Author Archives: Chris Rowan

How do we know Gabon’s ‘multicellular’ fossils are 2.1 billion years old?

The fossil record prior to 550 million years ago is so patchy that every discovery is going to cause some fanfare. That is certainly case with these odd looking things, which have been proclaimed in Nature as the oldest mulitcellular … Continue reading

Categories: fossils, geology, paper reviews, past worlds, Proterozoic

Creeping fault segments are showing their age

Do faults get weaker as they get older?
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Categories: earthquakes, geology, paper reviews, tectonics

Stuff I linked to on Twitter last week

A selection of the interesting things that I’ve found and shared on Twitter since I got back from my holidays. Earthquakes Analysis of samples from San Andreas Fault borehole suggest creeping sections lubricated by clays. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-06/uom-tcc062410.php (via @RonsGeoPicks) Rather impressive … Continue reading

Categories: links

Yellowstone it was

Give yourselves a pat on the back: virtually everyone guessed correctly that my fortnight away was chiefly spent exploring Yellowstone National Park, bookended by some time in Grand Teton National Park just next door. The first photo I showed you … Continue reading

Categories: geology, outcrops, photos, volcanoes

Old tectonic scars run deep: the magnitude 5.0 earthquake in Ontario

The location of yesterday’s earthquake in Canada was controlled by tectonic processes that operated, and ceased, hundreds of millions of years ago.
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Categories: deep time, earthquakes, geohazards, geology, structures, tectonics