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Lava in Hawaii So Widespread It Can Be Seen From Space

Lava in Hawaii So Widespread It Can Be Seen From Space

The fissures spewing lava in the eastern district of Puna on Hawaii's Big Island can be seen from space in this cropped photo taken M...

Weird Utah Fossil Forces Scientists to Rethink What They Know About Pangea

Earth History, Fossils, Tectonic 9:52 PM

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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A weird 130-million-year old skull discovered in eastern Utah is shaking up what we know about mammals and the ancient giant landmass Pangea. </span></b><br />
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The small fossil is evidence that the super-continental split likely occurred more recently than scientists previously thought and that a group of reptile-like mammals that bridge the reptile and mammal transition experienced an unsuspected burst of evolution across several continents.<br />
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"Based on the unlikely discovery of this near-complete fossil cranium, we now recognize a new, cosmopolitan group of early mammal relatives," said Adam Huttenlocker, lead author of the study and assistant professor of clinical integrative anatomical sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.<br />
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The study, published in the journal Nature, updates the understanding of how mammals evolved and dispersed across major continents during the age of dinosaurs. It suggests that the divide of the ancient landmass Pangea continued for about 15 million years later than previously thought and that mammal migration and that of their close relatives continued during the Early Cretaceous (145 to 101 million years ago).<br />
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"For a long time, we thought early mammals from the Cretaceous (145 to 66 million years ago) were anatomically similar and not ecologically diverse," Huttenlocker said. "This finding by our team and others reinforce that, even before the rise of modern mammals, ancient relatives of mammals were exploring specialty niches: insectivores, herbivores, carnivores, swimmers, gliders. Basically, they were occupying a variety of niches that we see them occupy today."<br />
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The study reveals that the early mammal precursors migrated from Asia to Europe, into North America and further onto major Southern continents, said Zhe-Xi Luo, senior author of the study and a paleontologist at the University of Chicago.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fossil find: a new species</span></h3>
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Huttenlocker and his collaborators at the Utah Geological Survey and The University of Chicago named the new species Cifelliodon wahkarmoosuch.<br />
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Found in the Cretaceous beds in eastern Utah, the fossil is named in honor of famed paleontologist Richard Cifelli. The species name, "wahkarmoosuch" means "yellow cat" in the Ute tribe's language in respect of the area where it was found.<br />
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Scientists used high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scanners to analyze the skull.<br />
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"The skull of Cifelliodon is an extremely rare find in a vast fossil-bearing region of the Western Interior, where the more than 150 species of mammals and reptile-like mammal precursors are represented mostly by isolated teeth and jaws," said James Kirkland, study co-author in charge of the excavation and a Utah State paleontologist.<br />
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With an estimated body weight of up to 2.5 pounds, Cifelliodon would seem small compared to many living mammals, but it was a giant among its Cretaceous contemporaries. A full-grown Cifelliodon was probably about the size of a small hare or pika (small mammal with rounded ears, short limbs and a very small tail).<br />
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It had teeth similar to fruit-eating bats and could nip, shear and crush. It might have incorporated plants into its diet.<br />
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The newly named species had a relatively small brain and giant "olfactory bulbs" to process sense of smell. The skull had tiny eye sockets, so the animal probably did not have good eyesight or color vision. It possibly was nocturnal and depended on sense of smell to root out food, Huttenlocker said.<br />
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Supercontinent existed longer than previously thought<br />
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Huttenlocker and his colleagues placed Cifelliodon within a group called Haramiyida, an extinct branch of mammal ancestors related to true mammals. The fossil was the first of its particular subgroup -- Hahnodontidae -- found in North America.<br />
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The fossil discovery emphasizes that haramiyidans and some other vertebrate groups existed globally during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition, meaning the corridors for migration via Pangean landmasses remained intact into the Early Cretaceous.<br />
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Most of the Jurassic and Cretaceous fossils of haramiyidans are from the Triassic and Jurassic of Europe, Greenland and Asia. Hahnodontidae was previously known only from the Cretaceous of Northern Africa. It is to this group that Huttenlocker argues Cifelliodon belongs, providing evidence of migration routes between the continents that are now separated in northern and southern hemispheres.<br />
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"But it's not just this group of haramiyidans," Huttenlocker said. "The connection we discovered mirrors others recognized as recently as this year based on similar Cretaceous dinosaur fossils found in Africa and Europe."</div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://news.usc.edu/143411/why-you-should-care-about-this-130-million-year-old-fossil/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.usc.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Southern California</a>. Original written by Zen Vuong.</span></u></div>

Weird Utah Fossil Forces Scientists to Rethink What They Know About Pangea

A weird 130-million-year old skull discovered in eastern Utah is shaking up what we know about mammals and the ancient giant landmass ...

