Geology News and Earth Science Articles

Geology news and current earth science articles from around the world. Stories are archived monthly.

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February 8, 2010

Gas drilling in Appalachia produces a foul byproduct
A drilling technique that is beginning to unlock staggering quantities of natural gas underneath Appalachia also yields a troubling byproduct: powerfully briny wastewater that can kill fish and give tap water a foul taste and odour.

Arctic ice melting faster than feared
The head of the largest climate change study ever undertaken in Canada says the Arctic sea ice is thinning faster than expected. The study aboard the Canadian Coast Guard research ship Amundsen began in July 2007 and involved 370 scientists from around the world.

Explorer's century-old whisky found in Antarctic
Five crates of Scotch whisky and two of brandy have been recovered by a team restoring an Antarctic hut used more than 100 years ago by famed polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. Ice cracked some of the bottles that had been left there in 1909, but the restorers said Friday they are confident the five crates contain intact bottles because liquid can be heard when the crates are moved.

February 5, 2010

Profit motive is the solution to CO2 emissions
Can supply-side economics solve global warming all on its own? The quick answer is yes - probably. Take the supply of carbon in the atmosphere, which many people think excessive. In a perfect supply-side economy, someone would recognize this surplus as an opportunity. Atmospheric carbon, after all, is free for the taking. Entrepreneurs who found commercial uses for it would make fortunes. On a certain production scale, they would turn fossil fuels into a renewable resource.

Nuclear renaissance sparks clamour for uranium
The rising demand for uranium is part of what's being dubbed the "nuclear renaissance," but it isn't only companies lining up to be part of the movement. Decades after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and the Chernobyl disaster, governments worldwide are loosening purse strings and dismantling roadblocks to allow for construction of nuclear plants and the uranium mines that feed them thanks to the increased appetite for clean energy.

February 4, 2010

Quebec shale gas wells get pulses racing
The well, which is being operated by Talisman Energy, is only the second horizontal well to be drilled into the emerging shale basin, but observers are already comparing region's Utica shale to the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania, which is shaping up to be one of the largest natural gas fields in North America.

U.S. shale gas won't cut need for Alaska gas pipeline
The U.S. market will still need huge natural gas supplies brought from Alaska by an expensive pipeline, even though vast gas resources trapped in shale rock in the lower 48 states can now be developed, the federal coordinator for the pipeline told Congress on Tuesday.

Hundreds of quakes are rattling Yellowstone
In the last two weeks, more than 100 mostly tiny earthquakes a day, on average, have rattled a remote area of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, putting scientists who monitor the park’s strange and volatile geology on alert. Researchers say that for now, the earthquake cluster, or swarm - the second-largest ever recorded in the park - is more a cause for curiosity than alarm.