Multimedia Gallery - CRONUS uses cosmic rays from the distant heavens to reconstruct the history of the Earth.

February 6, 2006

CRONUS uses cosmic rays from the distant heavens to reconstruct the history of the Earth.

The CRONUS project uses cosmic rays from the distant heavens to reconstruct the history of geologic events here on Earth. The cosmic rays come from galactic explosions known as supernovas, which send billions of the fantastically energetic atomic particles slamming into the Earths surface every year. These impacts, in turn, blast apart atoms in the rocks to create new elements, which accumulate over time. By measuring those atoms, scientists can gauge how much time has passed since the rock was disturbed by geological events such as earthquakes, landslides, and glaciers. The new cosmic-ray methods will shed light on Earth's past climate cycles, changes in soil erosion, frequency of floods and landslides, and how weathering of rocks affects global warming and cooling.

Credit: CRONUS

Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.

Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.

Also Available:
Download the high-resolution version of the image. ()

Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.