Billion-year-old Seaweed is Oldest Green Plant Fossil Ever Found

<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/-6UcJKJQyKwQ/XlU4gh9gp3I/AAAAAAAAR8o/p77fIvw3ImwVhIqNrC9MvVewOGRRcdZuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Billion-year-old%2BSeaweed%2Bis%2BOldest%2BGreen%2BPlant%2BFossil%2BEver%2BFound.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1352" height="382" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6UcJKJQyKwQ/XlU4gh9gp3I/AAAAAAAAR8o/p77fIvw3ImwVhIqNrC9MvVewOGRRcdZuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Billion-year-old%2BSeaweed%2Bis%2BOldest%2BGreen%2BPlant%2BFossil%2BEver%2BFound.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Green seaweeds, which may have looked like this when they were alive, might be ancestors to all land plants<br /> Photo: Dinghua Yang</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Billion-year-old fossil seaweeds found in China could be the ancestors of all land plants. The tiny seaweeds have branching structures and disc-shaped features to fix them to rocks, making them the oldest complex plants yet discovered.<br /> <br /> Virginia Tech paleontologists have made a remarkable discovery in China: 1 billion-year-old micro-fossils of green seaweeds that could be related to the ancestor of the earliest land plants and trees that first developed 450 million years ago.<br /> <br /> The micro-fossil seaweeds -- a form of algae known as Proterocladus antiquus -- are barely visible to the naked eyed at 2 millimeters in length, or roughly the size of a typical flea. Professor Shuhai Xiao said the fossils are the oldest green seaweeds ever found. They were imprinted in rock taken from an area of dry land -- formerly ocean -- near the city of Dalian in the Liaoning Province of northern China. Previously, the earliest convincing fossil record of green seaweeds were found in rock dated at roughly 800 million years old.<br /> <br /> The findings -- led by Xiao and Qing Tang, a post-doctoral researcher, both in the Department of Geosciences, part of the Virginia Tech College of Science -- are featured in the latest issue of Nature Ecology & Evolution.<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> "These new fossils suggest that green seaweeds were important players in the ocean long before their land-plant descendants moved and took control of dry land," Xiao said.<br /> <br /> "The entire biosphere is largely dependent on plants and algae for food and oxygen, yet land plants did not evolve until about 450 million years ago," Xiao said. "Our study shows that green seaweeds evolved no later than 1 billion years ago, pushing back the record of green seaweeds by about 200 million years. What kind of seaweeds supplied food to the marine ecosystem?"<br /> <br /> Shuhai said the current hypothesis is that land plants -- the trees, grasses, food crops, bushes, even kudzu -- evolved from green seaweeds, which were aquatic plants. Through geological time -- millions upon millions of years -- they moved out of the water and became adapted to and prospered on dry land, their new natural environment. "These fossils are related to the ancestors of all the modern land plants we see today."<br /> <br /> However, Xiao added the caveat that not all geobiologists are on the same page -- that debate on the origins of green plants remains debated. "Not everyone agrees with us; some scientists think that green plants started in rivers and lakes, and then conquered the ocean and land later," added Xiao, a member of the Virginia Tech Global Change Center.<br /> <br /> There are three main types of seaweed: brown (Phaeophyceae), green (Chlorophyta), and red (Rhodophyta), and thousands of species of each kind. Fossils of red seaweed, which are now common on ocean floors, have been dated as far back as 1.047 billion years old.<br /> <br /> "There are some modern green seaweeds that look very similar to the fossils that we found," Xiao said. "A group of modern green seaweeds, known as siphonocladaleans, are particularly similar in shape and size to the fossils we found."<br /> <br /> Photosynthetic plants are, of course, vital to the ecological balance of the planet because they produce organic carbon and oxygen through photosynthesis, and they provide food and the basis of shelter for untold numbers of mammals, fish, and more. Yet, going back 2 billion years, Earth had no green plants at all in oceans, Xiao said.<br /> <br /> It was Tang who discovered the micro-fossils of the seaweeds using an electronic microscope at Virginia Tech's campus and brought it to Xiao's attention. To more easily see the fossils, mineral oil was dripped onto the fossil to create a strong contrast.<br /> <br /> "These seaweeds display multiple branches, upright growths, and specialized cells known as akinetes that are very common in this type of fossil," he said. "Taken together, these features strongly suggest that the fossil is a green seaweed with complex multicellularity that is circa 1 billion years old. These likely represent the earliest fossil of green seaweeds. In short, our study tells us that the ubiquitous green plants we see today can be traced back to at least 1 billion years."<br /> <br /> According to Xiao and Tang, the tiny seaweeds once lived in a shallow ocean, died, and then became "cooked" beneath a thick pile of sediment, preserving the organic shapes of the seaweeds as fossils. Many millions of years later, the sediment was then lifted up out of the ocean and became the dry land where the fossils were retrieved by Xiao and his team, which included scientists from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology in China.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/02/science-billion_year_old_seaweed.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.vt.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Virginia Tech</a>.</span></i></u></div>

