L.A.’s Biggest Quake Threat Sits on Overlooked Part of San Andreas, Study Says

<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J08hYnthsgo/YF4IzyxflMI/AAAAAAAAS7Q/tFIe5RwuM7QH8-oFGJLA0c_7CRfPIO2-ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1230/Arrows%2Bpointing%2Bto%2Bthe%2BMission%2BCreek%2Bstrand%2Bof%2Bthe%2BSan%2BAndreas%2BFault.%2B%2528Uniform%2BCalifornia%2BEarthquake%2BRupture%2BForecast%2529%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="1230" height="328" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J08hYnthsgo/YF4IzyxflMI/AAAAAAAAS7Q/tFIe5RwuM7QH8-oFGJLA0c_7CRfPIO2-ACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h328/Arrows%2Bpointing%2Bto%2Bthe%2BMission%2BCreek%2Bstrand%2Bof%2Bthe%2BSan%2BAndreas%2BFault.%2B%2528Uniform%2BCalifornia%2BEarthquake%2BRupture%2BForecast%2529%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="L.A.’s Biggest Quake Threat Sits on Overlooked Part of San Andreas, Study Says" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arrows pointing to the Mission Creek strand of the San Andreas Fault. (Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast)</td></tr></tbody></table>  <br /></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Part Of The San Andreas Fault Is Moving Way Faster Than We Previously Thought</span><br /></p><p>Scientists have pinpointed a long-overlooked portion of the southern San Andreas Fault that they say could pose the most significant earthquake risk for the Greater Los Angeles area—and it's about 80 years overdue for release.<br /><br />But there could be a silver lining. If their analysis is right, experts say it's possible that when a long-pre<br />dicted and much more devastating earthquake hits, it may not do quite as much damage to the region as some scientists previously feared.<br /><br />"That's a significant reduction in risk for L.A. if this is true," said longtime seismologist Lucy Jones, who was not involved in the study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.<br /><br />The San Andreas Fault is a roughly 800-mile fracture that runs much of the length of California and is capable of producing a much-feared, massive temblor known simply as "the Big One."<br /><br />As the Pacific and North American continental plates move past one another, the southern San Andreas Fault carries about half the resulting strain from that motion, up to 25 millimeters (about 1 inch) per year. Eventually, that strain is released through earthquakes.<br /><br />Not every part of the fault carries that strain equally, though. In Southern California, the San Andreas Fault system is made up of many smaller "strands," and it's difficult for earthquake researchers to identify which parts of the fault system are most at risk of rupture.<br /><br />Case in point: the bouquet of fault strands—Garnet Hill, Banning and Mission Creek—that crosses the Coachella Valley. Scientists long thought much of the southern San Andreas Fault's slip occurred along the Banning strand and the Garnet Hill strand; the Mission Creek strand, they said, didn't take much of the strain at all.<br /><br />But the new findings turn that idea on its head.<br /><br />Kimberly Blisniuk, an earthquake geologist at San Jose State University, went looking for evidence that earthquakes had caused landforms to move across the surface. She found them at Pushawalla Canyon, a site along the Mission Creek strand in the Little San Bernardino Mountains.<br /><br />There, right next to the water-carved canyon, she saw a series of three ancient "beheaded channels"—long depressions in the desert that looked like they were once part of the original canyon before earthquakes shoved them aside.<br /><br />Blisniuk walked the area to get a better look at these telltale signs of ancient rupture. In each of the channels, she and her team dated the ages of rocks and soil.<br /><br />The oldest channel, which lay about 2 kilometers (more than a mile) away from the current canyon, was roughly 80,000 to 95,000 years old. The second, about 1.3 kilometers (less than a mile) away, was about 70,000 years old; and the third beheaded channel, about 0.7 kilometer (less than half a mile) away, was about 25,000 years old.<br /><br />Based on these three landmarks, the researchers calculated that the average slip rate for the Mission Creek strand was about 21.6 millimeters (less than an inch) per year. At that rate, they realized, it accounted for the vast majority of the strain along the southern San Andreas Fault.<br /><br />By contrast, they calculated that the Banning strand had a slip rate of just 2.5 millimeters per year.<br /><br />"I was really excited," said Blisniuk, who said it took years to produce the data needed to make a convincing case that the ancient channels did indeed once connect to Pushawalla Canyon.<br /><br />"The San Andreas Fault is one of the best studied faults in the world, and there's still so much we can do" to better understand it, she said.<br /><br />Because the southern San Andreas Fault is likely to experience ground-rupturing earthquakes at an average rate of one every 215 years or so—and because the last such earth-shaker in the southernmost section took place in 1726—we're about 80 years overdue, Blisniuk said.<br /><br />About 6 to 9 meters of elastic strain have likely accumulated along the fault since the last one, the scientists said—which means that when it finally releases, the ground will likely shift roughly 20 to 30 feet. Whether it takes a single quake, or many of them, to go that distance remains to be seen, Blisniuk said.<br /><br />The discovery "looks like it could be a landmark study," said Thomas Heaton, an emeritus professor of engineering seismology at Caltech who was not involved in the research.<br /><br />Jones, who was not involved in the study, is now retired from the U.S. Geological Survey. But in 2008, she led a group of more than 300 scientists, engineers and other experts to study the potential consequences of the Big One in detail. The result was the ShakeOut Earthquake Scenario, which predicted that a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on the San Andreas Fault could result in more than 1,800 deaths, 50,000 injuries and $200 billion in damage and other losses.<br /><br />The new findings could alter that scenario and make it less grim, Jones said. Here's why: The Big One can only be triggered by a massive rupture on a long stretch of the San Andreas Fault, something on the order of 200 miles. If that rupture ended up traveling along the Banning strand—as the ShakeOut model assumed—its east-west tilt would send energy into the San Bernardino Valley, the San Gabriel Valley and finally into the Los Angeles Basin.<br /><br />But if the rupture were to follow the Mission Creek strand, its more northwesterly orientation would divert some of that energy away from the L.A. Basin, sparing it some of the devastation.<br /><br />Ultimately, Jones said, "This is a piece in an ongoing debate and not yet completely resolved—probably won't be, until we have the earthquake."<br /><br />Heaton agreed.<br /><br />"It would almost be a surprise to me as a scientist if the real earthquake, when it happens, plays out in a way that's really close to what we imagined," he said. "The earth is always surprising us—it's always reminding us that we need some humility in this business." </p><p><br /><u><i>The above post is reprinted from © the Los Angeles Times</i></u><br /></p>

