Category Archives: geology

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

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Chris Rowan

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

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Chris Rowan

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

Yellowstone it was

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Chris Rowan

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

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Chris Rowan

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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