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Categories: Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry, Geoscience: Geology
Published Why the day is 24 hours long: Astrophysicists reveal why Earth's day was a constant 19.5 hours for over a billion years



Astrophysicists have revealed how the slow and steady lengthening of Earth's day caused by the tidal pull of the moon was halted for over a billion years. They show that from approximately two billion years ago until 600 million years ago, an atmospheric tide driven by the sun countered the effect of the moon, keeping Earth's rotational rate steady and the length of day at a constant 19.5 hours. Without this billion-year pause in the slowing of our planet's rotation, our current 24-hour day would stretch to over 60 hours. The paper offers a new perspective on how global warming will affect the length of our day and validates global circulation models as a climate modelling tool.
Published Earth's Inner Core: Earth's solid metal sphere is 'textured'



Scientists used seismic data discovered Earth's inner core displays a variety of textures that it acquired will it formed from within the fluid outer core. The data set was generated over the past 27 years by a network of seismometers set up to enforce the nuclear test ban treaty.
Published Water storage capacity in oceanic crust slabs increases with age, researchers find



An international research team has discovered that a subduction zone's age affects the ability for it to recycle water between the Earth's surface and its inner layers. The more mature the subduction zone, the bigger the water storage capacity.
Published Research reveals sources of CO2 from Aleutian-Alaska Arc volcanoes



Scientists have wondered what happens to the organic and inorganic carbon that Earth's Pacific Plate carries with it as it slides into the planet's interior along the volcano-studded Ring of Fire. A new study suggests a notable amount of such subducted carbon returns to the atmosphere rather than traveling deep into Earth's mantle.
Published Climate change will increase impacts of volcanic eruptions



Volcanic disasters have been studied since Pompeii was buried in 79 A.D., leading the public to believe that scientists already know why, where, when and how long volcanoes will erupt. But a volcanologist said these fundamental questions remain a mystery.
Published Researchers unearth the mysteries of how Turkey's East Anatolian fault formed



An international team has, for the first time, accurately determined the age of the East Anatolian fault, allowing geologists to learn more about its seismic history and tendency to produce earthquakes.
Published What are the characteristics of foreshocks for large earthquakes?



Seismologists agree that foreshocks are the most widely identified signal of an upcoming mainshock earthquake. But do these foreshock sequences have distinctive characteristics that separate them from aftershock sequences, and could these characteristics be used to help forecast mainshocks?
Published Research in a place where geological processes happen before your eyes



Taiwan experiences some of the world's fastest rates of mountain building -- they are growing at a faster rate than our fingernails grow in a year. The mountains also see frequent and significant earthquakes, the region experiences about four typhoons per year on average, and in some places, it receives upwards of several meters of rain annually.
Published Don't wait, desalinate: A new approach to water purification



A water purification system separates out salt and other unnecessary particles with an electrified version of dialysis. Successfully applied to wastewater with planned expansion into rivers and seas, the method saves money and saps 90% less energy than its counterparts.
Published Study of deep-sea corals reveals ocean currents have not fuelled rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide



Pioneering analysis of deep-sea corals has overturned the idea that ocean currents contributed to increasing global levels of carbon dioxide in the air over the past 11,000 years.
Published First detection of crucial carbon molecule



Scientists detect a new carbon compound in space for the first time. Known as methyl cation (pronounced cat-eye-on) (CH3+), the molecule is important because it aids the formation of more complex carbon-based molecules. Methyl cation was detected in a young star system, with a protoplanetary disk, known as d203-506, which is located about 1,350 light-years away in the Orion Nebula.
Published Towards efficient lithium--air batteries with solution plasma-based synthesis of perovskite hydroxide catalysts



CoSn(OH)6 (CSO) is an effective oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst, necessary for developing next-generation lithium -- air batteries. However, current methods of synthesizing CSO are complicated and slow. Recently, an international research team synthesized CSO in a single step within 20 minutes using solution plasma to generate CSO nanocrystals with excellent OER catalytic properties. Their findings could boost the manufacturing of high energy density batteries.
Published Surprise! Weaker bonds can make polymers stronger



Chemists discovered a new way to make polymers stronger: introduce a few weaker bonds into the material. Working with polyacrylate elastomers, they could increase the materials' resistance to tearing up to tenfold by using a weaker type of crosslinker to join some of the polymer building blocks.
Published Stronger tape engineered through the art of cutting



What if you could make adhesives both strong and easily removable? This seemingly paradoxical combination of properties could dramatically change applications in robotic grasping, wearables for health monitoring, and manufacturing for assembly and recycling. A team has adapted kirigami, the ancient Japanese art of cutting paper, into a method for increasing the adhesive bond of ordinary tape by 60 times. Developing such adhesives may not by that far off through the latest research conducted by the team of Michael Bartlett, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, and published in Nature Materials on June 22.
Published Sinking seamount offers clues to slow motion earthquakes



The first ever 3D seismic imaging of a subducting seamount shows a previously unknown sediment trail in Earth's crust off the coast of New Zealand. Scientists think the sediment patches help release tectonic pressure gradually in slow slip earthquakes instead of violent tremors. The findings will help researchers search for similar patterns at other subduction zones like Cascadia in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
Published Making the most of minuscule metal mandalas



To unveil the previously elusive behavior and stability of complex metal compounds found in aqueous solutions called 'POMs', researchers have created a speciation atlas. This achievement has the potential to drive new discoveries and advancements in fields like catalysis, medicine, and beyond.
Published Physicists discover a new switch for superconductivity



A study sheds surprising light on how certain superconductors undergo a 'nematic transition' -- unlocking new, superconducting behavior. The results could help identify unconventional superconducting materials.
Published Vastly more sustainable, cost-effective method to desalinate industrial wastewater



Engineers are developing a cutting-edge process that can reduce energy consumption and cost of water desalination.
Published Engineers 'strike gold' with innovation that recovers heavy metals from biosolids



Engineers have developed a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to remove heavy metals, including copper and zinc, from biosolids. The team's work advances other methods for heavy-metal removal by recycling the acidic liquid waste that is produced during the recovery phase, instead of throwing it away.
Published Scientists unearth 20 million years of 'hot spot' magmatism under Cocos plate



A team of scientists has observed past episodic intraplate magmatism and corroborated the existence of a partial melt channel at the base of the Cocos Plate. Situated 60 kilometers beneath the Pacific Ocean floor, the magma channel covers more than 100,000 square kilometers, and originated from the Galápagos Plume more than 20 million years ago, supplying melt for multiple magmatic events -- and persisting today.