Xavier Le Pichon, a French geophysicist whose pioneering model of the earth’s tectonic plates helped revolutionize how scientists understand movements of the earth’s crust, died on March 22 at his home in Sisteron, in the south of France. He was 87. His death was announced in a statement by the Collège de France, France’s highest educational institution, where Dr. Le …
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How the Myanmar Earthquake Shook Skyscrapers in Bangkok
More than 600 miles separated the epicenter of Friday’s earthquake in Myanmar from the skyscrapers of Bangkok, which lurched and swayed on the skyline of the vast metropolis. A 33-story high-rise under construction even collapsed. How could the shaking in Bangkok, the Thai capital, be connected to an earthquake so far away? The answer involves low frequency seismic waves, which …
Read More »150 Years of Change: How Old Photos, Recaptured, Reveal a Shifting Climate
For 30 miles we bounce along a dirt road in southwestern Wyoming, heading toward a jagged skyline. It’s early September and the aspens are starting to turn yellow. As we climb toward the mountains, the air grows colder. Soon the road will see snowfall. Jeff Munroe, a professor of geology at Middlebury College in Vermont, is taking us back in …
Read More »Scientists Detect Shape-Shifting Along Earth’s Solid Inner Core
The inner core at the center of the Earth, a ball of iron and nickel about 1,500 miles wide, may not be perfectly solid. A new study finds evidence that the inner core’s outer boundary has noticeably changed shape over the past few decades. “The most likely thing is the outer core is kind of tugging on the inner core …
Read More »Grand Canyons on the Moon Were Made in a Matter of Minutes
Two canyons near the south pole of the moon rival the Grand Canyon, both in depth and length. Unlike the sinuous chasm in Arizona, the two lunar canyons, known as Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck, are straight, as if the crust of the moon had been cut by a knife. And unlike the Grand Canyon, carved over millions years by …
Read More »Earthquakes May Explain Summerville Light’s Eerie Glow
Summerville, a town northwest of Charleston, S.C., has its share of ghost stories. One yarn that has stuck around for decades is the tale of the Summerville Light. In the dead of night, along a dirt road in the nearby pine forest following abandoned railroad tracks, people have observed mysterious lights, bobbing up and down, pulsing with a pale blue, …
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