Geology In

Mysterious Arctic Ice Holes Baffle Scientists

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This NASA image shows unexplained holes in the surface of some ice in the Beaufort Sea.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It's never super comforting when you hear some of the world's top scientists say things like, "I have never seen anything like that before." But luckily, this puzzling picture of holes in a sheet of Arctic ice appears to be more of an interesting brain teaser than the discovery of, say, giant ice worms.</span><br />
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NASA has been running aerial surveys over the Arctic for 10 years now, but the vast icy wilderness is still throwing up inexplicable surprises nobody's ever seen before.<br />
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Case in point: just what are these weird circular formations spotted from a P–3 research plane flying over the Beaufort Sea last week?<br />
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The image above and below was captured by cryospheric scientist John Sonntag, who heads up NASA's Operation IceBridge, which charts sea ice levels and behaviour at both of Earth's polar regions.<br />
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You might not know Sonntag's name, but you've almost definitely seen his photographic portfolio before, as his day job sees him aerially documenting the wintry, white vistas that define the world's evolving Arctic and Antarctic landscapes.<br />
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Sonntag's held this unique gig for a while now, but even he still gets a curveball now and then – like with these mysterious holes he first glimpsed two Saturdays ago, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Canada's Mackenzie River Delta.<br />
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"We saw these sorta-circular features only for a few minutes today," Sonntag wrote from the field.<br />
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"I don't recall seeing this sort of thing elsewhere."<br />
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The holes, spotted while charting sea ice levels along the eastern Beaufort Sea, are as yet unexplained, but there are a few things researchers are speculating they might be.<br />
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First up, there are a couple of signs that indicate we're looking at relatively young ice here, which is newly formed over a previously open body of water.<br />
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"The ice is likely thin, soft, and mushy and somewhat pliable," says sea ice geophysicist Don Perovich from Dartmouth College in the UK.<br />
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"This can be seen in the wave-like features in front of the middle 'amoeba'."<br />
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Another tell-tale sign is the 'finger rafting' on the right-hand side of the image, which suggests what could be a general left-to-right motion of the ice.<br />
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This kind of distinctive zig-zag patterning occurs when two layers of ice collide with one another, forming finger-like protrusions on the surface as the two sheets are forced to splice together.<br />
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"It's definitely an area of thin ice, as you can see finger rafting near the holes and the colour is grey enough to indicate little snow cover," says IceBridge project scientist Nathan Kurtz, explaining the ice landscape surrounding the holes.<br />
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As for the holes and circles themselves, though, Kurtz is also uncertain.<br />
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"I'm not sure what kind of dynamics could lead to the semi-circle shaped features surrounding the holes," he says. "I have never seen anything like that before."<br />
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One idea is they could have some kind of animal origin. For example, seals gnaw breathing holes into ice, which give them a clear space to come up and surface within the otherwise unbroken ice floes.<br />
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If that's the case, it's possible the larger circles that surround the holes come from the behaviour of the seals, forming freezing puddles as the animals emerge from their frigid dip.<br />
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"The encircling features may be due to waves of water washing out over the snow and ice when the seals surface," explains oceanographer and climate scientist Walt Meier from the National Snow and Ice Data Centre.<br />
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"Or it could be a sort of drainage feature that results from when the hole is made in the ice."<br />
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If the phenomenon isn't caused by seals or other animals – and discounting any tantalising conjecture of extra-terrestrials dabbling in the ice – deduction suggests it's some kind of naturally occurring weather phenomenon we just haven't had a chance to study up close yet.<br />
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"This is in pretty shallow water generally, so there is every chance this is just 'warm springs' or seeps of ground water flowing from the mountains inland that make their presence known in this particular area," explains NASA glaciologist Chris Shuman from the University of Maryland at Baltimore County.<br />
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"The other possibility is that warmer water from Beaufort currents or out of the Mackenzie River is finding its way to the surface due to interacting with the bathymetry, just the way some polynyas form."<br />
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Polynyas are areas of open water surrounded by sea ice – which in strong wind conditions behave like outdoor 'ice factories', producing as much as 10 times more sea ice than usual – including exotic, rare forms of ice that almost seem magically inspired.<br />
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While we may not have a confirmed explanation for the latest evidence of this kind of phenomena, you can bet it's something that's captured the attention of scientists, and sooner or later we'll get a more thorough understanding of just what the heck is going on here.<br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=92030&eocn=home&eoci=iotd_image" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials</a> provided by <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/?eocn=topnav&eoci=logo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Earth Observatory.</a></span></u></div>

Mysterious Arctic Ice Holes Baffle Scientists

This NASA image shows unexplained holes in the surface of some ice in the Beaufort Sea. It's never super comforting when you hear ...

