This artist’s impression shows a view of the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. The double star Alpha Centauri AB also appears in the image to the upper-right of Proxima itself. Proxima b is a little more massive than the Earth and orbits in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, where the temperature is suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. (Illustration by ESO/M. Kornmesser)

Study finds a (much) earlier birth date for tectonic plates

URI graduate student Reilly Hayes (left) and undergraduate Amanda Bednarick examine an outcrop for fossils at Petrified Forest National Park as part of their research. Credit: Amanda Bednarick

Asteroid, climate change not responsible for mass extinction 215 million years...

Credit: Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)

Volcanic eruptions reduce global rainfall

The attached image shows Wightia declivirostris flying over an oxbow lake in the valley of the ancient Wessex River that flowed from Devon to the Isle of Wight. Credit: Megan Jacobs

Chinese pterodactyl wings its way to the United Kingdom

A schematic diagram of the Earth's deep oxygen factory shows the oxygenation and deoxygenation processes of hydrous mantle materials in the lower mantle across the ~1000 km depth beneath Earth's surface. Under the conditions of Earth's middle mantle, scientists discovered an oxygen-excess phase, (Mg,Fe)2O3+δ (0 < δ < 1) that can be formed with under-saturated water at >1000 kilometers depths. Those oxygen-excess materials may have long-termly oxidized the shallow mantle and the crust, which is essential to allow free oxygen to build up in Earth's atmosphere. Credit: Science China Press

Oxygen-excess oxides in Earth’s mid-mantle facilitate the ascent of deep oxygen

Normal and malformed spores from East Greenland. Credit: John Marshall

Erosion of ozone layer responsible for mass extinction event

Subduction zones occur where one tectonic plate dives under another. New computer modeling by Magali Billen, professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis, shows why earthquakes on these sinking plates cluster at certain depths and could give insight into processes deep in the Earth. (U.S. Geological Survey)

New clues to deep earthquake mystery

Big theropod dinosaurs such as Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus ate pretty much everything -- including each other, according to a new study. Credit: PLOS ONE

In stressed ecosystems Jurassic dinosaurs turned to scavenging, maybe even cannibalism

Earth

Earth’s lower mantle can be oxidized in the presence of water

Original artwork depicting the moment the asteroid struck in present-day Mexico. Credit: Chase Stone

Dinosaur-dooming asteroid struck earth at ‘deadliest possible’ angle

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