— Earthquakes: Water as a lubricant — Geophysicists from Potsdam have established a mode of action that can explain the irregular distribution of strong earthquakes at the San Andreas Fault in California. As the science…
— Ancient environment found to drive marine biodiversity — Much of our knowledge about past life has come from the fossil record - but how accurately does that reflect the true history and drivers of biodiversity on Earth?…
— Earth's core deprived of oxygen — The composition of the Earth's core remains a mystery. Scientists know that the liquid outer core consists mainly of iron, but it is believed that small amounts of some other elements…
— Human, artificial intelligence join forces to pinpoint fossil locations — In 1991, a team led by Washington University in St. Louis palaeoanthropologist Glenn Conroy, PhD, discovered the fossils of the first - and still the only - known pre-human ape ever…
— Palaeontologist describes large nest of juvenile dinosaurs, first of their genus ever found — A nest containing the fossilised remains of 15 juvenile Protoceratops andrewsi dinosaurs from Mongolia has been described by a University of Rhode Island palaeontologist, revealing…
— Researchers pinpoint date and rate of Earth's most extreme extinction — It's well known that Earth's most severe mass extinction occurred about 250 million years ago. What's not well known is the specific time when the extinctions occurred. A team of researchers…
— Archeologists investigate Ice Age hominins' adaptability to climate change — Computational modelling that examines evidence of how hominin groups evolved culturally and biologically in response to climate change during the last Ice Age also bears new insights…
— Research suggests strong Indian crust thrust beneath the Tibetan Plateau — For many years, most scientists studying Tibet have thought that a very hot and very weak lower and middle crust underlies its plateau, flowing like a fluid. Now, a team of researchers…
— Did dinosaurs have lice? Researchers say it's possible — A new study louses up a popular theory of animal evolution and opens up the possibility that dinosaurs were early - perhaps even the first - animal hosts of lice…
Drilling in the holy land
About 50 miles from Bethlehem, a drilling project is determining the climate and earthquake activity of the Holy Land. Scientists from eight nations are examining the ground below the Dead Sea, by placing a borehole in this deepest basin in the world. The International Continental Scientific Drilling Program ICDP brings together research teams from Israel, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, the USA and Germany. Particularly noteworthy: Researchers from Jordan and Palestine are also involved.
Scientists and technicians of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences have now completed a geophysical measurement procedure in the hole and helped with the initial examination of the cores in a field laboratory. 'We have drilled through about half a million years of sedimentary deposits,' estimates Dr Ulrich Harms from the ICDP's operational support group at the GFZ. 'From this, we can deduce not only the climate history, but also the earthquake activity in this seismically very active region.' The direction and inclination of the well were determined with high precision below this lake which is around 300 metres deep here, and the physical properties of the rocks were measured down to the bottom of the 460 metres deep borehole.
These unique measurements are used to record a continuous survey of the deposits in the Dead Sea and to compare it with the recovered cores. Although scientific drilling attempts to recover cores over the entire length of a hole, it is not always possible. These special borehole measurements are conducted to cover the gaps. In addition, a second series of cores is obtained from a second well in order to verify and secure the data.
'If everything goes perfectly, we may soon be able to provide information about past climate and environmental changes in the Bethlehem area,' says Ulrich Harms. His colleague Professor Achim Brauer, a palaeo-climatologist at the GFZ, is one of the initiators of the ICDP project. He and his team will analyse the drill cores. They are not just interested in the climate at the time of Jesus' birth but in the climate of the whole history of mankind. The region of the Holy Land is considered a land bridge across which early man migrated in several waves from Africa to the north. The climate history of the land of the Bible is therefore closely connected with the history of mankind.
Or subscribe for our Newsletter, a free e-mail publication. It is published practically every day.
Palaeontologists discover parrot fossil in Scandinavia
Chaiten Volcano one of scores of active volcanoes in region
Asteroid impact triggered a global hail of carbon beads
Early humans were equipped to dine on hard foods but preferred a softer fare