Billion-year-old Seaweed is Oldest Green Plant Fossil Ever Found

Green seaweeds, which may have looked like this when they were alive, might be ancestors to all land plants Photo: Dinghua Yang Billi...

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Earth Has a New Geologic Age: The Chibanian

<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/-pKXIg4s9vJw/XlKnG_h5EHI/AAAAAAAAR8c/ycSMXih1T-AnFtijU6ZW0vNchu91V_L5wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/earth-has-a-brand-recent-geologic-age-the-chibanian%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pKXIg4s9vJw/XlKnG_h5EHI/AAAAAAAAR8c/ycSMXih1T-AnFtijU6ZW0vNchu91V_L5wCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/earth-has-a-brand-recent-geologic-age-the-chibanian%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A photo shows the cliffside in Japan's Chiba prefecture that's part of a line of sediment that recorded the geologic history of the planet between 770,000 and 126,000 years ago. (Image: © Kyodo/Newscom)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The newly named period in the Pleistocene identifies a key moment in geological history: the last time Earth’s magnetic poles switched places.</span><br /> <br /> About 770,000 years ago, Earth’s magnetic fields reversed, swapping magnetic north and south for the last known time. That ushered in a new geological age — and scientists have now named it.<br /> <br /> At a recent meeting of the International Union of Geological Sciences, geophysicists officially named the time between 770,000 and 126,000 years ago the Chibanian age.<br /> <br /> Geologic ages are part of the geological time scale, a dating system that matches layers of rock to time.<br /> <br /> Ages are tied to geologic events such as the development of Greenland’s ice sheet (the Piacenzian age) or the appearance of the trilobite species Glyptagnostus reticulatus (the Paibian age).<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 Chibanian age is named after the Japanese prefecture Chiba, home to the city of Ichihara. A cliff wall was found there with an exposed layer of marine deposits and mineral debris about 770,000 years old.<br /> <br /> When geologists studied the minerals inside, they found evidence of the last known shifting of Earth’s magnetic fields. The planet’s outer core generates its magnetic field, a kind of shield that protects Earth from solar wind.<br /> <br /> As molten rock cools, iron-bearing minerals form. They align themselves with the magnetic field, then solidify, acting as a kind of snapshot of Earth’s magnetic field at the time cooling occurred.<br /> <br /> The minerals in Chiba allowed geologists to date the last known switch of magnetic fields to about 774,000 years ago. They named the reversal event the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal in honor of Bernard Brunhes, a pioneer in paleomagnetism, and Motonori Matuyama, who first suggested Earth’s magnetic field undergoes periodic reversals.<br /> <br /> Most sites that define measures of geologic time are in Europe, so the Japanese site is an outlier in the geological world.<br /> <br /> “In that section in Chiba, you have one of the best records of the reversal interval of anywhere in the world,” geologist Stanley Finney told Tim Hornyak of Eos, an Earth and planetary science publication. “It’s a significant record of past Earth history that helps us see what may happen now.”<br /> <br /> Earth’s magnetic poles are on the move again, and a flip could hurt humans and animals and wreak havoc on technology. But it is unclear how long a reversal could take. The Brunhes-Matuyama reversal is thought to have taken about 22,000 years — if repeated, perhaps that would be long enough for humanity to come up with a plan.<br /> <br /> <br /> The above story is based on <a href="https://eos.org/articles/japan-puts-its-mark-on-geologic-time-with-the-chibanian-age" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by American Geophysical Union.</div>

Earth Has a New Geologic Age: The Chibanian

A photo shows the cliffside in Japan's Chiba prefecture that's part of a line of sediment that recorded the geologic history of t...

