Geology In

True Origin of Ancient Turquoise

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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">New research published today in the journal Science Advances overturns more than a century of thought about the source of turquoise used by ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica, the vast region that extends from Central Mexico to Central America. </span><br />
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For more than 150 years, scholars have argued that the Aztec and Mixtec civilizations, which revered the precious, blue-green mineral, acquired it through import from the American Southwest. However, extensive geochemical analyses reveal that the true geologic source of Aztec and Mixtec turquoise lies within Mesoamerica.<br />
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Geochemist Alyson Thibodeau, assistant professor of earth sciences at Dickinson College, and a team of researchers from the University of Arizona, California State University at San Bernardino, and the Museo del Templo Mayor in Mexico City, measured the isotopic signatures of Mesoamerican turquoise artifacts associated with both the Aztecs and Mixtecs. These isotopic signatures function like fingerprints that can be used to determine the geologic origins of the turquoise.<br />
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Specifically, Thibodeau and her research team carried out analyses of lead and strontium isotopes on fragments of turquoise-encrusted mosaics, which are one of the most iconic forms of ancient Mesoamerican art. Their samples include dozens of turquoise mosaic tiles excavated from offerings within the Templo Mayor, the ceremonial and ritual center of the Aztec empire, and which is located in present-day Mexico City.<br />
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They also analyzed five tiles associated with Mixteca-style objects held by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. The analyses revealed that turquoise artifacts had isotopic signatures consistent with geology of Mesoamerica, not the Southwestern United States.<br />
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"This work revises our understanding of these relatively rare objects and provides a new perspective on the availability of turquoise, which was a highly valued luxury resource in ancient Mesoamerica," said Thibodeau.<br />
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The work is the result of a decade-long collaboration between archaeologists and isotope geochemists to understand the nature of turquoise circulation and trade across southwestern North America. In earlier published research, Thibodeau showed that isotopic signatures could distinguish among turquoise deposits across the southwestern U.S. and identified the geologic sources of turquoise artifacts from archaeological sites in Arizona and New Mexico.<br />
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Thibodeau said that long-standing assumption that Mesoamerican civilizations imported turquoise from the Southwest had not been fully substantiated with evidence and that the new geochemical measurements unveil a different story.<br />
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"These findings potentially re-shape our understanding of both the nature and extent of long-distance contacts between Mesoamerican and Southwestern societies, said Thibodeau. "I hope this inspires people to be skeptical of claims."<br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="http://www.dickinson.edu/news/article/3247/research_by_dickinson_college_earth_sciences_professor_featured_in_the_new_york_times" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.dickinson.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dickinson College</a>. Original written by Christine Baksi.</span></u></div>

True Origin of Ancient Turquoise

New research published today in the journal Science Advances overturns more than a century of thought about the source of turquoise u...

