Geology In

New Island of Lava Growing Off the Coast of Hawaiian Island

New Island of Lava Growing Off the Coast of Hawaiian Island

Lava has filled Kapoho Bay, on Hawaii's Big Island. © USGS Scientists discovered what appears to be a “new island” forming off the...

Scientists Discover Earth's Youngest Banded Iron Formation

Earth History, Geochemistry 8:52 PM

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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Discovery provides evidence of iron-rich seawater much later than previously thought</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The discovery of Earth's youngest-ever banded iron formation is changing how scientists understand the evolution of complex life, according to a study by University of Alberta geologists.</span><br />
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The banded iron formation, located in western China, has been conclusively dated as Cambrian in age. Approximately 527 million years old, this formation is young by comparison to the majority of discoveries to date. The deposition of banded iron formations, which began approximately 3.8 billion years ago, had long been thought to terminate before the beginning of the Cambrian Period at 540 million years ago.<br />
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"This is critical, as it is the first observation of a Precambrian-like banded iron formation that is Early Cambrian in age. This offers the most conclusive evidence for the presence of widespread iron-rich conditions at a time, confirming what has recently been suggested from geochemical proxies," said Kurt Konhauser, professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and co-author. Konhauser supervised the research that was led by Zhiquan Li, a PhD candidate from Beijing while on exchange at UAlberta.<br />
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The Early Cambrian is known for the rise of animals, so the level of oxygen in seawater should have been closer to near modern levels. "This is important as the availability of oxygen has long been thought to be a handbrake on the evolution of complex life, and one that should have been alleviated by the Early Cambrian," says Leslie Robbins, a PhD candidate in Konhauser's lab and a co-author on the paper.<br />
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The researchers compared the geological characteristics and geochemistry to ancient and modern samples to find an analogue for their deposition. The team relied on the use of rare earth element patterns to demonstrate that the deposit formed in, or near, a chemocline in a stratified iron-rich basin.<br />
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"Future studies will aim to quantify the full extent of these Cambrian banded iron formations in China and whether similar deposits can be found elsewhere," says Kurt Konhauser.<br />
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"Future studies will aim to quantify the full extent of these Cambrian banded iron formations in China and whether similar deposits can be found elsewhere," says Kurt Konhauser.<br />
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The paper, "Earth's youngest banded iron formation implies ferruginous conditions in the Early Cambrian ocean," was published in Scientific Reports.<br />
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<i><u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/science/science-news/2018/july/earths-youngest-banded-iron-formation-china-discovered" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.ualberta.ca/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Alberta</a>.</span></u></i></div>

Scientists Discover Earth's Youngest Banded Iron Formation

Discovery provides evidence of iron-rich seawater much later than previously thought The discovery of Earth's youngest-ever ba...

Vancouver Island Just Moved Away From the Coast

earth, Tectonic 6:49 PM

Vancouver Island Just Moved Away From the Coast

A graphic displays ETS tremor events over the last month. You might not have noticed it, but over the last few months Victoria move...