Soil Metals Linked With Cancer Mortality

0 Researches, soil 8:30 PM

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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Heavy Metal Toxicity Causes Cancer</span></h3>
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Spanish epidemiologists and geologists have found associations between esophageal cancer and soils where lead is abundant, lung cancer and terrains with increased copper content, brain tumor with areas rich in arsenic, and bladder cancer with high cadmium levels. </div>
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These statistical links do not indicate that there is a cause-effect relationship between soil type and cancer, but they suggest that the influence of metals from the earth's surface on the geographical distribution of tumors should be analyzed.<br />
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The risk of dying from cancer is not the same in all geographic regions. There are many factors that influence, including the type of soil, since it can harbor heavy metals and semimetals that are carcinogenic for humans. The chronic exposure of a population to these toxic elements, which enter the body through the food chain and food, could increase the frequency of certain tumors in some territories.<br />
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In this context, researchers from the National Epidemiology Center of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) and the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME) have jointly assessed the possible statistical association between the concentrations of heavy metals in the soil and mortality by different cancer types. The results have been published in the open access journals Environmental Geochemistry and Health and Environmental Science and Pollution Research International.<br />
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The data has been extracted from the Spain´s Geochemical Atlas, published by the IGME in 2012, as well as from a database with 861,440 deaths from 27 cancer types that occurred in almost 8,000 Spanish municipalities between 1999 and 2008. The data can be extrapolated to the present because the geochemical composition of the soil is stable and the mortality patterns for this disease usually do not vary.<br />
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The authors have crossed the information of the type of soil and the geographic distribution of the tumors, applying statistical analyzes and taking into account the presence of local polluting foci or socio-demographic variables that could interfere in the results.<br />
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They have found various associations, such as increased mortality in both genders from esophageal cancer in areas with higher concentrations of lead, and lung cancer in areas with high copper levels.<br />
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"We have also detected that the highest of cadmium, lead, zinc, manganese and copper concentrations in the soil are statistically associated with a higher mortality due to cancers of the digestive system in men," explains Pablo Fernández, ISCIII researcher and co-author of the paper, "and in the case of women, a higher mortality from brain cancer in those areas with more cadmium content."<br />
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The results also show a relationship between soils with more cadmium and higher mortality from bladder cancer; as well as lands with high concentrations of arsenic and more cases of death from brain tumors.<br />
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"This research suggests that the geochemical composition of the soil, especially its metals, could be influencing the spatial distribution and mortality patterns of cancer in Spain, regardless of the socio-demographic context," says Fernández, who highlights "the great contribution of this work to environmental epidemiology and public health in general."<br />
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"However," he adds, "although it is plausible that the contents of toxic elements in the soil, even if they are very small, may be a component in the cancer etiology, the results must be interpreted with great caution, since the relationships found do not allow to conclude that there is a cause-effect relationship. Our study does not have individual exposure data or information about other very important factors in the origin of cancer, such as tobacco, alcohol consumption or obesity."<br />
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Gonzalo López-Abente, another of the co-authors and also researcher at ISCIII, agrees: "The conclusions move in the field of hypotheses and statistical associations, which will have to be confirmed with future analyzes to check whether the composition of the soil itself has its counterpart in the biological markers of humans. In any case, the results are plausible and we could be facing one more component of the cancer etiology."</div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="http://www.agenciasinc.es/en/News/A-study-links-soil-metals-with-cancer-mortality" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.fecyt.es/fecyt/home.do" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology</a>.</span></u></div>
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Soil Metals Linked With Cancer Mortality

Heavy Metal Toxicity Causes Cancer Spanish epidemiologists and geologists have found associations between esophageal cancer and soi...

What Is Druzy, and How Does It Form?