Giant Canyons Discovered in Antarctica

Antarctic, earth 9:07 PM

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xt5pIEtG4Mw/WwhQlHjM2II/AAAAAAAAP7Y/NP9t2AjbwpYHm_O41NMjMtMmiAi91Sg9gCLcBGAs/s1600/Giant%2BCanyons%2BDiscovered%2Bin%2BAntarctica%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="It was thought that a gap in the Transantarctic Mountains could provide a route for ice to escape from the east of the continent to the west" border="0" data-original-height="703" data-original-width="1249" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xt5pIEtG4Mw/WwhQlHjM2II/AAAAAAAAP7Y/NP9t2AjbwpYHm_O41NMjMtMmiAi91Sg9gCLcBGAs/s640/Giant%2BCanyons%2BDiscovered%2Bin%2BAntarctica%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It was thought that a gap in the Transantarctic Mountains could provide a route for ice to escape from the east of the continent to the west</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Scientists have discovered three vast canyons in one of the last places to be explored on Earth - under the ice at the South Pole.</span><br />
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The deep troughs run for hundreds of kilometres, cutting through tall mountains - none of which are visible at the snowy surface of the continent.<br />
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Dr Kate Winter from Northumbria University, UK, and colleagues found the hidden features with radar.<br />
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Her team says the canyons play a key role in controlling the flow of ice.<br />
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And if Antarctica thins in a warming climate, as scientists suspect it will, then these channels could accelerate mass towards the ocean, further raising sea-levels.<br />
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"These troughs channelise ice from the centre of the continent, taking it towards the coast," explained Dr Winter.<br />
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"Therefore, if climate conditions change in Antarctica, we might expect the ice in these troughs to flow a lot faster towards the sea. That makes them really important, and we simply didn't know they existed before now," she told BBC News.<br />
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The biggest of the canyons is called Foundation Trough. It is over 350km long and 35km wide.<br />
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To put that on a more recognisable scale - think of a deeply incised valley running between London and Manchester.<br />
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The two other troughs are equally vast. The Patuxent Trough is more than 300km long and over 15km wide, while the Offset Rift Basin is 150km long and 30km wide. And all of this relief is buried under many hundreds of metres of ice.<br />
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To get to the floor of Foundation Trough, for example, you would need to drill through over 2km of ice cover.<br />
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The three troughs together lie under and cross the so-called "ice divide" - the high ice ridge that runs from the South Pole out towards the coast of West Antarctica.<br />
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This divide can be thought of as a kind of watershed. Ice flows away on either side, through the channels - towards the Weddell Sea in the east and the Ross Sea in the west.<br />
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Computer modellers will now take the new information to try to simulate what it means for future warming scenarios.<br />
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One important implication is that these canyons and their surrounding mountains will likely act as a brake on any ice which might attempt to flow from the east of the continent, through the Transantarctic mountains, to the west.<br />
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"People had called this area a bottleneck," said team-member Dr Tom Jordan from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).<br />
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"The thought was that if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to collapse then ice could flood out from the east. But the mountains we've found effectively put a plug in that bottleneck."<br />
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The new study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, represents the first result to come out of the PolarGAP project.<br />
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This was funded in large part by the European Space Agency (Esa), which wanted to collect measurements over an area of planet that its satellites cannot see (spacecraft generally only fly up to about 83 degrees in latitude).<br />
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The only way to fill this "data hole" is to fly sensors on planes instead.<br />
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The insights for Dr Winter's paper come from an airborne ice-penetrating radar. This will describe the layers and total thickness of the ice sheet. It will also map the shape of the basement rock.<br />
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"Remarkably, the South Pole region is one of the least understood frontiers in the whole of Antarctica," said PolarGAP's principal investigator, Dr Fausto Ferraccioli from BAS.<br />
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"Our new aerogeophysical data will... enable new research into the geological processes that created the mountains and basins before the Antarctic ice sheet itself was born."<br />
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It is possible the troughs detected under today's ice sheet were dug out during a previous glacial period when the ice over the continent was configured in a very different way.<br />
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<i><u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The study was published in  the journal <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2018GL077504" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Geophysical Research Letters</a>.</span></u></i></div>

Giant Canyons Discovered in Antarctica

It was thought that a gap in the Transantarctic Mountains could provide a route for ice to escape from the east of the continent to the w...