Different Types and Colours of Moonstone

gemstones, Mineralogy 4:55 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Different Types and Colours of Moonstone</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Moonstone is a sodium potassium aluminium silicate with the chemical formula (Na,K)AlSi<sub>3</sub>O<sub>8</sub> and belongs to the feldspar group. </span><br />
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The ancient Romans theorized that moonstone, with its unearthly shimmer, was formed from frozen moonlight. This appealing gem variety does shine with a cool lunar light but it is the mineral feldspar, quite terrestrial in origin. The shimmer, which is called schiller or adularescence, is caused by the intergrowth of two different types of feldspar, with different refractive indexes.<br />
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Moonstones come in a variety of colors. The body color can range from colorless to gray, brown, yellow, green, or pink. The clarity ranges from transparent to translucent. The best moonstone has a blue sheen, perfect clarity, and a colorless body color.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Formation</span></span></h4>
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Moonstone is composed of two feldspar species, orthoclase and albite. The two species are intermingled. Then, as the newly formed mineral cools, the intergrowth of orthoclase and albite separates into stacked, alternating layers. When light falls between these thin, flat layers, it scatters in many directions producing the phenomenon called adularescence. </div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cause of Adularescence in Blue Moonstone</span></span></h4>
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Blue Moonstone is a gem from the feldspar group and is composed of layers of albite – potassium rich aluminium silicate and orthoclase – sodium rich aluminum silicate. The schiller is produced because of light interference caused by the light having to weave its way through the layers with slightly different optical properties. The adularescence is caused by scattered light passing through the exsolution lamellae that act as scattering centres, creating a bluish hue/ lustre.<br />
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Sometimes moonstone will have an eye as well as sheen. Another related feldspar variety is known as rainbow moonstone. In this variety of labradorite feldspar, the sheen is a variety of rainbow hues, from pink to yellow, to peach, purple, and blue. Sometimes one gem will show all these colors.<br />
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Fine moonstone is quite rare and becoming rarer. It is mined in Sri Lanka and Southern India. The rainbow variety can be found in India and Madagascar.<br />
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Moonstones are usually cut in a smooth-domed oval cabochon shape to maximize the effect. Sometimes they are carved to show a man-in-the-moon face.<br />
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Moonstone has a hardness of 6 to 6.5. It should not be stored in contact with your other gemstones to prevent scratching. Clean with mild dish soap: use a toothbrush to scrub behind the stone where dust can collect.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The moonstone is the Florida State Gemstone.  </span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Different Types and Colours of Moonstone </span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Blue Moonstone</span></h4>
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Blue moonstone is transparent and crystal clear with a floating blue tone on the surface.The most desirable stones have the most intense blue colour. The largest and best stones have traditionally come from Myanmar(Burma), however it has become much harder to find good stones and therefore the price has increased.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rainbow Moonstone</span></h4>
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Rainbow moonstone has a milky patchy appearance which comes from the white orthoclase inclusions and layers.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Green Moonstone</span></h4>
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Green moonstone is not as well known as rainbow or blue moonstone as it does not have the colour play, however it is still a beautiful stone. It usually has a slightly hazy or clear appearance an a pale green-yellow colour.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Pink Moonstone</span></h4>
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The term pink covers colours from honey to beige to peach, ranging from translucent to opaque. The stone should have a white sheen and is often found with a cat's eye or star effect. This type of stone is often used in rows of coloured beads.</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">See also:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2018/03/types-of-iridescent-gemstones-minerals.html" target="_blank">Types of Iridescent Gemstones & Minerals </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2018/03/benitoite-rarest-gemstone-found-only-in.html" target="_blank">Benitoite: The Rarest Gemstone Found Only in California</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2017/05/what-is-difference-between-moonstone.html" target="_blank">What Is the Difference Between Moonstone and Opalite? </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2018/02/the-differences-between-natural.html" target="_blank">How to Differentiate Between Natural And Synthetic Gemstones?</a></span></div>
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Different Types and Colours of Moonstone

Different Types and Colours of Moonstone Moonstone is a sodium potassium aluminium silicate with the chemical formula (Na,K)AlSi 3 O...

Kilauea’s Heat Triggering Mass Amounts of Acid Rain

Hawaii, News, volcano 8:44 PM

Kilauea’s Heat Triggering Mass Amounts of Acid Rain

This aerial U.S. Geological Survey photo from Sunday shows fissure 8 and open lava channel leading to the northeast. Sulfur dioxide emmis...