These Are the Most Ancient Frogs Ever Found Preserved in Amber

amber, Earth History 10:50 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">99-million-year-old amber fossils provide the earliest direct evidence of frogs living in wet, tropical forests. Credit: Lida Xing/China University of Geosciences</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The extraordinary discovery of four small frogs preserved in amber is providing the earliest evidence of these now-prolific amphibians living in tropical rainforests.</span><br />
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New research published today Scientific Reports shows that frogs—an animal that first emerged some 200 million years ago—were occupying soggy forested regions at least 100 million years ago. This discovery is a big deal because fossils of forest amphibians are rare, and because scientists haven’t been sure when frogs first started to venture into tropical habitats.<br />
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“Frogs are common animals to encounter in the wet tropical forests of today, and easily more than a third of the nearly 7,000 species of frogs live in these wet forests,” David C. Blackburn, a co-author of the new study and the associate curator of amphibians and reptiles at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said. “But being small and living in a tropical forest also means that your likelihood of ending up in the fossil record is pretty low.”<br />
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Along with Lida Xing from the University of Geosciences in China, Blackburn analyzed four exquisite amber fossils found in a deposit in northern Myanmar, formerly Burma. These amber fossils, along with others found nearby, also contained traces of plants, spiders, insects, and marine mollusks.<br />
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For scientists like Blackburn and Xing, these tiny droplets of preserved tree sap are like a time machine, allowing them to visualize the ecosystems of ancient Cretaceous rainforests.<br />
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“The forests in which this amber formed was probably a wet tropical forest with freshwater streams or ponds and located somewhere near the beach,” said. Blackburn. “We know this through the diversity of invertebrates and plants found in other pieces of amber.<br />
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In many ways, this tropical ecosystem seems to resemble wet tropical forests that we have today. But important aspects of the life of this frog are unknown, such as what sound it made, if it had a tadpole, or whether it climbed or jumped.”<br />
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The four frog fossils were not dated directly. Instead, other amber specimens found within the same geological deposits were previously dated directly and indirectly, including traces of volcanic material and fossilized insects.<br />
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A comparative analysis of the ancient frogs, dubbed Electrorana limoae, with similar species living today revealed more similarities than differences; it seems frogs haven’t changed all that much across the millennia.<br />
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“Our comparisons of the skeleton of these new frog fossils indicate that these amber-preserved frogs were ‘true frogs’ but may represent one of the most ancient lineages seen today,” said Blackburn. “The presence of ribs and a bones in the cartilaginous plate that supports the tongue suggests an affinity with the species alive today, such as fire-bellied toads and midwife toads.”<br />
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In addition to providing the earliest direct evidence of frogs in a wet tropical forest ecosystem, these are the oldest records of frogs preserved in amber. Prior, the oldest were from amber deposits found in the Dominican Republic, dated to around 25 million years ago. For Blackburn, it’s a discovery that still blows his mind.<br />
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“Honestly, I’m still astonished that there are even frogs found in amber!” he said. “It is a remarkable experience holding up these small gems and seeing the parts of frogs that look like they might have been left there last month.”<br />
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/amber-fossils-oldest-frogs-tropical-forests/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials</a> provided by <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Florida Museum of Natural History</a>.<span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></i></u></div>

These Are the Most Ancient Frogs Ever Found Preserved in Amber

99-million-year-old amber fossils provide the earliest direct evidence of frogs living in wet, tropical forests. Credit: Lida Xing/China ...

Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Has Created 250 Acres of New Land

Geology, Hawaii, volcano 9:30 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The remains of the Kapoho Beach Lots subdivision and a fissure flow front at the town of Kapoho in Hawaii (US Geological Survey/AP)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano that flowed into Kapoho Bay has created nearly a mile of new land, officials from the US Geological Survey have said.</span><br />
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They added that the flow is still very active and there is no way of knowing when the eruption will end or if more lava-spewing vents will open.<br />
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The fast-moving lava poured into low-lying coastal Hawaii neighbourhoods in just two days this week, destroying hundreds of homes.<br />
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“Lava continues to enter the ocean along a broad front in Kapoho Bay and the Vacationland area and it continues to creep north of what remains of Kapoho Beach Lots,” said USGS geologist Janet Babb.<br />
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As the lava marched toward the bay, it vaporised Hawaii’s largest freshwater lake, which was hundreds of feet deep in some places.<br />
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The new land in Kapoho Bay is now owned by the state, but the peninsula will not look like the farmland that dominates that region of the Big Island anytime soon.<br />
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Depending on climate, rainfall and other variables, new vegetation could start growing soon, but it would take much longer for the fertile land and lush rainforests to build back up.<br />
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“How soon vegetation comes back on a lava flow really depends on the type of lava it is, and how much rainfall there is in the area,” said Ms Babb.<br />
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“There are flows on the Kona side of the island that are much older than some flows on east Hawaii, they are much older but they have far less vegetation and that’s just a reflection of the difference in rainfall.”<br />
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A small ohia tree was observed by a National Park Service employee during of a tour of a two-year-old inactive flow in Kalapana last week.<br />
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“Rainfall really makes a difference,” said Hawaii Volcanoes National Park spokeswoman Jessica Ferracane. “A lot of ferns will pop up first. So, it’s usually ohia and ferns that are the first pioneers of those new lava flows.”<br />
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But the land is still highly unpredictable, and once the lava cools and hardens it will leave behind a jagged, scorched landscape with razor-sharp shards of volcanic rock.<br />
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Any new land masses that are formed by lava within the national park become federal land and any ocean entries outside the park becomes state land.<br />
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“A lot of the ocean entries are extraordinarily unstable,” Ms Ferracane said.<br />
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“The bench that was formed during 2016 and 2017 61G flow has already collapsed and fallen into the ocean, so nobody really owns that any longer.”<br />
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The lava, which has covered more than 5,000 acres (2023.47 hectares) in this latest eruption is not only expansive, but very thick.<br />
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Scientists said that while the height of the lava is variable depending on the source and local topography, much of the area is covered in 10ft-20ft (3m-6m) of lava.<br />
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People who have private property in the affected areas will still own their land, though it will need to be reassessed once the lava stops flowing.<br />
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There are homes still standing in several subdivisions that have been inundated by lava, but many homeowners are unable to get back to those properties because the lava has already cut them off.<br />
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There are no homes left in the Vacationland subdivision and neighbouring Kapoho has only a few homes left standing. They too are cut off and inaccessible.<br />
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Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim said lava has destroyed more than 600 homes since early last month.<br />
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Press Association</span></i></u></div>

Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Has Created 250 Acres of New Land

The remains of the Kapoho Beach Lots subdivision and a fissure flow front at the town of Kapoho in Hawaii (US Geological Survey/AP) ...

Is Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Shooting Green Gems Into the Air?

gemstones, Hawaii, volcano 9:11 PM

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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has been fiercely erupting for well over a month. Now, residents are finding little green gems that have fallen out of the sky during Kilauea's eruption.</span><br />
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Embedded in the lava still spewing some 130 feet into the air from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano are green crystals. <br />
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Called olivine, these minerals can turn Hawaiian beaches green, and it appears some of the green gems are raining down upon homes near the eruption or popping up near lava flows.<br />
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Olivine may be found in pieces of pumice — that is, rapidly cooled lava — or the gems may have been left behind when weaker lava rocks were crushed by car or foot traffic, she said.<br />
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It's not unusual for people to find olivine crystals in Hawaiian lava rock, whether it's ancient or new, as in the case of that produced since Kilauea began erupting on May 3.<br />
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"It's pretty common," U.S. Geological Survey scientist Wendy Stovall told Mashable. "There's often olivine in rocks all over Hawaii."<br />
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Friends of mine live in Hawaii, right next to the area impacted by the most recent lava flows. In the midst of the destruction nearby & stress of the unknown, they woke up to this - tiny pieces of olivine all over the ground. It is literally raining gems. Nature is truly amazing. <a href="https://t.co/inJWxOp66t">pic.twitter.com/inJWxOp66t</a></div>
— Erin Jordan (@ErinJordan_WX) <a href="https://twitter.com/ErinJordan_WX/status/1006147665275453440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 11, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Common in the Earth's subsurface, olivine is a mineral containing magnesium, iron and silicate. In some cases, the green crystals work up to the surface of old lava rocks under normal weathering conditions.<br />
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But in events like the continuing Kilauea eruption, the olivine can be separated from the lava in explosive ocean eruptions that break the lava into smaller pieces, fast-tracking the separation process, Stovall said.<br />
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The lava flows themselves are spectacular displays of the volcano's force. These curtains of fire make for art-worthy pictures of blaze orange on a canvass of black, charcoal gray or metallic silver.<br />
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Behind the stunning photographs, of course, is devastation left by Kilauea's relentless eruptions, which began May 3 and so far have covered 9.1 square miles with hot lava. On Tuesday, the volcano was still producing a large, channelized flow entering the ocean at Kapoho. As many as 700 homes have been destroyed.<br />
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The gems are perhaps nature's consolation prize.<br />
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The crystals may be flying through the air from exploded bits of lava, but it's unlikely they're also coming from the volcano's summit, where there's been a large plume of steam and ash erupting from the crater — and at times rare, explosive eruptions. <br />
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"One thing I can say is that olivine is not raining out of the plume," Michael Poland, a USGS volcanologist, said over email.<br />
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Poland added that olivine is common on the ground regardless, because roads in Hawaii are made up of ground up olivine-rich lava rock.<br />
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The little crystals, however, are not being created during the eruption. They've been formed deep underground long ago, brewing in the molten rock. <br />
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"It really is one of the first things to form," said Stovall. <br />
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And olivine might not be the only crystal falling down inside the nearby neighborhood.<br />
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"It's possible that other crystals are being found," said Stovall, adding that a USGS rock specialist said olivine is difficult to tell apart from another common crystal, called clinopyroxene.<br />
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It's also quite possible nearby islanders will continue to find semi-translucent crystals on the ground. The eruption, over a month old now, shows no signs of relenting, and could very well last months — or longer.<br />
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Mark Kaufman on Mashable  </span></i></u></div>