0 Mineralogy 8:18 PM

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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The word druse (Also Known as Drusy or Druzy), refers to an aggregate mass of small crystals (“crystal druse”). These crystal intergrowths or clusters can be formed by many different minerals. The mineral species and shapes of crystals formed are dependent on fluid composition. Crystal size is a function of fluid temperature and pressure.</span><br />
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A druzy is sets of tiny crystals of minerals that form on the surface of another stone. There are many types of druzy, because there are many types of minerals. Each type of druzy has particular characteristics, such as crystal size, luster and color.<br />
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Quartz is one of the most common druzy types because of the prevalence of silica throughout the world. No matter what mineral forms the druzy, the overall appearance usually resembles that of sugar. The tiny crystals are considered beautiful because, like large gemstones, they glitter and catch rays of light.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Minerals like</span></b>: <a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2018/03/garnet-group-colors-and-varieties-of.html" target="_blank">Garnet</a>, Dolomite, Malachite, and Calcite are also found in Druzy Crystals.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Formation:</span></h3>
The geological process that forms a druzy, the layer of crystals on the rock, occurs when water brings minerals onto a rock's surface. When the water evaporates, cooling occurs and the minerals are left behind to form crystals on top of the rock. Depending on the minerals, druzy gemstones can be almost any color of the rainbow, including white, pink, blue, purple, green or black.<br />
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Most druse forms as cavity lining in geodes. The botryoidal agate mass of the geodes are irregular, lumpy like a cluster of grapes. As a result, typically the surface area for cutting a cab is small. Large stones are less common. Many cutters keep a border of plain agate around the druse covered area of the cab to produce larger cabs.<br />
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In most druse, the terminations of crystals appear random and stones glitter like a fistful of tiny diamonds as the viewing angle changes with movement. Some rare formations of druse occur in which the alignment of the crystal faces are uniform across the surface and the glitter turns to a flash.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CvsYhLbKxe0/Wt9lpvOMgfI/AAAAAAAAPus/Z9nJl-oH7bIBWYWxrqraRtE3FxLgZFM8ACLcBGAs/s1600/dyed%2Bdruzy%2Bgeode.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="dyed druzy geode" border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="570" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CvsYhLbKxe0/Wt9lpvOMgfI/AAAAAAAAPus/Z9nJl-oH7bIBWYWxrqraRtE3FxLgZFM8ACLcBGAs/s400/dyed%2Bdruzy%2Bgeode.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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Colors of natural druse vary widely and enhanced variations are  infinite. Crystal druses of most mineral species other than quartz are  rare, so >95% of the Drusy on the market is quartz.<br />
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These coatings and dyes are popular for improving the less attractive  colors of naturally brilliant druse crystal aggregates turning shades  of gray and brown into “cobalt blue” and “titanium purple”.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">See also:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2017/05/the-different-beryl-varieties-with.html" target="_blank">The Different Beryl Varieties with Photos</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2018/03/types-of-iridescent-gemstones-minerals.html" target="_blank">Types of Iridescent Gemstones & Minerals </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2017/11/how-color-or-clarity-of-gemstones-is.html" target="_blank">How the Color or Clarity of Gemstones Is Altered?</a></span></div>

What Is Druzy, and How Does It Form?

The word druse (Also Known as Drusy or Druzy), refers to an aggregate mass of small crystals (“crystal druse”). These crystal intergrow...

