Chile

Footprints at White Sands and Beyond

Human footprints found in White Sands National Park, New Mexico, were associated with astonishingly ancient age dates in 2021. New research published in the October 5, 2023 issue of Science reports on two independent age dating techniques that corroborate the third technique. The data show that the footprints are between 23,000 and 21,000 years old. This will require fundamental changes in rewriting our history.

By |2023-10-10T07:08:07-07:00October 10th, 2023|Fabulous Fossils & More, Our Amazing Earth|8 Comments

From Mummies to Día de los Muertos

Celebrations of the Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, involve traditions to remember and honor deceased family members and friends. In this post we examine a few customs around death, beginning with the mummification practices of ancient Andeans and ending with a street parade in Mexico City, inspired by the death-defying feats of James Bond.

By |2021-11-04T17:04:48-07:00November 4th, 2021|Ancient Andean Cultures|4 Comments

Exceptional Magnitude 9 Earthquakes

Five great earthquakes of M9 or larger have been recorded in the past century and each was followed by a major tsunami, along with vast devastation and many deaths. These events have provided information to help mitigate the effects of future great earthquakes - including what to keep in the back of your mind if you experience strong earthquake shaking in coastal areas worldwide.

By |2021-08-10T08:18:36-07:00August 12th, 2021|Our Amazing Earth|4 Comments

Where Lithium Lurks

The demand for lithium is increasing dramatically – and sources of this metal are being sought from the high elevations of the Andes Mountains to the lowlands of Australia. Lithium is widely distributed on our planet, but since concentrations of this metal are typically quite low, relatively few ores that are economical to mine have been found to date. There are currently three major sources.

By |2021-02-19T13:51:39-07:00February 18th, 2021|Our Amazing Earth|4 Comments

Earthquakes, Copper and Helicopters

Geologists love to have a bird’s eye view of landscapes. They are helpful for all types of research - tracing active faults and identifying copper ore deposits among them. In this post there are two stories about geology fieldwork - one about earthquakes in Egypt and the other about copper in Chile, tied together by arid landscapes and helicopters.

By |2023-09-29T20:00:09-07:00January 28th, 2021|Our Amazing Earth|6 Comments

Geysers in the Americas

Geysers, with hot water and steam welling up from deep underground, are mysterious clues to what lies beneath. Yellowstone National Park includes about half of all geysers found on Earth. The Andes Mountains contain a major geyser field, named El Tatio, in northern Chile......I recently dug around for more information about geysers – and I found some that was new news to me and, I think, quite interesting.

By |2020-10-17T06:08:39-07:00October 15th, 2020|Our Amazing Earth|4 Comments
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