Hawaii's Erupting Kilauea Volcano Is Now Spouting Blue Flames of Burning Methane

Hawaii, Lava, USA, volcano 9:29 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue burning flames of methane gas erupt through cracks in the Leilani Estates neighborhood of Pahoa<br /></td></tr>
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Blue flames burning in the lava from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano are raising new fears of explosions. Emergency officials say if fissures open west of Pahoa, lava could block the one remaining open highway.<br />
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Blue flames from burning methane are the latest natural phenomena being seen at the eruption of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii.<br />
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Nighttime photos released Wednesday by the U.S. Geological Survey show the flames spouting from cracks in the pavement in the Leilani Estates neighborhood where the volcano has been gushing lava on the big island of Hawaii for the past three weeks.<br />
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The volcano produces methane when hot lava buries and burns plants and trees.<br />
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“The methane gas will flow through the ground, through the cracks that are already existing, and will come up wherever there’s a place for them to come up,” said Wendy Stovall, a scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey.<br />
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The methane can seep through cracks several feet away from the lava. It can also cause explosions when it’s ignited while trapped underground. These blasts can toss blocks several feet away, Stovall said.<br />
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Hawaii County has ordered about 2,000 people to evacuate from Leilani Estates and surrounding neighborhoods since the eruption began on May 3.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Video:</span></b><br />
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The volcano has opened more than 20 vents in the ground that have released lava, sulfur dioxide and steam. The lava has been pouring down the flank of the volcano and into the ocean miles away.<br />
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The eruption has destroyed 50 buildings, including about two dozen homes. One person was seriously injured after being hit by a flying piece of lava.<br />
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Stovall said lava spatter from one of the vents was forming a wall that was helping protect a nearby geothermal plant.<br />
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Lava from that vent was shooting further into the air and producing the highest lava wall of all the vents, which was blocking molten rock from flowing north toward the plant.<br />
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Officials shut down Puna Geothermal shortly after the current eruption began.<br />
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On Tuesday, officials finished stabilizing wells that bring up hot liquid and steam to feed a turbine generator. A team from the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and the company continued Wednesday to plug the wells to make sure the fluid inside doesn’t move from one part of the well to the other, said Janet Snyder, a spokeswoman for Hawaii County.<br />
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Earlier this month officials removed a flammable gas called pentane from the plant to reduce the chance of explosions.<br />
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Tourism officials cheered news that a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship that tours the Hawaiian Islands would resume stopping in Kailua-Kona next week. Businesses catering to tourists on the cruise have taken a hit since the company suspended Big Island port visits after the eruption began.<br />
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The company said it would resume calling on Hilo, a town on the eastern side of the island closer to the lava, when conditions allow.<br />
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Hawaii's Erupting Kilauea Volcano Is Now Spouting Blue Flames of Burning Methane

Blue burning flames of methane gas erupt through cracks in the Leilani Estates neighborhood of Pahoa Blue flames burning in the lava ...

