Topic: Geology

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Top 5 ways to save on your summer vacation

If you're pining for a summer vacation but worried about costs, consider how Wayne and Pat Dunlap of Del Mar, Calif., managed to tour 51 countries over two years, marvel at the Egyptian pyramids, scale a New Zealand glacier, and visit Laotian Buddhist monks all for less than $100 a day. "We often stayed at guesthouses and hostels, ate at local family restaurants, took public transportation, and in some cases, traveled on cruise ships offering reduced rates," says Mr. Dunlap, author of the travel book "Plan Your Escape." This year amid price worries and higher summer airfares, especially to Europe such ingenuity could prove essential. Here are five cost-cutting strategies that can help:
Top 5 nations that use renewable energy

Here are the top users of renewables, not counting biofuels or hydroelectricity. Numbers indicate country percentage of total global renewable usage.
'What Do You Want To Do Before You Die?': 15 answers

From the new book 'What Do You Want To Do Before You Die?,' the four stars of 'The Buried Life' share what strangers have told them.
Five places we might find life in our own solar system

Life on Earth occupies some bizarre places – pools of pitch, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and lightless lakes buried under glaciers. While scientists hunt for hospitable planets circling other stars, the solar system has a few candidates. Here are five.
What makes a planet livable? Five things scientists look for.

Scientists have so far detected at least 550 planets outside the solar system – and another 2,000-plus await confirmation. But how to pick out the ones that may be Earth-like havens for life? Here's what one team looks for in assessing any planet's potential habitability and its similarity to Earth's properties.

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Is West Coast ready for a tsunami? Oregon towns hold tsunami drill

Three towns in Oregon are holding a tsunami drill Thursday. The 2011 tsunami in Japan prompted preparation efforts in Oregon.
Crystals found in magma chambers may help scientists predict volcanic eruptions

To learn more about volcanic activity in an effort to help predict it, researchers investigated the magma from within volcanoes. Crystals often grow within magma chambers, large crevices of searing hot fluid rock beneath volcanoes.
I Wish: movie review

Director Hirokazu Koreeda shows a strong affinity for the humors and longings of childhood in 'I Wish.'
Mexico volcano ash forces shutdown of airport (+video)

A volcano in Mexico, El Popocatepetl, erupted spewing enough ash Thursday to close the Puebla airport.
Top 5 ways to save on your summer vacation

If you're pining for a summer vacation but worried about costs, consider how Wayne and Pat Dunlap of Del Mar, Calif., managed to tour 51 countries over two years, marvel at the Egyptian pyramids, scale a New Zealand glacier, and visit Laotian Buddhist monks all for less than $100 a day. "We often stayed at guesthouses and hostels, ate at local family restaurants, took public transportation, and in some cases, traveled on cruise ships offering reduced rates," says Mr. Dunlap, author of the travel book "Plan Your Escape." This year amid price worries and higher summer airfares, especially to Europe such ingenuity could prove essential. Here are five cost-cutting strategies that can help:
Mexico volcano Popocatepetl rumbles back to life

Mexico volcano: 'El Popo' shot ash and hot rocks into the sky Friday morning. Officials in Mexico are watching the Popocatepetl volcano but have not issued evacuation orders.
Latin America Monitor
Drug violence? Mexicans say Popocatepetl is a bigger concern.

A recent poll shows Mexican concern about natural disaster outranks fears of violence and organized crime. The reason: an active volcano and recent earthquakes.
Mexico's 'smoking mountain' lives up to its name (+video)

Mexican officials have raised the alert level for the volcano, Popocatépetl, as it spews ash and steam into the air and onto nearby communities.
Popocatepetl volcano activity raises threat level in Mexico

Popocatepetl volcano rumbling has Mexican authorities concerned. The Popocatepetl volcano had a major eruption almost 12 years ago.
Troublesome Karakoram glaciers getting bigger, new study suggests

Despite the global temperature increase and the overall shrinking of the world's glaciers, some glaciers in the Karakoram mountains have actually grown over the past decade, according to a new study.
Himalayan glaciers could be growing, new study finds

A new study published in Nature Geoscience has discovered Himalayan glaciers that are not shrinking at all. They could be getting larger.
Global warming mystery: Some Himalayan glaciers getting bigger

The Himalayan glaciers are the planet's largest bodies of ice outside the polar caps. New research shows some Himalayan glaciers got bigger between 1999-2008.
Indonesia earthquake: Why no tsunami this time?

Wednesday's Indonesia earthquake was similar in magnitude to the devastating 2004 quake, but there was no tsunami. The difference? Location.
Mexico earthquake: How quake-prone is the region?

Mexico earthquake history shows that the same faults that caused Tuesday's Mexico earthquake can produce even bigger events, like one that struck in 1985.
Top 5 nations that use renewable energy

Here are the top users of renewables, not counting biofuels or hydroelectricity. Numbers indicate country percentage of total global renewable usage.
Life on Mars: Could fossil record be trapped in ancient lake mud?

A team of scientists from Brown University found that only 79 lake beds contained deposits of minerals that hint at clays on the surface.
'What Do You Want To Do Before You Die?': 15 answers

From the new book 'What Do You Want To Do Before You Die?,' the four stars of 'The Buried Life' share what strangers have told them.
Unique hybrid deep sea creatures discovered off Costa Rica

Scientists found a pair of underwater environments where previously unknown hybrid creatures existed.
Ocean acidification worst in 300 million years, study finds (+video)

Researchers at Columbia University have found that carbon dioxide emissions have lowered the pH at a rate unparalleled in at least the last 300 million years of our planet's history.
Growth of Himalayas slowing down, study finds

The collision between Eurasia and the Indian subcontinent, which created the world's highest mountain range, is slowing down, a new study has found.
Five places we might find life in our own solar system

Life on Earth occupies some bizarre places – pools of pitch, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and lightless lakes buried under glaciers. While scientists hunt for hospitable planets circling other stars, the solar system has a few candidates. Here are five.
Moon may contain magma, say scientists (+video)

Although the Earth's crust is still shifting, driven by the churning semimolten rock underneath it, researchers had thought the moon had cooled off much too long ago to still have any such tectonic activity.
What makes a planet livable? Five things scientists look for.

Scientists have so far detected at least 550 planets outside the solar system – and another 2,000-plus await confirmation. But how to pick out the ones that may be Earth-like havens for life? Here's what one team looks for in assessing any planet's potential habitability and its similarity to Earth's properties.
Asian, American continents about to collide (in 50 million years or so)

A team of Yale geologists predict that Asia and the Americas will smash into each other, forming a new supercontinent dubbed 'Amasia.'
Why is NASA sending a penny to Mars?

A US penny is on-board NASA's Curiosity rover that is scheduled to land on Mars in August. The 1909 penny commemorating the centennial of President Lincoln's birth will act as a calibration target to help scientists and the public to gauge the size of objects on Mars.