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Frozen Bird Found in Siberia is 46,000 Years Old

<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/-i61vzehBw4M/XlE7J3jYT0I/AAAAAAAAR8Q/-T5msnGVupkRV4Vn3ZwNOSt0bsxx4alMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Fossil%2Bhunters%2Bfind%2B%2527ice%2Bbird%2527%2B%25281%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="749" data-original-width="1198" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i61vzehBw4M/XlE7J3jYT0I/AAAAAAAAR8Q/-T5msnGVupkRV4Vn3ZwNOSt0bsxx4alMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Fossil%2Bhunters%2Bfind%2B%2527ice%2Bbird%2527%2B%25281%2529.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This 46,000-year-old 'ice bird' was so well preserved that fossil hunters mistook it for an unfortunate creature that 'died yesterday' - only to realise they had found the first ever Ice Age bird specimen CREDIT: Valeri Plotnikov /Kennedy News</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fossil hunters find 'ice bird' from 46,000 years ago that looks like it died 'yesterday'</span><br /> <br /> Scientists have recovered DNA from a well-preserved horned lark found in Siberian permafrost. The results can contribute to explaining the evolution of sub species, as well as how the mammoth steppe transformed into tundra, forest and steppe biomes at the end of the last Ice Age.<br /> <br /> In 2018, a well-preserved frozen bird was found in the ground in the Belaya Gora area of north-eastern Siberia. Researchers at the Centre for Palaeogenetics, a new research center at Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History, haves studied the bird and the results are now published in the scientific journal Communications Biology. The analyses reveals that the bird is a 46,000-year-old female horned lark.<br /> <br /> "Not only can we identify the bird as a horned lark. The genetic analysis also suggests that the bird belonged to a population that was a joint ancestor of two sub species of horned lark living today, one in Siberia, and one in the steppe in Mongolia. This helps us understand how the diversity of sub species evolves," says Nicolas Dussex, researcher at the Department of Zoology at Stockholm University.<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 result has significance on another level as well. During the last Ice Age, the mammoth steppe spread out over northern Europe and Asia. The steppe was home to now extinct species such as the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros.<br /> <br /> According to one theory, this ecosystem was a mosaic of habitats such as steppe, tundra and coniferous forest. At the end of the last Ice Age, the mammoth steppe was divided into the biotopes we know today -- tundra in the north, taiga in the middle and steppe in the south.<br /> <br /> "Our results support this theory since the diversification of the horned lark into these sub species seems to have happened about at the same time as the mammoth steppe disappeared," says Love Dalén, Professor at the Swedish Museum of Natural History and research leader at the Centre for Palaeogenetics.<br /> <br /> In the slightly longer term the researchers´ ambition is to map the complete genome of the 46,000-year-old lark and compare it with the genomes from all sub species of horned larks.<br /> <br /> "The new laboratory facilities and the intellectual environment at the Centre for Palaeogenetics will definitely be helpful in these analyses," says Love Dalén.<br /> <br /> The researchers at the Centre for Palaeogenetics have access to plenty of samples from similar findings from the same site in Siberia, including the 18,000-year-old puppy called "Dogor" which the researchers are are studying to determine if it is a wolf or a dog. Other findings include the 50,000-year-old cave lion cub "Spartak" and a partially preserved woolly mammoth.<br /> <br /> <br /> <u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.su.se/english/research/research-news/frozen-bird-turns-out-to-be-46-000-year-old-horned-lark-1.486390" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.su.se/english" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stockholm University</a>. </span></i></u><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>

Frozen Bird Found in Siberia is 46,000 Years Old

This 46,000-year-old 'ice bird' was so well preserved that fossil hunters mistook it for an unfortunate creature that 'died y...

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Rare And Fleeting 'Volcanoes' Have Been Erupting at Lake Michigan

