Two Earthquakes Shake Eastern Tennessee, Felt by Some in Upstate

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dRx7J30lFxY/XBEn_170m4I/AAAAAAAAQpk/9FxcIZtVr2wdEjc8IFNWH6SSlcft3X3MgCLcBGAs/s1600/Magnitude%2B4.4%2Bearthquake%2Bshakes%2BTennessee%252C%2BGeorgia%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="1207" height="302" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dRx7J30lFxY/XBEn_170m4I/AAAAAAAAQpk/9FxcIZtVr2wdEjc8IFNWH6SSlcft3X3MgCLcBGAs/s640/Magnitude%2B4.4%2Bearthquake%2Bshakes%2BTennessee%252C%2BGeorgia%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Google Map.</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Two earthquakes struck Wednesday morning in eastern Tennessee, rattling people awake across several Southeastern states. </span><br /> <br /> Residents in Tennessee and Georgia got a big surprise Wednesday morning: the rumblings of an earthquake.<br /> <br /> A magnitude 4.4 earthquake was recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey at around 4:14 a.m. ET, with its epicenter near Decatur, Tenn., which is roughly more than 150 miles from Nashville.<br /> <br /> An aftershock was felt about 13 minutes later with a magnitude of 3.3, said the USGS.<br /> <br /> According to Atlanta TV station WXIA, the earthquake was felt as far as northern Georgia.<br /> <br /> Some light and weak shaking was felt as far as Nashville and Murfreesboro to the west and even north into Kentucky.<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <div dir="ltr" lang="en"> This morning's M4.4 earthquake near Decatur is the second strongest on record in East TN, according to the USGS. The strongest was a M4.7 near Maryville in 1973. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/earthquake?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#earthquake</a></div> — NWS Morristown (@NWSMorristown) <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSMorristown/status/1072797751874936832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /> According to the USGS, the Eastern Tennessee seismic zone is one of the most active earthquake areas in the Southeast. The zone extends across Tennessee and northwestern Georgia into northeastern Alabama.<br /> <br /> Confused residents in the region took to social media, including Twitter, to confirm the earthquake. The hashtag #earthquake is among the top trending searches on Twitter as of Wednesday morning.<br /> <br /> There have been no reports of serious damage or injuries.<br /> <br /> The National Weather Service in Morristown, Tenn., reported on Twitter the quake was the second strongest on record in East Tennessee. The strongest was a 4.7 magnitude earthquake that struck the region in 1973.<br /> <br /> The area is part of the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone, stretching from northeastern Alabama to southwestern Virginia. It's the second-most active seismic zone in the central and eastern US, behind the New Madrid zone in the Mississippi River region, according to the Seismological Society of America.<br /> <br /> Wednesday's 4.4-magnitude quake is the strongest of 799 recorded in the central US in the last six months, according to a list compiled by the University of Memphis' Center for Earthquake Research and Information.<br /> <br /></div>

Two Earthquakes Shake Eastern Tennessee, Felt by Some in Upstate

Google Map. Two earthquakes struck Wednesday morning in eastern Tennessee, rattling people awake across several Southeastern states. ...

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Scientists Reveal a Massive Biosphere of Life Hidden Under Earth's Surface