L.A.’s Biggest Quake Threat Sits on Overlooked Part of San Andreas, Study Says

Arrows pointing to the Mission Creek strand of the San Andreas Fault. (Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast)   Part Of The San And...

Read more »

New Rock Type Discovered Beneath The Ocean

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hcOL2iR5L-8/YFoM5B386jI/AAAAAAAAS6o/ATt7U-XIYXkPyohQg9sfxp_83A232efygCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/A%2Bmicroscopic%2Bcross-section%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bnewly%2Bdiscovered%2Btype%2Bof%2BbasaltEXP%2B351%2BScience%2BTeam.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="New Rock Type Discovered Beneath The Ocean" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hcOL2iR5L-8/YFoM5B386jI/AAAAAAAAS6o/ATt7U-XIYXkPyohQg9sfxp_83A232efygCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/A%2Bmicroscopic%2Bcross-section%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bnewly%2Bdiscovered%2Btype%2Bof%2BbasaltEXP%2B351%2BScience%2BTeam.jpg" title="Picture credit: Exp. 351 Science Team" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Rock Type Discovered Beneath The Ocean. A microscopic cross-section of the newly discovered type of basalt Picture credit: Exp. 351 Science Team<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><p></p><p>Geologists have discovered a new type of rock. While drilling deep into the seafloor, a team of scientists found a new form of basalt that’s vastly different from any other on Earth, and the planet hasn’t produced any more of it for millions of years.<br /><br />The discovery suggests that ocean floor eruptions sourced in the Earth's mantle were even hotter and more voluminous than previously thought. Report co-author is Dr Ivan Savov, of Leeds' Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics, in the university's School of Earth and Environment.<br /><br />He said: "In an era when we rightly admire discoveries made through space exploration, our findings show there are still many discoveries still to make on our own planet.<br /><br />"The rocks that we recovered are distinctly different to rocks of this type that we already know about. In fact, they may be as different to Earth's known ocean floor basalts as Earth's basalts are to the Moon's basalts.<br /><br />"Now that we know where and how this rock type is formed, we anticipate that many other rocks that we know were originally formed by ocean floor eruptions will be re-examined and potentially alter our wider understanding of the basalt formation."<br /><br />The newly-discovered basalt is distinct from known rocks in both its chemical and mineral makeup.<br /><br />Its existence was previously not known because no new examples have been formed in millions of years. As a result, the new basalt type lay buried deep beneath sediment at the bottom of the ocean.<br /><br />To find the new rock, the research team, aboard the Research Vessel (RV) JOIDES "Resolution", sank their drilling equipment 6km down to the ocean floor of the Amami Sankaku Basin - about 1,000km southwest of Japan's Mount Fuji volcano.<br /><br />They then drilled a further 1.5km into the ocean floor, extracting samples that had never before been examined by scientists.<br /><br />The research area was part of the birth of the "Ring of Fire" - a horseshoe-shaped belt known for regular volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. It stretches about 40,000 km around the Pacific, and is thought to have begun forming at least 50 million years ago.<br /><br />Dr Savov explained: "This was one of the deepest waters ever to be considered for drilling, using a research vessel specifically designed for such challenging deep sea environments.<br /><br />"Basalt is among the most common type of rock on earth. We were looking for basalt that was formed during early Ring of Fire volcanic eruptions.".<br /><br />The eruptions that created the newly-discovered basalt were very widespread (covering areas the size of western Europe) and occurred in a relatively short geological timescale of between 1-2 million years.</p><p> </p><p><i><u>The above story is based on <a href="http://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/4795/new_basalt_type_discovered_beneath_the_ocean" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="http://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Leeds</a>. </u></i><br /></p>

New Rock Type Discovered Beneath The Ocean

New Rock Type Discovered Beneath The Ocean. A microscopic cross-section of the newly discovered type of basalt Picture credit: Exp. 351 Scie...

Read more »

Here’s What a Metal Volcano Would Look Like