<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/-XLYZ47FwcOs/Xk6dBYWMuFI/AAAAAAAAR8E/5PMJqCG7gXo3PEAOozHYWgNdfh8c_0PmwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/ice-volcano-1-NWS-Grand-Rapids.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XLYZ47FwcOs/Xk6dBYWMuFI/AAAAAAAAR8E/5PMJqCG7gXo3PEAOozHYWgNdfh8c_0PmwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/ice-volcano-1-NWS-Grand-Rapids.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Ice volcanoes" can be seen erupted on Sunday along the shore of Lake Michigan. (National Weather Service Grand Rapids)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">'Ice Volcanoes' Erupt on Michigan Beach During Arctic Blast</span></h4> Not all volcanoes spew fiery molten rock. On rare occasions, in the cold dark winter, the shores of Lake Michigan can also belch up eruptions of slushy ice.<br /> <br /> Recent photos shared by the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids have now captured these rare and fleeting 'ice volcanoes' in action.<br /> <br /> "You never know what you'll find at the lake until you go out there," tweeted the NWS of Grand Rapids.<br /> <br /> "Today it was volcanoes."<br /> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <div dir="ltr" lang="en"> It was a great day to visit the beach and watch the waves interact with the ice. Here's a couple "ice volcanoes" erupting at Oval Beach on Sunday, February 16, 2020. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/miwx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#miwx</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wmiwx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#wmiwx</a> <a href="https://t.co/B0Vkl18RrN">pic.twitter.com/B0Vkl18RrN</a></div> — NWS Grand Rapids (@NWSGrandRapids) <a href="https://twitter.com/NWSGrandRapids/status/1229155013517139968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /> Ice volcanoes are cone-shaped mounds of ice formed as part of the leading edge of an ice shelf as they build out into a lake. Despite having "volcano" as part of the name, they do not erupt hot, molten magma.<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> Obviously, these aren't volcanoes in the geological sense. The icy mounds you see are actually created by powerful waves pushing under the lake's ice sheet; as the pressure builds, water and slush bursts through any available crack.<br /> <br /> If the weather outside is just cold enough, this spray then freezes, building a volcano-like cone around the hole, which can climb up to eight metres high or, in some cases, even taller.<br /> <br /> "It needs to stay cold enough to keep the ice around, and waves need to be large enough to force water upwards against the ice shelf," Cort Spholten, a Grand Rapids meteorologist, told Bisma Parvez from Detroit Free Press.<br /> <br /> That doesn't happen very often. Besides, even when it does, these ice volcanoes are an ephemeral oddity, which is why they get people so excited when they do appear.<br /> <br /> Tom Niziol, a winter weather expert at The Weather Channel, said these were some of the best photos of ice volcanoes he'd seen. But while they're certainly beautiful to look at, he also warned about getting too close.<br /> <br /> "They can be very dangerous to climb on however because they are hollow and built over that hole in the ice," Niziol wrote on his Facebook page.<br /> <br /> "Don't ever go venturing out onto them!!"<br /> <br /> Remember: when you see an ice volcano, just marvel from afar.<br /> <br /> <br /> <u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above post is reprinted from <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/this-winter-lake-michigan-is-erupting-with-rare-and-fleeting-ice-volcanoes?perpetual=yes&limitstart=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">science alert.</a></span></i></u></div>

Rare And Fleeting 'Volcanoes' Have Been Erupting at Lake Michigan

"Ice volcanoes" can be seen erupted on Sunday along the shore of Lake Michigan. (National Weather Service Grand Rapids) &#...

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Chalcanthite: Facts About Chalcanthite

<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/-Ewy7qmmJ3Fs/XiZB8MM3kzI/AAAAAAAAR3s/UhnmRLCnqt4MWt4p5VDO8TkWRVpETka9gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Beautiful%2BChalcanthite%2Bfrom%2BPlanet%2BMine%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Facts About Chalcanthite" border="0" data-original-height="1128" data-original-width="1080" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ewy7qmmJ3Fs/XiZB8MM3kzI/AAAAAAAAR3s/UhnmRLCnqt4MWt4p5VDO8TkWRVpETka9gCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Beautiful%2BChalcanthite%2Bfrom%2BPlanet%2BMine%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="612" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beautiful Chalcanthite from Planet Mine, La Paz Co., Arizona <br /> Photo: @allans_minerals/Instagram</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Chalcanthite is a richly colored blue/green water-soluble sulfate mineral <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">CuSO₄·5H₂O</span>. It is commonly found in the late-stage oxidation zones of copper deposits. Due to its ready solubility, chalcanthite is more common in arid regions.<br /> <br /> If a Chalcanthite crystal looks to good to be <b>natural</b>, it probably is, as good natural crystals are very hard to come across. Natural Chalcanthite crystals are very rare in nature.<br /> <br /> Well-formed crystals are easily grown <b>synthetically </b>from copper sulfate solutions. This can be done by dissolving a readily available chemical salt called copper sulfate, and then letting the water evaporate.<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> Chalcanthite is a <b>pentahydrate </b>and the most common member of a group of similar hydrated sulfates, the chalcanthite <b>group</b>. These other sulfates are identical in chemical composition to chalcanthite, with the exception of replacement of the copper ion by either manganese as <b>jokokuite</b>, iron as <b>siderotil</b>, or magnesium as <b>pentahydrite</b>. <br /> <br /> Its blue crystals dehydrate to an opaque greenish-white powder on exposure to <b>dry air.</b><br /> <br /> Chalcanthite specimens must be kept away from water and moist conditions, since a chemical effect with water causes them to eventually crumble or dissolve.<br /> <br /> <b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Locality </span></b><br /> In the U.S., the most prominent locality for Chalcanthite specimens is the Planet Mine, La Paz Co., Arizona. Other Arizona occurrences include Bisbee, Cochise Co.; Ajo and Tiger, Pinal Co.; Globe, Gila Co.; Morenci, Greenlee Co; and the Patagonia District, Santa Cruz Co. Also occurs in Bingham Canyon, Salt Lake Co., Utah; and Ducktown, Polk Co., Tennessee.<br /> <br /> <span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Note of caution: </span></b></span>Chalcanthite is poisonous and should not be taste-tested, unless the lick is minor and it is spit out and rinsed immediately.<br /> <br /> <b>See also:</b><br /> <a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2019/10/crystal-habits-and-forms.html" target="_blank">Crystal Habits and Forms</a><br /> <a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2018/10/chrysanthemum-stone-natural-flower-stone.html" target="_blank">Chrysanthemum Stone: Natural Flower Stone</a></div>