Measuring Devices for the World's Most Extreme Environment

0 earth, Geothermal 7:22 PM

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Norwegian research scientists are contributing to the development of the world's hottest geothermal well in a non-volcanic area. The goal is to exploit the inexhaustible supply of heat from the interior of the Earth, and this calls for equipment that can withstand the most extreme conditions.<br />
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The borehole is the world's hottest geothermal well in a non-volcanic area. Because terrestrial heat is encountered close to the surface in Italy, the country is rich in areas suitable for geothermal drilling – with searing temperatures reaching 500-600 degrees Celsius, resulting in supercritical water that the researchers are hoping to discover. And they have very good reasons. </div>
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If they can succeed in exploiting the energy in this water, they can drill geothermal wells that are ten times as effective as those currently in operation. This has the potential to reduce costs dramatically and pave the way for a fantastic energy future based on purely natural resources. However, in its supercritical phase, the liquid is corrosive and attacks any drilling equipment that encounters it.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Supercritical energy bomb</span></h4>
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"We are faced with a lot of big challenges, but we've come a long way," says Magnus Hjelstuen, Research Manager at SINTEF Harsh Environment Instrumentation.<br />
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The measuring equipment SINTEF has developed as part of this project is a so-called "wireline logging tool" that can measure downhole temperatures and pressures. Such measurements are crucial in the search for the extremely energy-rich supercritical water. Temperature and pressure data indicate when the drill bit has entered a zone containing such water, and the well's geothermal properties (both the maximum temperature and temperature changes caused by drilling) will tell us how much energy the well can produce.<br />
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Since electrical cables do not function at temperatures over 350°C, SINTEF's measuring equipment is battery-powered. The temperature is logged deep in the borehole and is read off when the device returns to the surface.<br />
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In its supercritical phase, the liquid is corrosive and attacks any drilling equipment that encounters it.<br />
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This is no simple task. At two to three kilometres into the Earth's interior the temperature and pressure rise enormously. Something very special happens when the temperature reaches 374 degrees and the pressure is 218 times the air pressure at the surface. We encounter what we call supercritical water. This water is in a physical state that progresses from liquid into gas – and from there into a supercritical phase, in which it is neither.<br />
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It is this special form of water, as yet undiscovered, that the researchers are looking for. To reach the conditions that make it supercritical, the water must have a temperature of at least 374°C, under pressures of 200 bar.<br />
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"A water column at room temperature must be taken to a depth of 2.2 kilometres below the surface to reach a pressure of 220 bar," Hjelstuen explains.<br />
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But when the temperature of the water rises, its density falls. This means that we must go even deeper to pass 220 bar and attain supercritical conditions. If the water is contaminated with gases and minerals, which is always the case in a geothermal well, the temperature must be higher still for the water to become supercritical.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Extreme equipment</span></h4>
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SINTEF uses electronics and sensors with extreme capabilities. Some of the components are in common use, while others are still at the prototype stage. The challenge for the Norwegian researchers has been to combine the sensors and electronics, and then develop computer software that enables the components to function together.<br />
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"Our challenge has been to find a combination of existing components which can perform optimally within our limitations in terms of instrument length, weight and diameter – not least in view of the environment the equipment will encounter in the well," says Hjelstuen.<br />
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The instrument is 2.6 metres long weighs 50 kilograms, but has a diameter of only 76 millimetres.<br />
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"For example, we use a micro-controller which functions at temperatures up to 300°C. This is only available as an early prototype (engineering sample). So we've been working closely with the manufacturer to get it to function the way we want it to," he adds.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Intense pressure and temperature</span></h4>
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At present, the limiting temperature for electronics is around 250°C, and this means that the range of components available is very restricted. The number of suitable batteries is also not large. For example, the most robust batteries on the market work at temperatures of only 70 to 200°C and would explode if subjected to a temperature of 215 degrees. So making measuring equipment can be a challenging process.<br />
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"Since we begin drilling at normal surface conditions, the temperature on a winter's day may be as low as 0°C to start with, rising to over 400°C at the bottom of a well. Tackling such fluctuations makes enormous demands on the equipment. We've created a sort of "reverse Thermos flask" in which the inside temperature is kept below 210 degrees so as to reduce the strain on the equipment," says Hjelstuen.<br />
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The sensors are trialled and tested before being shipped to the field.<br />
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"At every stage an enormous amount of testing must be carried out in a way that as closely as possible simulates the environment our instruments will encounter in the well. Among other things we have used a furnace at Raufoss to test the technology at temperatures up to 450°C.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Enormous potential</span></h4>
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In the process of harnessing the energy in the supercritical water, the researchers have made good use of the Norwegian petroleum industry's experience in drilling deep oil wells. The exploitation of geothermal heat has much in common with oil recovery. Petroleum technologists are therefore included in the team. However, whereas we have for many decades succeeded in exploiting the potential found in petroleum resources, nobody has yet managed to harness supercritical water.<br />
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"If we can succeed in exploiting geothermal heat there will be enough of it to supply the entire population of the planet with energy for many generations. There are nuclear power plants where water that meets the conditions for supercritical water is fed through turbines, so we know that we can succeed in exploiting the energy in such water once we have managed to extract it."<br />
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In the project's deepest descent into the Earth, the research team carried out measurements at a depth of 2810 metres. Here the temperature reached 443.6°C.</div>
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.sintef.no/en/latest-news/measuring-devices-for-the-worlds-most-extreme-environment/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials</a> provided by <a href="https://www.sintef.no/en/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SINTEF</a>.</span></i></u></div>
</div>

Measuring Devices for the World's Most Extreme Environment

Norwegian research scientists are contributing to the development of the world's hottest geothermal well in a non-volcanic are...

