The idea of linking supercomputers into a computational grid to confront big problems isn’t a new one, but an earthquake researcher and his colleagues are doing something different. They’re linking grids together—effectively, using grids of grids—thanks to a software movement that takes its name from the musical phenomenon known as the mashup. Full story (PDF)
When Sicily’s Mount Etna erupted in 2001, rivers of super-hot lava scoured the mountainside, leaving channels up to 6 meters deep in their wake. A volcanologist who observed one of those channels has now published results that contradict conventional wisdom about how volcanoes sculpt the earth. Full story (link)
Using an innovative computer model, scientists might have solved a decades-old mystery about the moon’s geology. A giant plume of hot rock, they say, might have burst out from the lunar core four billion years ago, kicking off a series of events that endowed the moon with a temporary magnetic field. Full story (PDF)
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