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NPAfAqq608M/XBAAI0iO_oI/AAAAAAAAQpY/UWs9noUi_rsl_5fP8HCsIVSuW7fD7vjlgCLcBGAs/s1600/Scientists%2BReveal%2Ba%2BMassive%2BBiosphere%2Bof%2BLife%2BHidden%2BUnder%2BEarth%2527s%2BSurface%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Scientists Reveal a Massive Biosphere of Life Hidden Under Earth's Surface" border="0" data-original-height="746" data-original-width="1192" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NPAfAqq608M/XBAAI0iO_oI/AAAAAAAAQpY/UWs9noUi_rsl_5fP8HCsIVSuW7fD7vjlgCLcBGAs/s640/Scientists%2BReveal%2Ba%2BMassive%2BBiosphere%2Bof%2BLife%2BHidden%2BUnder%2BEarth%2527s%2BSurface%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A nematode (eukaryote) in a biofilm of microorganisms. This deep-dwelling creature (Poikilolaimus sp.) was discovered in the Kopanang gold mine in South Africa, and was found 0.86 miles (1.4 km) below the surface. Credit: Gaetan Borgonie (Extreme Life Isyensya, Belgium)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Earth is far more alive than previously thought, according to “deep life” studies that reveal a rich ecosystem beneath our feet that is almost twice the size of all the world’s oceans.</span><br /> <br /> Despite extreme heat, no light, minuscule nutrition and intense pressure, scientists estimate this subterranean biosphere is teeming with between 15bn and 23bn tonnes of micro-organisms, hundreds of times the combined weight of every human on the planet.<br /> <br /> Researchers at the Deep Carbon Observatory say the diversity of underworld species bears comparison to the Amazon or the Galápagos Islands, but unlike those places the environment is still largely pristine because people have yet to probe most of the subsurface.<br /> <br /> “It’s like finding a whole new reservoir of life on Earth,” said Karen Lloyd, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. “We are discovering new types of life all the time. So much of life is within the Earth rather than on top of it.”<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> The team combines 1,200 scientists from 52 countries in disciplines ranging from geology and microbiology to chemistry and physics. A year before the conclusion of their 10-year study, they will present an amalgamation of findings to date before the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting opens this week.<br /> <br /> Samples were taken from boreholes more than 5km deep and undersea drilling sites to construct models of the ecosystem and estimate how much living carbon it might contain.<br /> <br /> The results suggest 70% of Earth’s bacteria and archaea exist in the subsurface, including barbed Altiarchaeales that live in sulphuric springs and Geogemma barossii, a single-celled organism found at 121C hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the sea.<br /> <br /> One organism found 2.5km below the surface has been buried for millions of years and may not rely at all on energy from the sun. Instead, the methanogen has found a way to create methane in this low energy environment, which it may not use to reproduce or divide, but to replace or repair broken parts.<br /> <br /> Lloyd said: “The strangest thing for me is that some organisms can exist for millennia. They are metabolically active but in stasis, with less energy than we thought possible of supporting life.”<br /> <br /> Rick Colwell, a microbial ecologist at Oregon State University, said the timescales of subterranean life were completely different. Some microorganisms have been alive for thousands of years, barely moving except with shifts in the tectonic plates, earthquakes or eruptions.<br /> <br /> “We humans orientate towards relatively rapid processes – diurnal cycles based on the sun, or lunar cycles based on the moon – but these organisms are part of slow, persistent cycles on geological timescales.”<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> Underworld biospheres vary depending on geology and geography. Their combined size is estimated to be more than 2bn cubic kilometres, but this could be expanded further in the future.<br /> <br /> The researchers said their discoveries were made possible by two technical advances: drills that can penetrate far deeper below the Earth’s crust, and improvements in microscopes that allow life to be detected at increasingly minute levels.<br /> <br /> The scientists have been trying to find a lower limit beyond which life cannot exist, but the deeper they dig the more life they find. There is a temperature maximum – currently 122C – but the researchers believe this record will be broken if they keep exploring and developing more sophisticated instruments.<br /> <br /> Mysteries remain, including whether life colonises up from the depths or down from the surface, how the microbes interact with chemical processes, and what this might reveal about how life and the Earth co-evolved.<br /> <br /> The scientists say some findings enter the realm of philosophy and exobiology – the study of extraterrestrial life.<br /> <br /> Robert Hazen, a mineralogist at the Carnegie Institution for Science, said: “We must ask ourselves: if life on Earth can be this different from what experience has led us to expect, then what strangeness might await as we probe for life on other worlds?”<br /> <br /> <br /> <u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The study was published in the <a href="https://fallmeeting.agu.org/2018/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">2018 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting</a>.</span></i></u><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "open sans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /> </span></div>

Scientists Reveal a Massive Biosphere of Life Hidden Under Earth's Surface

A nematode (eukaryote) in a biofilm of microorganisms. This deep-dwelling creature (Poikilolaimus sp.) was discovered in the Kopanang gol...

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NASA: Arctic Sea Ice Decline Slows Down Temporarily

