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December 2003
December 21
Man has been changing
climate for 8,000 years
Agriculture may have released huge amounts of greenhouse gases into atmosphere.
Radioactive Potassium
May Be Major Heat Source In Earth's Core. Berkeley - Dec 17, 2003
Radioactive potassium, common enough on Earth to make potassium-rich bananas
one of the "hottest" foods around, appears also to be a substantial
source of heat in the Earth's core, according to recent experiments by University
of California, Berkeley, geophysicists.
December 14
Roast dinosaur
off the menu?
Giant meteorite impact 65 million years ago may not have set the world on
fire.
Huge
Dinosaurs Floated. Dec. 10, 2003
Sauropod dinosaurs, the largest terrestrial animals ever to have lived on
our planet, could float like corks in water, according to computerized buoyancy
tests on recreations of sauropods that lived during the Mesozoic Era, which
lasted from 248 to 65 million years ago.
Seismic Monitors
Detect Physical Changes Deep Within Faults. Houston - Dec 08, 2003
Seismologists have long known that the buildup of forces along fault zones
cause the physical properties of rock and sediments to change deep inside
the Earth, at the level where earthquakes occur. Based upon new findings,
researchers believe they may be able to design active seismic monitoring
systems that continually monitor these subtle changes, looking for telltale
signs of an impending earthquake.
The Ultimate In
"Full Body" Scan Goes Deep Inside Earth. Princeton - Dec 08,
2003
Like doctors taking a sonogram of a human body, Princeton geoscientists
have captured images of the interior of the Earth and revealed structures
that help explain how the planet changes and ages.
Students Get Insider's
View Of Earth. Ann Arbor - Dec 08, 2003
Blue, red and white waves dance inside a ball-shaped structure on a computer
screen, colliding, careening and stretching in peculiar ways. This, explained
University of Michigan geophysicist Peter van Keken, is what happens inside
Earth when an earthquake occurs.
The Measure Of
Water: NASA Creates New Map For The Atmosphere. Pasadena - Dec 08, 2003
NASA scientists have opened a new window for understanding atmospheric water
vapor, its implications for climate change and ozone depletion.
The Caucasus Glaciers
In The Past, Present And Future. Nalchik - Dec 08, 2003
Hydrometeorologists have counted that within the last century the area,
volume and length of the Big Caucasus glaciers decreased steadily. The process
continues now and will go on in the future. Along with that, the quantity
of glaciers grows.
Physics of envelopes
sheds light on ice sheets
Ripping experiments show how stick and slip leads to jagged edges.
Gemstone Geography:
New technique discerns emeralds' beginnings.
Water molecules trapped inside the minuscule channels of an emerald harbor
telltale signs of the gem's geographic origin.
December 7
Shrinking Arctic
Tells Many Stories. Greenbelt - Dec 01, 2003
In 2002, a series of scientific studies pointed to dramatic changes in Arctic
sea ice. Sea ice that survives the summer and remains year round—called
perennial sea ice—is melting at the alarming rate of 9 percent per
decade, according to a study by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center senior
researcher Josefino Comiso.
Coastline carve
thyself
Theory accounts for land's fractal fringes. Nature, November 26, 2003.
Earth's
Elusive Mantle Plumes Detected At Last.
Using detailed seismic data, scientists have obtained the clearest picture
yet of the earth's inner workings. The images provide long-awaited direct
evidence for mantle plumes--large columns of heat emanating from the planet's
interior--which were first predicted in the 1970s.
Geologists
Discover New Class Of Spreading Ridge On Sea Bottom. Washington - Nov
27, 2003
Scientists have discovered a new "ultra-slow" class of ocean ridge
involved in seafloor spreading in the remote regions of the far south Atlantic
and Indian Oceans and the sea floor beneath the Arctic icecap.
Utah's
Redrock May Have Changed Global Climate.
Now, a new study from the University of Utah concludes that bleaching patterns
in the Navajo Sandstone suggest the rock formation once may have harbored
vast amounts of hydrocarbons, likely natural gas (methane). And when the
once-buried sandstone was exposed and started eroding roughly 6 million
years ago, the gas would have been released to the atmosphere. Because methane
is a so-called "greenhouse gas," the release of large quantities
to the atmosphere may have warmed Earth's ancient climate.
November 2003
November 30
What Makes Volcanoes
Explode. San Francisco - Nov 27, 2003
Two University of California, Berkeley, geophysicists have proposed an explanation
for the unpredictable nature of volcanic eruptions, why volcanoes sometimes
ooze lava, but at other times explode in showers of ash and pumice.
Book
Offers Overview Of Cave Paleontology.
Many important fossil finds are made by recreational cavers, who bring the
remains to the attention of scientists. With a new book aimed at both scholars
and spelunkers, Blaine Schubert hopes to get the word out about the importance
of such findings to the Ice Age record.
November 23
Uncovering Mysteries
Beneath The Earth's Surface. Boston - Nov 19, 2003
Back in the old days, when doctors looked for tumors, exploratory surgery
was the only option. Today they use CAT scans, x-rays, ultrasound, and other
non-intrusive methods for checking out what lies beneath the skin's surface.
But how do we determine what is beneath the Earth's surface? Invasive surgery
on the Earth is just as dated as doctors' old methods of finding tumors,
if you ask Eric Miller, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering
at Northeastern University.
Volcanoes
Help Unleash El Nino Disaster: Study. Paris (AFP) Nov 19, 2003
Volcanoes are a prime cause for El Nino, the climate phenomenon that can
catastrophically disrupt weather patterns across the Pacific and beyond,
a study says. A major eruption doubles the chance that an El Nino will be
unleashed in the following winter, according to the research, which is published
on Thursday in the British scientific journal Nature.
New
Evidence Says Earth's Greatest Extinction Caused By Ancient Meteorite
(November 21, 2003)
Long before the dinosaurs ever lived, the planet experienced a mass extinction
so severe it killed 90 percent of life on Earth, and researchers at the
University of Rochester think they've identified the unlikely culprit.
Formation
Of Lava Bubbles Offers New Insight Into Seafloor Formation (November
19, 2003)
Scientists studying the formation of the sea floor thousands of feet below
the surface have a new theory for why there are so many holes and collapsed
pits on the ocean bottom.
November 16
The Suffocating
Age. Seattle - Nov 10, 2003
Recent evidence suggests that oxygen levels were suppressed worldwide 175
million to 275 million years ago and fell to precipitously low levels compared
with today's atmosphere, low enough to make breathing the air at sea level
feel like respiration at high altitude.
Mass Extinctions
May Promote Longevity Of New Species. Cincinnati - Nov 10, 2003
With the economy, we talk about cycles of boom and bust. Make that "bust
and boom" when it comes to the geological record in the post-Paleozoic
world, University of Cincinnati geologist Arnold Miller suggests, after
his analysis of marine fossil genera and what happens after mass extinction
events.
Attack of the Rock-Eating
Microbes! Some bacteria break down minerals, while others make them.
Geologists who examine mineral transformations increasingly see bacteria
at work, leading the scientists to conclude that if microbes aren't driving
the underlying chemical reactions, at least they're taking advantage of
the energy that's released.
Volcanic
Mysteries Unraveled Underwater (November 10, 2003)
Scientists have long been puzzled by the observation that flows, erupted
as white-hot lava at mid-ocean ridges, can be traced for several miles from
their vents despite the fact that they erupt into seawater close to its
freezing point. Now a group of scientists from academia and government believe
they have the answer from lava samples collected using the deep-sea submersible
ALVIN.
200
Years Later, Geologist Completes Lewis And Clark Readings (November
14, 2003)
Virtual explorer Robert Criss, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences
at Washington University in St. Louis, has teamed up with Lewis and Clark
to provide the oldest determinations of the magnetic declination of America's
interior.