Is Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Shooting Green Gems Into the Air?

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has been fiercely erupting for well over a month. Now, residents are finding little green gems that have f...

Hawaii Volcano: Pele's Hair Is Falling From the Sky

Hawaii, Lava 10:11 PM

Hawaii Volcano: Pele's Hair Is Falling From the Sky

A photo of Pele’s hair on the Big Island in Hawaii. Fine, glass tendrils — Pele’s hair — are flying around Big Island after explosive ...

Scientists Discover 'Oldest Footprints on Earth'

Earth History, Fossils 10:21 PM

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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The identity of the creature that made the 546-million-year-old tracks is still unknown, but they come from the period when the earliest animals are thought to have evolved.</span><br />
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These trackways, preserved near burrows, were discovered in Dengying Formation – a rich fossil preserve in China's south – and constitute the first evidence confirming that an ancient group of animals called bilateria actually pre-dates the Cambrian explosion.<br />
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This 'explosion' – which ignited some 541 million years ago – saw the rapid emergence of a diversified spread of animal phyla over a period lasting perhaps 25 million years.<br />
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Prior to this, animal life on Earth consisted of simpler, single-celled or multicellular organisms, but the Cambrian Period gave rise to more complex creatures of a kind we recognise today, including bilaterian animals, who exhibited the first bilateral symmetry.<br />
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This nifty piece of evolution gave them things like heads, tails, bellies, and backs – not to mention something else that's incredibly useful: legs.<br />
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"Animals use their appendages to move around, to build their homes, to fight, to feed, and sometimes to help mate," one of the researchers, geobiologist Shuhai Xiao from Virginia Tech University, told The Guardian.<br />
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"It is important to know when the first appendages appeared, and in what animals, because this can tell us when and how animals began to change to the Earth in a particular way."<br />
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While bilaterian animals – including arthropods and annelids – were suspected to have first stretched their innovative legs prior to the Cambrian explosion, in what's called the Ediacaran Period, before now there was no evidence for it in the fossil record.<br />
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That's why these Dengying track marks are a big deal for our understanding of evolutionary history – one small step for a bilaterian perhaps, but one giant leap for animal kind.<br />
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In a sense, it's amazing the researchers were able to find anything at all.<br />
<br />
The 550-million-year-old tracks measure only a few millimetres in width, and consist of two rows of imprints arranged in what the researchers describe as a "poorly organised series or repeated groups", which could be due to variations in gait, pace, or interactions with the surface of what was once an ancient riverbed.<br />
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"The footprints are organised in two parallel rows, as expected if they were made by animals with paired appendages," Xiao told The Independent.<br />
<br />
"Also, they are organised in repeated groups, as expected if the animal had multiple paired appendages."<br />
<br />
In other words, this prehistoric critter wasn't a biped like you or me, but perhaps something with multiple paired legs – such as a spider, or a centipede – although given we have so little to go upon, the researchers emphasise it's impossible to know for sure what specific form this early walker embodied.<br />
<br />
"We do not know exactly what animals made these footprints, other than that the animals must have been bilaterally symmetric because they had paired appendages," Xiao explains.<br />
<br />
"Unless the animal died and [was] preserved next to its footprints, it is hard to say with confidence who made the footprints."<br />
<br />
Still, due to the proximity of the track marks to fossilised burrows discovered nearby, the researchers hypothesise the creature may have exhibited "complex behaviour", such as periodically digging into sediments to mine oxygen and food among its riverbed habitat.<br />
<br />
More than that, it's hard to say, but we know that this little thing walked when the world was young, and right now that's everything.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><u>The study was published in the journal  <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao6691" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Science Advances</a>.</u></span></div>