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9YTdm0OGvHk/XA7C-o1c_OI/AAAAAAAAQpM/FntsiPmvgislKZ2nF44xM6Y2SLIw0umQQCLcBGAs/s1600/Arctic%2BSea%2BIce%2BDecline%2BSlows%2BDown%2BTemporarily%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Captured on Landsat 8, the image shows a view of the Anzhu Islands in the Arctic Ocean during the summer melt season. (Photo courtesy: Nasa/Twitter)" border="0" data-original-height="1012" data-original-width="1200" height="538" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9YTdm0OGvHk/XA7C-o1c_OI/AAAAAAAAQpM/FntsiPmvgislKZ2nF44xM6Y2SLIw0umQQCLcBGAs/s640/Arctic%2BSea%2BIce%2BDecline%2BSlows%2BDown%2BTemporarily%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captured on Landsat 8, the image shows a view of the Anzhu Islands in the Arctic Ocean during the summer melt season. (Photo courtesy: Nasa/Twitter)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The decline of the Arctic sea ice cover may have temporarily slowed down, despite climate change and global warming, a Nasa study has found. </span><br /> <br /> The decline of the Arctic sea ice cover may have temporarily slowed down, despite climate change and global warming, a NASA study has found. As temperatures in the Arctic have warmed at double the pace of the rest of the planet, the expanse of frozen seawater that blankets the Arctic Ocean and neighbouring seas has shrunk and thinned over the past three decades. The end-of-summer Arctic sea ice extent has almost halved since the early 1980s.<br /> <br /> A recent NASA study found that since 1958, the Arctic sea ice cover has lost on average around two-thirds of its thickness and now 70 per cent of the sea ice cap is made of seasonal ice or ice that forms and melts within a single year. However, at the same time that sea ice is vanishing quicker than it has ever been observed in the satellite record, it is also thickening at a faster rate during winter.<br /> <br /> This increase in growth rate might last for decades, a new study accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters found. This does not mean that the ice cover is recovering, though. It is just delaying its demise, researchers said.<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> "This increase in the amount of sea ice growing in winter doesn't overcome the large increase in melting we've observed in recent decades," said Alek Petty, a sea ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in the US. "Overall, thickness is decreasing. Arctic sea ice is still very much in decline across all seasons and is projected to continue its decline over the coming decades," said Petty.<br /> <br /> Researchers used climate models and observations of sea ice thickness from the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 satellite to explore sea ice growth variability across the Arctic. The climate model results compared well both with CryoSat-2's measurements and the results of another commonly used Arctic sea ice model, giving the researchers confidence in the climate model's ability to capture Arctic sea ice variability.<br /> <br /> "The global climate model seems to do a good job of capturing the Arctic sea ice state and shows that most of the thickness change in the central Arctic is from thermodynamics, that is, ice formation and ice melt, although around the Arctic sea ice edge dynamics, which is ice transport, can play a bigger role," Petty said.<br /> <br /> These model simulations showed that in the 1980s when Arctic sea ice was on average 6.6 feet thick in October, about 3.3 extra feet of ice would form over the winter.<br /> <br /> That rate of growth has increased and may continue to do so for several more decades in some regions of the Arctic; in the coming decades, we could have an ice pack that would on average be only around 3.3 feet thick in October, but could experience up to 5 feet of ice growth over the winter. <br /> <br /> <br /> <u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144323/icescapes-of-the-anzhu-islands?utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=NASA&utm_campaign=NASASocial&linkId=60756794" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by NASA.</span></i></u></div>

NASA: Arctic Sea Ice Decline Slows Down Temporarily

Captured on Landsat 8, the image shows a view of the Anzhu Islands in the Arctic Ocean during the summer melt season. (Photo courtesy: Na...

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This Beach Has Sand That Looks Exactly Like Popcorn

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LzWXnp6EJR4/XA6oDb-IzOI/AAAAAAAAQo0/xIxo4YmjBUQsTBoY9sPSMDSUA3KC0_xRgCLcBGAs/s1600/This%2BBeach%2BHas%2BSand%2BThat%2BLooks%2BExactly%2BLike%2BPopcorn%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="This Beach Has Sand That Looks Exactly Like Popcorn" border="0" data-original-height="1127" data-original-width="1199" height="600" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LzWXnp6EJR4/XA6oDb-IzOI/AAAAAAAAQo0/xIxo4YmjBUQsTBoY9sPSMDSUA3KC0_xRgCLcBGAs/s640/This%2BBeach%2BHas%2BSand%2BThat%2BLooks%2BExactly%2BLike%2BPopcorn%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo By: @_irens_/Instagram</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> If you thought there were only sand and pebble beaches in the world, then you’re in for a surprise.<br /> <br /> There’s a bay in the Canary Islands where the coastline looks like it’s paved with popcorn and it’s a big hit on Instagram.<br /> <br /> Situated in Corralejo, a town on the island of Fuerteventura, the stretch of coastline is known as Popcorn Beach or Popcorn Bay.<br /> <br /> From afar, it looks just like any other beach on the Spanish island. But look closely and you will see what looks like pieces of popped corn covering the surface.<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> White coral, which has been eroded by the sea and washed out to shore is intermingled with black sand and volcanic rocks, making it look very much like popcorn.<br /> <br /> The coral varies in size — some look exactly like popcorn while others are huge.<br /> <br /> Thousands of tourists visit the Cycladic island every year and post photos of what could be mistaken for a landscape on the planet Mars, with beaches featuring dramatic and craggy red cliffs hugged by velvety black volcanic sands.<br /> <br /> In Crete meanwhile, Elafonisi beach is known for is soft and powdery pink sands which tease the turquoise Aegean waters.<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7xM5s-kyM2E/XA6uGhDZeRI/AAAAAAAAQpA/PWWox3PSK8oeaf_oLGx_EryXdOFYFyVJgCLcBGAs/s1600/This%2BBeach%2BHas%2BSand%2BThat%2BLooks%2BExactly%2BLike%2BPopcorns%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="This Beach Has Sand That Looks Exactly Like Popcorn" border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7xM5s-kyM2E/XA6uGhDZeRI/AAAAAAAAQpA/PWWox3PSK8oeaf_oLGx_EryXdOFYFyVJgCLcBGAs/s640/This%2BBeach%2BHas%2BSand%2BThat%2BLooks%2BExactly%2BLike%2BPopcorns%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo By: @latemoon83/Instagram</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /></div> <script async="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script></div>

This Beach Has Sand That Looks Exactly Like Popcorn

Photo By: @_irens_/Instagram If you thought there were only sand and pebble beaches in the world, then you’re in for a surprise. Th...