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wlBPPBYH_KM/YFjIZykgfCI/AAAAAAAAS6Q/zI8bFEVVQncwXh9NBPoNpESoSbiPtIOKwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1362/Here%25E2%2580%2599s%2BWhat%2Ba%2BMetal%2BVolcano%2BWould%2BLook%2BLike%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="1362" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wlBPPBYH_KM/YFjIZykgfCI/AAAAAAAAS6Q/zI8bFEVVQncwXh9NBPoNpESoSbiPtIOKwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h262/Here%25E2%2580%2599s%2BWhat%2Ba%2BMetal%2BVolcano%2BWould%2BLook%2BLike%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Here’s What a Metal Volcano Would Look Like" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Metallic lava flow emerging from rocky lava. <b>Credit</b>: Arianna Soldati</span></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span> When Volcanoes Go Metal</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">A team of scientists is hard at work on an important project: Figuring out what a volcano made of metal instead of rock would look like.</span><br /></p><p>What would a volcano -- and its lava flows -- look like on a planetary body made primarily of metal? A pilot study from North Carolina State University offers insights into ferrovolcanism that could help scientists interpret landscape features on other worlds.<br /><br />Volcanoes form when magma, which consists of the partially molten solids beneath a planet's surface, erupts. On Earth, that magma is mostly molten rock, composed largely of silica. But not every planetary body is made of rock -- some can be primarily icy or even metallic.<br /><br />"Cryovolcanism is volcanic activity on icy worlds, and we've seen it happen on Saturn's moon Enceladus," says Arianna Soldati, assistant professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences at NC State and lead author of a paper describing the work. "But ferrovolcanism, volcanic activity on metallic worlds, hasn't been observed yet."<br /><br />Enter 16 Psyche, a 140-mile diameter asteroid situated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Its surface, according to infrared and radar observations, is mainly iron and nickel. 16 Psyche is the subject of an upcoming NASA mission, and the asteroid inspired Soldati to think about what volcanic activity might look like on a metallic world.<br /><br />"When we look at images of worlds unlike ours, we still use what happens on Earth -- like evidence of volcanic eruptions -- to interpret them," Soldati says. "However, we don't have widespread metallic volcanism on Earth, so we must imagine what those volcanic processes might look like on other worlds so that we can interpret images correctly."<br /><br />Soldati defines two possible types of ferrovolcanism: Type 1, or pure ferrovolcanism, occurring on entirely metallic bodies; and Type 2, spurious ferrovolcanism, occurring on hybrid rocky-metallic bodies.<br /><br />In a pilot study, Soldati and colleagues from the Syracuse Lava Project produced Type 2 ferrovolcanism, in which metal separates from rock as the magma forms.<br /><br />"The Lava Project's furnace is configured for melting rock, so we were working with the metals (mainly iron) that naturally occur within them," Soldati says. "When you melt rock under the extreme conditions of the furnace, some of the iron will separate out and sink to the bottom since it's heavier. By completely emptying the furnace, we were able to see how that metal magma behaved compared to the rock one."<br /><br />The metallic lava flows travelled 10 times faster and spread more thinly than the rock flows, breaking into a myriad of braided channels. The metal also traveled largely beneath the rock flow, emerging from the leading edge of the rocky lava.<br /><br />The smooth, thin, braided, widely spread layers of metallic lava would leave a very different impression on a planet's surface than the often thick, rough, rocky flows we find on Earth, according to Soldati.<br /><br />"Although this is a pilot project, there are still some things we can say," Soldati says. "If there were volcanoes on 16 Psyche -- or on another metallic body -- they definitely wouldn't look like the steep-sided Mt. Fuji, an iconic terrestrial volcano. Instead, they would probably have gentle slopes and broad cones. That's how an iron volcano would be built -- thin flows that expand over longer distances."</p><p> </p><p><i><u><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">  The above story is based on <a href="https://news.ncsu.edu/2021/03/when-volcanoes-go-metal/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Materials</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span> </span>provided by<span> </span></span><a href="http://www.ncsu.edu/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank"><b style="border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">North Carolina State University</b></a></span></u></i><span face=""Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><i><u><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">. Original written by Tracey Peake.</span></u></i><span><i><u><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></u></i><br /></span></span></p>