World's Tallest Active Geyser Awakens in Yellowstone

Tectonic, USA, Yellowstone 11:35 PM

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It was the talk of the boardwalk. Everyone had heard that there was an unusually active geyser at Yellowstone National Park in the Norris Geyser Basin, near the centre of the park. A sign close to the parking lot showed the way, and a quarter-mile later visitors hit the platform above Steamboat Geyser, wondering aloud whether it was the one.<br />
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Yes, it was, and although it was a little more than a day removed from its most recent major eruption, the world’s tallest active geyser was still something to see. Steam billowed out, soaring high above the trees. Water shot up intermittently, and the vents roared. Mist drenched one part of the boardwalk below, forming puddles. People pulled on hoods as they walked by.<br />
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John and Corri Kamphof, of British Columbia, reached the geyser fairly early that day. They’d never heard of it before coming to the park this year, but a ranger told them they had to go. When they arrived, they found it in the midst of what some consider a “big minor” eruption, one that shoots water as high as 100 feet.<br />
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“There was a lot of water,” John said. “It was really quite awesome.”<br />
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And it can get even bigger. Steamboat’s major eruptions are known to reach heights between 300 and 400 feet, sending gravel flying and soaking cars in the parking lot. The park has recorded 171 major eruptions of Steamboat since 1878, the year of its first known eruptions. But the big blasts are completely unpredictable.<br />
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One evening this past March, park employees reported seeing the first major eruption in nearly four years. Since then, the action hasn’t stopped. As of May 18, there had been five recorded major eruptions in 2018, already making it the busiest year for Steamboat since 1984. None of the five were as strong as the last two major eruptions, in 2013 and 2014, but the activity has people excited about the enormous feature.<br />
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Its awakening doesn’t portend the end of the world. However, scientists also don’t know why it suddenly woke up. That’s not so unusual either. Mystery isn’t unique to Steamboat. It’s the most normal thing about it.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">WEIRD IS NORMAL</span></h3>
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All of Yellowstone’s hydrothermal features begin with rain and snow soaking into the ground. At a certain point, heat from the volcano’s magma reservoir forces the water to rise back toward the surface. The makeup of the underground plumbing system determines how the water expresses itself — whether it turns into a hot spring pool, a mud pot or a geyser.<br />
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Constrictions in the system create geysers. Water and steam get stuck in a tight spot, circling and searching for a way out, a vent to blow through. When the pair finds a path, it rockets into the sky.<br />
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About half of the world’s geysers are in Yellowstone, according to the park, and each one has a unique underground system.<br />
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“Each geyser kind of has their own personality,” said Jeff Hungerford, Yellowstone National Park’s lead geologist. “And it has to do with the plumbing and how the heat is expressing itself through the system until it comes to the surface.”<br />
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Old Faithful, the most famous geyser, is an anomaly. It draws enormous crowds each day in large part because of its consistency. Predictive systems are incredibly accurate, often within 10 minutes of an eruption. Signs posted in the area tell people when to grab a seat on the boardwalk. If a visitor misses one, they can probably see another in an hour or so.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">That sort of consistency is rare.</span></b><br />
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“The vast majority of geysers do not erupt regularly,” said Jamie Farrell, a University of Utah professor and chief seismologist at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. “They are very irregular.”<br />
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Farrell said one of the reasons Old Faithful is so predictable is that it’s far away from other features in its basin, meaning it doesn’t share its water. Steamboat, meanwhile, has shown connections to nearby hot spring pools. For example, Cistern Spring, just two boardwalk switchbacks away, empties after Steamboat’s major blasts.<br />
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“Steamboat is kind of constantly fighting for heat and water,” Farrell said.<br />
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Minor eruptions that reach between 10 and 40 feet are common at Steamboat. Majors go far higher. At its best, Steamboat’s blasts are known to go roughly three times Old Faithful’s average height.<br />
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According to a park document, only two other now-dead park geysers have surpassed it: Excelsior, in the Midway basin, and Sapphire Pool, in Biscuit Basin. Another inactive geyser in New Zealand has also recorded eruptions higher than Steamboat’s, but it’s been dormant for more than a century.<br />
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Steamboat’s major eruptions come in two phases — water and steam. Farrell said the steam phase can last for weeks after a major eruption. The water phase, however, only lasts an hour or so.<br />
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“Very few people have witnessed or documented the water phase of a major Steamboat eruption,” Farrell said.<br />
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Geologists track eruptions both by observation and by checking seismic records for major activity. Their records go back more than a century, and they show that Steamboat has had busy years, dull years and plenty of years where nothing much happens at all.<br />
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It once went 50 years without a major eruption, from 1911 to 1961. After that, it had some of its busiest years — more than 20 major eruptions each year from 1963 to 1965, peaking at 29 in 1964. At least one was recorded each year until 1969, after which there was a nine-year break. It awoke again in 1978 with two blasts, followed by another in 1979.<br />
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After that, it went quiet for three years, just before another stretch of busy years — 23 in 1982, 12 in 1983 and five in 1984.<br />
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Major eruptions became far rarer after that stretch. Park officials recorded at least one in 9 of the next 33 years. The annual total didn’t surpass three again until this year.<br />
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Jake Young, the founder of GeyserTimes.org, a website that tracks geyser activity, said he knows a handful of people who have seen a major eruption of Steamboat in the 1980s. If you spent enough time trying back then, he said, you had a decent chance of seeing an eruption.<br />
<br />
“That’s what we all hope Steamboat is going to go back to,” Young said.</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A CHANCE TO LEARN</span></h3>
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Park employees reported seeing an eruption the night of March 15, back when interior roads were still being plowed. The second came a little more than a month later, the third a little more than a week after that.<br />
<br />
The fourth eruption came late on the night of May 5. Farrell was there about 12 hours later.<br />
<br />
“At that time, it was in constant eruption,” he said. “It was erupting a lot of water.”<br />
<br />
He was there to deploy 28 seismometers, devices that track ground-rattling activity. He’ll go back and pick them up later this year. They hope the seismometers can help them learn about how Steamboat’s acts both before and after big eruptions.<br />
<br />
Fortunately for them, a week later, the fifth major eruption came.<br />
<br />
“The geyser gods are smiling upon us,” Hungerford said.<br />
<br />
This time of increased activity has given scientists a chance to try to learn something more about the geyser. Hungerford said they’re studying Steamboat’s connection to other features in the area besides Cistern Spring. Some have overflowed following the big eruptions, and they want to know more.<br />
<br />
They’ve also put out a camera to try to capture eruptions on video. It’s hard to see because of the enormous amount of steam that the geyser emits, but that’s a problem Hungerford is happy to have.<br />
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“We are so thankful that it’s still erupting,” he said.</div>
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Associated Press</span></i></u></div>
</div>

World's Tallest Active Geyser Awakens in Yellowstone

It was the talk of the boardwalk. Everyone had heard that there was an unusually active geyser at Yellowstone National Park in the Nor...