Study: East Bay Fault Is 'Tectonic Time Bomb,' More Dangerous Than San Andreas

1 San Andreas, Tectonic, USA 4:34 PM

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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dpz7hSdItCs/WtnqCwQQ1tI/AAAAAAAAPtM/agemLqcWFUAm21Uk7362zt_9SK8YzxFIACLcBGAs/s1600/East%2BBay%2BFault%2BIs%2B%2527Tectonic%2BTime%2BBomb%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="East Bay Fault Is 'Tectonic Time Bomb,'" border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="1214" height="304" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dpz7hSdItCs/WtnqCwQQ1tI/AAAAAAAAPtM/agemLqcWFUAm21Uk7362zt_9SK8YzxFIACLcBGAs/s640/East%2BBay%2BFault%2BIs%2B%2527Tectonic%2BTime%2BBomb%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Everyone knows that California’s San Andreas fault is a ticking time bomb ready to erupt – but a new study shows that another fault right under the East Bay is far more dangerous.</span><br />
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What will happen when the next big earthquake hits northern California? A team of researchers including CU Boulder Professor Keith Porter will explore that question at an event today marking the anniversary of the 1906 temblor that leveled much of San Francisco.<br />
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A modern earthquake could kill 800 people and cause more than $100 billion in economic losses from the shaking and subsequent fires, according to estimates come from the HayWired Scenario, a project spearheaded by the U.S.<br />
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Geological Survey (USGS), which is organizing the event on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The exercise looked at the potential outcomes of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on California's Hayward Fault in the east San Francisco Bay Area.<br />
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Porter, a professor in CU Boulder's Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, said that the toll of such a disaster could be huge—on par with the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the southeastern United States in 2005.<br />
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"It's fairly likely that a person living in the Bay Area today will live to see a major Bay Area earthquake," Porter said. "The HayWired scenario reveals weak points in our designs for new buildings, our existing water infrastructure, not to mention problems with fires after earthquakes and with older elevators.<br />
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"California hasn't seen a major tremor since the rise of the Internet age—the last was 1994's Northridge earthquake in the Los Angeles area. The Hayward Fault itself last ruptured 150 years ago. Scientists estimate, however, that it or another Bay Area fault will likely produce a large earthquake in the next 30 years. The HayWired scenario seeks to help the region learn from the lessons of this when-not-if event without having to experience the costs.<br />
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"We tend to improve our building codes and other aspects of our infrastructure after a big disaster," Porter said. "We learn our lessons the hard way. But what the USGS's Science Application for Risk Reduction program has found is that simulated disasters can teach us the same lessons."<br />
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To drill down on those lessons, the project team drew from a wide range of information, including diverse computer simulations, industry data and surveys of California residents. The researchers will release their findings in three volumes. The first came out last year and USGS recently published the second online. CU Boulder is a coalition partner on the project. Porter coordinated the engineering analyses for this report and performed many of them himself.<br />
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Porter's expertise hones in on the long-lasting consequences for buildings and other infrastructure. He said that while California has adopted a stringent building code, these rules focus on getting people out of buildings alive, not necessarily on making them safe for people to go back into.<br />
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Under the current building code, an earthquake like the HayWired disaster could render one-quarter of buildings in the Bay Area unsafe for people to re-enter or otherwise limit their usability, he said. The earthquake could spark 450 large fires and cause 4,300 pipe breaks and leaks in the East Bay Municipal Utility District.<br />
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But, Porter added, that there's another impact of earthquakes that often gets ignored. Drawing on data from the elevator industry, Porter estimates that the hypothetical disaster could strand roughly 20,000 people in elevators across northern California.<br />
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"That's a big deal because electricity might not come back on in parts of the Bay Area for days or more after an earthquake," Porter said. "Imagine 20,000 people trapped in a metal box for days. That's pretty scary."<br />
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Still, Porter said that many of the scary numbers that he and his colleagues reported could be addressed with relatively small investments. For a 1 percent increase in construction costs, for example, new buildings could be made 50 percent stronger.<br />
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"Big earthquakes are inevitable in California," Porter said. "There will be some very serious losses in that kind of earthquake, but some of those losses can be avoided by thinking prudently in advance."<br />
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Porter's comments are timely as the California State Legislature is currently considering Assembly Bill 1857. This bill would establish a commission that would evaluate making the state's building code even tougher, potentially ensuring the survival of more buildings after a natural disaster.<br />
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<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/sir20175013v1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials</a> provided by <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">USGS</a>.</span></i></u></div>