Here’s What a Metal Volcano Would Look Like

Metallic lava flow emerging from rocky lava. Credit : Arianna Soldati    When Volcanoes Go Metal A team of scientists is hard at work on an ...

Read more »

Geologists Discover Powerful 'River of Rocks' Below Caribbean

<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kn81uzRNtZM/YFN9YlwRlEI/AAAAAAAAS58/TvqcalXaqBcLG7dldkDTNYRYI7x7dR_XwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1179/geologistsdi%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="925" data-original-width="1179" height="502" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kn81uzRNtZM/YFN9YlwRlEI/AAAAAAAAS58/TvqcalXaqBcLG7dldkDTNYRYI7x7dR_XwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h502/geologistsdi%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In this image, the warped amount of the surface is due to the opening of the Central American gateway that allowed hot material to flow through. (a) Before 8.5 million years ago, hot material was upwelling under the Galapagos from deep inside the Earth, but was blocked out of the Caribbean because of a curtain of subducting plate. (b) A gateway opened at 8.5 million years ago allowing the hot material to flow through. (c) Today, the hot material reaches midway between Central America and the Lesser Antilles, tilting up the bottom of the Caribbean sea by about 300 m (1,000 ft). Credit: University of Houston</span></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">New findings by the geologists call into question the theory that tectonic plates are driven by the weight of their sinking portions, with an underlying, hot layer serving as no more than a passive lubricant.</span><br /></p><p>Geologists have long thought tectonic plates move because they are pulled by the weight of their sinking portions and that an underlying, hot, softer layer called asthenosphere serves as a passive lubricant. But a team of geologists at the University of Houston has found that layer is actually flowing vigorously, moving fast enough to drive plate motions.<br /><br />In their study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics looked at minute changes in satellite-detected gravitational pull within the Caribbean and at mantle tomography images -- similar to a CAT Scan -- of the asthenosphere under the Caribbean. They found a hot "river of rocks" being squeezed from the Pacific Ocean through a gateway under Central America and reaching to the middle of the Caribbean Sea. This underground "river of rocks" started flowing eight million years ago, when the Central American gateway opened, uplifting the overlying seafloor by several hundred feet and tilting it to the northeast toward the Lesser Antilles.<br /><br />"Without the extra support generated by this flow in the asthenosphere, portions of Central America would still be below sea level. The Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans would be connected without a need for the Panama Canal," said study co-author Lorenzo Colli, assistant professor of geophysics, geodynamics and mantle structure in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.<br /><br />The findings have implications for understanding the shape of the Earth's surface, of its evolution over time through the appearance and disappearance of shallows seas, low-lying land bridges and the forces that move tectonic plates and cause earthquakes.<br /><br />Another fascinating discovery, according to the researchers, is the asthenosphere is moving six inches per year, which is three times faster than an average plate. It can move independently from the overlying plates and drag them in a different direction.<br /><br />"This challenges the top-down notion that subduction is always the driver," explained Jonny Wu, study co-author and assistant professor of structural geology, tectonics and mantle structure. "Think of the plates moving like an air hockey puck and being lubricated from below. Instead, what we found is the air hockey table is imposing its own currents on the puck that's moving around, creating a bottom-up movement that has not been well recognized, and that's being quantified here."<br /><br /></p><p><br /><i><u><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The above story is based on <a href="https://uh.edu/news-events/stories/2021/march-2021/03112021-geologists-discover-river-of-rocks-below-caribbean.php" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Materials</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span> </span>provided by<span> </span></span><a href="http://www.uh.edu/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank"><strong style="border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">University of Houston</strong></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">. Original written by Sara Tubbs.</span></span></u></i></p>