Earth's Magnetic Field Is Drifting Westward, and Nobody Knows Why

earth, Earth's magnetic field 4:14 AM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earth’s magnetic field protects us from the solar wind by deflecting the charged particles. And for some reason, the field has been drifting westward.<br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Over the 400 years or so that humans have been measuring Earth's magnetic field, it has drifted inexorably to the west. Now, a new hypothesis suggests that weird waves in Earth's outer core may cause this drift.</span><br />
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The slow waves, called Rossby waves, arise in rotating fluids. They're also known as "planetary waves," and they're found in many large, rotating bodies, including on Earth in the oceans and atmosphere and on Jupiter and the sun. <br />
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Earth's outer core is also a rotating fluid, meaning Rossby waves circulate in the core, too. Whereas oceanic and atmospheric Rossby waves have crests that move westward against Earth's eastward rotation, Rossby waves in the core are "a bit like turning atmospheric Rossby waves inside out," said O.P. Bardsley, a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge in England, and the author of a new study on the Rossby wave hypothesis. Their crests always move east.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rotational forces</span></h3>
The rotation of magnetic iron in Earth's core gives rise to the planet's geomagnetic field. The geomagnetic field, in turn, protects the planet from solar radiation, making it important for life on Earth. Without it, the planet's surface would be bombarded by charged particles streaming from the sun that would ultimately rip away Earth's atmosphere.<br />
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While trying to understand the waves that propagate throughout Earth's core, Bardsley realized that some of these waves might explain one of the mysteries of the planet's magnetic field. Over the past four centuries, scientists have made measurements of magnetic declination — the difference between true north and the point where a compass needle points. (Because the magnetic field is chock-full of little local anomalies, the compass needle moves around a little compared to true north depending on where you're standing.)<br />
<br />
Throughout those four centuries, the anomalies revealed by these declination measurements have shown a tendency to move westward, Bardsley reported in the new research, which was published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A. <br />
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"The westward drift manifests itself primarily as a series of blobs over the Atlantic near the equator," Bardsley told Live Science, and they drift at around 10.5 miles (17 kilometers) per year. <br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">East and west</span></h3>
Theories to explain the drift have typically focused on the dynamics of the outer core. The most popular hypothesis, Bardsley said, is that the outer core contains a gyre similar to the atmosphere's jet stream, which happens to be moving westward and is dragging Earth's magnetic field along with it. The problem, Bardsley said, is that there's no particular reason why this gyre should exist. It might very well exist, he said, but given that there is no direct evidence, other explanations are still possible.<br />
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One possibility, Bardsley said, is that Rossby waves explain the weirdness of the magnetic field on Earth's surface. This is a little odd, Bardsley said, because Rossby waves in the core have eastward-moving crests, quite opposite the westward-moving drift. But crests of waves don't always represent their total energy movement.<br />
<br />
"It is entirely possible to have a group of waves where the crests themselves are going east but the [bulk of the] energy is going westward," Bardsley said.<br />
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Something similar can even happen with water waves. Their crests typically travel in the same direction of the bulk of their energy, Bardsley said, but not necessarily at the same speed.<br />
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Surface measurements of the geomagnetic field capture the bulk of energy movement, Bardsley said, but not all the wiggly little details. So Rossby waves with a large-scale tendency to move energy westward could explain the westward drift measured over the Atlantic Ocean. The small-scale details, like those eastward-moving crests, would be impossible to detect.<br />
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The westward drift and the Rossby wave hypothesis are largely unrelated to a more famous question regarding the magnetic field: Is it going to flip? Periodically throughout Earth's history, magnetic north and magnetic south have swapped places. This isn't particularly problematic, except that it takes about 10,000 years, Bardsley said, and the process causes an uptick in anomalies and a weakening of the magnetic field in between the poles.<br />
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A weakened field can let more solar particles through, which can disrupt electric grids and cause problems with navigational systems. However, scientists aren't certain whether the weakening of the magnetic field over the past century or two is a sign of an impending flip-flop or merely a recoverable wobble.<br />
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<i><u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/474/2213/20180119" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by<a href="http://royalsocietypublishing.org/licence" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Proceedings of the Royal Society A.</a></span></u></i></div>
</div>

Earth's Magnetic Field Is Drifting Westward, and Nobody Knows Why

Earth’s magnetic field protects us from the solar wind by deflecting the charged particles. And for some reason, the field has been drif...