Study: East Bay Fault Is 'Tectonic Time Bomb,' More Dangerous Than San Andreas

Everyone knows that California’s San Andreas fault is a ticking time bomb ready to erupt – but a new study shows that another fault ri...

How Volcanic Rock Traps CO2 and Turns It Inert

0 climate, earth, Environment, Igneous 10:41 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Columnar-jointing in the High Island Formation</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">New research shows how effective injecting carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) into the volcanic rock basalt could be for fighting carbon emissions.</span><br />
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Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide. As the gas rises and the atmosphere traps it, it retains heat as part of a process called the greenhouse effect. The increased temperatures associated with the greenhouse effect can cause melting ice caps, higher sea levels, and a loss of natural habitat for plant and animal species.<br />
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Environmental scientists trying to mitigate the effects of CO<sub>2</sub> have experimented with injecting it deep underground, trapping it. These trials have mainly taken place in sandstone aquifers, however, the CO<sub>2</sub> primarily remains present as a bubble that can return to the surface if is there are fracture in the capping formation.<br />
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A different approach using basalt flows as injection sites—chiefly at the CarbFix site in Iceland and in Washington state—has yielded dramatic results. Metals in basalt have the ability to transform CO<sub>2</sub> into a solid inert mineral in a matter of months.<br />
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While the new method holds promise, the underground injections can be imprecise, difficult to track and measure. The new research sheds light on what happens underground after injecting CO<sub>2</sub> into basalt.<br />
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“In a field site, you inject the carbon dioxide in, and it’s a very open system,” says Daniel Giammar, professor of environmental engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis. “You can’t get a good constraint in terms of a capacity estimate. You know you made some carbonate from the CO<sub>2</sub>, but you don’t really know how much. In the lab, we have well-defined boundaries.”<br />
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To obtain a clearer, quantifiable look at carbon trapping rates in basalt, Giammar collected samples of the rock from Washington state, where researchers previously injected a thousand tons of CO<sub>2</sub> gas deep underground into a basalt flow. He placed the rocks in small reactors that resemble slow cookers to simulate underground conditions, and then injected CO<sub>2</sub> to test the variables involved in the carbonization process.<br />
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“We reacted it at similar pressure and temperature conditions to what they had in the field, except we do all of ours in a small sealed vessel,” Giammar says. “So we know how much carbon dioxide went in and we know exactly where all of it went. We can look at the entire rock afterwards and see how much carbonate was formed in that rock.”<br />
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The lab kept the basalt in the pressurizers and followed up, using 3D imaging to analyze their pore spaces at six weeks, 20 weeks, and 40 weeks. They watched moment to moment the CO<sub>2</sub> turned into mineral, saw the exact voids within the basalt it filled, and observed the precise spots in the rock where the carbonization process began.<br />
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Once they collected and analyzed all of the data, Giammar and his team predicted that one cubic meter of basalt could convert 47 kilograms of CO<sub>2</sub> into mineral. Researchers can use this estimate as a baseline to scale up, quantifying how much CO<sub>2</sub> entire areas of basalt flow can effectively convert.<br />
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“People have done surveys of available basalt flows,” Giammar says. “This data will help us determine which ones could actually be receptive to having CO<sub>2</sub> injected into them, and then also help us to determine capacity. It’s big. It’s years and years worth of US CO<sub>2</sub> emissions.”<br />
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Giammar’s lab is currently sharing its results with colleagues at the University of Michigan, who will assist in developing a computational model to further help researchers to look for a solid fix for CO<sub>2</sub> abatement. The researchers have also been invited to take part in the second phase of the US Department of Energy’s Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise, or CarbonSAFE, which investigates new technologies for CO<sub>2</sub> abatement.<br />
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<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.8b00047">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://source.wustl.edu/2018/04/trap-contain-and-convert/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Washington University in St. Louis</a>.</span></i></u></div>

How Volcanic Rock Traps CO2 and Turns It Inert

Columnar-jointing in the High Island Formation New research shows how effective injecting carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into the volcanic ro...