Scientists Discover 'Oldest Footprints on Earth'

The identity of the creature that made the 546-million-year-old tracks is still unknown, but they come from the period when the earlies...

Steamboat Geyser Erupts for 8th Time Since March, and Scientists Aren't Sure Why

News, Tectonic, Yellowstone 10:17 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yellowstone's Steamboat Geyser's rare eruption</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone National Park erupted for just the tenth time in the last five years this week, and while scientists work to figure out why, people are flocking to Yellowstone to get a look at the rare phenomenon.</span><br />
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"This eruption, in particular, touched deep into that with just the unbridled glory and majesty and power and the eyes are filled with tears again," said John Warnock, a visitor from Colorado who witnessed the event.<br />
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Warnock posted up and patiently waited on the world's largest geyser. "We got out here at 5:30 on Sunday morning, spent the day until 7:00 and then we returned at 5:30 this morning," Warnock said. "And boom, it took off."<br />
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Some visitors lose patience when Old Faithful doesn't start right on time. But Steamboat Geyser has a different story. Nobody knows when it will erupt.<br />
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When Warnock heard that the world's largest geyser had erupted seven other times this year, he came to Yellowstone from Colorado with high hopes. <br />
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"I had such high expectations but I missed the mark by a million miles. I am a satisfied person. My heart is full, my cup is overflowing," said Warnock.<br />
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At 9:00 a.m. on Monday, Steamboat Geyser started showing signs of life. <br />
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"Both vents opened up. Water was going at least 300 feet, maybe higher," Warnock said.<br />
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It was a moment that Warnock says he'll never forget. <br />
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"It just is amazing and I feel so blessed that the Lord loves me an awful lot to see this," he said. <br />
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Here's what we do know: the Steamboat Geyser at Yellowstone National Park can go years without erupting. When it does erupt, it can discharge water nearly 300 feet in the air.<br />
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What we don't know, or at least what the U.S. Geological Survey wouldn't say for sure until recently, is why it's erupted eight times this year. The most recent one happened on Monday.<br />
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It's been concerning for some because some scientists think Yellowstone is a supervolcano that will some day erupt. This has caused some to fear Steamboat's eruptions may be connected to the suspected supervolcano.<br />
<br />
But the USGS says fear not: Geysers are supposed to erupt, and most, like Steamboat, do so erratically. The USGS also says there's no unusual volcanic activity at Yellowstone — at least, not right now</div>

Steamboat Geyser Erupts for 8th Time Since March, and Scientists Aren't Sure Why

Yellowstone's Steamboat Geyser's rare eruption The Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone National Park erupted for just the tenth ti...