Hawaii Lava Finally Reaches the Pacific - Only to Create Another Deadly Danger

Hawaii, News, volcano 7:28 AM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ocean entry photograph from Civil Air Patrol (CAP) overflight taken at about 12:50PM.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">First it was catastrophic lava. Then it was sulfur dioxide. Now Big Island residents have yet another danger to worry about.</span><br />
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Laze -- a mashup of "lava" and "haze" -- is a nasty product formed when hot lava hits the ocean, sending hydrochloric acid and volcanic glass particles into the air.<br />
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And now it's a real threat after lava crossed Highway 137 late Saturday night and entered the Pacific Ocean, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said.<br />
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Laze can cause lung, eye and skin irritation. And it has proven deadly in the past.<br />
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"This hot, corrosive gas mixture caused two deaths immediately adjacent to the coastal entry point in 2000, when seawater washed across recent and active lava flows," the HVO said.<br />
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Officials are warning people to stay away from areas where lava meets the ocean. But further inland, residents have other problems.<br />
<br />
The HVO also reported sulfur dioxide emissions have tripled.<br />
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Because of lava entering the ocean, the US Coast Guard enforced a Lava Entry Safety Zone Sunday for the navigable waters around the Kilauea Volcano. A Coast Guard news release says the safety zone includes all waters extending about 300 meters around the entry of the lava flow.<br />
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Fissure 20 from 4 AM this morning-fountaining, lava flows, methane bursts. <a href="https://t.co/kr3XblYEQQ">https://t.co/kr3XblYEQQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/7nLdD1FD92">pic.twitter.com/7nLdD1FD92</a></div>
— USGS Volcanoes🌋 (@USGSVolcanoes) <a href="https://twitter.com/USGSVolcanoes/status/997991269237374976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2018</a></blockquote>
"All waterway users should be aware of the hazardous conditions associated with such an event. Getting too close to the lava can result in serious injury or death," said Lt. Cmdr. John Bannon, waterways management lead for the Coast Guard's Honolulu sector.</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">More eruptions, more earthquakes</span></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The Kilauea volcano erupted at least twice this weekend -- at one point launching a cloud of ash up to 10,000 feet high.<br />
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"These eruptions caused a 5.0 magnitude and a 4.9 magnitude tremor at the summit," CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said.<br />
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"Additional explosive events that could produce minor amounts of ashfall downwind are possible at any time."<br />
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How's it flowing? Shaded areas are active flows, the dots show the sites of ocean entry. <a href="https://t.co/Yfwp3Jt3NM">https://t.co/Yfwp3Jt3NM</a> <a href="https://t.co/9M9CtjWSW0">pic.twitter.com/9M9CtjWSW0</a></div>
— USGS Volcanoes🌋 (@USGSVolcanoes) <a href="https://twitter.com/USGSVolcanoes/status/998349484114436096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Since Kilauea's massive eruption May 3, Brink said, about 2,250 earthquakes have struck on or around Hawaii's Big Island.<br />
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As the Earth keeps shaking, liquid fire keeps flowing.</div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lava picks up speed</span></h3>
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Flaming rivers of molten rock have already destroyed at least 40 structures. But newer, fresher lava shooting out from fissures spell more danger.<br />
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"The consistency of lava is now changing," CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar said. "Now it is runnier, but that is allowing it to move faster."<br />
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The volcano has caused almost two dozen fissures to crack the Earth's surface open -- purging fountains of lava and dangerous sulfur dioxide.<br />
And some fissures refuse to die.<br />
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"A handful of old fissures have reactivated and joined together over the past few days," CNN's Scott McLean reported from Pahoa. "Lava is pouring out like a fountain ... feeding a fast-moving lava stream that's now reached the ocean."<br />
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Resident Ikaika Marzo said the lava flow isn't just treacherous. It's like hell on Earth.<br />
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"It sounds like 10 or 20 jets taking off from your backyard at the same time," Marzo told CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now.<br />
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"It's been like hell," he said. "It's like huge grenades going off. It shakes the whole community."<br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><u>© Cable News Network. </u></span></div>
</div>

Hawaii Lava Finally Reaches the Pacific - Only to Create Another Deadly Danger

Ocean entry photograph from Civil Air Patrol (CAP) overflight taken at about 12:50PM. First it was catastrophic lava. Then it was su...