Researchers Find Vast Reserve of Rare Earth Minerals

0 Geochemistry, Mining, Researches 8:18 PM

Researchers Find Vast Reserve of Rare Earth Minerals

Yttrium, sublimed-dendritic, high purity 99.99 % Y/TREM. Japanese researchers have mapped vast reserves of rare earth elements in dee...

New Type of 'Opal' Formed by Common Seaweed

0 Researches 6:28 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the morphology and structural color of the brown algae seaweed known as Cystoseira tamariscifolia.<br /></td></tr>
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Scientists have discovered a completely new type of opal formed by a common seaweed which harnesses natural technology by self-assembling a nanostructure of oil droplets to control how light reflects from its cells to display a shimmering array of colours that until now, has only been seen in the gem stone.<br />
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The findings, published in Science Advances and led by Drs Heather Whitney and Ruth Oulton from the University of Bristol, show that the bright blue and green iridescent sheen from the brown algae seaweed, also known as "rainbow wrack" (Cystoseira Tamariscifolia) and commonly found throughout the European costal region including the UK, arises from a complex nanostructure that controls how light reflects from its cells containing chloroplasts.<br />
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Even more remarkable, is how these seaweeds can switch this self-assembly on and off, creating changing opals which react to the changing sunlight in tidal rockpools. Such structures arise from nanosized spheres packed tightly in a regular way and are known to optics experts to reflect different colours from incoming white light into different directions.<br />
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These types of structures are also seen naturally in gem stone opals, which comprise a nanostructure of tiny spheres of glass formed within hard stone deep below the earth's surface that naturally pack together in such a way that they diffract light into different directions giving the opal it's well-known opalescence.<br />
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Dr Ruth Oulton, Professor Martin Cryan and Dr Martin Lopez-Garcia (now at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Institute, Portugal), all experts in nano-optics in Bristol's School of Physics and Department of Electrical Engineering, discovered that these natural, "living" opals form not from glass but from tiny oil droplets made by the seaweed.<br />
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In a process unknown to present nanotechnology, the seaweed's chloroplasts-containing cells (which aid photosynthesis) self-assembles the oil droplets into a regular packing. Surprisingly, these seaweeds can switch this self-assembly on and off, creating changing opals which react to the changing sunlight in tidal rockpools. Even more remarkable is how the seaweed performs the dynamic self-assembly, over a timescale of just hours, is a true mystery to the research team.<br />
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Dr Martin Lopez-Garcia, said: "The formation of opals from oil droplets is a completely new discovery. If nanotechnologists were able to understand and mimic the dynamic properties of this seaweed opal, we may in the future have biodegradable, switchable display technology that may be used in packaging or very efficient, low cost solar cells."<br />
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Nathan Masters, a PhD student in the Schools of Physics and Biological Sciences at Bristol, discovered that by shining light onto the seaweed, the iridescence disappeared, but when kept in almost dark conditions, the blue-green sheen reappeared.<br />
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By imaging the seaweed at a sub-nanoscale level, the team discovered that the seaweed was switching on and off the self-assembly, going from a disordered, unreflective state to an ordered, opalescent one. But most surprising to the research team was that the opal is dynamic.<br />
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Why the seaweed does this remains to be proven, but Drs Heather Whitney and Heath O'Brien, who carried out the work while at Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, (now at Cardiff University), believe that because the opals sit in the same part of the cell as the chloroplasts -- the light energy harvesting bodies of the organism -- they are likely to be controlling the light levels, scattering the light evenly to all the available chloroplasts inside the cell. This may help the seaweed cope with different light levels during high and low tide.<br />
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Dr Ruth Oulton, Reader in Quantum Photonics in the School of Physics and Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, added: "In the past decade, nanotechnologists have been able to make artificial opals out of similar glass nanospheres.<br />
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But it seems that the humble seaweed is also able to make such artificial opals in its cells. So next time you're rock pooling in the UK during your summer holidays, see if you can find this amazing seaweed with its nano-manufacturing technology."<br />
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<br />
<i><u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2018/april/seaweed.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Bristol</a>.</span></u></i></div>

New Type of 'Opal' Formed by Common Seaweed

This is the morphology and structural color of the brown algae seaweed known as Cystoseira tamariscifolia. Scientists hav...