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Gemstone Turns Out to Be Fossil of an Unknown Dinosaur

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rVJ0-VZA5-I/XA1SCw48UpI/AAAAAAAAQoc/qav5oAyEODkOd3ioYpJkVelVVMkdwddngCLcBGAs/s1600/Sparkly%252C%2Bopal-filled%2Bfossils%2Breveal%2Bnew%2Bdinosaur%2Bspecies%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Gemstone turns out to be fossil of an unknown dinosaur" border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1202" height="434" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rVJ0-VZA5-I/XA1SCw48UpI/AAAAAAAAQoc/qav5oAyEODkOd3ioYpJkVelVVMkdwddngCLcBGAs/s640/Sparkly%252C%2Bopal-filled%2Bfossils%2Breveal%2Bnew%2Bdinosaur%2Bspecies%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Opal boulders in Coober Pedy, Australia. Dmitry Chulov/Shutterstock</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A new kelpie-sized dinosaur has been identified in the Lightning Ridge opal fields, 100 million years after it roamed prehistoric floodplains.</span><br /> <br /> A new dinosaur has been added to the more than 700 already named after a chance discovery of a jawbone fragment in a bucket of opal rubble from near Lightning Ridge, New South Wales.<br /> <br /> The kelpie-sized reptile, which lived in the Cretaceous Period about 100 million years ago, has been dubbed Weewarrasaurus pobeni – a name that recognises the fossil’s unearthing in the Wee Warra opal field, and honours Mike Poben, an Adelaide-based opal buyer who donated the specimen for research.<br /> <br /> It is the first new dinosaur to be named in NSW in nearly a century.<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> Weewarrasaurus was an ornithopod dinosaur, part of a group of small plant-eating species that moved around on two legs and that were particularly abundant on the ancient floodplains that covered the region 100 million years ago.<br /> <br /> Like all fossils from the Lightning Ridge opal mines, the lower jaw—the only piece of the animal recovered—is preserved in opal. Precious opal gives off a rainbow of colours, in this case shimmering green and blue.<br /> <br /> Lightning Ridge is the only place in the world where dinosaur bones routinely turn to opal.<br /> <br /> Palaeontologist Dr Phil Bell from the University of New England in Armidale, who led the research, said, “I remember Mike showing me the specimen and my jaw dropped. I had to try hard to contain my excitement, it was so beautiful”.<br /> <br /> Although only the lower jaw of the new animal has been identified so far, even that might never have been found if it were not for Mr Poben’s keen eyes.<br /> <br /> “I was sorting some rough opal when, astonishingly, I saw two fan-like ridges protruding from the dirt around one oddly-shaped piece," said Mr Poben. “Time froze: if these were teeth, then this was an opalised jawbone fragment.”<br /> <br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p9MK_ABm1Nc/XA1VHcR1JiI/AAAAAAAAQoo/6rnFToa4ZrU2OFFt3kfncPDqBX0di97sgCLcBGAs/s1600/Opal%2Bboulders%2Bin%2BCoober%2BPedy%252C%2BAustralia..png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="886" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p9MK_ABm1Nc/XA1VHcR1JiI/AAAAAAAAQoo/6rnFToa4ZrU2OFFt3kfncPDqBX0di97sgCLcBGAs/s640/Opal%2Bboulders%2Bin%2BCoober%2BPedy%252C%2BAustralia..png" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Right Lower Jaw of Weewarrasaurus Showcases the Rainbow Hues of Opal in the Fossil.<br /> Photograph by Robert a. Smith</td></tr> </tbody></table> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> Dr Bell regards Lightning Ridge as a world-class fossil resource because it preserves a unique suite of Cretaceous fauna. “If these fossils were in surface rock, like those found in China and Mongolia, it would be an absolute treasure-trove,” he said.<br /> <br /> “Unfortunately, the fossil remnants we see are almost always part of mining spoil, because they sit in rock strata that is lies up to 30 metres underground. The mining process breaks the fossils into fragments – but on the other hand, we would never get to see even those fragments if it wasn’t for mining.”<br /> <br /> Jenni Brammall, palaeontologist, gemmologist and manager of the Australian Opal Centre in Lightning Ridge, describes the jawbone as “a supremely rare and unlikely discovery”.<br /> <br /> "This incredible little object is both the 100 million-year-old jaw of a new dinosaur species and a precious gemstone," she said.<br /> The Weewarrasaurus jaw is now part of the Australian Opal Centre collection, the world's most diverse public collection of opalised fossils.<br /> <br /> <br /> <u><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.une.edu.au/connect/news/2018/12/dog-sized-dinosaur-emerges-from-opal-rubble" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.une.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0011/344/une-logo.png?v=0.1.7" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The University of New England.</a></span></i></u></div>

