✌ oikos

Jan. 22, 2013 — Glaciers in the tropical Andes have been retreating at increasing rate since the 1970s, scientists write in the most comprehensive review to date of Andean glacier observations. The researchers blame the melting on rising temperatures as the region has warmed about 0.7°C over the past 50 years (1950-1994). This unprecedented retreat could affect water supply to Andean populations in the near future. These conclusions are published January 22 in The Cryosphere, an Open Access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). (via Unprecedented glacier melting in the Andes blamed on climate change)

mineralia:

Smithsonite from Greece

by Watzl Minerals

veganatalie:

elegantbuffalo:

Geologists are planning a $1 billion mission to drill 6 km (3.7 miles) beneath the seafloor to reach the Earth’s mantle to bring back the first ever fresh samples.

To get to the mantle, scientists will be relying on a purpose-built Japanese deep-sea drilling vessel called Chikyu, first launched in 2002 and capable of carrying 10 km of drilling pipes. It has already set a world-record for the deepest hole in scientific ocean drilling history, reaching 2.2 km into the seafloor.

“It will be the equivalent of dangling a steel string the width of a human hair in the deep end of a swimming pool and inserting it into a thimble 1/10 mm wide.”

Oh shit. This makes me excited to take geology classes.

So very cool. ~e

(via eddyizm)

rhamphotheca:

themagicfarawayttree:  Watermelon Tourmaline 

Tourmaline is a crystal boron silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline is classified as a semi-precious stone and the gemstone comes in a wide variety of colors. The name comes from the Sinhalese word “Thuramali” (තුරමලි) or “Thoramalli” (තෝරමල්ලි), which applied to different gemstones found in Sri Lanka…

(read more: Wikipedia)

mineralia:

Fluorite with Galena from New Mexico

by Exceptional Minerals

(Source: eupraxsophy, via just-breezy)

ikenbot:

Cumulonimbus Cloud Spawning Lightning

Jaw-dropping composite photo of a cumulonimbus cloud spawning lightning below and with star trails above.

The mountain getting electrocuted is Bald Mountain, which is southeast of Lake Tahoe. This is actually a combination of a sequence of pictures that were part of a time lapse video shooting, which is how the star trails were captured as well.

Cumulonimbus Cloud is a towering vertical cloud (family D2) that is very tall, dense, and involved in thunderstorms and other inclement weather. Cumulonimbus originates from Latin: Cumulus “heap” and nimbus “cloud”. It is a result of atmospheric instability. These clouds can form alone, in clusters, or along a cold front in a squall line. They can create lightning and other dangerous severe weather. [*]

(Source: kenobi-wan-obi)

mineralia:

Quartz var. Amethyst from Georgia

by The Arkenstone 

scipsy:

Linear Dunes of the Caprivi Strip

Natural-color image of the Caprivi Strip northeastern Namibia. On the bottom of the image there is the Okavango River.

Caprivi Strip is a stretch of land that “receives more than 600 millimeters (24 inches) of mean annual rainfall and experiences periodic floods”

The stripes visible in the images are linear dunes:

“[…] some are more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) long. Their presence suggests much drier conditions in the past.

Dunes generally form from wind-blown sand over many years. One characteristic of linear dunes is that they tend to remain intact long after the dry conditions cease. And because they don’t migrate like marching dunes, linear dunes preserve dirt and rocks that geologists can later use to understand past conditions.

A study published in 2000 sampled dunes throughout the Caprivi region and found that they likely formed under arid conditions between roughly 60,000 and 20,000 years ago. A study in 2003 concluded that dune construction may have been especially pronounced between 36,000 and 28,000 years ago. After the dunes formed, conditions in the Caprivi Strip moistened enough for the dunes to support vegetation—woodlands on the dune ridges, and grasses and shrubs in the valleys between.” (via EO)

migeo:

Earth from Space: Algerian sands (by europeanspaceagency)

This image shows the sandy and rocky terrain of the Sahara desert in western Algeria. With the Mediterranean Sea almost 500 km away, the closest town to the area pictured here is Taghit in the Algerian province of Béchar. The commercial Ikonos-2 satellite acquired this image on 23 April 2008 at a spatial resolution of 4 m. Credit: EUSI.