Stony corals: Limits of adaption

08 August 2019 / Kiel. Corals have been dominant framework builders of reef structures for millions of years, creating habitats for a diverse community of species. It is well known that ocean acidification, which is intensifying as climate change progresses, is increasingly affecting coral growth. S...

35 million years ago, an asteroid struck the east coast of North America. Ejected material from the impact site was distributed over an area of at least 7 million square kilometres (Tektite field). In drilling samples taken from the sea floor 400 kilometres from the point of impact (ODP 1073), researchers have now found clear traces of the impact and dated them for the first time using the uranium-thorium-helium technique. Image reproduced from the GEBCO world map 2014, www.gebco.net

Space exploration on the sea floor

26 July 2019 / Kiel. 35 million years ago, an asteroid/comet hit the North American coast near Washington, D.C. The resulting 40 km-diameter Chesapeake Bay impact crater has been studied by an international research team, led by a scientist now at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. In ...

Schematic diagram of the geochemical processes between the Earth's mantle and the Lithosphere in the Archean. Fig. after E. Asafov.

Recycling on Earth for more than 3 billion years

16 July 2019 / Grenoble / Kiel. Only 100 years ago Alfred Wegener developed the theory of continental drift. However, the associated recycling process of crustal material began much earlier than previously thought. An international team of scientists with the participation of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Ce...

Group photo. Photo: Bradley Weymer, GEOMAR.

Groundwater at the sea floor

15 July 2019 / Msida / Kiel.The search for groundwater at the sea floor is becoming more and more important in arid coastal regions. Students and lecturers from 12 countries met last week in Malta for a Maltese-German summer school on this topic. This summer school was co-organized by the GEOMAR Hel...