Decompression microstructures preserved in the mineral garnet from a Norwegian orogenic peridotite massif exposed on Otrøy Island revealed that this mantle fragment was exhumed from depths ≥ 350 km close to that of the Mantle Transition Zone (410 km). This peridotite massif represents one of the deepest kilometre-size mantle rock units discovered at the Earth's surface. The recognition of this extraordinary depth of origin enables the detailed study of the deep Earth now at the surface, ...

La comprensione dei processi geodinamici e l'analisi dei fattori che ne influenzano l'evoluzione rappresenta un traguardo fondamentale nell'ambito delle Scienze della Terra. Tra i vari processi, l'estensione continentale e la formazione delle rift valleys riveste un ruolo di notevole importanza in quanto precede la formazione dei bacini oceanici. L'importanza delle aree di estensione crostale è inoltre legata alla presenza di giacimenti minerari e idrocarburi ed all'elevato impatto sociale ...

Every year, scientists put on their mittens and collect meteorites in Antarctica. Of the roughly 37,000 meteorites listed as of 2002, about 30,000 come from Antarctica or, to be precise, the ice sheets covering that continent. Antarctica is the best place to collect meteorites because they accumulate on blue ice fields, upstream of topographic barriers. Meteorites fall and become buried in the ice; the ice flows; the ice slows and is lifted up near a barrier; finally, wind ablation exhumes and ...