November 9
Ice
Cores May Yield Clues To 5,000-year-old Mystery. COLUMBUS, Ohio
The latest expeditions to ice caps in the high, tropical Peruvian Andes
Mountains by Ohio State University scientists may shed light on a mysterious
global climate change they believe occurred more than 5,000 years ago. They
hope that ice cores retrieved from two tropical ice caps there, as well
as ancient plants retrieved from beneath the retreating glaciers, may contain
clues that could link ancient events that changed daily life in South America,
Europe and Asia.
Thunderstorm
Research Shocks Conventional Theories; Florida Tech Physicist Throws Open
Debate On Lightning's Cause Melbourne, Fla.
If Joseph Dwyer, Florida Tech associate professor of physics, is right,
then a lot of what we thought we knew about thunderstorms and lightning
is probably wrong.
Hydrogen
Sulfide, Not Carbon Dioxide, May Have Caused Largest Mass Extinction
(November 5, 2003)
While most scientists agree that a meteor strike killed the dinosaurs, the
cause of the largest mass extinction in Earth's history, 251 million years
ago, is still unknown, according to geologists.
Explanation
Offered For Antarctica's 'Blood Falls' (November 5, 2003)
Researchers have discovered that a reddish deposit seeping out from the
face of a glacier in Antarcticas remote Taylor Valley is probably the last
remnant of an ancient salt-water lake. The lake probably formed as much
as 5 million years ago when the sea levels were higher and the ocean reached
far inland.
Seafloor vents
spawn spat
Ancient springs are thousands of years old, not billions, say geologists.
October 30, 2003.
Sky-High Icebergs
Carried Boulders From The Rockies To Coastal Washington. Seattle - Nov
04, 2003
Geologists have uncovered a scene in the Pasco Basin west of the Columbia
River that shows how boulders piggybacked icebergs from what is now Montana
and came to rest at elevations as high as 1,200 feet.
November 2
Ninety Eight
Tons Of Primordial Plant Matter Per Gallon. Salt Lake City - Oct
27, 2003
A staggering 98 tons of prehistoric, buried plant material – that's
196,000 pounds – is required to produce each gallon of gasoline we
burn in our cars, SUVs, trucks and other vehicles, according to a study
conducted at the University of Utah.
Dinosaurs got
cancer
Bone scans reveal tumours only in duck-billed species.
Smart-winged
pterosaurs
Why did ancient flying reptiles have so much processing power in the back
of their brain? To provide highly responsive flight control, is an answer
to emerge from an innovative analysis of pterosaur skulls.
Ancient wings
unfurled
Computer simulation reconstructs extinct butterfly patterns.
Palaeontology:
Preserved Organs of Devonian Harvestmen Nature 10/30/03 p.916
JASON A. DUNLOP, LYALL I. ANDERSON, HANS KERP &
HAGEN HASS.
Ultra-low
Oxygen Could Have Triggered Die-offs, Spurred Bird Breathing System
Recent evidence suggests that oxygen levels were suppressed worldwide 175
million to 275 million years ago and fell to precipitously low levels compared
with today's atmosphere, low enough to make breathing the air at sea level
feel like respiration at high altitude. Now, a University of Washington
paleontologist theorizes that low oxygen and repeated short but substantial
temperature increases because of greenhouse warming sparked two major mass-extinction
events, one of which eradicated 90 percent of all species on Earth.
October 2003
October 26
Mutant
Pollen Clue To Ancient Fallout. Oct. 17, 2003
Conifer tree pollen from 250 million years ago show the same mutations as
those of modern pines hit by fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
disaster, a new study has found. The prehistoric mutations probably occurred
after gas and dust from massive volcanic eruptions damaged Earth's ozone
layer, resulting in a torrent of damaging ultra-violet radiation from the
sun.
Recent Warming
Of Arctic May Affect Worldwide Climate. Greenbelt - Oct 24, 2003
Recently observed change in Arctic temperatures and sea ice cover may be
a harbinger of global climate changes to come, according to a recent NASA
study. Satellite data -- the unique view from space -- are allowing researchers
to more clearly see Arctic changes and develop an improved understanding
of the possible effect on climate worldwide.
Bob, Bob, Bobbin'
Along: Dinosaur buoyancy may explain odd tracks.
New lab experiments and computer analyses may explain how some of the heftiest
four-legged dinosaurs ever to walk on Earth could have left trackways that
include the imprints of only their front feet.
October 19
Pterosaurs
Stranger Than Ever. Oct. 9, 2003
New pterosaur fossils and studies are revealing just how unusual these huge,
flying reptiles from the dinosaur era were. Based on current findings, many
pterosaurs, which lived on nearly every continent during the Mesozoic Era
from approximately 248 million to 65 million years ago, possessed tweezer-like
heads, body fur and incredibly large, varied head crests.
Bull
Mastodons In Deadly Combat; Sound And Fury From Silent Bones
The American mastodon, a massive, tusk-bearing relative of elephants, inhabited
much of North America until its extinction just 10,000 years ago. New studies
of bone damage on fossil remains of mature mastodon males---aided by 3-D
computer graphics---indicate that some died of wounds inflicted by the tusks
of other males.
October 12
Ancient eruption
marks today's tortoises
The genes of some Galapagos tortoises bear the stamp of a volcanic eruption
100,000 years ago that nearly wiped them out. Only a few tortoises survived
the ash to repopulate the area, suggests Powell. The DNA of today's giants
indicates that the entire population of 3,000 to 5,000 now on Alcedo could
be descended from a single female.
Plants detonated
Cambrian explosion
Global cooling may have allowed complex animals to flourish. The first land
plants might have triggered a rush of animal evolution. German researchers
are proposing a controversial theory that the plants cooled Earth, making
it conducive to complex life.
Himalayas age
nine times overnight
Birth of world's highest mountains may date back 500 million years. The
Himalayas may be more than 450 million years old - nine times older than
previously estimated - according to a controversial new dating study.
Growth
of early continental crust by partial melting of eclogite Nature 10/11/2003
p.605
ROBERT P. RAPP, NOBUMICHI SHIMIZU & MARC D. NORMAN.
Large
Cretaceous sphenodontian from Patagonia provides insight into lepidosaur
evolution in Gondwana Nature 10/11/2003 p.609
SEBASTIÁN APESTEGUÍA AND FERNANDO E. NOVAS.
Ancient
'Jaws' Discovered In Canada. Oct. 3, 2003
What might be dubbed the original "Jaws" — the world's oldest
fossil of a toothed shark from Canada — has been found intact in a
rare discovery that is expected to shed new light on the evolution of both
teeth and sharks.
Hot
Fire In Cold Ice: Searching For Volcanic Eruptions In Antarctic Snow.
The project started two years ago and involves investigating major volcanic
eruptions over the last 1,500 years. The research goal is to determine if
and how they are related to changes in the earth’s climate.
October 5
Prehistoric
Sea Creature Discovered. Sept. 29, 2003
British and Canadian scientists have discovered the unique fossil of a prehistoric
sea creature with eyes raised like "twin towers," they reported
in the latest issue of the journal Science. Living on the sea floor some
400 million years ago in what is now Morocco, the hard shelled, many legged
animal is the only known complete specimen of the phacopoid trilobite Erbenochile.
North vs. Northwest:
Lewis and Clark diaries provide directional clue:
Observations from the Lewis and Clark expedition may offer insight into
Earth's magnetic field.
Ecosystem Changes
In Polar Regions Linked To Solar Variability. Livermore - Sep 29, 2003
A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist, in collaboration with
an international team of colleagues, has reported that noticeable changes
in the sub-polar climate and ecosystems appear to be linked to variations
in the sun's intensity during the past 12,000 years.
Plants detonated
Cambrian explosion
Global cooling may have allowed complex animals to flourish.