Gemstone Turns Out to Be Fossil of an Unknown Dinosaur

Opal boulders in Coober Pedy, Australia. Dmitry Chulov/Shutterstock A new kelpie-sized dinosaur has been identified in the Lightning R...

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Volcanoes Fueled by 'Mush' Reservoirs, Not Magma Chambers

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j_rXVnHrC2s/XAfjBPK96DI/AAAAAAAAQoQ/IyD-pMF3KosnYia4u3U2RlrpW8rjXvzBwCLcBGAs/s1600/manua_ulu_fountain_small_august_1969%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Volcanoes Fueled by 'mush' Reservoirs, Not Magma Chambers" border="0" data-original-height="808" data-original-width="1179" height="438" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j_rXVnHrC2s/XAfjBPK96DI/AAAAAAAAQoQ/IyD-pMF3KosnYia4u3U2RlrpW8rjXvzBwCLcBGAs/s640/manua_ulu_fountain_small_august_1969%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: (USGS)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Volcanoes are not fed by molten magma formed in large chambers finds a new study, overturning classic ideas about volcanic eruptions.<br /> <br /> Instead, the study suggests that volcanoes are fed by so-called 'mush reservoirs' -- areas of mostly solid crystals with magma in the small spaces between the crystals.<br /> <br /> Our understanding of volcanic processes, including those leading to the largest eruptions, has been based on magma being stored in liquid-filled 'magma' chambers -- large, underground caves full of liquid magma. However, these have never been observed.<br /> <br /> The new study, by researchers at Imperial College London and the University of Bristol and published today in Nature, suggests the fundamental assumption of a magma chamber needs a re-think.<br /> <br /> Lead author Professor Matthew Jackson, from the Department of Earth Sciences and Engineering at Imperial, said: "We now need to look again at how and why eruptions occur from mush reservoirs. We can apply our findings to understanding volcanic eruptions with implications for public safety and also to understand the formation of metal ore deposits associated with volcanic systems."<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> In order to erupt, volcanoes need a source of magma -- melted, liquid rock -- containing relatively few solid crystals. Traditionally, this magma was thought to be formed and stored in a large underground cave, called a magma chamber.<br /> <br /> Recent studies of magma chemistry have challenged this view, leading to the suggestion of the mush reservoir model, where smaller pools of magma sit in the small gaps between solid crystals. However, the mush reservoir model could not explain how magmas containing relatively few crystals arise and are delivered to volcanoes in order for them to erupt at the surface.<br /> <br /> Now, with sophisticated modelling of mush reservoirs, the research team has come up with a solution. Within the mush reservoir scenario, the magma is less dense than the crystals, causing it to rise up through the spaces between them.<br /> <br /> As it rises, the magma reacts with the crystals, melting them and leading to local areas containing magma with relatively few crystals. It is these short-lived areas of increased magma that can lead to eruptions.<br /> <br /> Co-author Professor Stephen Sparks, from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, said: "A major mystery about volcanoes is that they were thought to be underlain by large chambers of molten rock. Such magma chambers, however, were very difficult to find.<br /> <br /> "The new idea developed by geologists at Imperial and Bristol is that molten rock forms within largely crystalline hot rocks, spending most of its time in little pores within the rock rather than in large magma chambers. However, the rock melt is slowly squeezed out to form pools of melt, which can then erupt or form ephemeral magma chambers."<br /> <br /> As well as the initiation of eruptions, the new mush reservoir model can help explain other phenomena in volcanic systems, such as how the magma chemical composition evolves and how much older crystals can be erupted within younger magmas.<br /> <br /> <br /> <u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/189371/volcanoes-mush-reservoirs-rather-than-molten/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Imperial College London</a>. Original written by Hayley Dunning. <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /> </span></span></i></u></div>

Volcanoes Fueled by 'Mush' Reservoirs, Not Magma Chambers

Photo: (USGS) Volcanoes are not fed by molten magma formed in large chambers finds a new study, overturning classic ideas about volcan...

