Sid Perkins

Sid Perkins is a freelance science writer based in Crossville, Tenn.

All Stories by Sid Perkins

  1. Paleontology

    Fossil footprints could be monumental

    Trace fossils found in a vacant lot in a small town in Utah, including the footprints of meat-eating dinosaurs, could soon be protected as part of a new U.S. national monument.

  2. Earth

    Alaska’s coastal permafrost is eroding

    Aerial photographs taken over the past 50 years show that Alaska's coastlines of permafrost aren't that permanent after all.

  3. Earth

    More acid rain in East Asia’s future

    Large increases in Asian industrial emissions of nitrogen oxides in the next 30 years could lead to a tripling of the acid rain there due to those pollutants.

  4. Earth

    Midlatitude bogs store carbon best

    Sediments in lakes and bogs along the eastern coast of the United States show that midlatitude bodies of water have sequestered higher amounts of carbon than others since the last ice age.

  5. Earth

    Seismic simulations help track tanks

    New computer models developed to analyze how seismic vibrations travel through uneven terrain can also be used to identify and track heavy vehicles such as tanks and trains.

  6. Earth

    Large earthquake would ravage Oregon

    A magnitude 8.5 earthquake off the coast of Oregon would devastate portions of the state, kill thousands of residents, and wrack the economy there for more than a decade.

  7. Earth

    Geologists take magnetic view through ice

    A new map of the magnetic anomalies in Antarctica and the seafloor surrounding the continent is giving researchers a fresh tool to use in analyzing geologic features that lie hidden beneath thousands of feet of ice or storm-tossed seas.

  8. Paleontology

    Beyond Bones

    The forensic analysis of trace fossils such as footprints, nests, burrows, and even coprolites—fossilized feces—reveal subtle clues about ancient species, their behavior, and their environment.

  9. Paleontology

    Early Mammal’s Jaw Lost Its Groove

    A tiny fossil skull found in 195-million-year-old Chinese sediments provides evidence that crucial features of mammal anatomy evolved more than 45 million years earlier than previously thought.

  10. Earth

    They’re not briquettes, but they’ll do

    Chunks of fossil charcoal found in ancient sediments in north central Pennsylvania suggest that cycles of wildfire plagued Earth more than 360 million years ago.

  11. Ecosystems

    Hurricanes’ full havoc yet to be felt

    When Hurricanes Dennis, Floyd, and Irene pummelled North Carolina in the fall of 1999, they delivered a three-punch sequence that may, for years to come, disrupt fishing in the Atlantic Ocean.

  12. Earth

    Pump up a plateau to make a monsoon

    Computer models show that the onset and strengthening of Asian monsoons over the past 8 million to 9 million years are strongly linked to various stages in the uplift of the Tibetan plateau.