September 2003
September 28
Built-In Eyeshade
Offers Clue To Prehistoric Past. Edmonton - Sep 19, 2003
A new, rare fossil of a prehistoric sea creature bearing eyes like "twin
towers" sheds light on how it lived more than 395 million years ago,
says a University of Alberta researcher. Dr. Brian Chatterton, one of the
world's leading experts on trilobites and a professor in the U of A's Faculty
of Science, reports on the discovery of the only known complete specimen
of a particular trilobite in this week's edition of the prestigious scientific
journal Science.
Grand Canyon born
on East coast
Uranium-dating reveals origin of western US sandstone. Traditionally, geologists
have looked at a sandstone's grain types to discern its rocky parentage.
Other clues, such as which way the wind or water that deposited the grains
was flowing, pointed them in the right direction. So Dickinson and Gehrels
instead scrutinized grains of zircon, a uranium-bearing mineral, in the
sandstones. As soon as zircon crystallizes from molten magma, its radioactive
uranium begins to decay into lead. The amount of lead in a zircon grain
therefore reveals when it formed. These ages can then be matched to zircon
ages from different mountain ranges. Half of the Grand Canyon samples were
formed either around 1.2 billion years ago or around 500 million years ago.
These ages match granite in the Appalachian Mountains. Only a quarter of
the grains came from the Ancestral Rockies; the rest hark from the interior
of Canada. Nature 16 September 2003.
Largest Arctic
Ice Shelf Breaks Up, Draining Freshwater Lake. Quebec City - Sep 24,
2003
The largest ice shelf in the Arctic has broken, and scientists who have
studied it closely say it is evidence of ongoing and accelerated climate
change in the north polar region. The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is located on
the north coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada's Nunavut territory and its
northernmost national park. This ancient feature of thick ice floating on
the sea began forming some 4,500 years ago and has been in place for at
least 3,000 years.
An
Arctic mammal fauna from the Early Pliocene of North America
RICHARD H. TEDFORD AND C. RICHARD HARINGTON. The ecological
affinities of the plant and beetle remains contained in the peat indicate
that winter temperatures on Ellesmere Island were nearly 15 °C
higher and summer temperatures 10 °C higher than they are today.
Gamma
rays may have devastated life on Earth
One of the world's worst mass extinctions, 443 million years ago, may have
been caused by a burst of gamma rays from space, suggests fossil evidence.
Paleontologist
Offers New Theory On Dinosaur Extinction. Princeton - Sep 26, 2003
As a paleontologist, Gerta Keller has studied many aspects of the history
of life on Earth. But the question capturing her attention lately is one
so basic it has passed the lips of generations of 6-year-olds: What killed
the dinosaurs?
Scientists:
Ancient Himalayas Even Older. Sept. 22, 2003
The world's highest mountains may be almost nine times older than previously
believed, Arizona geologists said. The Himalayas were thrust up when India
collided with Asia 55 million years ago — and continue to build from
the ongoing collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. But within
the tangled, tortured rocks of the gigantic mountain range are rare and
tantalizing clues of what appears to have been mountains building 450 million
years ago.
Northern
Climate, Ecosystems Driven By Cycles Of Changing Sunlight.
Emerging geochemical and biological evidence from Alaskan lake sediment
suggests that slight variations in the sun's intensity have affected sub-polar
climate and ecosystems in a predictable fashion during the last 12,000 years.
September 21
A
rodent the size of a buffalo
A "pretty spectacular" fossil.
Scientists have found fossils of what they say is the largest rodent that
ever lived, a nine-foot-long, buffalo-sized creature with a long tail and
powerful teeth that foraged along the riverbanks of Venezuela about eight
million years ago. Scientists said Phoberomys pattersoni probably weighed
up to 1,545 pounds, about 10 times the size of today's largest rodent, the
South American capybara, and nearly 2,500 times bigger than a 10-ounce rat.
See also http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994183
Is
This What Killed The Dinosaurs? New Evidence Supports Volcanic Eruption
Theory.
The extinction of the dinosaurs – thought to be caused by an asteroid
impact some 65 million years ago – was more likely to have been caused
by a 'mantle plume' – a huge volcanic eruption from deep within the
earth's mantle, the region between the crust and the core of the earth.
Fragments
of the earliest land plants Nature 9/18/03 p.282
CHARLES H. WELLMAN, PETER L. OSTERLOFF & UZMA MOHIUDDIN
Inferring
the palaeoenvironment of ancient bacteria on the basis of resurrected proteins Natue
9/18/03 p.285
ERIC A. GAUCHER, J. MICHAEL THOMSON, MICHELLE F. BURGAN
& STEVEN A. BENNER
High
CO2 levels in the Proterozoic atmosphere estimated from analyses
of individual microfossils Nature 9/18/03 p.279
ALAN J. KAUFMAN AND SHUHAI XIAO. See also http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/09/030918092804.htm.
Liquids fold
according to density-viscosity ratio
New theory sheds light on plate tectonics and pancake batter. 15 September
2003
September 14
Geologists' periodic
table designed
Clever graph shows how Earth's chemicals are linked.
Did Earth Blow Up The Dinosaurs. Cardiff - Sep 11, 2003 - New evidence supports volcanic eruption theory The extinction of the dinosaurs – thought to be caused by an asteroid impact some 65 million years ago – was more likely to have been caused by a 'mantle plume' – a huge volcanic eruption from deep within the earth's mantle, the region between the crust and the core of the earth. See also http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994138
September 7
Analysis
Of Stratospheric Air Resolves Enigma Of Hydrogen Balance In Earth's Atmosphere
(September 2, 2003) — Discovery of the last piece of a long-standing
puzzle -- what happens to hydrogen gas in the atmosphere -- will help scientists
assess the impact of additional hydrogen escaping into the atmosphere if
America moves to hydrogen-fueled vehicles.
Unexpected Discovery
About Core. Stockholm - Sept 01, 2003
The core of the earth doesn't look the way it was expected to. Scientists
at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, KTH, can now
show that iron, under extremely high pressure, such as that found in the
inner earth, takes on unexpected properties, and this can be of importance
in understanding the movements of the earth, such as, earthquakes. The results
are being presented in the new issue of the British scientific journal Nature.
Oldest
ever ice core promises climate revelations
The continuous Antarctic ice core dates back at least 750,000 years - it
may even cover the Earth's last magnetic reversal.
Earth
science: Just add water Nature September 4, 2003 p.24
ALBRECHT W. HOFMANN
A new model could explain why Earth's upper mantle is depleted of many trace
elements. At a certain depth, minerals might release water, creating a molten
filter that traps trace elements in the mantle beneath.
Whole-mantle
convection and the transition-zone water filter Nature September
4, 2003 p.39
DAVID BERCOVICI AND SHUN-ICHIRO KARATO | Full
Text
August 2003
August 31
Methane
Thought To Be Responsible For Mass Extinction
What caused the worst mass extinction in Earth's history 251 million years
ago? An asteroid or comet colliding with Earth? A greenhouse effect? Volcanic
eruptions in Siberia? Or an entirely different culprit? A Northwestern University
chemical engineer believes the culprit may be an enormous explosion of methane
(natural gas) erupting from the ocean depths.
How Lunar Tides
Control The Flows Of Antarctic Ice Streams - Newcastle - Aug 26, 2003
The moon is often accused of causing lunacy, bringing on labor and transforming
werewolves. Now it seems that in reality, the moon, through the tides, is
responsible for the pattern of motion exhibited by ice streams in the Antarctic,
according to a team of geologists from NASA, Penn State and University of
Newcastle, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England.
Planetary
Tilt Not A Spoiler For Habitation
In B science fiction movies, a terrible force often pushes the Earth off
its axis and spells disaster for all life on Earth. In reality, life would
still be possible on Earth and any Earth-like planets if the axis tilt were
greater than it is now, according to Penn State researchers.
Earth
Has A New Look
A brand new look and understanding of the place we call home. That's what
you'll get in a complete global topographic data set generated by NASA and
the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.
