Geoscience: Geology Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Fossil site reveals giant arthropods dominated the seas 470 million years ago      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Discoveries at a major new fossil site in Morocco suggest giant arthropods -- relatives of modern creatures including shrimps, insects and spiders -- dominated the seas 470 million years ago.

Geoscience: Geology Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Signals from the ionosphere could improve tsunami forecasts      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The powerful volcanic eruption in January 2022 created ripple effects throughout the world's atmosphere and oceans. Analysis of the Hunga Tonga eruption shows how signals from the ionosphere could help monitor future volcanoes and tsunamis.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research
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Bolstering the safety of self-driving cars with a deep learning-based object detection system      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Self-driving cars need to implement efficient, effective, and accurate detection systems to provide a safe and reliable experience to its users. To this end, an international research team has now developed an end-to-end neural network that, in conjunction with the Internet-of-Things technology, detects object with high accuracy (> 96%) in both 2D and 3D. The new method outperforms the current state-of-the-art methods and the way to new 2D and 3D detection systems for autonomous vehicles.

Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Geology
Published

Finding faults deeply stressful      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Evidence that a complete stress release may have contributed to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake that broke records. Both sedimentary formations above and below the plate boundary fault lie in the stress state of normal faults in which vertical stress is greater than maximum horizontal stress. The new data show good consistency with previous results above the fault -- at the boundary between the North American plate and the subducting Pacific plate -- suggesting that combining geophysical data and core samples to comprehensively investigate stress states is effective.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research
Published

Soft robot detects damage, heals itself      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Engineers have created a soft robot capable of detecting when and where it was damaged -- and then healing itself on the spot.

Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: Climate
Published

Fresh understanding of ice age frequency      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A chance find of an unstudied Antarctic sediment core has led researchers to flip our understanding of how often ice ages occurred in Antarctica.

Engineering: Robotics Research
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Researchers use ultrasound waves to move objects hands-free      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have discovered a new method to move objects using ultrasound waves, opening the door for using contactless manipulation in industries such as robotics and manufacturing.

Engineering: Robotics Research
Published

Checking blood pressure in a heartbeat, using artificial intelligence and a camera      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Engineers have designed a system to remotely measure blood pressure by filming a person's forehead and extracting cardiac signals using artificial intelligence algorithms.

Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Geology
Published

Earthquake lab experiments produce aftershock-like behavior      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Earthquakes are notoriously hard to predict, and so too are the usually less-severe aftershocks that often follow a major seismic event.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: Quantum Computers Engineering: Robotics Research
Published

Pulses driven by artificial intelligence tame quantum systems      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Machine learning drives self-discovery of pulses that stabilize quantum systems in the face of environmental noise.

Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: Climate Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds
Published

The evolution of Asia's mammals was dictated by ancient climate change and rising mountains      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study compiles data on more than 3,000 species to show how climate and geologic changes across Asia over the last 66 million years have shaped the evolution of the continent's mammals.

Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Geology
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Exploring the deep: Drones offer new ways to monitor sea floor      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed a novel method for measuring the earth's crust on the seafloor. A lightweight geodetic measurement device was mounted on a sea-surface landing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The mobility of this new system will enable rapid, efficient collection of real-time deep seafloor information, which is critical for understanding earthquake risk, as well as various other oceanographic observations.

Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Geology Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Monitoring 'frothy' magma gases could help evade disaster      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Volcanic eruptions are dangerous and difficult to predict. A team has found that the ratio of atoms in specific gases released from volcanic fumaroles (gaps in the Earth's surface) can provide an indicator of what is happening to the magma deep below -- similar to taking a blood test to check your health. This can indicate when things might be 'heating up.' Specifically, changes in the ratio of argon-40 and helium-3 can indicate how frothy the magma is, which signals the risk of different types of eruption. Understanding which ratios of which gases indicate a certain type of magma activity is a big step. Next, the team hopes to develop portable equipment which can provide on-site, real-time measurements for a 24/7 volcanic activity monitoring and early warning system.

Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: Fossils
Published

Earth can regulate its own temperature over millennia, new study finds      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study confirms that the planet harbors a 'stabilizing feedback' mechanism that acts over hundreds of thousands of years to keep global temperatures within a steady, habitable range.

Geoscience: Geology
Published

Unlocking deep carbon's fate      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Carbon dioxide in the deep Earth may be more active than previously thought and may have played a bigger role in climate change than scientists knew before, according to a new study.

Environmental: Ecosystems Geoscience: Geology
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Desert dust collected from glacier ice helps document climate change      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers are using dust trapped in glacier ice in Tibet to document past changes in Earth's intricate climate system -- and maybe one day help predict future changes.

Ecology: Trees Geoscience: Geology
Published

Evolution of tree roots may have driven mass extinctions      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A study has found evidence that the evolution of tree roots over 300 million years ago triggered mass extinction events through the same chemical processes created by pollution in modern oceans and lakes.

Geoscience: Geology Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Space: Exploration Space: The Solar System
Published

Earth's oldest stromatolites and the search for life on Mars      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The earliest morphological traces of life on Earth are often highly controversial, both because non-biological processes can produce relatively similar structures and because such fossils have often been subjected to advanced alteration and metamorphism. Stromatolites, layered organo-sedimentary structures reflecting complex interplays between microbial communities and their environment, have long been considered key macrofossils for life detection in ancient sedimentary rocks; however, the biological origin of ancient stromatolites has frequently been criticized.