Geologists Discover Powerful 'River of Rocks' Below Caribbean

In this image, the warped amount of the surface is due to the opening of the Central American gateway that allowed hot material to flow thro...

Read more »

47-Million-Year-Old Fly Found With a Full Belly

<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YPetEyVWjFU/YE-QLT6oTYI/AAAAAAAAS5s/PXFrhqYVKf4HHoDuqC0ngX5gCO-j-SJBQCLcBGAsYHQ/s817/47%2Bmillion%2Byear%2Bold%2Bfly%2Bfound%2Bwith%2Ba%2Bfull%2Bbelly%2B%25283%2529%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="817" height="366" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YPetEyVWjFU/YE-QLT6oTYI/AAAAAAAAS5s/PXFrhqYVKf4HHoDuqC0ngX5gCO-j-SJBQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h366/47%2Bmillion%2Byear%2Bold%2Bfly%2Bfound%2Bwith%2Ba%2Bfull%2Bbelly%2B%25283%2529%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="47 million year old fly found with a full belly (2)" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A 47-million-year old fossil belonging to a previously unknown species of fly was found at the Messel Pit in central Germany<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p>For The First Time, We've Examined The Stomach Contents of a 47-Million-Year-Old Fly <br /></p><p> Scientists have found a 47-million-year-old fossilized fly with a bloated belly absolutely full of pollen.<br /><br />The discovery is the first direct evidence that some species of ancient tangle-veined flies once fed on the microspores of several different species of subtropical plant.</p><p>It was not the fly itself that caught the scientists' attention, but its bulging abdomen suggesting it was still full with the fly's last food intake. Surprisingly, analysis of the stomach content revealed it was full with pollen from different plants. The fossil pollen from the fly's stomach was used to reconstruct the ancient environment inhabited by the fly, the biotic interactions between plant and fly, and the fly's behaviour during feeding.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Flies as pollinators</h4><p>Today, bees, butterflies and bumblebees are the typical pollinators, which are also known to feed on pollen. That flies also play an important role in pollination is rarely addressed. "The rich pollen content we discovered in the fly's stomach suggests that flies were already feeding and transporting pollen 47 million years ago and shows it played an important role in the pollen dispersal of several plant taxa," says Fridgeir Grímsson from the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research of the University of Vienna. "Flies were major pollinators in ancient (sub-)tropical equivalent ecosystems and might even have outshined the bees," the scientist concludes.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Short-distance flights for food</h4><p>The extracted pollen was dominated by grains of Decodon (waterwillow) and Parthenocissus (virgin ivy). Today, the waterwillow is a sub-shrub growing in wetlands and the shallows of lakes, suggesting open low canopy habitat. The co-dominance of virgin ivy also suggests that the fly fed on plants growing at the forest margin surrounding the ancient Messel lake. "It is likely that the fly avoided long-distance flights between food sources and sought pollen from closely associated plants," says Grímsson. </p><p><br /></p><p><i><u><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The above story is based on <a href="https://medienportal.univie.ac.at/presse/aktuelle-pressemeldungen/detailansicht/artikel/fossilized-feeding-frenzy-47-million-year-old-fly-found-with-a-full-belly/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Materials</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span> </span>provided by<span> </span></span><a href="http://www.univie.ac.at/en/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank"><strong style="border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">University of Vienna</strong></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">.</span></span></u></i></p>