August 24
Textbook
Case Of Tectonic Movement Is Wrong, Says New Study
Results from an expedition to the sea floor near the Hawaiian Islands show
evidence that the deep Earth is more unsettled than geologists have long
believed. A new University of Rochester study suggests that the long chain
of islands and seamounts, which is deemed a "textbook" example
of tectonic plate motion, was formed in part by a moving plume of magma,
upsetting the prevailing theory that plumes have been unmoving fixtures
in Earth's history.
With
Supercooling And The Right Geometry, 'Warm' Glaciers Can Trap And Transport
Silt
It may take them a century to advance a few meters, but the bottoms of some
glaciers churn with supercooled activity, according to an article by a Lehigh
University geologist in the Aug. 14 issue of Nature magazine.
August 17
New Dinosaur
Rises From Fossil Bones In India
A stocky, carnivorous dinosaur with an unusual head crest that has been
identified from bones collected in India belongs to a significant line of
predatory dinosaurs known from the southern continents. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030815074441.htm
Scientists
Rewrite Laws Of Glacial Erosion
Glaciers, it turns out, aren't so different from people -- they can gain
weight in their bottoms and be less active, scientists have discovered.
See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030814071654.htm
Gravity Variations Can Help Predict Earthquake Behavior. Pasadena - Aug 11, 2003 - In trying to predict where earthquakes will occur, few people would think to look at Earth's gravity field. What does the force that causes objects to fall to the ground and the moon to orbit around the earth have to do with the unpredictable ground trembling of an earthquake? See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-03p.html
August 10
Discoveries
Made About Cellular Reaction Processes From Ancient Life
Researchers in Robert H. White's group at Virginia Tech are tracing the
family tree of life on earth by tracing the biochemical mechanisms within
the cell -- specifically those that are used in the formation of peptide
bonds. See
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030805072417.htm
Geological Tool Helps Scientists Map The Interior Of The Ocean
A new application of a decades-old technique to study Earth's interior is
allowing scientists "see" the layers in the ocean, providing new
insight on the structure of ocean currents, eddies and mixing processes.
See
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030808080251.htm
UC Riverside Study Shows Glaciers Once Existed Near Los Angeles
Small glaciers once existed in southernmost California, near Los Angeles,
during the last glacial period (between ~22,000 and 11,000 years ago) and
in the early part of the present interglacial (several thousand years ago).
See
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/07/030731082300.htm
August 3
New
Dino Species Found on Dusty Shelf
Neglected for 20 years on the dusty shelves of a South African university,
scientists have rediscovered the 215-million-year-old fossil bones of a
new dinosaur species, one of the first true giants. See
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/07/0710_030710_sauropod.html
Dinosaur Watch: See the Latest Discoveries at
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/dinos/report/report.html
Which
Dinosaurs Once Lived in Your Neighborhood? Type in your zip code to
find out. See
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/dinos/lookup.html
The "Fixed" Hotspot That Created Hawaii Not Stationary At All. Menlo Park - Jul 29, 2003 - Geologists have long assumed that the Hawaiian Islands owe their existence to a "hotspot" -- stationary plumes of magma that rise from the Earth's mantle to form Mauna Loa, Kilauea and Hawaii's other massive volcanoes. But a new study posted on the online version of the journal Science disputes that long-standing paradigm by concluding that the fixed hotspot in the Pacific was not stationary after all. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-03o.html
Scientists Off Hawaii Closing In On Puzzle Of Ocean Energy. San Diego - Jul 30, 2003 - Scientists from six institutions, including Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, are closing the gap in deciphering one of the most puzzling aspects of the world's oceans. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oceans-03a.html
New Location Of Deep Convection May Exist In North Atlantic. Falmouth - Jul 30, 2003 - Deep convection, or mixing, of ocean waters in the North Atlantic, widely thought to occur in only the Labrador Sea and the Mediterranean, may occur in a third location first proposed nearly 100 years ago by the explorer and oceanographer Fridtjof Nansen. The findings, reported this week in the journal Nature, may alter thinking about the ocean's overturning circulation that affects earth's climate. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oceans-03b.html
New Underwater Imaging Vehicle Maps Coral Reefs. Falmouth - Jul 29, 2003 - Deepwater coral reefs in the US Virgin Islands may occupy a much larger area and be in better health than previously thought, based on evidence gathered by a new autonomous underwater vehicle which flies through the sea like a helicopter. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/eo-03zzk.html
Ichthyosaurs
ate turtle soup
Dietary preference backs extinction re-think. See
http://www.nature.com/nsu/030721/030721-4.html
New Paleobiology Database: See http://www.paleodb.org
July 2003
July 27
Earth's Birth Date Turned Back: Formed Earlier Than Believed. Boston - Jul 21, 2003 - Our planet is 50 to 90 million years older than previously thought, according to new evidence found in meteorites. Mixtures of radioactive elements, which tick away like clocks, show that most of Earth had formed only 10 million years after the sun was born as a star, which took place about 4,567 million years ago. Previous measurements indicated an Earth birth of 60 million to 100 million years after the sun's nuclear fires began to burn. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-03f.html
Dino Fossil Recovered at Loch Ness. July 16, 2003 — A Scottish retiree has discovered a fossil of a 150-million-year-old reptile on the shores of Scotland's mythical Loch Ness, press reports said Wednesday. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030714/nessfossil.html
Search Under Way for Woolly Mammoth. July 17, 2003 — The central Japanese city hosting the Expo 2005 world exposition plans to excavate an entire frozen mammoth and display it at the fair under a multi-million dollar Siberian expedition project, organizers said Thursday. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030714/mammoth.html
July 20
Dinos Doomed Before Asteroid Strike? July 14, 2003 — The dinosaurs were probably heading for extinction even before an asteroid strike wiped them out 65 million years ago, New Zealand scientists said on Monday. "An unknown number of species may have been in sharp decline when the asteroid struck and the impact winter probably finished them off quite quickly," Hollis said in a statement. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030714/dinodead.html
Learning from the Present: Fresh bones could provide insight into Earth's patchy fossil record. New field studies of unfossilized bones, as well as databases full of information about current fossil excavations and previous fossil finds, are providing insights into how complete--or incomplete--Earth's fossil record may be. See http://www.sciencenews.org/20030719/bob10.asp
South Aral Sea 'gone in 15 years'
A new study slashes its life expectancy by decades, and as it dries up it
is wreaking havoc on the environment. See
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993947
Dust Deals Droughts, Deluges. Greenbelt - Jul 16, 2003 - Dust from the Sahara Desert in Africa may help modify clouds and rainfall both in Africa and across the tropical North Atlantic, as far away as Barbados, according to a study that uses 16 years of data from NASA satellites, ground measurements and computer models. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/eo-03zzg.html
New Discoveries In The Himalayan-Tibet Collision Zone. Las Cruces - Jul 16, 2003 - About 50 million years ago, India collided with Asia producing the high Himalayas and Tibetan plateau, a natural laboratory for studying continental collision. During the collision, the Indian lithosphere was dragged down beneath the southern edge of Asia, but how much it was extended beneath Tibet is highly debated. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-03n.html
July 13
Earliest Sauropod Dino Identified. July 3, 2003 — Fossil remains of a slow, hefty, claw-wielding dinosaur have just been identified as belonging to the world's earliest known sauropod. The newly recognized dinosaur, named Antetonitrus ingenipes after the Latin words for "massive paw," provides clues as to how sauropods emerged and later evolved to become the largest terrestrial animals ever to have existed on Earth. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20030630/dino.html
Secrets of Dung: Ancient poop yields nuclear DNA. Researchers have extracted remnants of DNA from cells preserved in the desiccated dung of an extinct ground sloth. See http://www.sciencenews.org/20030712/fob2.asp (members only).