Diamonds Buried Within Rare Meteorites Reveal Existence of "Lost Planet"

0 Diamonds, Meteorite, Researches 5:12 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A different urelite meteorite, NWA 4231.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Diamonds found in a meteorite that exploded over the Nubian desert in Sudan a decade ago were formed deep inside a “lost planet” that once circled the sun in the early solar system, scientists say.</span><br />
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Microscopic analyses of the meteorite’s tiny diamonds revealed they contain compounds that are produced under intense pressure, suggesting the diamonds formed far beneath the surface of a planet.<br />
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In this case, the mysterious world was calculated to be somewhere between Mercury and Mars in size.<br />
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Astronomers have long hypothesised that dozens of fledgling planets, ranging in size from the moon to Mars, formed in the first 10m years of the solar system and were broken apart and repackaged in violent collisions that ultimately created the terrestrial planets that orbit the sun today.<br />
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If the latest findings are confirmed, the Almahata Sitta meteorite will be the only known remnants of one of these long-lost planets. The material will give scientists a unique window into the cosmic conditions that prevailed in the deep history of the solar system.<br />
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“Simulations have suggested that the early solar system had tens of these embryonic planets that collided with each other to form the terrestrial planets, but having evidence of one of them? I wasn’t expecting that,” said Farhang Nabiei, who studied pieces of the meteorite at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland.<br />
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Philippe Gillet, a senior author on the study, said: “We are doing archaeology, looking into the past, and trying to decipher the story of the solar system.”<br />
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The Almahata Sitta meteorite was the first to be tracked by telescopes as it sped towards Earth and exploded over the Nubian desert in 2008. The event prompted a recovery effort by the University of Khartoum, which gathered 480 pieces of the meteorite amounting to 4kg of battered material.<br />
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Early inspections of the meteorite revealed it to be a ureilite, an unusual composition that does not match other space rocks known to have come from the moon or Mars. The finding led some scientists to speculate that it may have had a more exotic origin.<br />
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That suspicion grew when researchers noticed little diamonds in the meteorite material. While other meteorites are known to contain diamond crystals, they are generally far smaller. Typical meteorite diamonds are only a few millionths of a millimetre across and are thought to form in collisions with other space rocks that send brief but intense shockwaves through the carbon-rich asteroids.<br />
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In 2015, researchers at the Swiss lab teamed up with Japanese scientists to argue that the diamonds in the Almahata Sitta meteorite, which are up to 100 micrometres long, were much larger than could be formed in collisions with other asteroids. They speculated at the time that the meteorite might have come from a lost planet, but sought more evidence to bolster their theory.<br />
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Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the Swiss team now describe fresh analyses that show that diamonds in the meteorite contain specks of an iron-sulphur compound that is thought only to form at pressures greater than 20 gigapascals. They conclude that the diamonds formed with the specks inside them, deep beneath the surface of an unknown world.<br />
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“We are probably looking at an object that was one of the first planets to circle the sun before they collided with each other to create the actual planets we have today,” said Gillet.<br />
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James Wittke, who runs the meteorite laboratory at Northern Arizona University, said the scientists’ conclusions were reasonable. “We think that there were probably many larger ‘parent’ bodies in the early solar system, which have since been destroyed, so a since-destroyed body the size of Mercury is reasonable,” he said. “One as large as Mars seems a little surprising, but this paper presents the best, and perhaps only, type of evidence for determining the sizes of these parent bodies.”<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.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03808-6" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://epsl.epfl.ch/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Earth and Planetary Science Laboratory (EPSL).</a></span></i></u></div>

Diamonds Buried Within Rare Meteorites Reveal Existence of "Lost Planet"

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