47-Million-Year-Old Fly Found With a Full Belly

A 47-million-year old fossil belonging to a previously unknown species of fly was found at the Messel Pit in central Germany   For The First...

Read more »

Rock Rising From Below the Atlantic May Drive Continents Apart

<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GaZ98hBVNSI/YE4xSfKKYGI/AAAAAAAAS5k/Hfr_lzqpkw4dChGcMi0gOZuPW1hkuXP6QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1224/Rock%2BRising%2BFrom%2BBelow%2Bthe%2BAtlantic%2BMay%2BDrive%2BContinents%2BApart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="689" data-original-width="1224" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GaZ98hBVNSI/YE4xSfKKYGI/AAAAAAAAS5k/Hfr_lzqpkw4dChGcMi0gOZuPW1hkuXP6QCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/Rock%2BRising%2BFrom%2BBelow%2Bthe%2BAtlantic%2BMay%2BDrive%2BContinents%2BApart.jpg" title="Rock Rising From Below the Atlantic May Drive Continents Apart" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Material rising from deep below the Mid-Atlantic Ridge may widen the ocean by a few centimeters every year. The ridge is visible in this false-color map as a light blue line through the Atlantic.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p> Hot rock surging from deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean may be driving the continents on either side apart. That’s the finding of a new study.<br /></p><p>An upsurge of matter from deep beneath the Earth's crust could be pushing the continents of North and South America further apart from Europe and Africa, new research has found.<br /><br />The plates attached to the Americas are moving apart from those attached to Europe and Africa by four centimetres per year. In between these continents lies the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a site where new plates are formed and a dividing line between plates moving to the west and those moving to the east; beneath this ridge, material rises to replace the space left by the plates as they move apart.<br /><br />Conventional wisdom is that this process is normally driven by distant gravity forces as denser parts of the plates sink back into the Earth. However, the driving force behind the separation of the Atlantic plates has remained a mystery because the Atlantic ocean is not surrounded by dense, sinking plates.<br /><br />Now a team of seismologists, led by the University of Southampton, have found evidence of an upwelling in the mantle -- the material between the Earth's crust and its core -- from depths of more than 600 kilometres beneath the Mid Atlantic ridge, which could be pushing the plates from below, causing the continents to move further apart.<br /><br />Upwellings beneath ridges are typically thought to originate from much shallower depths of around 60 km.<br /><br />The findings, published in the journal Nature provide a greater understanding of plate tectonics which causes many natural disasters around the world, including earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.<br /><br />Over two research cruises on the RV Langseth and RRV Discovery, the team deployed 39 seismometers at the bottom of the Atlantic as part of the PI-LAB (Passive Imaging of the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Boundary) experiment and EURO-LAB (Experiment to Unearth the Rheological Oceanic Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Boundary). The data provides the first large scale and high-resolution imaging of the mantle beneath the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.<br /><br />This is one of only a few experiments of this scale ever conducted in the oceans and allowed the team to image variations in the structure of the Earth's mantle near depths of 410 km and 660 km -- depths that are associated with abrupt changes in mineral phases. The observed signal was indicative of a deep, sluggish and unexpected upwelling from the deeper mantle.<br /><br />Lead author, Matthew Agius, a former post-doctoral fellow at the University of Southampton and currently at Università degli studi Roma Tre said: "This was a memorable mission that took us a total of 10 weeks at sea in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The incredible results shed new light in our understanding of how the Earth interior is connected with plate tectonics, with observations not seen before."<br /><br />Dr Kate Rychert and Dr Nick Harmon from the University of Southampton and Professor Mike Kendall from the University of Oxford led the experiment and were the chief scientists on the cruises. The experiment was funded by NERC (Natural Environment Research Council, UK) and the ERC (European Research Council).<br /><br />Dr Harmon said: "There is a growing distance between North America and Europe, and it is not driven by political or philosophical differences -- it is caused by mantle convection!"<br /><br />As well as helping scientists to develop better models and warning systems for natural disasters, plate tectonics also has an impact on sea levels, and therefore affects climate change estimates over geologic times scales.<br /><br />Dr Rychert said: "This was completely unexpected. It has broad implications for our understanding of Earth's evolution and habitability. It also demonstrates how crucial it is to gather new data from the oceans. There is so much more to explore!"<br /><br />Professor Mike Kendall added: "This work is exciting and that it refutes long held assumptions that mid-ocean ridges might play a passive role in plate tectonics. It suggests that in places such as the Mid-Atlantic, forces at the ridge play an important role in driving newly-formed plates apart."</p><p> </p><p><u><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> The above story is based on <a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2021/01/atlantic-plate-tectonics.page" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Materials</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span> </span>provided by<span> </span></span><a href="http://www.southampton.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank"><strong style="border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">University of Southampton</strong></a></span></u><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><u><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">.</span></u><span><u><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></u><br /></span></span></p>