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Fossil Algae Reveal 500 Million Years of Climate Change

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HrECD4grtx8/XAKl1G1FL4I/AAAAAAAAQn4/s-JTUateLoEMm4fFwB3dDJAE8hbh7agVwCLcBGAs/s1600/fossil%2Balgae%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Fossil Algae Reveal 500 Million Years of Climate Change" border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="1240" height="370" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HrECD4grtx8/XAKl1G1FL4I/AAAAAAAAQn4/s-JTUateLoEMm4fFwB3dDJAE8hbh7agVwCLcBGAs/s640/fossil%2Balgae%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fossil Algae. Photo: James St. John</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> Earth scientists are able to travel far back in time to reconstruct the geological past and paleoclimate to make better predictions about future climate conditions. Scientists at the Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and Utrecht University succeeded in developing a new indicator (proxy) of ancient CO₂-levels, using the organic molecule phytane, a debris product of chlorophyll. This new organic proxy not only provides the most continuous record of CO2-concentrations ever, it also breaks a record in its time span, covering half a billion years. The data show the present idea that rises in CO2-levels that used to take millions of years, are now happening in a century. These findings are published in Science Advances on November 28th.<br /> <br /> As CO₂ increases today, it's vital to understand what impact these changes will have. To better predict the future, we must understand long-term changes in CO₂ over geologic history. Direct measurements of past CO₂ are available, e.g. bubbles in ice cores containing ancient gases. However, ice cores have a limited time span of one million years. To go farther back in time, earth scientists have developed various indirect measurements of CO₂ from proxies e.g. from algae, leaves, ancient soils and chemicals stored in ancient sediments to reconstruct past environmental conditions.<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Phytane, a new way to travel in time</span></h4> <div style="text-align: left;"> A new proxy, using a degradation product of chlorophyll, allows geochemists to infer a continuous record of historic CO₂-levels in deep time. Scientists at NIOZ have recently developed phytane as a promising new organic proxy that uncovers half a billion years of CO₂-levels in the oceans, from the Cambrian until recent times.<br /> <br /> Using the new proxy, they were able to make the most continuous record of ancient carbon dioxide levels ever. "We developed and validated a new way to time travel -- going farther back in time and to more places," says NIOZ-scientist Caitlyn Witkowski. "With phytane, we now have the longest CO₂-record with one single marine proxy. This new data is invaluable to modelers who can now more accurately make predictions of the future."<br /> <br /> Witkowski and colleagues selected more than 300 samples of marine sediments from deep sea cores and oils from all over the globe, reflecting the majority of geological periods in the last 500 million years.</div> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fossil molecules</span></h4> <div style="text-align: left;"> Past chemical reactions can be 'stored' in fossil molecules, and so they may reflect various ancient environmental conditions. Geochemists are able to 'read' these conditions, such as seawater temperature, pH, salinity and CO₂-levels. Organic matter, such as phytane, reflects the pressure of CO₂ in ocean water or the atmosphere (pCO₂).</div> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Little green miracles</span></h4> <div style="text-align: left;"> Although all organic matter has the potential to reflect CO₂, phytane is special. Phytane is the pigment responsible for our green world. Anything that uses photosynthesis to absorb sunlight, including plants, algae, and some species of bacteria, has chlorophyll from which phytane comes. Plants and algae take in CO₂ and produce oxygen. Without these little green miracles, our world just wouldn't be the same.<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> Because chlorophyll is found all around the world, phytane is also everywhere and is a major constituent of decayed and fossilized biomass. "Phytane doesn't chemically change over the course of time, even if it is millions of years old," Witkowski says.</div> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Carbon isotope fractionation</span></h4> <div style="text-align: left;"> CO₂ of the past is estimated from organic matter, such as phytane, through the phenomenon of carbon isotope fractionation during photosynthesis. When taking up CO₂, plants and algae prefer the light carbon isotope (12C) over the heavy carbon isotope (13C). They only use the heavy carbon isotope when CO₂-levels in the surrounding water or atmosphere are low. The proportion between these two isotopes therefore reflects the level of carbon dioxide in the environment at the moment of growth.<br /> <br /> This also explains why Witkowski didn't use terrestrial plants as a source for her research, exclusively using phytane from (fossilized) marine sources. The plant world is divided into so-called C3- and C4-plants, each with their own unique ratio of light-to-heavy carbon. Phytoplankton all have very similar ratios compared to their plant counterparts. Witkowski: "By choosing only marine sources, we could limit uncertainty of the phytane source in the dataset."<br /> <br /> "In our data, we see high levels of carbon dioxide, reaching 1000 ppm as opposed to today's 410 ppm. In this respect, present day levels are not unique, but the speed of these changes have never been seen before. Changes that typically take millions of years are now happening in a century. This additional CO₂-data may help us understand the future of our planet." In future research, phytane can be used to go even further back in time than the Phanerozoic, the earliest found in two billion-year-old samples.</div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <br /></div> <u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on Materials provided by <a href="http://www.nioz.nl/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research</a>.</span></u></div> </div>

Fossil Algae Reveal 500 Million Years of Climate Change

Fossil Algae. Photo: James St. John Earth scientists are able to travel far back in time to reconstruct the geological past and pale...