Chalcanthite: Facts About Chalcanthite

Beautiful Chalcanthite from Planet Mine, La Paz Co., Arizona Photo: @allans_minerals/Instagram Chalcanthite is a richly colored blue/...

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More Than 99 Carats of Arkansas Diamonds Found at Park in 2019

<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/-6tFjWmgqkso/Xklb3D5kLRI/AAAAAAAAR7o/toIFyrkowio9OU-DKAiWq2Ej8mEZqEaqACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Woman%2BFinds%2B3.29%2BCarat%2BDiamond%2Bat%2BArkansas%2BState%2BPark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="More Than 99 Carats of Arkansas Diamonds Found at Park in 2019" border="0" data-original-height="771" data-original-width="1600" height="308" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6tFjWmgqkso/Xklb3D5kLRI/AAAAAAAAR7o/toIFyrkowio9OU-DKAiWq2Ej8mEZqEaqACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Woman%2BFinds%2B3.29%2BCarat%2BDiamond%2Bat%2BArkansas%2BState%2BPark.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pat Choate, of Jacksonville, found a 3.29-carat brown diamond she named "Illusive Dream," calling it a dream come true after many years of hard work searching for diamonds </td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> Visitors from Arkansas, 36 other states, and one foreign country found 491 diamonds during the year at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, including 336 white gems, 73 brown, and 82 yellow, a news release said.<br /> <br /> The total weight for all diamonds registered last year was 99.14 carats -- 22 carats heavier than all diamonds found in 2018, it said.<br /> <br /> The average weight of diamond found last year was around 20 points, or one-fifth of a carat. Though most were found by wet sifting, a method that involves sorting large quantities of gravel by size and weight, about one in every 10 diamonds were found on top of the ground at the park, including many of the year's largest finds, the release said.<br /> <br /> Visitors found about one diamond per day in January and February 2019. As visitation picked up in March, so did the number of finds. One hundred and one diamonds had been registered by the first day of spring last year, but only one of these weighed more than a carat. March was the busiest month for park visitation, as well as diamond finds, with 71 diamonds registered during the month, it 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> The rate of diamond finds remained fairly steady through spring and early summer, and heavy summer rains also brought heavier diamonds. By the end of July, park visitors had found 297 diamonds, including 10 weighing at least a carat. On July 24, Josh Lanik, of Hebron, Neb., found the first 2-carat-plus diamond of the year. Lanik found his 2.12-carat brandy-colored gem while surface searching near the West Drain of the park's diamond search area. He named it the "Lanik Family Diamond" in honor of an "unforgettable experience at Arkansas' diamond site," the release said.<br /> <br /> Three weeks later, Miranda Hollingshead, of Bogata, Texas, brought her family to the Crater of Diamonds after learning that the park is only a couple hours from her home. Hollingshead was sitting on the northeast side of the diamond search area on Aug. 16, watching a YouTube video about how to find diamonds, when she looked down and saw a 3.72-carat yellow diamond on top of the ground.<br /> <br /> "Hollingshead, a fan of superheroes, named her gem the 'Caro Avenger,'" the release said.<br /> <br /> To expose unsearched diamond-bearing material and create new opportunities for finds, in early fall the park conducted a trenching project along the south end of the search area. Shortly after the project wrapped up, longtime park visitors John and Pat Choate, of Jacksonville, registered their largest diamond find to date. While searching on Canary Hill in the search area on Oct. 22, Pat Choate found a 3.29-carat brown diamond on the surface of the plowed field. She named her gem the "Illusive Dream," calling it a "dream come true after many years of hard work searching for diamonds."<br /> <br /> By the end of last year, visitors had registered 18 diamonds weighing more than a carat at the park.<br /> <br /> "While most visitors don't find diamonds their first time here, experiences like these are bound to happen once in a while. It's the anticipation of the next diamond find that makes Crater of Diamonds State Park an exciting place to work at, and an even more exciting place to visit," the release said.<br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2016/08/the-only-diamond-mine-in-world-where.html" target="_blank">See:  The Only Diamond Mine In the World Where You Can Be the Miner</a><br /> <br /> <u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above post is reprinted from  <a href="https://www.hotsr.com/news/2020/jan/25/more-than-99-carats-of-arkansas-diamond/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Sentinel-Record.</a></span></i></u></div>