A Mineral Is Stealing Iron From Earth's Crust

earth, Geochemistry 2:56 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Spessartine Garnet</td></tr>
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<br />
What makes the Red Planet red? The answer, as Sherlock Holmes might say, is elementary. And that element is iron.<br />
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The continental crust of Mars is so iron-rich that, over billions of years, surface rocks actually rust when exposed to the meager oxygen in the planet's atmosphere. The result is a rust-coated planet that appears red, even from Earth.<br />
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Earth might rust, too, for that matter, if just a fraction more iron was present in the planet's continental crust. But something, deep underground, is stealing Earth's iron.<br />
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For decades, scientists have pegged the case of the missing iron on a process involving volcanoes, and a mineral called magnetite that sponges up iron from molten magma pools deep underground. Now, a new paper published May 16 in the journal Science Advances points the finger at a new culprit for Earth's missing iron. The true thief is not magnetite, researchers from Rice University in Texas say, but a sparkly mineral we all know and love: garnet. <br />
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"The accepted wisdom is that magnetite pulls iron from the [magma] melt before the melt rises and gets erupted out at continental [volcano] arcs," study author Ming Tang, an assistant professor at Rice University, said in a statement. "Iron depletion is most pronounced at continental arcs, where the crust is thick, and much less so in island arcs, where the crust is thin."<br />
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If magnetite was sucking up iron, then, you would expect magnetite to be more plentiful where the continental crust was thicker, and iron depletion correspondingly greater. But the thickness of the crust doesn't correlate with levels of magnetite.<br />
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But garnet abundance, the authors said, does correlate with crust thickness. Almandine — an iron-rich variety of garnet — forms best under high-pressure, high-temperature conditions. Conditions like these are common below the land-based volcanoes that form at continental margins, when dense oceanic crust slides beneath continental crust. With garnet more plentiful below such volcano chains — known as continental arcs — and iron less plentiful there, the researchers saw a correlation worth studying further.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Talking to rocks</span></b><br />
<br />
Of course, fishing rocks up from molten pools many miles below an active volcano is not easy, so in studies like these scientists tend to rely on the ancient rocks that have already been spewed out by past volcanic eruptions. Rocks like these are known as xenoliths, and can reside up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) below the Earth before being ripped apart and scattered in a volcanic eruption. These rocks provide researchers with "a direct window into the deep parts of the continental arc," study co-author Cin-Ty Lee, a geologist at Rice University, said in the statement.<br />
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In the new study, Lee and several students embarked on an excursion to collect xenoliths from southern Arizona, which were spewed by an ancient volcano millions of years ago. Analysis of the xenoliths showed that these rocks formed below a continental arc, and were indeed laden with garnet.<br />
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To further test the correlation, the researchers spent several months examining xenolith records in the Max Planck Institute's GEOROC database, which contains comprehensive information on volcanic rocks collected all over the world. They found that, true to their hypothesis, magma that included more fragments of garnet were also more iron depleted.<br />
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"This is born out in the global record, but the evidence is something that wouldn't be obvious from looking at just one or two cases," Tang said.<br />
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So, is garnet the great iron thief lurking in Earth's crust? Further study is needed to say for sure. But at least now researchers have their eyes on one more likely suspect.<br />
<br />
<u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/5/eaar4444" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by<a href="http://www.rice.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Rice University</a>.</span></u></div>

A Mineral Is Stealing Iron From Earth's Crust

Spessartine Garnet What makes the Red Planet red? The answer, as Sherlock Holmes might say, is elementary. And that element is iron. ...

