Tag Archives: Greenland

Going on Four (Billion)

Posted on September 4, 2016 by Ron Miksha

A paper published last week in Nature, claims that life began at 3.7 (billion years ago). This is the latest in a rather faltering progression of our best guesses of the date life started on Earth. Biblical literalists are still … Continue reading →

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Wegener’s Death and Drift’s Hiatus

Posted on February 7, 2016 by Ron Miksha

Over the past few days, I’ve written about Alfred Wegener’s continental drift theory, which is celebrating its 100th year as a spunky idea that explains a lot of our geology. From mountains to earthquakes and deep sea rifts to island … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Culture, Exploration, Geology, People, Plate Tectonics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

100 Years of Drift: Part 1

Posted on February 3, 2016 by Ron Miksha

Fifty years ago, we finally figured out why the Earth has mountains. But one hundred years ago, Alfred Wegener had already offered an explanation – it took those extra 50 years for his grand idea to catch on. The continents, … Continue reading →

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Russia’s Growing Pains

Posted on November 1, 2014 by Ron Miksha

Russia plans to grow. It may do this by annexing 1.2 million square kilometres of Arctic Ocean. That’s a piece of Earth more than twice the current size of the Ukraine. This includes the North Pole. And potentially a lot … Continue reading →

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After Wegener

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Ron Miksha

May 12 is the 83rd anniversary of the discovery of Alfred Wegener’s body. Wegener, of course, was the meteorologist, physicist, and polar explorer who made the first really reasonable conjecture about moveable continents. There were others before him – as … Continue reading →

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