More Than 99 Carats of Arkansas Diamonds Found at Park in 2019

Pat Choate, of Jacksonville, found a 3.29-carat brown diamond she named "Illusive Dream," calling it a dream come true after ma...

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Is Black Quartz Natural?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_TOeKUOy2H0/XkgH6sfS5cI/AAAAAAAAR7E/jK5ycjhg1WIr0zAp193WIgMy1X6qILyewCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Is%2BBlack%2BQuartz%2BNatural%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1073" height="342" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_TOeKUOy2H0/XkgH6sfS5cI/AAAAAAAAR7E/jK5ycjhg1WIr0zAp193WIgMy1X6qILyewCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Is%2BBlack%2BQuartz%2BNatural%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Quartz may be the<b> second most common mineral</b> on our planet’s crust, but everyone from the ancient Egyptians and Australian Aborigines to modern-day New Age practitioners believe that this crystal holds mystical or healing properties.<br /> <br /> <b>Black quartz</b> is a <a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2016/04/major-varieties-of-quartz.html" target="_blank">variety of quartz </a>that ranges in clarity from almost complete transparency to an almost-opaque black crystal.<br /> <br /> Like other quartz gems, it is a <b>silicon dioxide</b> crystal. The smoky colour results from free silicon formed from the silicon dioxide by natural irradiation.<br /> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Color</span></h4> <div style="text-align: left;"> The color of smoky quartz is caused by irradiation and traces of aluminum built into its crystal lattice. Aluminum replaces silicon to form a [AlO₄]^- group instead of [SiO₄]. To compensate for the imbalance of charge in the lattice, small monovalent cations (H⁺, Li⁺ or Na⁺) are built into the lattice, as well. High energy radiation transfers the extra electron from [AlO₄]^- to the cation, and a color center is formed. Interestingly, H+ seems to interfere with this process, and higher concentrations of built-in hydrogen inhibit the formation of color-centers. In normal geological environments this process can only take place at temperatures below 50°C, otherwise the rate of color center destruction surpasses that of color center formation. So the color of the crystals appeared long after the crystals have grown. It is estimated that it takes several million years for a crystal to assume a deep color in a granite of average composition.<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> True smoky quartz will lose its color when heated to about 200°C, and the color will occur again when the crystal is irradiated with x^- or gamma-rays.<br /> <br /> It's still common practice to <b>artificially </b>irradiate colorless quartz and sell it as smoky quartz.</div> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Occurrence</span></h4> Smoky quartz is usually found in <b>intrusive igneous</b> and certain high grade metamorphic rocks, like granite and orthogneiss, as these contain traces of radioactive elements whose radiation cause the coloration.<br /> Smoky quartz from volcanic rocks is more <b>uncommon</b>, here amethyst and colorless quartz dominate.<br /> <br /> Smoky quartz from sedimentary rocks is very <b>unusual</b>. Their content of radioactive elements is usually very low. Much of the "smoky" quartz reported from sedimentary rocks is actually not true smoky quartz, but quartz containing black or brown <a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2017/01/types-of-mineral-inclusions-with-photos.html" target="_blank"><b>inclusions</b></a>.<br /> <h4 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Varieties</span></h4> <div style="text-align: left;"> <b>Cairngorm:</b> Synonym if Smoky Quartz. This term is used mostly in Scotland, specifically for the deposit in the Cairngorm Mountains where it is found.<br /> <b>Morion:</b>  Morion is a very dark brown to black opaque variety. Morion is the German, Danish, Spanish and Polish synonym for smoky quartz.<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/-0eYdUfmkDKc/XkgJqYJwPhI/AAAAAAAAR7Q/HjTXzF5aXhIbnFGsibbG_Hh18o02zm8XACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Morion%2Bvariety%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0eYdUfmkDKc/XkgJqYJwPhI/AAAAAAAAR7Q/HjTXzF5aXhIbnFGsibbG_Hh18o02zm8XACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Morion%2Bvariety%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morion, a variety of smoky quartz<br /> Photo: Dario Crespi </td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <b>See also:</b><br /> <a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2017/06/how-is-aura-rainbow-quartz-made.html" target="_blank">How Is Aura Rainbow Quartz Made?</a><br /> <a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2018/07/what-causes-pink-color-of-rose-quartz.html" target="_blank">What Causes the Pink Color of Rose Quartz?</a><br /> <br /></div> </div>