Rock Rising From Below the Atlantic May Drive Continents Apart

Material rising from deep below the Mid-Atlantic Ridge may widen the ocean by a few centimeters every year. The ridge is visible in this fal...

Read more »

4.6-Billion-Year-Old Meteorite Is The Oldest Magmatic Rock Ever Found

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uAtjHFAZkVI/YEpAZo23KcI/AAAAAAAAS5c/pmVaMCv_ickgooPZXohNJfkX7_5oG0bOQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1268/4.6-Billion-Year-Old%2BMeteorite%2BIs%2BThe%2BOldest%2BMagmatic%2BRock%2BEver%2BFound%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1268" data-original-width="1268" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uAtjHFAZkVI/YEpAZo23KcI/AAAAAAAAS5c/pmVaMCv_ickgooPZXohNJfkX7_5oG0bOQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h640/4.6-Billion-Year-Old%2BMeteorite%2BIs%2BThe%2BOldest%2BMagmatic%2BRock%2BEver%2BFound%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;">The Erg Chech 002 meteorite's large crystals suggest that the rock cooled slowly. </span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>A single meteorite crash-landed in the Sahara Desert in 2020. The 4.6 billion-year-old primeval rock is the oldest known sample that may hint at a distant baby relative of Earth.<br /><br />The first meteorite rocks have been recovered in Gloucestershire after they dropped to the ground from the dazzling fireball that was sighted over the UK and northern Europe at the end of last month.<br /><br />The black space rocks, the largest piece of which weighs nearly 300g and crashed down on a driveway in the Cotswolds town of Winchcombe, have been taken to the Natural History Museum in London for further study.<br /><br />Scientists are particularly excited because the rock, likely to become known as the Winchcombe Meteorite, is made of carbonaceous chondrite, a mixture of minerals and organic compounds including amino acids – the ingredients for life itself.<br /><br />While it is three decades since the last meteorite was recovered from UK soil, never before has this kind of rock been found in Britain. It is believed that only 51 carbonaceous chondrite meteorites have ever been found and identified across the world.<br /><div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto"> <script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block; text-align:center;" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-slot="6157425841"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div><br />The rock, along with more fragments recovered from nearby areas, was located after scientists retraced the flight path of the fireball that ripped into the Earth’s atmosphere with a sonic boom that was heard from Ireland to the Netherlands on Sunday 28 February.<br /><br />Dr Ashley King, a researcher at the Natural History Museum, said it is “exciting for us because more this type of meteorite is incredibly rare but holds important clues about our origins”.<br /><br />The meteorite arrived at the museum in remarkably good condition, the scientists said, comparing it to the quality of samples brought back from space missions.<br /><br />“For somebody who didn’t really have an idea what it actually was, the finder did a fantastic job in collecting it,” he said. “He bagged most of it up really quickly on Monday morning, perhaps less than 12 hours after the actual event. He then kept finding bits in his garden over the next few days.”<br /><br />Experts said that the meteorite could provide unique information about the origins of the Solar System some 4.6 billion years ago, as well as where water and the building blocks of life were first formed.<br /><br />“Meteorites like this are relics from the early Solar System, which means they can tell us what the planets are made of,” said Professor Sara Russell. “But we also we think that meteorites like this may have brought water to the Earth, providing the planet with its oceans.”<br /><br />Shortly after the meteor fell to Earth, the UK Fireball Alliance released imagery and maps charting its likely path and saying objects would most likely be found on the ground in and around Cheltenham. At the same time, the alliance advised interested members of the public not to breach coronavirus lockdown measures in order to go looking for space rocks.<br /><br /></p><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The study was <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/11/e2026129118" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">published</a> in PNAS.</span></i></u>