Minerals Could Bear the Scars of Collisions With Dark Matter

Geochemistry, Mining 8:27 PM

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p9IneUZQLek/W0Y9F6DSVJI/AAAAAAAAQGk/_ljvk9EvkUgI0SAJdUhH9PZVm1EpuWSwwCLcBGAs/s1600/Did%2BEarly%2BEarth%2BCollide%2BWith%2BDark%2BMatter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Minerals Could Bear the Scars of Collisions With Dark Matter" border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="1196" height="344" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p9IneUZQLek/W0Y9F6DSVJI/AAAAAAAAQGk/_ljvk9EvkUgI0SAJdUhH9PZVm1EpuWSwwCLcBGAs/s640/Did%2BEarly%2BEarth%2BCollide%2BWith%2BDark%2BMatter.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ancient minerals buried underground could bear scars of early collisions with dark matter. Minerals such as halite and zabuyelite could serve as natural dark matter detectors, scientists said.  </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Did Early Earth Collide With Dark Matter? 500 Million-Year-Old Minerals Could Hold Key To Ancient Encounter. Kilometres beneath Earth’s surface, some minerals could bear the scars of collisions with dark matter.</span><br />
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Minerals deep inside Earth might contain telltale traces of collisions with dark matter — the elusive stuff that researchers think makes up most of the matter in the Universe. Experiments designed to search for these traces could one day complement or even compete with ongoing efforts to detect dark matter directly.<br />
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Researchers using sophisticated detectors sunk deep underground have searched for signs of dark matter for decades. But now, Katherine Freese, a physicist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and her colleagues suggest that minerals such as halite (sodium chloride) and zabuyelite (lithium carbonate), can act as ready-made detectors1.<br />
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Astronomers can detect the gravitational influence of dark matter on the motion of galaxies and galactic clusters, but have never been able to spot it directly. The prevailing explanation for dark matter is that it’s made of material known as weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which interact with normal matter mainly through gravity.<br />
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Direct-detection experiments aim to find the faint after-effects of WIMPs colliding with the nuclei of atoms in materials such as germanium, silicon or sodium iodide inside a detector.<br />
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Such experiments must be positioned deep underground, to guard against the cosmic rays that bombard Earth’s surface. These rays can also leave faint traces of their collisions with detector materials, which can swamp any potential signals from dark matter. So far, only one experiment — the DAMA/LIBRA experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy — says it has detected dark matter, but the claim remains unverified.</div>
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Digging deep</h3>
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Freese and her colleagues argue that minerals such as halite and zabuyelite are already deep inside Earth and thus are shielded from cosmic rays. According to the team’s analysis, published last month on the preprint server arXiv, if a WIMP were to smash into the nucleus of an atom of, say, sodium or chlorine, the nucleus would recoil. This would etch a path anywhere from 1 to 1,000 nanometres long in the mineral.<br />
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An experiment could extract the minerals — which can be around 500 million years old — from kilometres-deep boreholes that already exist for geological research and oil prospecting. Physicists would need to crack open the extracted minerals and scan the exposed surfaces under an electron or atomic force microscope for the tracks made by recoiling nuclei. They could also use X-ray or ultraviolet 3D scanners to study bigger chunks of minerals faster, but with lower resolution.<br />
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Potential collisions with WIMPs will create different signatures in each element of any mineral and thus provide different sources of information. “For example, sodium chloride consists of both sodium and chlorine, so you get multiple signals from just one mineral,” says Freese. “If you do find some positive signals, then you can figure out what kind of WIMP it is based on its scattering off of sodium and its scattering off of chlorine.”</div>
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Mistaken identity</h3>
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The idea is pretty exciting, says Dan Hooper, a physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. “Although there are many details yet to be demonstrated before this kind of programme could be realistically implemented, I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t succeed, at least in principle.”<br />
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But others, such as physicist Juan Collar of the University of Chicago in Illinois, strike a more cautionary note. In the mid-1990s, physicists considered using the mineral mica as a target for similar searches for dark matter2. But Collar subsequently showed3 that radioactivity from uranium in the minerals would create tracks in the mica that would be impossible to distinguish from those created by WIMPs. He fears a similar fate would befall Freese’s proposal.<br />
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“This issue is not limited to mica, but instead affects any mineral containing the ubiquitous natural abundance of uranium and thorium,” he says. “They may be able to find minerals where this problem is reduced, but I think that right now their claims are way too optimistic.”<br />
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Freese acknowledges that uranium is a concern, although it's unclear whether the minerals that she and her team propose contain uranium or thorium contaminants. But she adds that it might be possible to identify specific etching patterns that can be created only by a burst of radioactivity, and to ignore them. “The truth is you have to do it and find out,” she says.</div>
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<i><u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05660-6" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nature</a>.</span></u></i></div>
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Minerals Could Bear the Scars of Collisions With Dark Matter

Ancient minerals buried underground could bear scars of early collisions with dark matter. Minerals such as halite and zabuyelite could s...