Charting Seismic Effects On Water Levels Refines Earthquake Science. Seattle - Jul 7, 2003 - Through many decades, stories about earthquakes raising or lowering water levels in wells, lakes and streams have become the stuff of folklore. Just last November, the magnitude 7.9 Denali earthquake in Alaska was credited with sloshing water in Seattle's Lake Union and Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, and was blamed the next day when muddy tap water turned up in Pennsylvania, where some water tables dropped as much as 6 inches. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-03l.html
Galactic
dust cooling Earth?
Controversial climate claim exonerates carbon dioxide. See
http://www.nature.com/nsu/030707/030707-1.html
July 6
Deep
below ground, bacterium feasting on toxic waste is found
Scientists have identified a microbe that gobbles up toxic waste deep underground,
offering a potential way to clean up a particularly nasty chemical that
has contaminated the water underneath hundreds of the nation's industrial
and military sites. See
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/6222957.htm
Behavior Of Arctic Ocean Ridge Confounds Predictions. Arlington - Jun 30, 2003 - The discovery that an ocean ridge under the Arctic ice cap is unexpectedly volcanically active and contains multiple hydrothermal vents may cause scientists to modify a decades-long understanding of how ocean ridges work to produce the Earth's crust. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-03m.html
AGI Launches Earth Science World ImageBank. Alexandria - Jun 30, 2003 - Do you want to include a scenic mountain photo in a presentation? Or show a picture of an erupting volcano to your students? The American Geological Institute (AGI) is proud to announce the launch of the Earth Science World ImageBank, a free service, with high-quality, fully-indexed images. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-03q.html
Carbon loss by deciduous trees in a CO2-rich ancient polar environment Nature 7/3/03 p.60 DANA L. ROYER, COLIN P. OSBORNE & DAVID J. BEERLING First paragraph See http://www.nature.com/cgitaf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v424/n6944/abs/nature01737_fs.html
Ginkgo is
living fossil
Ancient plants mirror modern trees.
19 June 2003 See
http://www.nature.com/nsu/030616/030616-9.html
June 2003
June 22
Second mass
extinction linked to impact
About 380 million years ago, a rock from space smashed into the Earth,
say geologists. They believe that the impact wiped out a large fraction
of life. See
http://www.nature.com/nsu/030609/030609-12.html also
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030616/extinction.html
Palaeobiology: The missing link in Ginkgo evolution Nature
423, p821 (June 19)
ZHIYAN ZHOU AND SHAOLIN ZHENG
The modern maidenhair tree has barely changed since the days of the dinosaurs.
See
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v423/n6942/abs/423821a_fs.html
June 15
Earth's Oxygen Enigma. The most widely accepted account of life's early history is under fire. Scientists have long believed that blue-green algae arose 3.5 billion years ago, pumping out oxygen and causing the oceans to fill with rust. Over the next billion years the algae transformed Earth's atmosphere, allowing oxygen-breathing life to evolve. Carrine Blank of Washington University in St. Louis says that story may be all wrong, however. See http://www.discover.com/science_news/newsflash/gthere.html?article=news_enigma.html
Devonian Death From Outer Space. Asteroid impact linked to a mass extinction 380 million years ago. See http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2003/613/2?etoc (subscription needed)
June 8
Biogeochemistry: Ancient oceans and oxygen
MATTHEW T. HURTGEN
The ocean chemistry of 1.5 billion years ago, inferred from rocks of that
age, supports the view that marine conditions then were very different from
those that pertained at earlier and later times. Nature 592 Full
Text (members only).
Palaeobotany: Ice-age steppe vegetation in east Beringia
GRANT D. ZAZULA, DUANE G. FROESE, CHARLES E. SCHWEGER,
ROLF W. MATHEWES, ALWYNNE B. BEAUDOIN, ALICE M. TELKA,
C. RICHARD HARINGTON & JOHN A. WESTGATE
Tiny plant fossils indicate how this frozen region once sustained huge herds
of mammals. See
First paragraph Nature 603.
Why We Still Have Turtles. New research explains why the impact that doomed the dinosaurs spared freshwater animals. See (membership required) http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2003/606/1?etoc
June 1
Magnetic Probe For Rocks, Recordings, Nanotechnology. David - May 19, 2003 - A technique for studying the magnetic properties of rocks developed by earth scientists at UC Davis is drawing attention from other scientists and the magnetic recording industry. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-03zc.html
Tiny
diamonds found in oil
Gemstone building blocks might find uses in drugs or technology. May
16, 2003. Black diamonds found in the Gulf of Mexico might have been formed
from crude oil, say researchers. These diamonds are unlikely to be a girl's
best friend. They contain just a few dozen carbon atoms, equivalent to less
than a billion billionth of a carat. But the molecules, called diamondoids,
could have practical uses. Artificial versions are already used in drugs
to treat Parkinson's disease and viral infections. The tiny diamonds could
also provide molecular-scale girders for nanotechnology. See
http://www.nature.com/nsu/030512/030512-13.html
Venezuela Diamonds Have Deep Oceanic Origin. Toronto - May 21, 2003 - More than just symbols of wealth and beauty, diamonds are a testament to the history of the earth, says U of T professor Daniel Schulze. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/carbon-03b.html
Greenhouse Gas Might Green Up The Desert Says Weizmann Institute. Rehovot - May 14, 2003 - Missing: around 7 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas charged with global warming. Every year, industry releases about 22 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And every year, when scientists measure the rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it doesn't add up – about half goes missing. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-03e.html
Mantle thermal pulses below the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and temporal variations
in the formation of oceanic lithosphere
ENRICO BONATTI, MARCO LIGI, DANIELE BRUNELLI, ANNA CIPRIANI,
PAOLA FABRETTI, VALENTINA FERRANTE, LUCA GASPERINI &
LUISA OTTOLINI See
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v423/n6939/abs/nature01594_fs.html
Bizarre 'horned' kangaroo fossils unearthed
The first complete skulls are the star finds in the latest cache of fossils
from caves in Australia's Nullarbor Plain. See
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993761
Geology
for the Record
Utah's glacial Lake Bonneville left behind signatures of its Pleistocene
existence: deltas, sandbars, shoreline deposits. These relics contain valuable
information about the area's changing climate over the past 28,000 years.