Is Black Quartz Natural?

Quartz may be the second most common mineral on our planet’s crust, but everyone from the ancient Egyptians and Australian Aborigines ...

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New Research Reveals Violent Birth of Continent Zealandia

<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/-Xd4zN5fIn5c/XkVjhVqQFYI/AAAAAAAAR6U/q-UPkc7oGC40KO7_rWnkB03FrdBUf-u3QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/New%2BResearch%2BReveals%2BViolent%2BBirth%2Bof%2BContinent%2BZealandia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="1255" height="422" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xd4zN5fIn5c/XkVjhVqQFYI/AAAAAAAAR6U/q-UPkc7oGC40KO7_rWnkB03FrdBUf-u3QCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/New%2BResearch%2BReveals%2BViolent%2BBirth%2Bof%2BContinent%2BZealandia.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Continent Zealandia</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <br /> <br /> Recent seafloor drilling has revealed that the "hidden continent " of Zealandia -- a region of continental crust twice the size of India submerged beneath the southwest Pacific Ocean -- experienced dramatic elevation changes between about 50 million and 35 million years ago. New findings from this expedition, published today in Geology, propose this topographic upheaval may have been due to a widespread reactivation of ancient faults linked to formation of the western Pacific's infamous Ring of Fire.<br /> <br /> Since the 1970s the prevailing scientific wisdom has been that Zealandia's unusually low profile is due to the thinning of its crust as it separated from Gondwana, the ancient supercontinent that included Antarctica and Australia, around 85 million years ago.<br /> <br /> After these tectonic fireworks, says Rupert Sutherland, a geophysicist at New Zealand's Victoria University of Wellington and the paper's lead author, this model has Zealandia "doing nothing but gently cooling and subsiding."<br /> <br /> But fossils in the drillcores collected in 2017 by International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 371 indicate that during the early Cenozoic, portions of northern Zealandia rose 1-2 kilometers while other sections subsided about the same amount before the entire continent sank another kilometer deep underwater.<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 timing of these topographic transformations, say Sutherland and his co-authors, coincides with a global reorganization of tectonic plates evidenced by the bend in the Emperor-Hawaii seamount chain, the reorientation of numerous mid-ocean ridges, and the onset of subduction -- and the related volcanism and seismicity -- in a belt that still encircles much of the western Pacific.<br /> <br /> Although subduction drives Earth's plate tectonic cycle, says Sutherland, scientists don't yet understand how it starts. The drilling expedition to Zealandia may offer new insights into this fundamental process.<br /> <br /> "One of the amazing things about our observations," says Sutherland, "is that they reveal the early signs of the Ring of Fire were almost simultaneous throughout the western Pacific." Because this timing predates the global tectonic plate reorganization, he says, scientists need to find an explanation for how subduction began across such a broad area in such a short time.<br /> <br /> Sutherland and his co-authors propose a new mechanism: a 'subduction rupture event,' which they argue is similar to a massive, super-slow earthquake. The researchers believe the event resurrected ancient subduction faults that had lain dormant for many millions of years.<br /> <br /> "We don't know where or why," says Sutherland, "but something happened that locally induced movement, and when the fault started to slip, like in an earthquake the motion rapidly spread sideways onto adjacent parts of the fault system and then around the western Pacific."<br /> <br /> But unlike an earthquake, Sutherland says, the subduction rupture event may have taken more than a million years to unfold. "Ultimately," he says, "Zealandia's sedimentary record should help us determine how and why this event happened and what the consequences were for animals, plants, and global climate."<br /> <br /> The process has no modern analogue, according to Sutherland, and because the subduction rupture event is linked to a time of rapid, global plate tectonic change, other instances of such change in the geologic record may imply that comparable events have occurred in the past. "Geologists generally assume that understanding the present is the key to understanding the past," he says. "But at least in this instance, this may not hold."<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.geosociety.org/GSA/News/pr/2020/20-03.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.geosociety.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Geological Society of America</a>.</span></i></u></div>

New Research Reveals Violent Birth of Continent Zealandia

Continent Zealandia Recent seafloor drilling has revealed that the "hidden continent " of Zealandia -- a region of contine...