Scientists Defy 'Force of Nature' to Unlock Secrets of Hawaii Volcano

Hawaii, volcano 6:18 PM

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ewovr9M9m0c/W0N8Ha3_gHI/AAAAAAAAQF0/b6NxyPJhMZIPxK_HAm5YluTTOal_tLhkgCLcBGAs/s1600/Scientists%2BDefy%2B%2527Force%2Bof%2BNature%2527%2Bto%2BUnlock%2BSecrets%2Bof%2BHawaii%2BVolcano1%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A geologist is collecting sample of molten lava from 2011 Kamoamoa eruption, at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, U.S." border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ewovr9M9m0c/W0N8Ha3_gHI/AAAAAAAAQF0/b6NxyPJhMZIPxK_HAm5YluTTOal_tLhkgCLcBGAs/s640/Scientists%2BDefy%2B%2527Force%2Bof%2BNature%2527%2Bto%2BUnlock%2BSecrets%2Bof%2BHawaii%2BVolcano1%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A geologist is collecting sample of molten lava from 2011 Kamoamoa eruption, at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, U.S.</td></tr>
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Dressed in heavy cotton, a helmet and respirator, Jessica Ball worked the night shift monitoring “fissure 8,” which has been spewing fountains of lava as high as a 15-story building from a slope on Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano.<br />
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The lava poured into a channel oozing toward the Pacific Ocean several miles away. In the eerie orange nightscape in the abandoned community of Leilani Estates, it looked like it was flowing toward the scientist, but that was an optical illusion, Ball said.<br />
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“The volcano is doing what it wants to. ... We’re reminded what it’s like to deal with the force of nature,” said Ball, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.<br />
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Scientists have been in the field measuring the eruptions 24 hours a day, seven days a week since Kilauea first exploded more than two months ago. They are a mix of USGS staff, University of Hawaii researchers and trained volunteers working six-to-eight-hour shifts in teams of two to five.<br />
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They avoid synthetics because they melt in the intense heat and wear gloves to protect their hands from sharp volcanic rock and glass. Helmets protect against falling lava stones, and respirators ward off sulfur gases.<br />
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This is not a job for the faint hearted. Geologists have died studying active volcanoes. David Alexander Johnston, a USGS volcanologist was killed by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state. In 1991, American volcanologist Harry Glicken and his French colleagues Katia and Maurice Krafft were killed while conducting avalanche research on Mount Unzen in Japan.<br />
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Ball, a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo, located in upstate New York near the Canadian border, compared Kilauea’s eruptions to Niagara Falls.<br />
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“It gives you the same feeling of power and force,” she said.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">WORTH THE RISKS</span></h4>
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Kilauea, which has been erupting almost continuously since 1983, is one of the world’s most closely monitored volcanoes, largely from the now-abandoned Hawaiian Volcano Observatory at the summit. But the latest eruption is one of Kilauea’s biggest and could prove to be a bonanza for scientists.<br />
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Ball and the USGS teams are studying how the magma - molten rock from the earth’s crust - tracks through a network of tubes under the volcano in what is known as the “Lower East Rift Zone,” before ripping open ground fissures and spouting fountains of lava.<br />
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They are trying to discover what warning signs may exist for future eruptions to better protect the Big Island’s communities, she said.<br />
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Fissure 8 is one of 22 around Kilauea that have destroyed over 1,000 structures and forced 2,000 people to evacuate. They are what make this volcanic eruption a rare event, Ball said.<br />
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“They’re common for Kilauea on a geologic time scale, but in a human time scale it’s sort of a career event,” she said.<br />
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Meanwhile, the summit is erupting almost every day with steam or ash, said Janet Snyder, spokeswoman for the County of Hawaii, where Kilauea is located.<br />
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Scientists had thought the steam explosions resulted from lava at the summit dropping down the volcano’s throat into groundwater. This was based on Kilauea’s 1924 eruption, to which the current one is most often compared.<br />
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But the explosions this time have released lots of sulfur dioxide gas, which means magma is involved, said Michael Poland, scientist-in-charge at Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, one of many volcanologists seconded to Kilauea.<br />
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“So we have already made a conceptual leap, leading us to believe it was different from what we had understood,” he said.<br />
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Poland and other scientists pulled equipment and archives out of the abandoned observatory at the volcano summit after hundreds of small eruption-induced quakes damaged the structure, and have decamped to the University of Hawaii in Hilo on the Big Island.<br />
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The archives included photos, seismic records and samples, some 100 or more years old, Poland said. “These materials are invaluable to someone who says, ‘I have this new idea, and I want to test it using past data.’”Now the second longest Kilauea eruption on record, surpassed only by one in 1955, this eruption offers far better research opportunities than previous events, Ball said.<br />
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“We’ve got much better instruments and we’ve got longer to collect the data,” she said.</div>
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Watch This Whirlwind of Lava at Hawaii's Most Active Volcano

Hawaii, Lava, volcano 3:20 PM

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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A whirlwind of lava has been captured on video near Hawaii's Kilauea volcano.</span><br />
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The spectacle is caused when "hot gases rise and punch through the cooler air above, to create a vertical column of hot air," according to the US Geological Survey. It started and stopped over the course of about 10 minutes.<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hTZ9nMakRTU" width="560"></iframe><br />
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The whirlwind occurred at Fissure 8 on June 30. Video of the event was released Monday. The fissure's eruption sent lava about 180 feet into the air, the USGS said.<br />
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Kilauea is Hawaii's most active of the state's five volcanoes, and in recent weeks, several craters have collapsed, causing more than 4,000 earthquakes -- most of them with a force equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude registering between 2 and 3, according to data from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.<br />
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The latest explosion happened Monday, registering as a 5.3 magnitude earthquake with an ash plume reaching about 1,200 feet.<br />
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So far, lava from Kilauea has covered 10.2 square miles of land.<br />
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The aviation code, which dictates whether planes and other air vehicles are safe to travel through the area, has been downgraded from red to orange, which means "major volcanic eruption is imminent, underway, or suspected but it poses limited hazards to aviation because of no or minor volcanic-ash emissions," according to USGS.<br />
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USGS also warns people against going into the ocean, as eroded land and lava are making their way down the volcanic incline. When lava hits water, it creates smoke-like "laze," or lava and haze. This haze is filled with hydrochloric acid and volcanic particles that irritate the eyes, skin and lungs.<br />
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Volcanic glass, or obsidian particles, have also been drifting in the air, USGS said.<br />
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Watch This Whirlwind of Lava at Hawaii's Most Active Volcano

A whirlwind of lava has been captured on video near Hawaii's Kilauea volcano. The spectacle is caused when "hot gase...