But that information could be lost to urban growth and the need for resources
unless people understand their geologic value. See
http://www.geotimes.org/current/feature_record.html
May 2003
May 18
Evidence For Potassium As Missing Heat Source In Planetary Cores. Minneapolis - May 13, 2003 - There's a small problem with Earth's magnetic field: It should not have existed, as Earth's rock record indicates it has, for the past 3.5 billion years. Motions in the Earth's molten iron core generate convection currents--similar to boiling water--which produce the field. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-03c.html also http://www.nature.com/nsu/030505/030505-7.html
Fossilized Meteorites Reveal Spectacular Ancient Showers over Earth. Meteor showers such as November's Leonids usually provide a good celestial show as tiny bits of dust and rock debris burn up, creating flashes of light across the sky. A new analysis of fossilized meteorites indicates that approximately 480 million years ago, the spectacle would have been even more dramatic. See http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=0001A4FF-A5CF-1EBA-BDC0809EC588EEDF
Journey to centre of Earth proposed
The wacky scheme would need the world's largest nuclear bomb and enough
iron to fill 13 large concert halls. See
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993730
Ancient wood points to arctic greenhouse. Chemical analyses of wood that grew in an ancient arctic forest suggest that the air there once was about twice as humid as it is now. http://www.sciencenews.org/20030517/note12.asp
Magnetic probe for rocks, recordings, nanotechnology
A technique for studying the magnetic properties of rocks developed by earth
scientists at UC Davis is drawing attention from other scientists and the
magnetic recording industry. See
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-05/uoc--mpf051403.php
May 11
Why is the South Pole colder than the North Pole? Robert Bindschadler, a senior fellow and glaciologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, explains. See http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?articleID=000F04F4-5DD2-1EB1-BDC0809EC588EEDF
Mapping The Greenland Ice Sheets. Wallops Island - May 09, 2003 - The ice sheet covering Greenland is expansive. Beyond the northern reaches of the Atlantic Ocean, Greenland is the largest island in the world and has the second largest mass of frozen fresh water on Earth. The ice and snow, covering 85 percent of the island, may provide important clues on global climate change. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/arctic-03b.html
Photosynthesis In The Abyss. Moffett Field - May 07, 2003 - Deep-sea hydrothermal vents, with their black smokers, six-foot red tube worms and strange pale crabs and clams have become common features of biology textbooks, mainstream magazines, newspapers and TV nature shows. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-03u.html
Winging South: Finally, a fly fossil from Antarctica. A tiny fossil collected about 500 kilometers from the South Pole indicates that Antarctica was once home to a type of fly that scientists long thought had never inhabited the now-icy, almost insectfree continent. See http://www.sciencenews.org/20030510/fob3.asp
The Fires Below: Burning coal sculpts landscapes worldwide. Underground coal fires sculpt the landscape on many scales and in many ways, some transient and some long-lasting. See http://www.sciencenews.org/20030510/bob9.asp
Fossilized Fish Act As Ancient Thermometer
Fossilized fish bones may help scientists to reconstruct the temperatures
of 65 million years ago, according to a paper in this week's Nature, co-authored
by colleagues representing three generations of researchers. See
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/05/030505084933.htm
40Ar/39Ar geochronology of the Eocene Green River Formation, Wyoming. The deposits of Eocene Lake Gosiute that constitute the Green River Formation of Wyoming contain numerous tuff beds that represent isochronous, correlatable stratigraphic markers. See http://www.gsajournals.org/gsaonline/?request=get-abstract&issn=0016-7606&volume=115&issue=05&page=0549
Extinction of Cloudina and Namacalathus at the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary in Oman. The cause of the Cambrian radiation has long been debated. With the publication of the paper by Amthor and colleagues, it seems likely that this evolutionary radiation was immediately preceded by a wave of extinction of terminal Proterozoic calcified metazoans. This supports early suggestions for extinction based on evidence for the demise of soft-bodied Ediacaran animals. This new evidence for extinction helps fuel the old model that flattening of ecosystems during times of stress creates opportunities for new adaptive strategies, expressed in this case as the Cambrian radiation. See http://www.gsajournals.org/gsaonline/?request=get-abstract&issn=0091-7613&volume=031&issue=05&page=0431
Meteorites rained on Earth after massive asteroid breakup
Using fossil meteorites and ancient limestone unearthed throughout southern
Sweden, marine geologists at Rice University have discovered that a colossal
collision in the asteroid belt some 500 million years ago led to intense
meteorite strikes over the Earth's surface. The research, which appears
in this week's issue of Science magazine, is based upon an analysis of extraterrestrial
minerals and fossils found in limestone that formed from sea bottom sediments
about 480 million years ago. See
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-05/ru-mro050703.php
Evidence for potassium as misisng heat source in planetary cores
There's a small problem with Earth's magnetic field: It should not have
existed, as Earth's rock record indicates it has, for the past 3.5 billion
years. Now, radioactive potassium has emerged as a possible factor in its
longevity. See
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-05/uom-efp050603.php
May 4
Vegetation Essential To Balancing Climate Models. Boston - Apr 30, 2003 - Climate change 6,000 years ago in Sahara desert explained by MIT scientists Just as vegetables are essential to balancing the human diet, the inclusion of vegetation may be equally essential to balancing Earth's climate models. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-03l.html
Demand For Wood May Lead To Forest Growth, Not Decline, Study Says
Under the right economic conditions, a growing demand for forest products
that accompanies development may lead to an increase – not a decline
– in forest cover, according to a new study by researchers at Brown
University and Harvard University. Policies that focus on reducing paper
demand may not necessarily increase forestation. See
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/05/030502075957.htm
A new trigger for Ice Age retreat
About 14,600 years ago, a huge pulse of freshwater drained from continental
ice sheets into the world’s oceans. Over 500 years, a discharge equivalent
to five Amazon Rivers raised sea level by 20 meters — marking one of
the most dramatic chapters in Earth’s episodic climb out of the last
Ice Age. Traditionally, paleoclimatologists have thought that the meltwater
came from the Laurentide Ice Sheet, responding to an abrupt warming of the
northern hemisphere called the Bolling-Allerod. Last year, geophysicist
Peter Clark from Oregon State University and colleagues proposed that the
meltwater actually came from Antarctica. The calving and melting of a massive
portion of Antarctica better explained the observed pattern of sea-level
rise, they argued in Science (Geotimes, June 2002). See
http://www.geotimes.org/current/NN_ice.html
April 2003
April 27
Scientists
set sail for a 'Lost City'
Exploring the towers and microbes of Atlantic's inner space.
A crew of scientists headed into the Atlantic Ocean yesterday to survey
what they call a "Lost City" of underwater towers and chimneys
created by heat from the Earth's interior. See
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/5685410.htm
Sediment Cores Yield Oldest DNA Yet Discovered. Researchers have retrieved from sediment cores the DNA of plants that lived nearly 400,000 years ago, making it the oldest DNA yet recovered. Analyses of these samples should help scientists paint a more detailed picture of prehistoric landscapes. See http://sciam.rsc03.net/servlet/cc?lJpDWXUEpIllFJhtJHlmDgLmEaEB
Eye of the Tiger: Discovery about gem's structure overturns old theory. Recent research has upended a 130-year-old, previously unchallenged theory about how the semiprecious stone called tiger's-eye is formed. See http://www.sciencenews.org/20030426/bob9.asp
April 20
Magnetic fields
blow vents cover
Roving magnetometer maps ocean ridges and faults.
17 April 2003. Researchers are capitalizing on the magnetic properties of
solidified lava to identify important volcanic structures on the ocean floor.
"Vents show up in halo-like images on a graphic display of the ocean
floor," says Tivey. In a radius of about 100 metres around the vents,
rock shows a distinctive lower magnetic intensity than the rest of the sea
floor, because it has been reheated by the vents and lost its magnetization.
See http://www.nature.com/nsu/030414/030414-7.html
Fertile Ground: Snippets of DNA persist in soil for millennia. Minuscule samples of sediment from New Zealand and Siberia have yielded bits of DNA from dozens of animals and plants, including the oldest DNA sequences yet found that can be traced to a specific organism. Researchers have retrieved from sediment cores plant DNA that is nearly 400,000 years old. See http://www.sciencenews.org/20030419/fob3.asp also http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000DFC3D-1546-1E9F-A9B3809EC588EEDF
April 13
Mass-extinction controversy flares again. Core from asteroid crater fuels debate on what wiped out the dinosaurs. See http://www.nature.com/nsu/030407/030407-7.html
Maine Crater Related to Dino-Killer Asteroid? April 3, 2003 — The evidence is still skimpy, but there is a chance that the dino killer asteroid was not alone when it walloped the Earth 65 million years ago. A possible second crater, at least as big or bigger than the famous Chicxulub crater off Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, may have been created by a second hit moments after Chicxulub and off the coast of Maine. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20030331/crater.html
Drilling to cast light on climate change. Cores from two African lakebeds will take researchers back in time. See http://www.nature.com/nsu/030331/030331-10.html
April 6
Dinosaur Cannibal: Fossil Evidence Found in Africa April 2, 2003 — Paleontologists studying tooth marks found on bones of Majungatholus atopus, a large, meat-eating dinosaur that roamed Madagascar about 65 million years ago, suggest the dinosaur practiced cannibalism. See http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/04/0402_030402_dinocannibal.html
Fossil Teeth Reveal Oldest Bushbabies, Lorises
A small collection of teeth and jaw fragments sifted from the Egyptian desert
has provided the earliest fossil evidence for one of the three major lines
of primates. See
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/04/030402073345.htm
The Nuclear Heart of Planet Earth: Brisbane - Mar 31, 2003 - What would we find if we were to dig a hole all the way down to the centre of the Earth? According to high school science books we would discover a liquid iron alloy core and a smaller solid inner core at the center. For ten years, geophysicist J. Marvin Herndon has presented increasingly persuasive evidence that at the very centre of the Earth, within the inner core, there exists a five mile in diameter sphere of uranium which acts as a natural nuclear reactor. In this extended interview Wayne Smith talks with Dr Herndon about this theory and its implications for planetary science. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-03k.html
March 2003
March 23
Bizarre Dinosaurs Shed Light on Adaptation: March 14, 2003. See http://news.nationalgeographic.com/dinosaurs.html
Dino Dung: Paleontology's Next Frontier?