4.6-Billion-Year-Old Meteorite Is The Oldest Magmatic Rock Ever Found

The Erg Chech 002 meteorite's large crystals suggest that the rock cooled slowly. A single meteorite crash-landed in the Sahara Desert i...

Read more »

Scientists Detect Signs of a Hidden Structure Inside Earth's Core

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w2O3szBIL3U/YED4he1upjI/AAAAAAAAS5A/EofMM5WrYRgqHw-_UOCePRfRHgCf26QDQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1210/Scientists%2BDetect%2BSigns%2Bof%2Ba%2BHidden%2BStructure%2BInside%2BEarth%2527s%2BCore%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="1210" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w2O3szBIL3U/YED4he1upjI/AAAAAAAAS5A/EofMM5WrYRgqHw-_UOCePRfRHgCf26QDQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h400/Scientists%2BDetect%2BSigns%2Bof%2Ba%2BHidden%2BStructure%2BInside%2BEarth%2527s%2BCore%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Scientists Detect Signs of a Hidden Structure Inside Earth's Core" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There's probably a fifth layer. (forplayday/iStock/Getty Images)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><p></p><p>It may be time to rewrite the textbooks, as scientists have discovered the Earth has a 'fifth layer' in the form of an innermost inner core at the centre of the planet.</p><p>It's an idea worthy of a Jules Verne novel; a mysterious layer at the centre of our planet. <br /><br />Now researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) have confirmed the existence of the Earth's "innermost inner core".  <br /><br />Lead author of the study, PhD researcher Joanne Stephenson, says while this new layer is difficult to observe, its distinct properties may point to an unknown, dramatic event in the Earth's history. <br /><br />"We found evidence that may indicate a change in the structure of iron, which suggests perhaps two separate cooling events in Earth's history," Ms Stephenson said.  <br /><div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto"> <script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block; text-align:center;" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-slot="6157425841"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div><br />"The details of this big event are still a bit of a mystery, but we've added another piece of the puzzle when it comes to our knowledge of the Earths' inner core." <br /><br />Ms Stephenson says that investigating the structure of the inner core can help us understand more about the Earth's history and evolution.  <br /><br />"Traditionally we've been taught the Earth has four main layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core.  <br /><br />"The idea of another distinct layer was proposed a couple of decades ago, but the data has been very unclear. <br /><br />"We got around this by using a very clever search algorithm to trawl through thousands of the models of the inner core.  <br /><br />"It's very exciting - and might mean we have to re-write the textbooks!"  <br /> <br />For the very least, Verne's famous novel may need a couple of extra pages.  <br /><br />'The details of this big event are still a bit of a mystery, but we've added another piece of the puzzle when it comes to our knowledge of the Earths' inner core,' explained Stephenson.   <br /><br />Until recently our understanding of the deepest depths of our world have been through a combination of volcanic eruptions and seismic waves.<br /><br />They are indirect observations but allowed geologists to determine that the inner core reaches temperatures of more than 5,000 degrees Celsius.<br /><br />The inner core is also relatively small, making up just 1% of the Earth's volume and existing as a single body, with the outer core surrounding it, mantle surrounding that and the crust surrounding the mantle.<br /><br />The structure of Earthʼs deep inner core has important implications for core evolution, since it is thought to be related to the early stages of core formation.</p><p> The research has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. </p><p><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/scientists-dig-deep-to-reveal-earth%E2%80%99s-hidden-layer" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Australian National University.</a></span></i></u><br /></p>

Scientists Detect Signs of a Hidden Structure Inside Earth's Core

There's probably a fifth layer. (forplayday/iStock/Getty Images)   It may be time to rewrite the textbooks, as scientists have discovere...

Read more »