Hawaii Volcano Shoots Up Smoke and Ash as a New Crack Opens

Hawaii, volcano 9:56 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Activity in the lower East Rift Zone ramped up overnight and this morning. During an overflight, HVO scientists observed a very active fissure 20.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">More falling ash could impact some Big Island residents early Saturday morning after another steam explosion at the summit of Kilauea.</span><br />
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Civil Defense officials reported the explosion happened around midnight. They say the wind may carry the ash plume Southwest toward Volcano Village, Wood Valley, Pahala, Naalehu, and Ocean View.<br />
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Weather forecasters say light bashful is possible for the southern end of Hawaii Island until 2:00 p.m. Saturday.<br />
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The severity of the explosion is not yet clear. Residents in those areas are urged to stay indoors and stay tuned to officials for further instructions. <br />
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Earlier Friday, a fast-moving lava flow threatened an isolated area with at least 40 homes in lower Puna, and officials say they conducted rescues via helicopter. <br />
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At 7:30 p.m., Civil Defense officials said four people were safely evacuated by county and National Guard helicopters after Pohoiki Road was closed. <br />
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Civil Defense also says the lava is spewing from fissure 20. The flow has crossed Pohoiki Road near Malama Ki Place. <br />
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Officials urge everyone to avoid the area. Those living from Isaac Hale Beach Park to Kalapana are also advised to prepare for voluntary evacuation should Highway 137 become threatened.<br />
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So far, Highway 130 and 137 remain open into the weekend. Officials may closed the highway if needed. <br />
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Earlier in the day, officials noticed the threat for the fast-moving flow and first responders were sent into the area to stop entry on both sides of Pohoiki Road. <br />
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Hotter lava from Kilauea's summit started to violently spew from new fissures and older ones in the lower east rift zone, sending lava fountains as high as 200 feet into the air and spitting out lava bombs the size of refrigerators.<br />
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On Friday, at least two additional homes were claimed by lava and officials say the scope of destruction is only likely to grow.<br />
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"With fresher, hotter magma, there's the potential that the lava flows can move with greater ease and therefore cover more area," said Janet Babb, USGS geologist. <br />
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At least five separate fissures were active Friday, creating several separate flows and prompting new safety warnings to residents still in affected communities or those trying to access their homes.<br />
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At least 325 acres of land and 41 structures have now been covered with lava in the Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens subdivisions, where mandatory evacuation orders have been in place for more than two weeks.<br />
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Hawaii Volcano Observatory scientists said the newest fissure in the area — no. 22 — opened on Friday morning between fissures 19 and 20. Meanwhile, four older fissures remain active and at least three are producing lava flows. <br />
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The incredible eruptive activity, which has been ramping up in recent days, comes as geologists say it remains unclear how long the eruptions will last.<br />
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Scientists have confirmed, though, that lava now spewing into lower Puna is new — from the quickly-emptying lava lake at Kilauea's summit crater some 20 miles away. The first eruptions into lower Puna were sending older lava from a 1955 flow into the community. <br />
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Residents, meanwhile, say the volcanic activity is taking a huge toll — day by day.<br />
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"It's been like hell," said resident Ikaika Marzo, who has been helping get much-needed information to those in lower Puna. <br />
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He described the sounds of lava in the area as 10 or 20 jets taking off at once and right in your backyard. "It's like huge grenades going off," he said. "It shakes the whole community."<br />
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The ongoing volcanic activity prompted civil defense authorities to urge extreme caution for anyone still in lava-ravaged areas.<br />
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"Leilani Estates evacuees must be alert to possible decreased availability of access," civil defense authorities said. "No access is allowed at his time for residents of Lanipuna Gardens due to high levels of dangerous volcanic gases."<br />
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Meanwhile, authorities continue to closely monitor activity at Kilauea's summit crater, where an explosive eruption Thursday spewed ash five miles into the air.<br />
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They're urging residents across the Ka'u District and Puna to be prepared for rapid changes in air quality because of the potential for ashfall or higher concentrations of sulfur dioxide.<br />
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On Thursday, heavy vog across lower Puna forced school closures. But the return of winds Friday meant volcanic emissions weren't leading to high concentrations of sulfur dioxide. <br />
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Jim Kauahikaua, USGS geophysicist, said the amount of gas spewing from outbreaks in Leilani Estates and nearby Lanipuna Gardens is about the same as the amount that comes out of Halemaumau Crater. The difference? The crater isn't in the middle of residential communities.<br />
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"The thing to remember is this is putting out as much sulfur dioxide as Halemaumau does normally," he said. <br />
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Geologists are also monitoring widening cracks in a number of roadways in Leilani Estates, ground zero for the ongoing eruptions.<br />
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Steve Brantley, of the USGS, said the large cracks, which have torn roads apart in some places or created gaps of 1 yard or wider, are an indication that magma is continuing to enter the rift zone.<br />
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"The rift zone is being forced apart," he said. "I think clearly it points to the potential for additional eruptive activity" in lower Puna. <br />
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Marzo said he saw a crack on Nohea Street widen from about 3 feet on Thursday morning to about 10 feet wide later in the day. He also said that about 40 yards of the road sank. <br />
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"These cracks are definitely taking a toll on people getting to their homes," he said.<br />
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The developments underscore the scope of the disaster in the area, which has upended lives, destroyed homes and shows no signs of stopping. <br />
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In lower Puna, residents say the eruptions have turned their community into a "war zone." <br />
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"Everything is so uncertain. It's really nerve-wracking," said Debbie Kalaluhi, who can see the ongoing eruption of fissure no. 17 from her backyard. "You're very on edge. You have to really see it to believe it."<br />
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Mandatory evacuations remain in place for the Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens subdivisions, home to about 2,000 people. About 250 people are staying at three American Red Cross emergency shelters, while hundreds more residents are staying with friends and family.<br />
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Talmadge Magno, Hawaii County Civil Defense administrator, said Thursday that about 20 homes remain occupied in Leilani Estates — a fact that he expects will change as volcanic activity continues to cut off roads, gobble up utility lines and send toxic fumes into the air.<br />
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"Lava has a way of moving people," he said. <br />
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Meanwhile, authorities continue to urge thousands living elsewhere in Kilauea's east rift zone to be prepared to evacuate quickly.<br />
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A presidential disaster declaration has been issued for the ongoing Kilauea eruptions, which have changed the landscape of a Big Island community, destroying dozens of homes, covering roads and gobbling up utility lines.<br />
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Tina Neal, USGS scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, has said there's no's telling how long the eruptions will continue.<br />
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Hawaii Volcano Shoots Up Smoke and Ash as a New Crack Opens

Activity in the lower East Rift Zone ramped up overnight and this morning. During an overflight, HVO scientists observed a very activ...