March 12, 2003 — The notion of fossilized dinosaur dung may draw wry
smiles from some. But researchers who study coprolites say these dietary
waste products can tell us much about the dinosaurs. Now, if they could
only get a little more respect. See
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/0312_030312_dinodung.html
Dinosaur Footprints: Tracks Tell Prehistoric Secrets
March 10, 2003 — Footprints impressed on the Earth millions of years
ago are energizing the field of dinosaur paleontology which traditionally
has relied on piles of old bones dug up from ancient sediments. By following
their spoor, dinosaur researchers are able to track activities and lifestyles
of the dinosaurs as they walked the Earth millions of years ago. See
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/0307_030310_dinotracks.html
Cyclops Myth Spurred by "One-Eyed" Fossils?
February 5, 2003 — The fossil of a giant animal—much bigger than
modern elephants—has been unearthed on the Greek island Crete. The
extinct animal's extremely large nasal opening could have been the inspiration
for Cyclops, a race of giants in Greek mythology with a single eye in the
middle of the forehead. See
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0205_030205_cyclops.html
Collapse Of Antarctic Ice Sheet Triggered End Of Last Ice Age: Toronto - Mar 17, 2003 - The melting of an Antarctic ice sheet roughly 14,000 years ago triggered a period of warming in Europe that marked the beginning of the end of the Earth's last ice age, says a new study. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iceage-03b.html
March 16
Changes In The Earth's Rotation Are In The Wind: Greenbelt - Mar 10, 2003 - Because of Earth's dynamic climate, winds and atmospheric pressure systems experience constant change. These fluctuations may affect how our planet rotates on its axis, according to NASA-funded research that used wind and satellite data. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-03g.html
Strange Deadfellows: Dinosaur, Crab Fossils Reveal Ecosystem Secrets
For centuries, they wouldn't be caught dead next to each other. But now
a team of geologists directed by Joshua Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor
of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, have
found a well-preserved fossil of a crab within inches of a tail vertebra
from a massive plant-eating dinosaur. See
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/03/030311074623.htm
March 9
Arctic Oscillation: Cold Heralds Hot: Boulder - Mar 05, 2003 - Why has the Arctic warmed so dramatically in recent years? How does the Arctic's circulation keep frigid air over the poles and sometimes allow it to spill across the United States? And how might global change affect the behavior of this circulation? See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-03f.html
NASA's Newest Maps Reveal A Continent's Grandeur And A Secret: Bethesda - Mar 07, 2003 - From Canada to Central America, the many grandeurs of North America's diverse topography star in a just-released high-resolution map from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). But a relatively obscure feature, all but hidden in the flat limestone plateau of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, is what emerges as the initial showstopper from the mission's first released continental data set. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact-03f.html
Changes In The Earth's Rotation Are In The Wind
Because of Earth's dynamic climate, winds and atmospheric pressure systems
experience constant change. These fluctuations may affect how our planet
rotates on its axis, according to NASA-funded research that used wind and
satellite data. See
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/03/030306075514.htm
March 2
Can Carbon Sequestration Solve Global Warming? Denver - Feb 25, 2003 - The U.S. Government is spending millions of dollars to research the feasibility of stuffing carbon dioxide into coal seams and fields of briny water deep beneath the Earth. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-03d.html
Indonesia Discovers 1,000 More Islands: Feb. 18 — Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, has 1,000 more islands than previously thought, an official said Monday. Analysis of satellite imaging data by the Aviation and Space Institute shows 18,108 islands compared to some 17,000 previously believed to exist, said the head of the institute, Mahdi Kartasasmita. See http://travel.discovery.com/news/afp/20030217/indonesia.html
Fossil Records Show Methane In Seafloor Sediments Released During Periods
Of Rapid Climate Warming
Scientists have found new evidence indicating that during periods of rapid
climate warming methane gas has been released periodically from the seafloor
in intense eruptions. See
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/02/030226074109.htm
February 2003
February 23
Bugs From The Deep May Be Window Into The Origins Of Life: Denver - Feb 17, 2003 - Simple life forms are turning up in a surprising variety of below-ground environments, potentially making up 50 percent of the Earth's biomass, scientists said today at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-03k.html
An exceptionally preserved Lower Cretaceous ecosystem
ZHONGHE ZHOU, PAUL M. BARRETT & JASON HILTON
doi:10.1038/nature01420 See
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v421/n6925/abs/nature01420_fs.html
NASA Goes On-Line With Extra-Tropical Storm Tracks: Greenbelt - Feb 17, 2003 - If you're a weather fanatic, or if you've just ever wondered how stormy it was around the world on the day you were born, you can now find out. Scientists working with NASA have created a free on-line atlas that shows extra-tropical storm tracks between 1961 and 1998. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/weather-03b.html
February 16
Cloneable Mammoth Cells Discovered in Russia: Feb. 9 — Russian scientists said Wednesday that they've found living cells in a frozen ice-age mammoth that could provide the DNA needed to resurrect the long-extinct tuskers. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20030203/mammoth.html
Sea Floor Hot Springs As Teeming With Valuable Minerals And Microbes: New Brunswick - Feb 10, 2003 - With only about 5 percent of the sea floor explored in detail, a picture is emerging of a vast system of natural undersea dynamos, fueled by hot springs, that produce not only valuable mineral deposits, but habitats for unique, heat-loving organisms that can provide materials for products ranging from detergents to pharmaceuticals. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-03h.html
Nanotechnology Could Save The Ozone Layer: London - Feb 10, 2003 - Whilst experimenting with nanospheres and perfluorodecalin, a liquid used in the production of synthetic blood, researchers at Germany's University of Ulm have stumbled across a phenomenon that could ultimately help remove ozone-harming chemicals from the atmosphere. The perfluorodecalin, against all expectations, was taken up by a water-based suspension of 60 nm diameter polystyrene particles. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ozone-03b.html
Ancient Climate May Augur Future Effects Of Global Warming: West Lafayette - Feb 12, 2003 - Ancient lake sediments and modern computers both indicate that El Nino might react differently to global warming than current theory claims, according to a Purdue research report. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-03b.html
February 9
Volcanic Seamounts Siphon Ocean Water Through The Seafloor: Santa Cruz - Feb 06, 2003 - Researchers have discovered a pair of seamounts on the ocean floor that serve as inflow and outflow points for a vast plumbing system that circulates water through the seafloor. The seamounts are separated by more than 30 miles (52 kilometers). See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-03b.html
Researchers Find Underwater Volcano Chain Off Tonga: Kiel (AFP) Feb 4, 2003 - A German-led scientific team has discovered a chain of 20 underwater volcanoes off Tonga that could swamp the Pacific Ocean archipelago if they erupt, expedition leaders said Tuesday. The volcanoes, rising at least 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) off the seabed in waters about 1.8 kilometres (1.2 miles) deep, are grouped together 200 kilometres south of the outermost islands of the kingdom. See http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/030204154408.5huvcoq5.html
Arctic bounty of underwater plumes
The Arctic's Gakkel Ridge has recently surprised oceanographers with signs
of abundant hydrothermal venting. See http://www.geotimes.org/jan03/WebExtra012403.html
Early water on Earth: Geologists have long thought that Earth’s first 500 million years were as hot as Hades, dubbing this time frame the Hadean. The high temperatures would have prevented liquid water from condensing on the surface. But new findings on zircon grains, Earth’s oldest known terrestrial materials, suggest that the Hadean might have hosted liquid water. Recovered from the metamorphosed sediments of the Jack Hills in western Australia, the zircon grains are dated to be more than 4 billion years old and are the only geological evidence available to provide insight into the first 500 million years of Earth’s history. See http://www.geotimes.org/current/NN_earlywater.html
February 2
Gulf Stream Not Responsible For European Mild Winters: New York - Jan 27, 2003 - Research suggests that ocean circulation plays less of a role in climate change than previously thought New research shows that the Gulf Stream has little effect on the contrast in winter temperatures between Europe and eastern North America, dispelling a long-held assumption. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/eo-03e.html
Correlation Found Between Impacts And Increased Volcanic Activity: New York - Jan 28, 2003 - Supporting the theory that catastrophic events significantly influence major Earth processes, researchers have determined that comet and meteorite impacts on Earth occurring over the last 4 billion years have directly correlated with the activity of strong and normal mantle plumes - heated mantle rock causing volcanic eruptions (e.g. Hawaii, Iceland). See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact-03a.html
January 2003
January 25
Discovery
of 4-winged dinosaur is a shock
Fossil hunters in China have discovered what may be one of the weirdest
prehistoric species ever seen - a four-winged dinosaur that apparently glided
from tree to tree. For the first time, archaeologists have unearthed the
remains of what looks like a four-winged dinosaur. The four 124-million-
to 128-million-year-old fossils found in northeast China feature veined
feathers on their front and rear legs as well as long, feathered tails.
The 2 ½-foot-long animal, Microraptor gui, named in honor of Chinese
paleontologist Gu Zhiwei, offers more evidence that birds evolved from dinosaurs.
It also adds to a theory that birds' ancestors glided from tree to tree
before they flapped wings in flight. See http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/5009187.htm
also http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/fourwingeddino030123.html and
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000F30B4-43B6-B3B809EC588EEDF
http://www.nature.com/nature/featureoftheweek/
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v421/n6921/full/nature01342_fs.html
Prehistoric
Tusks Point To Earliest Fossil Evidence Of Differences Between Sexes
The large tusks of an animal that roamed Earth before the dinosaurs may
provide the earliest evidence yet of male-female distinctions in land animals
that existed millions of years ago, say University of Toronto scientists.
See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/01/030124073924.htm
Longest Ice Cores Retrieved from Canadian Yukon
Orono - Jan 20, 2003 - In their quest to understand what drives the
climate of North America, a team of American, Canadian and Japanese scientists
is studying ice cores collected from the highest mountain range in Canada.
Karl Kreutz of the University of Maine Institute for Quaternary and Climate
Studies is a member of a group that collected an 1,100-foot deep core last
summer in the St. Elias Mountains in the Yukon Territory. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/icecores-03a.html
Long-Lost Records Confirm Rising Sea Level
Hobart - Jan 22, 2003 - The discovery of 160 year old records in the
archives of the Royal Society, London, has given scientists further evidence
that Australian sea levels are rising with an estimate of 16 centimeters
since 1890. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-03b.html
Stones Self-Organize into Circles: It sounds like the stuff of science fiction: stones arranging themselves into perfect circles or elaborate labyrinths. But the forces behind these mysterious patterns, which are commonly found in many polar and high alpine environments, are much more pedestrian--simple cyclic freezing and thawing of the surrounding ground. See http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=0005BEE2-1E28-8B3B809EC588EEDF
January 19
End Of The World Has Already Begun: Seattle - Jan 14, 2003 - In its 4.5 billion years, Earth has evolved from its hot, violent birth to the celebrated watery blue planet that stands out in pictures from space. But in a new book, two noted University of Washington astrobiologists say the planet already has begun the long process of devolving into a burned-out cinder, eventually to be swallowed by the sun. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/end-03a.html
Dinosaurs Experienced Climate Changes Before K-T Collision: University Park - Jan 15, 2003 - Climate change had little to do with the demise of the dinosaurs, but the last million years before their extinction had a complex pattern of warming and cooling events that are important to our understanding of the end of their reign, according to geologists. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-03a.html
New
Study Suggests Missing Link That Explains How Dinosaurs Learned To Fly
Two-legged dinosaurs may have used their forelimbs as wing-like structures
to propel themselves rapidly up steep inclines long before they took to
the skies, reports a University of Montana researcher in the January 17
issue of the journal Science. The new theory adds a middle step that may
link two current and opposing explanations for how reptiles evolved into
flying birds. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/01/030117081305.htm
Early
Mammals Used Pelvic Bones To Trot, Study Finds
Scientists studying the earliest mammals have been stumped for centuries
about the function of two pelvic bones found in the fossil record that most
mammals don't have today. A study published in this week's issue of the
journal Science suggests those bones were involved in locomotion and helped
the animals become more mobile, a find that could help researchers pinpoint
a key moment in the evolution of mammals. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/01/030117081103.htm
January 12
New Evidence Reshapes Grand Canyon Theory: Jan. 2 — Millions of years ago, a gigantic dam made of lava turned the Grand Canyon into a grand lake — or so went the tale until recently, when some Arizona geologists discovered that the lake wasn't so grand after all. Geologist Darrell Kaufman and his colleagues at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff say that upriver evidence long thought to support the existence of an enormous ancient lake could just as well have been caused by run-off pooling behind rockslides or other much more modest natural dams. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20021230/canyon.html
Huge, Ancient Ocean Predator Found: Dec. 31 — German palaeontologists have identified the first complete skeleton of what's thought to be the largest predator of all time, according to a report in the German magazine Der Spiegel. Named the Monster of Aramberri after the Mexican area where its bones were found, the creature was eight times heavier than Tyrannosaurus rex and terrorized Jurassic ocean life about 165 to 150 million years ago. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20021230/pliosaur.html
Ancient Elephant Graveyard Opens Near Rome: Jan. 2 — A Pompeii for elephants, an Italian site packed with the remains of Middle Pleistocene stuck-in-the-mud pachyderms, has just opened to the public after a 17-year excavation. Situated 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) northeast of Rome, La Polledrara di Cecanibbio is a sort of a fossilized prehistoric zoo. The bones — more than 10,000 of them — emerged from the hardened earth of a 900-square-meter area (ca. 9,700 square feet) belonging to an ancient riverbed. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20021230/elephant.html
"Mummified"
Dinosaur Discovered In Montana
Leonardo, a mummified, 77-million-year-old duck-billed dinosaur was only
about three or four years old when he died, but he's proving to be a bonanza
for paleontologists today. His fossilized skeleton is covered in soft tissue—skin,
scales, muscle, foot pads—and even his last meal is in his stomach.
The actual tissue has decayed over the millennia, and has been replaced
by minerals. What's left for scientists to study is a fossil of a dinosaur
mummy. This is one of National Geographic's top 10 stories of 2002. Full
story and photo gallery at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/10/1010_021010_dinomummy.html
Finding
Life Away From Earth Will Be Tough Task, Says Noted Paleontologist
Earth's most ancient fossils are hard to find. Some scientists think a few
of the earliest fossils might still be preserved in Earth rocks blasted
to the moon by an asteroid or meteor. Others believe much of the evidence
has been erased forever by the constant heat and pressure of plate tectonics.
See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/01/030108071845.htm
Tree-Ring Study Reveals Long History Of El Nino: Moffett Field - Jan 6, 2003 - El Nino is not a new weather phenomenon, according to a recent NASA study that looks 750 years into the past using tree-ring records. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/pacific-02o.html
Life on Earth Is Feeling the Heat: A variety of species, from frogs to flowering plants, have demonstrated changed behavior in response to increasing world temperatures over the last few decades. Two new studies indicate that these changes are not isolated events, but instead represent a worldwide pattern, or "fingerprint," of global warming. See http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?chan006C91E11-8B3B809EC588EEDF