angry, soot-streaked Na'vi clan who appear to have spent the last two films building up a healthy mistrust of outsiders. Imagine running into the scariest-looking Great Plains warriors Hollywood ever dreamed up, then dipping them in tar and relocating them to Mordor. They ride screaming banshees through smoke clouds, and if the trailer is anything to go by, they've had just about enough of Sam Worthington's Jake Sully, his adoptive family and the entire colonial project of humanity in general. Which is why it's a little strange to see Stephen Lang's Colonel Miles Quaritch, or at least the reborn recombinant that carries the returning villain's memories, apparently sporting the same scarlet war paint as these newcomers to the franchise. Have the Ash People been conned by humanity into fighting their Na'vi brethren, or are they just the latest poor fools to fall victim to humankind's time-honoured tradition of co-opting Indigenous resistance to fight its proxy wars? Either way, this is a first glimpse of Fire and Ash that in terms of sheer scale, spectacle and blue-on-blue action looks likely to match anything the series has so far delivered. Oona Chaplin's Varang, leader of the new clan, tells a terrified Kiri (the Na'vi born from the dormant Avatar left behind by Sigourney Weaver's late Grace Augustine) that her goddess 'has no dominion here', which must be a pretty scary thing to hear when you've spent your entire life communing with Eywa-infused floating jellyfish. The Sullys appear to be caught up in their own family conflict, and at one point Sully basically tells Zoe Saldaña's Neytiri to stop trying to solve all their life problems with arrows and screaming. It is all incredibly intense and unapologetically Cameron. Yet there's a nagging feeling that if everyone on Pandora would just put aside their problems and try to get along, the extrasolar moon is such a gorgeous vision of eco-spiritual luxury real estate (if you'll forgive the Trumpian gaze) that they could probably all do quite well financially from low-impact glow-in-the-dark wellness tourism. Surely this is the sort of place that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are really trying to get to with all those expensive, celebrity-strewn missions to the 'edge of space'. Or perhaps that's just where Cameron is planning to take us with the next episode – a scorching allegory for climate guilt, where hordes of spiritually curious billionaires arrive at Eywa's doorstep in 3D-printed linen and wide-brimmed hats, demanding personalised banshee rides and artisan root-based cleansing rituals. It will be the final defeat of the Na'vi – not by war, but by a full season of White Lotus: Pandora, starring Amy Adams as a well-meaning but culturally disastrous grief yogi who accidentally destroys the Tree of Souls with her Tesla-branded personal eco-hoverpod. In the meantime, Avatar: Fire and Ash. If you liked the last two movies, this one will most likely boil your eyeballs and your conscience in roughly equal measure. If you thought the whole thing was a load of weepy, whale-whispering space guff, you'll probably spend three hours wondering why the trees are crying again.
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Volcanic eruptions may be caused by mysterious ‘BLOBS' under the Earth
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. While many science books would have you believe the Earth's lower mantle—the layer deep below the crust—is smooth, it's actually made up of a mountainous-like topography that moves and changes just like the crust above it. Further, research shows that this lower mantle contains two continent-sized structures, which researchers have dubbed big lower-mantle basal structures, or BLOBS. We don't know exactly what these BLOBS consist of, but scientists suspect they could be made up of the same materials surrounding them. In fact, new research published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment suggests that the planet's volcanic activity may be driven by volcanic plumes that move with their origins. Today's Top Deals XGIMI Prime Day deals feature the new MoGo 4 and up to 42% off smart projectors Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals The origins in question, researchers believe, could be the BLOBS found deep within the Earth. These mysterious structures appear to be the driving force behind the Earth's volcanic history, and while there are scientists hard to work trying to prove that, looking at past simulations has painted a pretty clear picture to work with. To start with, the researchers used computer models to simulate the movements of the BLOBS over 1 billion years ago. These models showed that the BLOBS produced mantle plumes that were sometimes tilted or even rose up higher. This suggests that the eruptions seen over the past billion years likely took place above the BLOBS, or at least very close to them. The researchers believe that this data shows that the Earth's volcanic activity could somehow be linked to the BLOBS, despite how deep they are in the Earth. The findings are 'encouraging,' the researchers note in a post on The Conversation, as it suggests that future simulations may be able to predict where mantle plumes will strike next. This could help us create a general volcano warning system. Despite being destructive—the Hunga volcano eruption of 2022 continues to set records years later—large volcanic eruptions also have the ability to create new islands and landmasses. Knowing where they occur—or where they occurred in the past—could help us save lives and better understand how our planet formed at different points in history. Of course, we still have a lot to learn about the mysterious BLOBS found deep in the Earth. But this research is a smoking gun that could open the door for tons of new discoveries and revelations. More Top Deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 See the
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
2 billion-year-old moon rock found in Africa reveals secret lunar history
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A meteorite that fell from the moon and was found in Africa is a rare volcanic rock dating from a time period in lunar history that scientists know little about. The 311-gram space rock was discovered in 2023 and is known as the Northwest Africa 16286 meteorite — and based on the decay of the lead isotopes that it contains, its formation has been dated to about 2.35 billion years ago. "Its age and composition show that volcanic activity continued on the moon throughout this timespan, and our analysis suggests an ongoing heat-generation process within the moon, potentially from radiogenic elements decaying and producing heat over a long period," said lead researcher Joshua Snape of the University of Manchester in a statement. The meteorite is an important piece in the jigsaw that is the moon's history, filling-in an almost billion-year-long gap in our knowledge. The meteorite is much younger than samples brought back to Earth by NASA's Apollo missions, the Soviet Union's Luna missions and China's Chang'e 6 mission, all of which range between 3.1 billion and 4.3 billion years old, but older than the 1.9-billion-year-old rocks returned by Chang'e 5. Crucially, meteorite 16286 has a volcanic origin, with geochemical analysis showing that it formed when a lava flow from deep within the moon vented onto the surface and solidified. It contains relatively large crystals of a mineral called olivine, moderate levels of titanium and high levels of potassium. Its lead isotopes also point to a volcanic source deep underground that has an unusually high uranium-to-lead ratio (the lead being a decay product of uranium). This abundance of uranium, and the heat it produced as it underwent radioactive decay, is a potential clue as to what was keeping volcanism going a billion years after the moon's main bouts of volcanism had ceased. There are only 31 volcanic lunar rocks that have been found on Earth in the form of meteorites, and meteorite 16286 is by far the youngest. "Moon rocks are rare, so it's interesting when we get something that stands out and looks different to everything else," said Snape. The meteorite is more evidence that volcanism continued throughout this period on the moon; Chang'e 5 has found such evidence in its samples from the moon's farside of volcanism in the past 123 million years. Together, these discoveries are transforming what we thought we thought we knew about the moon's volcanism and how the moon has remained geologically active, at least in bursts, almost to the present day. RELATED STORIES — Why is the moon's far side so weird? China's lunar sample-return mission may have figured it out — Volcanoes shaped the moon from the inside out, scientists find: 'Our team was genuinely puzzled' — NASA robot digs up simulated moon rocks | Space photo of the day for June 13, 2025 The next step is to pinpoint the meteorite's origin on the moon: likely a crater blasted into the surface by an impact that ejected the meteorite long ago. Once identified, it will be a prime location for a future sample-return mission to learn more about lunar volcanism during this little-known period, from which so few samples exist. Snape presented the findings at the world's premier geochemistry meeting, the Goldschmidt Conference in Prague held between July 6 and July 11. Solve the daily Crossword