Lava Evaporates Hawaii's Largest Lake in a Matter of Hours

Earth History, Hawaii, Lava 8:50 PM

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5O07AWclKOc/Wxgep8XOt2I/AAAAAAAAP-Q/UFZ1yvM0zhYNEieG4fBUiIcZ-vpjCBbpQCLcBGAs/s1600/Lava%2BEvaporates%2BHawaii%2527s%2BLargest%2BLake%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Lava flow from Fissure 8 enters Kapoho Bay, Hawaii " border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5O07AWclKOc/Wxgep8XOt2I/AAAAAAAAP-Q/UFZ1yvM0zhYNEieG4fBUiIcZ-vpjCBbpQCLcBGAs/s640/Lava%2BEvaporates%2BHawaii%2527s%2BLargest%2BLake%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lava flow from Fissure 8 enters Kapoho Bay, Hawaii </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Last Friday, Green Lake, also known as Ka Wai a Pele, was Hawaii’s largest freshwater natural resource. Today, it’s nothing but a memory.</span><br />
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Lava began seeping into the 400-year old lake over the weekend, resulting in a massive tower of steam, as the water evaporated. Once a popular swimming hole for tourists and locals that was 200 feet deep, it has now essentially vanished.<br />
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“I couldn’t believe it,” said Drew Kapp, a geography instructor at Hawaii Community College, according to Hawaii News Now. “I’ve never even heard of anything like that happening before.”<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
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HUGE PLUME! Lava has reached the Green Lake, Big Island, Hawaii...<br />
IMAGES 1-3: By <a href="https://twitter.com/Paradisecopters?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Paradisecopters</a><br />
IMAGE 4: By Kylesan Moore Thunder (fishing offshore)<br />
VIDEO: By John Kapono Carter <a href="https://t.co/1i1QqghyUb">https://t.co/1i1QqghyUb</a><br />
Supporters of 'International Day of Volcanoes'<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InternationalDayOfVolcanoes?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#InternationalDayOfVolcanoes</a> <a href="https://t.co/rNGeKt0HUE">pic.twitter.com/rNGeKt0HUE</a></div>
— Jeannie Curtis (@VolcanoJeannie) <a href="https://twitter.com/VolcanoJeannie/status/1003034939812601856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2018</a></blockquote>
According to Kapp, some people believe that the basin was one of the first places Madame Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes, came to visit. Legend has it that she bathed there when she first visited Hawaii.<br />
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"It's really a culturally significant place," Kapp said. "A lot of people think that she may be returning to the place where she first came."<br />
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Green Lake isn't the only natural resource claimed by lava in recent days.<br />
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On Sunday night, lava hit the ocean off Kapoho. Residents fear Kapoho Tide Pools and a fish pond are gone. <br />
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"It's wiping out the island as it is," said Talmadge Magno, Hawaii County Civil Defense administrator. He added, of lava covering parts of Kapoho, "That's a pretty precious part of the island."<br />
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Kapp says that although Green Lake will be missed, he believes that residents have come to accept and even respect the loss.<br />
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The lake, likely named for the color of its water, reached depths of 200 feet.<br />
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"It makes sense, if this is where Pele first visited to bathe, maybe she just decided to return," Kapp said.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
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Hawaii's largest freshwater lake is the latest casualty from the Big Island's Kilauea volcano. Steam billowed up from Green Lake in Kapoho as lava flow evaporated its placid waters within a few hours. <a href="https://t.co/5mFaN5owro">https://t.co/5mFaN5owro</a> <a href="https://t.co/Em1JMZ41n9">pic.twitter.com/Em1JMZ41n9</a></div>
— CNN (@CNN) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1004541907765260288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Lava Evaporates Hawaii's Largest Lake in a Matter of Hours

Lava flow from Fissure 8 enters Kapoho Bay, Hawaii Last Friday, Green Lake, also known as Ka Wai a Pele, was Hawaii’s largest freshwa...

Large Igneous Provinces Contribute to Ups and Downs in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

