Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Volcanoes Played Pivotal Role In Ancient Ice Age, Mass Extinction

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© Matthew Saltzman, courtesy of Ohio State UniversityResearchers at Ohio State University have discovered that volcanoes played a pivotal role in a deadly ice age that occurred nearly half a billion years ago. This photograph shows volcanic ash beds - formed around 455 million years ago - layered in the rock of the Nashville Dome area in central Tennessee.
Researchers here have discovered the pivotal role that volcanoes played in a deadly ice age 450 million years ago. Perhaps ironically, these volcanoes first caused global warming - by releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When they stopped erupting, Earth's climate was thrown off balance, and the ice age began.

The discovery underscores the importance of carbon in Earth's climate today, said Matthew Saltzman, associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University.

The results will appear in the journal Geology, in a paper now available online.

Previously, Saltzman and his team linked this same ice age to the rise of the Appalachian Mountains. As the exposed rock weathered, chemical reactions pulled carbon from Earth's atmosphere, causing a global cooling which ultimately killed two-thirds of all species on the planet.

Bizarro Earth

Algae foam killing thousands of sea birds

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© UnknownThe bloom, which poses no threat to people or pets, has killed thousands of birds since mid-September from northern Oregon to Washington's Olympic Peninsula, Schirato said.
Foam from an unusual algae bloom has killed thousands of birds along the Oregon and Washington coasts in recent weeks, marine biologists said.

Akashiwo sanguinea, a single-cell algae or phytoplankton, strips the birds of their natural waterproofing, said Julia Parrish, a marine biologist and professor at Washington State University.

"It's the largest mortality event of its kind on the West Coast that we know of," Parrish told The (Portland) Oregonian in a story published Friday. "We're getting counts of up to a million cells per liter of water," she said. "Think about that. That's pretty dense."

Storms have whipped the algae into a substance similar to a sticky soap, which washes off the birds' protective waterproofing oils and causes them to die of hypothermia, said Greg Schirato, a manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Wolf

Do Bears Stimulate their Vagus Nerves? The 'Man Who Walks with Bears' Discovers their 'Hum'

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© Lynn RogersProfessor Lynn Rogers hangin out with black bears
Black bears are often considered among the most dangerous animals in North America, depicted down the years as ferocious predators threatening to man.

But, says one man, that perception could not be further from the truth.

For 43 years, has studied wild bears, walking and playing with them, gaining amazing insights into their behaviour.

His studies reveal the bears as peaceful, playful creatures, which even hum when they are content.

The new understanding of wild black bear (Ursus americanus) behaviour unveiled by Prof Roger's research is depicted by the BBC natural history programme Natural World: Bearwalker of the Northwoods.

Bad Guys

Flashback GMO Seeds: 'Multinational Corporations Gaining Total Control Over Farming'

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Food security campaigners are now more concerned than ever that farmers are turning dependent on large multinational corporations (MNCs) for seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs while also becoming more vulnerable to pressures to produce genetically engineered crops.

Gathered here over the weekend, for the Pesticide Action Network (PAN)'s 25th anniversary, many expressed concern over the predatory nature of corporate agriculture and its attempts to corner the entire chain of food production from seeds to sales of food products.

PAN is a network of over 600 participating non-governmental organisations, institutions and individuals in over 90 countries working to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives.

Cloud Lightning

ANI Detecting clear trend in water vapor would take 50 years, say scientists

A new study by scientists has determined that it would take about 50 years of observations to detect a clear trend in upper tropospheric water vapor.

Water vapor in the upper troposphere contributes to the greenhouse effect, and scientists predict that humidity will increase in the future along with rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

However, there is currently no observing program that could detect the predicted trends.

Cow Skull

Fossilised skull of 'sea monster' pliosaur found on Dorset coast

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© Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, NorwayAn artist's impression of a 45-ton pliosaur attacking
Ferocious prehistoric predator's skull is 2.4 metres and could belong to creature measuring up to 16 metres in length

The fossilised skull of a "sea monster", which may be the largest of its type ever found, has been unearthed on the Dorset coast.

The skull from the ferocious prehistoric predator the pliosaur is 2.4 metres long and could belong to a creature measuring up to 16 metres in length from tip to tail and weighing up to 12 tonnes.

Pliosaurs were a form of plesiosaur, a group of giant aquatic reptiles that terrorised the ocean 150m years ago, around the same time that dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

They had short necks and huge, crocodile-like heads that contained immensely powerful jaws and a set of huge, razor-sharp teeth.

Frog

Rainforest treaty 'fatally flawed'

rain forest
© GettyRegenerated palm oil trees are seen growing on the site of destroyed tropical rainforest in Kuala Cenaku, Indonesia

Climate summit loophole lets palm oil producers cull vital wilderness

A vital safeguard to protect the world's rainforests from being cut down has been dropped from a global deforestation treaty due to be signed at the climate summit in Copenhagen in December.

Under proposals due to be ratified at the summit, countries which cut down rainforests and convert them to plantations of trees such as oil palms would still be able to classify the result as forest and could receive millions of dollars meant for preserving them. An earlier version of the text ruled out such a conversion but has been deleted, and the EU delegation - headed by Britain - has blocked its reinsertion.

Environmentalists say plantations are in no way a substitute for the lost natural forest in terms of wildlife, water production or, crucially, as a store of the carbon dioxide which is emitted into the atmosphere when forests are destroyed and intensifies climate change.

Bizarro Earth

Pennsylvania: 3 More Earthquakes Rock York County

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© WGALScale
Three more earthquakes were reported in the Dillsburg, York County, area over the weekend.

Earthquake experts said that they all happened within a six-minute period at about 7:20 a.m. Sunday.

The first tremor was a magnitude 2.8, the second was a 1.8 and the third was a 2.6.

Some residents said that the quakes shook pictures on their walls.

"This time they are precipitated by a lot of rumbling and rolling we are hearing. So, we knew another was coming and in fact it did," said resident Candace LaGaza.

There have been more than 600 earthquakes in the area in the past year.

Bizarro Earth

US: Out of control blaze in Santa Cruz Mountains

A fire driven by strong winds burned through 600 acres of the Santa Cruz Mountains this morning, burning two buildings, threatening 85 others and forcing evacuations.

Roughly 80 to 100 people were told to leave their homes in the area of Maymens Flat Road, Highland Way and Ormsby Cutoff. No injuries had been reported by mid-day, but two outbuildings and one trailer had been destroyed.

First reported around 3 a.m., the so-called Loma Fire started near Maymens Flat Road, close to the area that burned in the Summit Fire of 2008.

By late this morning, 937 firefighters were attacking the blaze, using 100 fire engines, eight air tankers and five helicopters, among other resources. But the fire remained completely uncontained.

The Summit Fire, which started in May 2008, burned more than 4,000 acres, injured 12 people and destroyed 132 homes and outbuildings, state fire officials said.

Bizarro Earth

Indonesia: Earthquake Magnitude 7.0 - Banda Sea

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© USGS
Date-Time:
Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 14:40:44 UTC

Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 11:40:44 PM at epicenter

Location:
6.161°S, 130.346°E

Depth:
138.5 km (86.1 miles)

Distances:
230 km (145 miles) NNW of Saumlaki, Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia

365 km (225 miles) SE of Ambon, Moluccas, Indonesia

700 km (435 miles) N of DARWIN, Northern Territory, Australia

2610 km (1620 miles) E of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia