February 2017

The World’s Deepest Cave Known As ‘Everest Of The Caves’

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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Have A Glimpse Of Krubera Cave, The Deepest Cave In The World!</span></h4>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The cave, known as Krubera-Voronya, is considered the “Everest of the caves”. The total length of cave passages reaches 13,232 m, the depth is -2,197 m. It’s located in Abkhazia in the south of Russia near the Black Sea.</span></i><br />
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The difference in elevation of the cave's entrance and its deepest explored point is 2,197 ± 20 metres (7,208 ± 66 ft). It became the deepest-known cave in the world in 2001 when the expedition of the Ukrainian Speleological Association reached a depth of 1,710 m (5,610 ft) which exceeded the depth of the previous deepest-known cave, Lamprechtsofen, in the Austrian Alps, by 80 metres (260 ft). In 2004, for the first time in the history of speleology, the Ukrainian Speleological Association expedition reached a depth greater than 2,000 metres (6,600 ft), and explored the cave to −2,080 m (−6,824 ft).<br />
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The Ortobalagan Valley extends along the crest of the Berchil'sky anticline, which gently dips northwest. The cave entrances are aligned along the anticlinal crest, but the caves are controlled by longitudinal, transverse, and oblique fractures and faults and comprise complex winding patterns in the plan view, remaining largely within and near the anticlinal crest zone.<br />
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The caves are predominantly combinations of vadose shafts and steep meandering passages, although in places they cut apparently old fossil passages at different levels (e.g., at −2,100–2,040 m (−6,890–6,690 ft) in Kujbyshevskaja and Krubera caves, −1,200–1,240 m (−3,940–4,070 ft) and −980–1,150 m (−3,220–3,770 ft) in the non-Kujbyshevskaja branch of Krubera Cave, etc.). The deep parts of Krubera display a more pervasive conduit pattern with a mixture of phreatic morphology, characteristic of the zone of high-gradient floods, which can be up to 400 m above the low-flow water table, and vadose downcutting elements that are observed even below the water table.<br />
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The core part of the Arabika Massif is composed of the Upper Jurassic succession resting on the Bajocian Porphyritic Series, which includes sandstones, clays and conglomerates at the top, and tuff, tuff sandstones, conglomerates and breccia, porphyry and lava. The Porphyritic series forms the non-karstic basement of Arabika, which is exposed only on the northern and eastern outskirts, locally in the bottoms of the Kutushara and Gega River valleys. <br />
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 In the central part of Arabika the Cretaceous cover (Valanginian and Hauterivian limestones, marls and sandstones) is retained only in a few ridges and peaks, but it lies intact through the low-altitude ridges to the south-west of the central part. There the Cretaceous succession includes Barremian and Aptian–Cenomanian limestones and marly limestones with abundant concretions of black chert.<br />
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The Upper Jurassic succession begins with thin-bedded Kimmeridgian–Oxfordian cherty limestones, marls, sandstones and clays, which are identified in the lower part of Krubera Cave. Above lies the thick Tithonian succession of thick-bedded limestones with marly and sandy varieties. Sandy limestones are particularly abundant through the upper 1,000 m sections of deep caves of the Ortobalagan Valley.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Krubera-Voronya</span></i></td></tr>
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Major on-shore karst springs with individual average discharges of 1 to 2.5 m3/s (35 to 88 cu ft/s) are located at altitudes ranging from 1 m (3.3 ft) (Reproa Spring) to 540 m (1,770 ft) (Gega waterfall). Two of them are located in the shore area; these are Reproa (average discharge 2.5 m3/s or 88 cu ft/s; altitude 1 m or 3 ft 3 in above sea level) and Kholodnaja Rechka (1.2 m3/s or 42 cu ft/s; 50 m or 160 ft a.s.l.).<br />
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Two more major springs are located in the river canyons bordering Arabika to the east: Goluboe Ozero in the Bzyb canyon (2.5 m3/s or 88 cu ft/s; 90 m or 300 ft a.s.l.) and Gega waterfall in the Gega canyon (1 m3/s or 35 cu ft/s; 540 m or 1,770 ft a.s.l.). There are also several smaller springs in the Gagra town. The Reprua River, one of the shortest rivers in the world, about 60 ft long, starts in the cave and flows toward the Black Sea.<br />
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Some boreholes located along the shore of the Black Sea yield karstic groundwater from depths of 40–280 m below sea level. Other much deeper boreholes tapped low-salinity karstic waters at depths of 500 and 1,750 m in the Khashupse Valley near Tsandripsh and 2,250 m near Gagra. This suggests the existence of a deep karst system and vigorous karst groundwater circulation at depth.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: Gergely Ambrus photography</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: Gergely Ambrus photography</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: Gergely Ambrus photography</td></tr>
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The World’s Deepest Cave Known As ‘Everest Of The Caves’

krubera cave Georgie Have A Glimpse Of Krubera Cave, The Deepest Cave In The World! The cave, known as Krubera-Voronya, is cons...

Earth probably began with a solid shell

0 earth, Geology, Tectonic 1:47 PM

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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">New research suggests that plate tectonics began later in Earth's history</span></i></h4>
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Today's Earth is a dynamic planet with an outer layer composed of giant plates that grind together, sliding past or dipping beneath one another, giving rise to earthquakes and volcanoes. Others separate at undersea mountain ridges, where molten rock spreads out from the centers of major ocean basins.</span></i><br />
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But new research suggests that this was not always the case. Instead, shortly after Earth formed and began to cool, the planet's first outer layer was a single, solid but deformable shell. Later, this shell began to fold and crack more widely, giving rise to modern plate tectonics.<br />
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The research, described in a paper published February 27, 2017 in the journal Nature, is the latest salvo in a long-standing debate in the geological research community: did plate tectonics start right away -- a theory known as uniformitarianism -- or did Earth first go through a long phase with a solid shell covering the entire planet? The new results suggest the solid shell model is closest to what really happened.<br />
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"Models for how the first continental crust formed generally fall into two groups: those that invoke modern-style plate tectonics and those that do not," said Michael Brown, a professor of geology at the University of Maryland and a co-author of the study. "Our research supports the latter -- a 'stagnant lid' forming the planet's outer shell early in Earth's history."<br />
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To reach these conclusions, Brown and his colleagues from Curtin University and the Geological Survey of Western Australia studied rocks collected from the East Pilbara Terrane, a large area of ancient granitic crust located in the state of Western Australia. Rocks here are among the oldest known, ranging from 3.5 to about 2.5 billion years of age. (Earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old.) The researchers specifically selected granites with a chemical composition usually associated with volcanic arcs -- a telltale sign of plate tectonic activity.<br />
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Brown and his colleagues also looked at basalt rocks from the associated Coucal formation. Basalt is the rock produced when volcanoes erupt, but it also forms the ocean floor, as molten basalt erupts at spreading ridges in the center of ocean basins. In modern-day plate tectonics, when ocean floor basalt reaches the continents, it dips -- or subducts -- beneath the Earth's surface, where it generates fluids that allow the overlying mantle to melt and eventually create large masses of granite beneath the surface.<br />
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Previous research suggested that the Coucal basalts could be the source rocks for the granites in the Pilbara Terrane, because of the similarities in their chemical composition. Brown and his collaborators set out to verify this, but also to test another long-held assumption: could the Coucal basalts have melted to form granite in some way other than subduction of the basalt beneath Earth's surface? If so, perhaps plate tectonics was not yet happening when the Pilbara granites formed.<br />
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To address this question, the researchers performed thermodynamic calculations to determine the phase equilibria of average Coucal basalt. Phase equilibria are precise descriptions of how a substance behaves under various temperature and pressure conditions, including the temperature at which melting begins, the amount of melt produced and its chemical composition.<br />
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For example, one of the simplest phase equilibria diagrams describes the behavior of water: at low temperatures and/or high pressures, water forms solid ice, while at high temperatures and/or low pressures, water forms gaseous steam. Phase equilibria gets a bit more involved with rocks, which have complex chemical compositions that can take on very different mineral combinations and physical characteristics based on temperature and pressure.<br />
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"If you take a rock off the shelf and melt it, you can get a phase diagram. But you're stuck with a fixed chemical composition," Brown said. "With thermodynamic modeling, you can change the composition, pressure and temperature independently. It's much more flexible and helps us to answer some questions we can't address with experiments on rocks."<br />
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Using the Coucal basalts and Pilbara granites as a starting point, Brown and his colleagues constructed a series of modeling experiments to reflect what might have transpired in an ancient Earth without plate tectonics. Their results suggest that, indeed, the Pilbara granites could have formed from the Coucal basalts.<br />
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More to the point, this transformation could have occurred in a pressure and temperature scenario consistent with a "stagnant lid," or a single shell covering the entire planet.<br />
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Plate tectonics substantially affects the temperature and pressure of rocks within Earth's interior. When a slab of rock subducts under the Earth's surface, the rock starts off relatively cool and takes time to gain heat. By the time it reaches a higher temperature, the rock has also reached a significant depth, which corresponds to high pressure -- in the same way a diver experiences.<br />
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<i><u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></u></i> <i><u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above post is reprinted from Materials provided by <a href="http://www.umd.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Maryland</a>. </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: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br />
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Earth probably began with a solid shell

Copyright JJMedia New research suggests that plate tectonics began later in Earth's history Today's Earth is a dynamic plane...

Radial Annabergite crystals from Greece

0 Minerals 8:06 PM

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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Annabergite </b>is an arsenate mineral consisting of a hydrous nickel arsenate,<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> Ni</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">3</sub><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">(AsO</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">4</sub><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">)</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2</sub><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">·8H</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2</sub><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">O</span>, crystallizing in the monoclinic system and isomorphous with vivianite and erythrite.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Formula: </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Ni</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">3</sub><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">(AsO</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">4</sub><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">)</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2</sub><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">·8H</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2</sub><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">O</span></span> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">System: Monoclinic<br />Colour: Green, light grey </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">From Lavrio; Greece</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Photo Credit: László Tóth <br /> </span></div>

Radial Annabergite crystals from Greece

Annabergite is an arsenate mineral consisting of a hydrous nickel arsenate, Ni 3 (AsO 4 ) 2 ·8H 2 O , crystallizing in the monoclinic ...

Oil and gas wastewater spills alter microbes in West Virginia waters

0 Hydraulic fracturing, USA, water 1:58 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The hydraulic fracturing (fracking) water cycle includes withdrawing water, adding chemicals, injecting fracking fluids through a well to a rock formation, and pumping wastewater to the surface for disposal or reuse. Credit: US Environmental Protection Agency</span></td></tr>
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rutgers' Nicole Fahrenfeld leads research documenting impacts in stream water and sediments from a wastewater disposal facility</span></h4>
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Wastewater from oil and gas operations -- including fracking for shale gas -- at a West Virginia site altered microbes downstream, according to a Rutgers-led study.</span></i><br />
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The study, published recently in Science of the Total Environment, showed that wastewater releases, including briny water that contained petroleum and other pollutants, altered the diversity, numbers and functions of microbes. The shifts in the microbial community indicated changes in their respiration and nutrient cycling, along with signs of stress.<br />
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The study also documented changes in antibiotic resistance in downstream sediments, but did not uncover hot spots, or areas with high levels of resistance. The findings point to the need to understand the impacts on microbial ecosystems from accidental releases or improper treatment of fracking-related wastewater. Moreover, microbial changes in sediments may have implications for the treatment and beneficial reuse of wastewater, the researchers say.<br />
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"My hope is that the study could be used to start making hypotheses about the impacts of wastewater," said Nicole Fahrenfeld, lead author of the study and assistant professor in Rutgers' Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Much remains unknown about the impacts of wastewater from fracking, she added.<br />
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"I do think we're at the beginning of seeing what the impacts could be," said Fahrenfeld, who works in the School of Engineering. "I want to learn about the real risks and focus our efforts on what matters in the environment."<br />
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Underground reservoirs of oil and natural gas contain water that is naturally occurring or injected to boost production, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), whose scientists contributed to the study. During fracking, a fracturing fluid and a solid material are injected into an underground reservoir under very high pressure, creating fractures to increase the porosity and permeability of rocks.<br />
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Liquid pumped to the surface is usually a mixture of the injected fluids with briny water from the reservoir. It can contain dissolved salt, petroleum and other organic compounds, suspended solids, trace elements, bacteria, naturally occurring radioactive materials and anything injected into wells, the USGS says. Such water is recycled, treated and discharged; spread on roads, evaporated or infiltrated; or injected into deep wells.<br />
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Fracking for natural gas and oil and its wastewater has increased dramatically in recent years. And that could overwhelm local infrastructure and strain many parts of the post-fracking water cycle, including the storage, treatment, reuse, transportation or disposal of the wastewater, according to the USGS.<br />
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For the Rutgers-USGS study, water and sediment samples were collected from tributaries of Wolf Creek in West Virginia in June 2014, including an unnamed tributary that runs through an underground injection control facility.<br />
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The facility includes a disposal well, which injects wastewater to 2,600 feet below the surface, brine storage tanks, an access road and two lined ponds (now-closed) that were used to temporarily store wastewater to allow particles to settle before injection.<br />
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Water samples were shipped to Rutgers, where they were analyzed. Sediment samples were analyzed at the Waksman Genomics Core Facility at Rutgers. The study generated a rich dataset from metagenomic sequencing, which pinpoints the genes in entire microbial communities, Fahrenfeld noted.<br />
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"The results showed shifts in the microbial community and antibiotic resistance, but this site doesn't appear to be a new hot spot for antibiotic resistance," she said. The use of biocides in some fracturing fluids raised the question of whether this type of wastewater could serve as an environment that is favorable for increasing antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance detected in these sediments did not rise to the levels found in municipal wastewater -- an important environmental source of antimicrobial resistance along with agricultural sites.<br />
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Antibiotics and similar drugs have been used so widely and for so long that the microbes the antibiotics are designed to kill have adapted to them, making the drugs less effective, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 2 million people become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year in the U.S., with at least 23,000 of them dying from the infections.<br />
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"We have this really nice dataset with all the genes and all the microbes that were at the site," Fahrenfeld said. "We hope to apply some of these techniques to other environmental systems."<br />
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<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above post is reprinted from <a href="http://news.rutgers.edu/research-news/oil-and-gas-wastewater-spills-including-fracking-wastewater-alter-microbes-west-virginia-waters/20170215#.WKcfuG8rK72">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers University</a>.</span></i></u></div>

Oil and gas wastewater spills alter microbes in West Virginia waters

The hydraulic fracturing (fracking) water cycle includes withdrawing water, adding chemicals, injecting fracking fluids through a well to...

Scientists find new way to extract uranium from seawater

2 Mining, ocean 2:45 PM

Scientists find new way to extract uranium from seawater

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Global Warming is Shrinking Colorado River which could Affect 41 Million Americans

13 climate, rivers, USA 1:52 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Global Warming Is Shrinking Colorado River</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Warm temperatures, not just drought, are shrinking the Colorado River</span></b><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A shortage of rain and snow can account for only about two-thirds of the river's decline, according to a new study.</span></i><br />
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Warming in the 21st century has reduced Colorado River flows by at least 0.5 million acre-feet—about the amount of water used by 2 million people for one year, a new study warns.<br />
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“This paper is the first to show the large role that warming temperatures are playing in reducing the flows of the Colorado River,” says Jonathan Overpeck, professor of geosciences and of hydrology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona.<br />
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From 2000-2014, the river’s flows declined to only 81 percent of the 20th-century average, a reduction of about 2.9 million acre-feet of water per year. One acre-foot of water will serve a family of four for one year, according to the US Bureau of Reclamation.<br />
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From one-sixth to one-half of the 21st-century reduction in flow can be attributed to the higher temperatures since 2000. The new analysis shows that as temperatures continues to rise, Colorado River flows will continue to decline.<br />
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Current climate change models indicate temperatures will increase as long as humans continue to emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but the projections of future precipitation are far less certain.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">30% by midcentury</span></b><br />
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Forty million people rely on the Colorado River for water, according to the US Bureau of Reclamation. The river supplies water to seven US Western states plus the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California.<br />
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“The future of Colorado River is far less rosy than other recent assessments have portrayed,” says Bradley Udall, a senior water and climate scientist/scholar at Colorado State University’s Colorado Water Institute. “A clear message to water managers is that they need to plan for significantly lower river flows.” The study’s findings “provide a sobering look at future Colorado River flows.”<br />
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The Colorado River Basin has been in a drought since 2000. Previous research has shown the region’s risk of a megadrought—one lasting more than 20 years—rises as temperatures increase.<br />
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“We’re the first to make the case that warming alone could cause Colorado River flow declines of 30 percent by midcentury and over 50 percent by the end of the century if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated,” Overpeck says.<br />
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The researchers began their study, published in the journal Water Resources Research, because Udall learned that recent Colorado flows were lower than managers expected given the amount of precipitation. The team wanted to provide water managers with insight into how future projections of temperature and precipitation for the Colorado River Basin would affect the river’s flows.<br />
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They began by looking at the drought years of 2000-2014. About 85 percent of the river’s flow originates as precipitation in the Upper Basin—the part of the river that drains portions of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. The team found during 2000-2014, temperatures in the river’s Upper Basin were 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degree Celsius) higher than the average for the previous 105 years.<br />
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To see how increased temperatures might contribute to the reductions in the river’s flow that have been observed since 2000, they reviewed and synthesized 25 years of research about how climate and climate change have and will affect the region and how temperature and precipitation affect the river’s flows.<br />
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Water loss increases as temperatures rise because plants use more water, and higher temperatures increase evaporative loss from the soil and from the water surface and lengthen the growing season.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What about a megadrought?</span></b><br />
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In previous studies, researchers have showed current climate models simulated 20th-century conditions well, but the models cannot simulate the 20- to 60-year megadroughts known to have occurred in the past. Moreover, many of those models did not reproduce the current drought.<br />
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Those researchers and others suggest the risk of a multidecadal drought in the Southwest in the 21st century is much higher than climate models indicate and that as temperatures increase, the risk of such a drought increases.<br />
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“A megadrought in this century will throw all our operating rules out the window,” Udall says.<br />
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The findings show that all current climate models agree that temperatures in the Colorado River Basin will continue rising if the emission of greenhouse gases is not curbed. However, the models’ predictions of future precipitation in the basin have much more uncertainty.<br />
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“Even if the precipitation does increase, our work indicates that there are likely to be drought periods as long as several decades when precipitation will still fall below normal,” Overpeck says.<br />
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The new study suggests Colorado River flows will continue to decline. “I was surprised at the extent to which the uncertain precipitation aspects of the current projections hid the temperature-induced flow declines,” Udall says.<br />
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The US Bureau of Reclamation lumps temperature and precipitation together in its projections of Colorado River flow, he says. “Current planning understates the challenge that climate change poses to the water supplies in the American Southwest. My goal is to help water managers incorporate this information into their long-term planning efforts.”<br />
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The Colorado Water Institute, National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the US Geological Survey funded the work.<br />
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<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The study was published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016WR019638" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Water Resources Research.</a> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>The above post is reprinted from  <a href="https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/colorado-river-flows-keep-shrinking-climate-warms" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Arizona</a></i></span></u></div>

Global Warming is Shrinking Colorado River which could Affect 41 Million Americans

Global Warming Is Shrinking Colorado River Warm temperatures, not just drought, are shrinking the Colorado River A shortage of rain ...

The oldest fossilized giant penguin

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The oldest fossilized giant penguin

Scientists have found what they think could be the earliest remains of a penguin ever found. Together with colleagues from New Zealan...

Diamond's 2-billion-year growth charts tectonic shift in early Earth's carbon cycle

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Diamond's 2-billion-year growth charts tectonic shift in early Earth's carbon cycle

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Scientists Discover 2-meter Long Carnivorous WORM With Snapping Jaws

This is a photograph showing the holotype of Websteroprion armstrongi. Gigantic Worm With Snapping Jaws Lived 400 Million Years Ago ...

'Quartz' Crystals at Earth's Core Power Its Magnetic Field

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'Quartz' Crystals at Earth's Core Power Its Magnetic Field

Quartz Crystals from the Swiss Alps by Franz von Arx and Elio Mulle. The Earth's core consists mostly of a huge ball of liquid meta...

Experiments call origin of Earth’s iron into question

0 earth, Geochemistry 5:11 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An infographic describing theories on how the Earth got its iron. Credit: Designed by Laura Martin/The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences. Images 1 and 2 from NASA/JPL-Caltech, Image 3 from X-Science, Earth from NASA/JPL.</td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">New research from The University of Texas at Austin reveals that the Earth’s unique iron composition isn’t linked to the formation of the planet’s core, calling into question a prevailing theory about the events that shaped our planet during its earliest years.</span></i><br />
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The research, published in Nature Communications on Feb. 20, opens the door for other competing theories about why the Earth, relative to other planets, has higher levels of heavy iron isotopes. Among them: light iron isotopes may have been vaporized into space by a large impact with another planet that formed the moon; the slow churning of the mantle as it makes and recycles the Earth’s crust may preferentially incorporate heavy iron into rock; or, the composition of the raw material that formed the planet in its earliest days may have been enriched with heavy iron.<br />
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An isotope is a variety of atom that has a different weight from other atoms of the same element because it has a different numbers of neutrons.<br />
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“The Earth’s core formation was probably the biggest event affecting Earth’s history. Materials that make up the whole Earth were melted and differentiated,” said Jung-Fu Lin, a professor at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences and one of the study’s authors. “But in this study, we say that there must be other origins for Earth’s iron isotope anomaly.”<br />
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Jin Liu, now a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, led the research while earning his Ph.D. at the Jackson School. Collaborators include scientists from The University of Chicago, Sorbonne Universities in France, Argonne National Laboratory, the Center for High Pressure Science and Advanced Technology Research in China, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.<br />
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Rock samples from other planetary bodies and objects — ranging from the moon, to Mars, to ancient meteorites called chondrites — all share about the same ratio of heavy to light iron isotopes. In comparison to these samples from space, rocks from Earth have about 0.01 percent more heavy iron isotopes than light isotopes.<br />
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That might not sound like much, but Lin said it’s significant enough to make the Earth’s iron composition unique among known worlds.<br />
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“This 0.01 percent anomaly is very significant compared with, say, chondrites,” Lin said. “This significant difference thus represents a different source or origin of our planet.”<br />
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Lin said that one of the most popular theories to explain the Earth’s iron signature is that the relatively large size of the planet (compared with other rocky bodies in the solar system) created high pressure and high temperature conditions during core formation that made different proportions of heavy and light iron isotopes accumulate in the core and mantle. This resulted in a larger share of heavy iron isotopes bonding with elements that make up the rocky mantle, while lighter iron isotopes bonded together and with other trace metals to form the Earth’s core.<br />
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But when the research team used a diamond anvil to subject small samples of metal alloys and silicate rocks to core formation pressures, they not only found that the iron isotopes stayed put, but that the bonds between iron and other elements got stronger. Instead of breaking and rebonding with common mantle or core elements, the initial bond configuration got sturdier.<br />
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“Our high pressure studies find that iron isotopic fractionation between silicate mantle and metal core is minimal,” said Liu, the lead author.<br />
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Co-author Nicolas Dauphas, a professor at the University of Chicago, emphasized that analyzing the atomic scale measurements was a feat unto itself.<br />
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“One has to use sophisticated mathematical techniques to make sense of the measurements,” he said. “It took a dream team to pull this off.”<br />
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Helen Williams, a geology lecturer at the University of Cambridge, said it’s difficult to know the physical conditions of Earth’s core formation, but that the high pressures in the experiment make for a more realistic simulation.<br />
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“This is a really elegant study using a highly novel approach that confirms older experimental results and extends them to much higher pressures appropriate to the likely conditions of core-mantle equilibrium on Earth,” Williams said.<br />
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Lin said it will take more research to uncover the reason for the Earth’s unique iron signature, and that experiments that approximate early conditions on Earth will play a key role because rocks from the core are impossible to attain.<br />
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<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above post is reprinted from <a href="http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2017/02/experiments-call-origin-of-earths-iron-into-question" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.utexas.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Texas at Austin</a>.</span></i></u><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></div>

Experiments call origin of Earth’s iron into question

An infographic describing theories on how the Earth got its iron. Credit: Designed by Laura Martin/The University of Texas at Austin Jack...

Scientists Found a Way to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Minerals

2 climate, earth, Geochemistry, Iceland 3:52 PM

Scientists Found a Way to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Minerals

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Naica's crystal caves hold long-dormant life

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Naica's crystal caves hold long-dormant life

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How to Identify Common Minerals?

0 Geologist, Mineralogy, Minerals 4:34 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo: ConexionCristalina</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Common Rock-Forming Minerals</span></b><br />
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Since minerals are the building blocks of rocks, it is important that you learn to identify the most common varieties. Minerals can be distinguished using various physical and/or chemical characteristics, but, since chemistry cannot be determined readily in the field, geologists use the physical properties of minerals to identify them.<br />
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These include features such as crystal form, <a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2014/05/the-mohs-scale-of-mineral-hardness.html" target="_blank">hardness </a>(relative to a steel blade or you finger nail), <a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2016/05/color-of-minerals.html" target="_blank">colour</a>, lustre, and<a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2014/03/the-streak-of-minerals.html" target="_blank"> </a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" target="_blank">streak </a>(the colour when a mineral is ground to a powder). Generally the characteristics listed above can only be determined if the mineral grains are visible in a rock. Thus the identification key distinguishes between rocks in which the grains are visible and those in which the individual mineral components are too small to identify.<br />
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The descriptions below use various terms or numbers to describe the mineral's shape, hardness, appearance after breaking, or other attributes. If you're not sure what these mean, refer to<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><a class="OYKEW4D-c-i" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3766405721248293436#editor/target=post;postID=1420577362781393601;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=18;src=postname" target="_blank"> How to Identify Minerals in 10 Steps (Photos)</a></b></span>.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Crystalline minerals are most often quartz. </span></b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quartz cluster</td></tr>
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Quartz is an extremely common mineral, and its glittering or crystalline appearance catches the eye of many collectors. Quartz has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale, and demonstrates any type of fracture when broken, never the flat surface of cleavage. It does not leave a noticeable streak on white porcelain. It has a glassy luster, or shine. <br />
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<li><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Milky quartz</span></b> is white quartz.  The white color comes from carbon dioxide gas trapped within the quartz structure. Milky quartz is usually massive, but well well-formed crystals are also common.  In the Huachuca mountains, milky quartz occurs a a filling material in fractures (mineral veins). All quartz has a hardness of 7 on Mohs scale of hardness and can easily scratch glass. Milky quartz is shiny and translucent.  Quartz has no cleavage and breaks with a fracture that ranges from conchoidal to irregular.</li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rose quartz</span></b> is a variety of massive, translucent quartz with a pink color. It has no cleavage, it breaks with a conchoidal fracture, and it has a shiny surface. Depending on quality, it can be used as a gemstone or a decorative garden stone.  Two major occurrences of rose quartz are Maine and the Black Hills of South Dakota.</li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Amethyst</span></b> is purple quartz.  It can occur as well-formed quartz crystals in <a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2016/02/10-interesting-facts-about-geodes.html" target="_blank">geodes </a>or deformed crystals in a mineral vein.  If the quality is high enough, amethyst is used as a gemstone. The luster of amethyst is usually vitreous (shiny).</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2016/04/major-varieties-of-quartz.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Read: Major varieties of quartz with photos</span></a><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hard, glassy minerals without crystals may be a different type of quartz, called chert. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chert with flint</td></tr>
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All types of quartz are crystalline, but some varieties, called "cryptocrystalline," are made of minuscule crystals not visible to the eye.If the mineral has a hardness of 7, fractures, and has a glassy luster, it may be a type of quartz called <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>chert</b></span>. This is most commonly brown or grey.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>"<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Flint</b></span>" is one variety of chert, but it is categorized in many different ways. For instance, some people may refer to any black chert as flint, while others may only call it flint if it has a certain luster or was found among certain types of rock.</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Minerals with striped bands are usually a type of chalcedony.</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />
</span></b></span>Chalcedony is formed from a mixtures of quartz and another mineral, moganite. There are many <a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2016/08/types-of-agate-with-photos.html" target="_blank">beautiful varieties</a>, typically forming striped bands of different colors. Here are two of the most common:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Onyx </b></span>is a type of chalcedony that tends to have parallel bands. It is most often black or white, but can be many colors.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Agate </b></span>has more curving or "wiggly" bands, and can show up in a wide variety of different colors. It can form from pure quartz, chalcedony, or similar minerals.</li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2016/08/types-of-agate-with-photos.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Read: Types of agate with photos</span></a><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2016/10/funny-weird-agate-specimens-you-should.html" target="_blank">See also: Funny weird agate specimens you should see</a></span><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">See if your mineral's characteristics match feldspar's</span></b></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Orthoclase,plagioclase and amazonite photo:  StudyBlue Inc </td></tr>
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Besides the many varieties of quartz, <b>feldspar </b>is the most common type of mineral found. Feldspar is the other common, light-coloured rock-forming mineral. Instead of being glassy like quartz, it is generally dull to opaque with a porcelain-like appearance. Colour varies from red, pink, and white (orthoclase) to green, grey and white (plagioclase). <b>Feldspar </b>is also hard but can be scratched by quartz. Feldspar in igneous rocks forms well developed crystals which are roughly rectangular in shape, and they cleave or break along flat faces. The grains, in contrast to quartz, often have straight edges and flat rectangular faces, some of which meet at right angles. <br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />
If the mineral peels when rubbed, it is probably mica.</span></b></span><b> </b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Muscovite and Biotite</td></tr>
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<b>Mica </b>is easily distinguished by its characteristic of peeling into many thin flat smooth sheets or flakes. This is similar to the <a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2014/03/cleavage-of-minerals.html" target="_blank">cleavage </a>in feldspar except that in the case of mica the cleavage planes are in only one direction and no right angle face joins occur. Mica may be white and pearly (<b>muscovite</b>) or dark and shiny (<b>biotite</b>).</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Muscovite </b>mica is colorless to a very pale brown in color.  It peels easily into very thin, flexible, elastic sheets that are nearly colorless. Muscovite is also known as white mica.</li>
<li><b>Biotite </b>mica ranges from dark brown to black.  It also peels in very thin, flexible, elastic sheets like muscovite mica. Biotite is also known as black mica.</li>
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<span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Learn the different between gold and fool's gold<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">:</span> Pyrite<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copyright ©Mark Steinmetz</td></tr>
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<b>Pyrite </b>is also known as "<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">fools gold</span>" because it has a yellow metallic color. Pyrite can be distinguished from native gold by several different properties.  Pyrite is much harder than gold; it cannot be scratched by a steel straight pin.  Pyrite is brittle; it can be crushed to a powder, whereas gold simply flattens out because it is a metal. A streak test can also distinguish pyrite from gold; pyrite produces a greenish black streak and gold produces a yellow streak.</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Marcasite </span></b>is another common mineral similar to pyrite. While pyrite crystals are shaped like cubes, marcasite forms needles.</li>
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<span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Green and blue minerals are often Malachite or Azurite. </span></b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stunning piece of azurite and malachite from China!</td></tr>
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Both of these minerals contain copper, among other minerals. The copper gives malachite its rich green color, while it causes azurite to appear bright blue. These often occur together, and both have a hardness between 3 and 4.</div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Azurite </b></span>is a bright blue mineral associated with copper ore. It may occur with green malachite, also a copper ore.  It is relatively soft at 3.5 on Mohs scale of hardness. </li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Malachite </b></span>is a rich green to dark green copper mineral.  It can occur on its own or with azurite, a mineral that it is closely related to in chemistry.  It is relatively soft at 3.5 on Mohs scale of hardness.</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Soft, light-colored mineral is Gypsum <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gypsum from Annabel Lee mine, Hardin Co., Illinois, United States. credit: Dakota Matrix Minerals</td></tr>