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Oldest Record Of Primitive Bee With Pollen Dates Back 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://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UiMIarxqiC4/XkVzlAyCyhI/AAAAAAAAR6s/F_QwZUXQcuAjpurZ91axn1aeVCXb9YE4wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/100-million-year-old%2BDiscoscapa%2Bapicula.%2BThe%2Bbee%2Bis%2Bcarrying%2Bfour%2Bbeetle%2Btriungulins..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt=" Oldest Record Of Primitive Bee With Pollen Dates Back 100 Million Years" border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="1206" height="384" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UiMIarxqiC4/XkVzlAyCyhI/AAAAAAAAR6s/F_QwZUXQcuAjpurZ91axn1aeVCXb9YE4wCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/100-million-year-old%2BDiscoscapa%2Bapicula.%2BThe%2Bbee%2Bis%2Bcarrying%2Bfour%2Bbeetle%2Btriungulins..jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">100-million-year-old Discoscapa apicula. The bee is carrying four beetle triungulins. Credit: George Poinar Jr., OSU College of Science.</td></tr> </tbody></table> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /> </span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fossilised insect from 100 million years ago is oldest record of primitive bee with pollen</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Beetle parasites clinging to a primitive bee 100 million years ago may have caused the flight error that, while deadly for the insect, is a boon for science today.</span><br /> In a paper published online in the journal Palaeodiversity, Oregon State University’s Professor George Poinar Jr. described a new family, genus and species of pollen-collecting bee found in a piece of 99-million-year-old amber (mid-Cretaceous period) excavated from a mine in Myanmar.<br /> The female bee, which became stuck in tree resin and thus preserved in amber, has been identified by Oregon State University researcher George Poinar Jr. as a new family, genus and species.<br /> <br /> The mid-Cretaceous fossil from Myanmar provides the first record of a primitive bee with pollen and also the first record of the beetle parasites, which continue to show up on modern bees today.<br /> <br /> The findings, published in BioOne Complete, shed new light on the early days of bees, a key component in evolutionary history and the diversification of flowering plants.<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> Insect pollinators aid the reproduction of flowering plants around the globe and are also ecologically critical as promoters of biodiversity. Bees are the standard bearer because they're usually present in the greatest numbers and because they're the only pollinator group that feeds exclusively on nectar and pollen throughout their life cycle.<br /> <br /> Bees evolved from apoid wasps, which are carnivores. Not much is known, however, about the changes wasps underwent as they made that dietary transition.<br /> <br /> Poinar, professor emeritus in the OSU College of Science and an international expert in using plant and animal life forms preserved in amber to learn more about the biology and ecology of the distant past, classified the new find as Discoscapa apicula, in the family Discoscapidae.<br /> <br /> The fossilized bee shares traits with modern bees—including plumose hairs, a rounded pronotal lobe, and a pair of spurs on the hind tibia—and also those of apoid wasps, such as very low-placed antennal sockets and certain wing-vein features.<br /> <br /> "Something unique about the new family that's not found on any extant or extinct lineage of apoid wasps or bees is a bifurcated scape," Poinar said, referring to a two-segment antennae base. "The fossil record of bees is pretty vast, but most are from the last 65 million years and look a lot like modern bees. Fossils like the one in this study can tell us about the changes certain wasp lineages underwent as they became palynivores—pollen eaters."<br /> <br /> Numerous pollen grains on Discoscapa apicula show the bee had recently been to one or more flowers.<br /> <br /> "Additional evidence that the fossil bee had visited flowers are the 21 beetle triungulins—larvae—in the same piece of amber that were hitching a ride back to the bee's nest to dine on bee larvae and their provisions, food left by the female," Poinar said. "It is certainly possible that the large number of triungulins caused the bee to accidently fly into the resin."<br /> <br /> <br /> <u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/fossilized-insect-100-million-years-ago-oldest-record-primitive-bee-pollen" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://oregonstate.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Oregon State University</a>.</span></i></u></div>

Oldest Record Of Primitive Bee With Pollen Dates Back 100 Million Years

100-million-year-old Discoscapa apicula. The bee is carrying four beetle triungulins. Credit: George Poinar Jr., OSU College of Science. ...

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