Stories related to: geologist

A gigantic sinkhole is gobbling up a small East Texas town, the New York Times reports. The hole—dubbed "Sinkhole de Mayo" by the residents of Daisetta—opened up suddenly, and quickly grew to the size of several football fields, swallowing trees and trucks. Many of the town's thousand residents have already packed their bags. The hole opened when an underground salt dome collapsed, possibly due to increased saltwater from nearby oil drilling. More »

Spain filed evidence today in support of its claim it is the rightful owner of a shipwreck loaded with $500 million in treasure discovered and looted by a US exploration firm, the AP reports. The Spanish government identifies the wreck, whose identity has been disputed over the past year, as the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, sunk by a British warship in 1804. More »

A swarm of more than 600 earthquakes off the Oregon coast has scientists stumped, the Oregonian reports. The activity started around 10 days ago and a research ship has been diverted to the area to look for answers. The earthquakes resemble those that happen before a volcano erupts but there are none in the area, around 150 miles off central Oregon. Three of the earthquakes have been over magnitude 5 on the Richter scale. More »

Hopes for an enormous underground lake discovered recently in Darfur might supply enough water to end starvation and violence in the area were dimmed by a second opinion from  a French geologist. The area receives too little rain and has the wrong type of rocks for water storage, said a specialist in mineral and water exploration: the lake probably dried up thousands of years ago. More »