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A Mystery Seismic Wave Just Swept Earth—but Scientists Can't Work Out Why

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--0PulrEdnPE/XAFgTguF_uI/AAAAAAAAQns/twGX_ulJSvgoHRAqv72tfqrjgb9CImoMACLcBGAs/s1600/A%2BMystery%2BSeismic%2BWave%2BJust%2BSwept%2BEarth%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="776" data-original-width="1192" height="416" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--0PulrEdnPE/XAFgTguF_uI/AAAAAAAAQns/twGX_ulJSvgoHRAqv72tfqrjgb9CImoMACLcBGAs/s640/A%2BMystery%2BSeismic%2BWave%2BJust%2BSwept%2BEarth%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seismic signals originating off the coast of the small French island of Mayott were detected at seismology station ranging from Chile to New Zealand<br /></td></tr> </tbody></table> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <br /><div style="text-align: left;"> Scientists are at a loss to explain a strange seismic event that shook the planet on November 11 and was picked up by earthquake sensors stationed across the globe.<br /> <br /> While the cause of this mysterious disturbance remains unknown, it's somehow linked to an ongoing seismic swarm that's been rumbling the archipelago of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean for several months – but just what these unusual tremors ultimately signify remains unclear.<br /> <br /> "I don't think I've seen anything like it," seismologist Göran Ekström from Columbia University told National Geographic about the November 11 anomaly.<br /> <br /> Almost exactly half a year before this strange signal turned up, seismologists were surprised by another kind of abnormal seismic activity in the same vicinity: a swarm of hundreds of small and frequent earthquakes originating about 50 kilometres (31 miles) off the east coast of Mayotte.<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> The network of islands and islets, located roughly halfway between Africa and Madagascar, is governed by France, but is also claimed by the island nation of Comoros.<br /> <br /> On the morning of May 10, this region was rocked by a quake that turned up without warning, and which didn't come alone – being followed by a series of hundreds of tremors that have yet to disappear.<br /> <br /> The most dramatic of these – a 5.8 magnitude event on May 15 – was the largest quake ever recorded in the Comoros basin, and while the swarm has generally lessened in intensity since, a 5.1 magnitude resurgence just this week served as a not-so-subtle reminder that this earthly turbulence isn't over.<br /> <br /> While earthquake swarms sound alarming, they're not necessarily dangerous events.<br /> <br /> In this case, a preliminary analysis of the seismic swarm by researchers at the École normale supérieure in Paris suggests the tremors can't be accounted for by tectonic movement alone, meaning volcanic activity in the region must also be involved.</div> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Which brings us to November 11.</span></h4> <div style="text-align: left;"> Less than three weeks ago – during the swarm, but on a day when no swarm tremors were actually detected – scientists registered something else: a strange, long, and flat vibration that hummed consistently, without the spiky fluctuations that are a signature of usual quake activity.<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <div dir="ltr" lang="en"> Assuming epicenters just east of Mayotte, high-frequency (lower trace) arrivals at SBV correspond well to P & S from at least 3 sources resembling tectonic earthquakes, & the long period wave train (upper trace) correspond to the set of Rayleigh surface waves from these sources. <a href="https://t.co/zOvAPFxonW">pic.twitter.com/zOvAPFxonW</a></div> — Anthony Lomax 🌍🇪🇺 (@ALomaxNet) <a href="https://twitter.com/ALomaxNet/status/1061727601864130560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /> Instead, this "atypical very low frequency signal" – to quote France's Bureau de Recherches Géologiques (BRGM) – repeated in a wave about every 17 seconds, lasting for about 20 minutes in total.<br /> <br /> "There are a lot things we don't know," research engineer Nicolas Taillefer, the head of BRGM's seismic and volcanic risk unit, told National Geographic.<br /> <br /> If the hypothesis turns out to be correct, nobody can say for sure what might happen, but the modelling indicates Mayotte may keep moving as long as the swarm persists.<br /> <br /> As for whether we'll encounter the mysterious signal again, nobody knows.<br /> <br /> "These observations therefore back up the hypothesis of a combination of tectonic and volcanic effects accounting for a geological phenomenon involving a seismic sequence and a volcanic phenomenon," the BRGM explains.<br /> <br /> "This hypothesis will need to be confirmed by future scientific studies."</div> </div>

A Mystery Seismic Wave Just Swept Earth—but Scientists Can't Work Out Why

Seismic signals originating off the coast of the small French island of Mayott were detected at seismology station ranging from Chile to ...