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<b>Gypsum </b>is a soft, light-colored mineral.  Its color can be colorless and transparent  (<b>selenite</b>) or white, pale pink or pale brown. If crystallized, it displays one direction of excellent cleavage, but the cleavage fragments are much thicker than those of  mica and the fragments are not elastic. Generally, it lacks the greasy feel of talc. </div>
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<li>One form of gypsum tends to form with a fibrous structure (satinspar).</li>
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<span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Transparent crystals exhibit strong double refractionand React with even weak acids: Calcite</span></b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">variety of colors and forms of calcite</td></tr>
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Calcite is a very common mineral. The difficulty in identifying it is that can occur in a very large variety of colors and forms.  One of the most common forms of calcite crystals are pointy pyramids that resemble a dog's canine tooth (dogtoothspar).  Large, pure pieces of crystalline calcite display three directions of cleavage that are inclined (not at 90 degrees).  <br />
Calcite ranges from transparent to translucent.  Colors may be colorless, white, cream, pale yellow, yellow-brown, brown, and even red due to impurities.  The easiest way to distinguish calcite is with an acid test; concentrated hydrochloric acid with cause abundant bubbles to form as it reacts with the calcite. <br />
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Commonly fluorescent in a variety of colors: Fluorite<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fluorite-Octahedron. Photo: Hannes Grobe</td></tr>
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It is sometimes easy to mistake <a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2017/02/why-fluorite-comes-in-different-colors.html" target="_blank"><b>fluorite </b></a>for calcite on a quick examination.  However, if you pay careful attention, fluorite has four directions of cleavage compared to three directions of cleavage for calcite. Fluorite is also harder than calcite (4 on Mohs scale of hardness) and can scratch a piece of calcite.  Fluorite is often more colorful than calcite and can be purple, green, yellow, pink, brown, or colorless and may even show two or more colors on the same specimen.  Fluorite crystals are usually cubes or octahedrons.  Above all, fluorite does not fizz in contact with hydrochloric acid.<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2017/02/why-fluorite-comes-in-different-colors.html" target="_blank">Read also: Why Fluorite Comes in Different Colors? With Examples</a></b></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It is strongly attracted to magnetic fields: Magnetite </span></span></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Perfect octahedron Magnetite from Formazza Valley, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola<br />
Province, Piedmont, Italy. Collection & Photo M.Chinellato</td></tr>
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Magnetite is common in igneous and metamorphic rocks, and some sediments, though usually in only small amounts (1 - 2 %). It is black in colour with a metallic lustre, occurring in small octahedra (like two pyramids stuck together). Easily recognized by its strongly magnetic character.</div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Use a mineral guide or website to identify other types. </span></span></b></div>
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A mineral guide specific to your area will cover other common types of mineral found in that region. If you are having difficulty identifying a mineral, some online resources such as <a href="http://minerals.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">minerals.net</a> will let you search for the results of your tests and match them to possible minerals.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2017/02/14-facts-you-should-know-about-minerals.html" target="_blank">Read also:  14 Facts You Should Know About Minerals</a></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources and Citations</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://skywalker.cochise.edu/wellerr/GLG101/GLG101-20-minerals.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cochise College</a></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-Common-Minerals" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">WikiHow </span></a><span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-Common-Minerals" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.minerals.net/mineral/magnetite.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Minerals.Net</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.empr.gov.bc.ca/Mining/Geoscience/PublicationsCatalogue/InformationCirculars/IC1987-05/Pages/contain.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">B.C. Government</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Minerals wiki</a> </span></span></div>
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How to Identify Common Minerals?

photo: ConexionCristalina Common Rock-Forming Minerals Since minerals are the building blocks of rocks, it is important that you ...

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