Earth History, Environment, Igneous, Tectonic 10:46 PM

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<br />
About 250 million years ago, a massive volcanic eruption flooded modern-day Siberia with lava, creating the Siberian Traps, giant plateaus made of multiple layers of lava. The eruption also released huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that rapidly altered the climate and triggered the Permian-Triassic mass extinction event that wiped out more than 90% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species.<br />
<br />
After the eruption, however, the Siberian Traps began drawing atmospheric carbon dioxide back into the crust through weathering and erosion. The Siberian Traps are the largest of several floods of basalt, called Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs), that have occurred during Earth's history and that likely have played a role in regulating Earth's climate.<br />
<br />
In a new paper in Geophysical Research Letters, lead author Louis Johansson, along with Deep Carbon Observatory members Sabin Zahirovic and Dietmar Muller at the University of Sydney's School of Geosciences modelled the eruption of LIPs and their movement as a result of plate tectonics around the globe for the last 400 million years.<br />
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The researchers compared the timing of LIP eruption and weathering with estimates of atmospheric carbon dioxide to see if eruptions and weathering had a controlling effect. Through their analysis the researchers were able to pinpoint specific times when LIPs were instrumental in turning up or down Earth's global thermostat.<br />
<br />
"These huge eruptions bring up an enormous amount of carbon dioxide and can change the climate and trigger major extinctions," said Zahirovic.<br />
<br />
"But Earth has inbuilt mechanisms to scrub out the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over geological timeframes."<br />
<br />
LIPs can absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide because the basalt lavas are full of silicate-rich rocks that are especially vulnerable to weathering. When rain falls through a carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere, it dissolves the gas and forms acid rain. The weak acid reacts with silicate minerals in the LIPs to make long-lived carbonate sediments. Warm, rainy environments speed up the erosion process, and so more erosion occurs when LIPs are in regions near the equator, which have high temperatures and receive the most rainfall.<br />
<br />
Scientists have looked at the climate impacts of individual LIPs, but no one had considered the long-term, global impacts of LIPs, as they moved around Earth on shifting continents.<br />
<br />
The researchers used GPlates, an open-source software tool that reconstructs the movement of tectonic plates through Earth's history, developed by Müller's EarthByte group at the University of Sydney along with international collaborators. They took into account the timing of LIP eruptions and how many million years each LIP spent near the equator to estimate erosion. Then they compared the emission and absorption of carbon dioxide from LIPs to estimates of atmospheric carbon dioxide using proxy data from a previously published compilation.<br />
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To attain an unbiased comparison, the researchers performed a wavelet analysis, which is a statistical test that compares two sets of measurements over time to see if and when they are correlated.<br />
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"This analysis eliminates arm waving and also tells us when a particular signal leads another signal, so it gives us an indication, perhaps, of causation," said Zahirovic.<br />
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When the researchers compared the estimated level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the eruption and erosion of LIPs, they were able to identify several associated jumps and dips in atmospheric carbon dioxide, showing that these basalt floods have played a role in modulating Earth's temperature for millions of years.<br />
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"What surprised me was that 200 million years ago, as Pangaea was breaking apart, and the Atlantic was opening up, the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province produced a huge amount of lava," said Zahirovic.<br />
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"You can see that in the carbon dioxide proxy record, there's a huge increase of carbon dioxide [after the eruption], but then because the volcanic province spends a lot of time in the humid near-equatorial belt, it is followed by a rapid decrease in carbon dioxide."<br />
<br />
The eruption and weathering of LIPs is only one aspect of Earth's carbon cycle, and there are points when the influence of LIPs likely took a backseat to other geological processes. The researchers also note that their model omitted LIPs that erupted underwater, because these basalts tend to be recycled back into the mantle and thus are more difficult or impossible to reconstruct.<br />
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Next, the researchers are looking into other ways that plate tectonics influence the deep carbon cycle. "What we're trying to understand are the longer-term variations of climate and the carbon cycle, over geological time frames," said Zahirovic.<br />
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Currently they are compiling a global database of ophiolites, which are chunks of basaltic oceanic crust that get thrust up onto the continents during tectonic collisions. Like LIPs, ophiolites take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they weather, and similarly to LIPs also have a finger on the global thermostat.<br />
<br />
<br />
The above story is based on <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2017GL076691" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials </a>provided by <a href="http://www.usyd.edu.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Sydney</a>.</div>

Large Igneous Provinces Contribute to Ups and Downs in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

About 250 million years ago, a massive volcanic eruption flooded modern-day Siberia with lava, creating the Siberian Traps, giant plate...