All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Earth
The Silent Type: Pacific Northwest hit routinely by nonquakes
Once every 14 months or so, portions of coastal British Columbia and northwestern Washington State experience a slow ground motion that, if released all at once, would generate an earthquake measuring more than 6 on the Richter scale.
- Earth
Motion of ice across Lake Vostok revealed
New measurements of the movement of the Antarctic ice sheet across a lake that harbors microbial life beneath 4 kilometers of ice could help scientists determine where to drill to get the freshest samples of frozen water without contaminating the lake.
- Earth
Satellites discover new Arctic islands
Danish researchers analyzing satellite observations of remote Tobias Island, discovered in 1993 off the northeastern coast of Greenland, have stumbled upon a new group of small islands nearby.
- Earth
All Cracked Up from the Heat? Major hunk of an Antarctic ice shelf shatters and drifts away
A Rhode Island-size section of an Antarctic ice shelf splintered into thousands of icebergs in a mere 5-week period during the area's warmest summer on record.
- Earth
Rocks in Earth’s mantle could hold five oceans
Analysis of minerals created in the laboratory under conditions that simulate those deep within the planet suggests that the zone of rocks just outside Earth's core could hold enough water to fill the oceans five times.
- Animals
Lemonade from Broken Amber
The fossilized microbes found inside termites that have been encased in amber for 20 million years are remarkably similar to those found within the ancient insects' modern cousins.
- Paleontology
Old Frilly Face: Triceratops’ relative fills fossil-record gap
Fossils of a creature the size of a Texas jackrabbit cast new light on the early evolution of a group of horned dinosaurs that include the 8-meter-long Triceratops.
- Humans
Science Smarts: Talent search honors top student projects in math, science, and engineering
Forty students reaped rewards for their excellence this week when the Intel Science Talent Search handed out the top awards in its 2002 competition for high school seniors.
- Earth
Space Rocks’ Demo Job: Asteroids, not comets, pummeled early Earth
An analysis of trace elements found in a variety of meteorites suggests that most of the heavenly objects that rained hell on the inner solar system about 3.9 billion years ago were asteroids, not comets.
- Paleontology
Duck-faced croc had a gap-toothed grin
Paleontologists have unearthed fossils of a tiny crocodile that boasted a smile like no other: The animal had no teeth across the entire front of its mouth.
- Earth
Avalanche!
Laboratory studies of how snow crystals change shape under fluctuating environmental conditions and computer analyses that match the patterns of past avalanches with detailed meteorological data are helping scientists uncover the secrets of avalanches.
- Paleontology
No Olympian: Analysis hints T. rex ran slowly, if at all
Tyrannosaurus rex, a bipedal meat eater considered by many to be the most fearsome dinosaur of its day, may not have been the swift Jeep-chaser portrayed by Hollywood.