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Blood-sucking Flies Have Been Spreading Malaria for 100 Million Years

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L5oQ34eISIw/W_7GdntO8sI/AAAAAAAAQnY/wAvjJrSP8eIGHqrZ3DjO03hgUIEzhy8wACLcBGAs/s1600/Blood-sucking%2BFlies%2BHave%2BBeen%2BSpreading%2BMalaria%2Bfor%2B100%2BMillion%2BYears.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="1187" height="510" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L5oQ34eISIw/W_7GdntO8sI/AAAAAAAAQnY/wAvjJrSP8eIGHqrZ3DjO03hgUIEzhy8wACLcBGAs/s640/Blood-sucking%2BFlies%2BHave%2BBeen%2BSpreading%2BMalaria%2Bfor%2B100%2BMillion%2BYears.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pictured is a black fly preserved in amber. Credit: Oregon State University</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> Mosquitoes, Other Blood-sucking Flies Have Been Spreading Malaria for Up to 100 Million Years</h4> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The microorganisms that cause malaria, leishmaniasis and a variety of other illnesses today can be traced back at least to the time of dinosaurs, a study of amber-preserved blood-sucking insects and ticks show.</span><br /> <br /> In addition to demonstrating the antiquity of vectors and their long-term association with parasitic microorganisms, the findings are remarkable for several reasons.<br /> <br /> First, bloodsuckers like mosquitoes, fleas, sand flies, ticks and biting midges aren't frequently found in amber, and rarer yet is evidence of any microorganisms they might have been carrying.<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> But a review by entomologist George Poinar of Oregon State University showed that amber from five regions around the world contained hematophagous arthropods carrying preserved, identifiable pathogens and parasites.<br /> <br /> "Feeding on vertebrate blood evolved as an efficient way for certain insects and acarines to get protein for growth and reproduction," said Poinar, professor emeritus in the College of Science and an international expert on plant and animal life forms found preserved in amber. "It's likely that primitive mosquitoes and other arthropod vectors were present back in the Jurassic and were even transmitting pathogens at that period. This would have resulted in widely dispersed diseases, many of which were probably fatal to vertebrates when they first appeared."<br /> <br /> Poinar looked at bloodsucking insects and ticks encased in Dominican, Mexican, Baltic, Canadian and Burmese amber dating back from 15 million to 100 million years.<br /> <br /> Among the vectors were mosquitoes, sand flies, biting midges, bat flies, black flies, fleas, kissing bugs and ticks. They carry a cornucopia of microorganisms that today cause diseases such as filariasis, sleeping sickness, river blindness, typhus, Lyme disease and, perhaps most significantly, malaria.<br /> <br /> Malaria remains a relentless public health concern, with multiple nations reporting increases in infections for 2018. In Venezuela alone, Poinar notes, more than 650,000 new cases of malaria have been reported this year.<br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /></div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p9bEZ685k68/W_7G5HEF0rI/AAAAAAAAQng/_maZ15e_0R4wL6o-FOBtgmi266aI8y_GACLcBGAs/s1600/1-mosquitoesot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="800" height="384" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p9bEZ685k68/W_7G5HEF0rI/AAAAAAAAQng/_maZ15e_0R4wL6o-FOBtgmi266aI8y_GACLcBGAs/s640/1-mosquitoesot.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pictured is a black fly preserved in amber. Credit: Oregon State University</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> "Numerous malaria species parasitize vertebrates today, and we now know that over the past 100 million years, malaria was being vectored by mosquitoes, biting midges, bat flies and ticks," Poinar said. "Obtaining fossil records of pathogens carried by biting arthropods establishes a timeline when and where various diseases appeared and how they could have affected the survival, extinction and distribution of vertebrates over time."<br /> <br /> Poinar stresses, however, that while his research shows what parasites and pathogens specific bloodsuckers were transmitting at particular periods and locations in the past, "these fossils are not old enough to tell us when and how associations between vectors, pathogens and vertebrates originated."<br /> <br /> Poinar believes that the microorganisms first infected blood-sucking arthropods and only after equilibria had been reached between them were the microorganisms then vectored to vertebrates.<br /> <br /> "That topic has been and will continue to be under discussion for years to come," he said.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <i><u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/mosquitoes-other-blood-sucking-flies-have-been-spreading-malaria-100-million-years" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://oregonstate.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Oregon State University</a>. Original written by Steve Lundeberg. </span></u></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /> </span></div>

Blood-sucking Flies Have Been Spreading Malaria for 100 Million Years

Pictured is a black fly preserved in amber. Credit: Oregon State University Mosquitoes, Other Blood-sucking Flies Have Been Spreadi...

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