2022

Remarkable 380-Million-Year-Old Heart Discovered

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMysNqg7W3u5z0E0taKzMtD5HcmNuli6N230B6TQg_a579lyiSSLPhK0efLe7B5EdWToEC8xmNdqw-3N28xEKlNGB4GzGYpGidaewBUEkklTP1QpphfX9qU9ksZNHk92JRp3O9UqLk-pd6s1whHSBJTsA0FTxQ-5oW8IYhNsNpv3vka7Q3c_j2ZogV/s1225/Remarkable%20380-Million-Year-Old%20Heart%20Discovered%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="919" data-original-width="1225" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMysNqg7W3u5z0E0taKzMtD5HcmNuli6N230B6TQg_a579lyiSSLPhK0efLe7B5EdWToEC8xmNdqw-3N28xEKlNGB4GzGYpGidaewBUEkklTP1QpphfX9qU9ksZNHk92JRp3O9UqLk-pd6s1whHSBJTsA0FTxQ-5oW8IYhNsNpv3vka7Q3c_j2ZogV/w640-h480/Remarkable%20380-Million-Year-Old%20Heart%20Discovered%20(1).jpg" title="Remarkable 380-Million-Year-Old Heart Discovered" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Gogo Fish Fossil Where the 380-million-year-old, 3d Preserved Heart Was Discovered by Researchers. Pictured at the Wa Museum. Credit: Yasmine Phillips, Curtin University</td></tr></tbody></table>Researchers have discovered a 380-million-year-old heart -- the oldest ever found -- alongside a separate fossilised stomach, intestine and liver in an ancient jawed fish, shedding new light on the evolution of our own bodies. The new research, published today in Science, found that the position of the organs in the body of arthrodires -- an extinct class of armoured fishes that flourished through the Devonian period from 419.2 million years ago to 358.9 million years ago -- is similar to modern shark anatomy, offering vital new evolutionary clues. Lead researcher John Curtin Distinguished Professor Kate Trinajstic, from Curtin's School of Molecular and Life Sciences and the Western Australian Museum, said the discovery was remarkable given that soft tissues of ancient species were rarely preserved and it was even rarer to find 3D preservation. "As a palaeontologist who has studied fossils for more than 20 years, I was truly amazed to find a 3D and beautifully preserved heart in a 380-million-year-old ancestor," Professor Trinajstic said. "Evolution is often thought of as a series of small steps, but these ancient fossils suggest there was a larger leap between jawless and jawed vertebrates. These fish literally have their hearts in their mouths and under their gills -- just like sharks today." This research presents -- for the first time -- the 3D model of a complex s-shaped heart in an arthrodire that is made up of two chambers with the smaller chamber sitting on top. Professor Trinajstic said these features were advanced in such early vertebrates, offering a unique window into how the head and neck region began to change to accommodate jaws, a critical stage in the evolution of our own bodies. "For the first time, we can see all the organs together in a primitive jawed fish, and we were especially surprised to learn that they were not so different from us," Professor Trinajstic said. "However, there was one critical difference -- the liver was large and enabled the fish to remain buoyant, just like sharks today. Some of today's bony fish such as lungfish and birchers have lungs that evolved from swim bladders but it was significant that we found no evidence of lungs in any of the extinct armoured fishes we examined, which suggests that they evolved independently in the bony fishes at a later date." The Gogo Formation, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia where the fossils were collected, was originally a large reef. Enlisting the help of scientists at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation in Sydney and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France, researchers used neutron beams and synchrotron x-rays to scan the specimens, still embedded in the limestone concretions, and constructed three-dimensional images of the soft tissues inside them based on the different densities of minerals deposited by the bacteria and the surrounding rock matrix. This new discovery of mineralised organs, in addition to previous finds of muscles and embryos, makes the Gogo arthrodires the most fully understood of all jawed stem vertebrates and clarifies an evolutionary transition on the line to living jawed vertebrates, which includes the mammals and humans. Co-author Professor John Long, from Flinders University, said: "These new discoveries of soft organs in these ancient fishes are truly the stuff of palaeontologists' dreams, for without doubt these fossils are the best preserved in the world for this age. They show the value of the Gogo fossils for understanding the big steps in our distant evolution. Gogo has given us world firsts, from the origins of sex to the oldest vertebrate heart, and is now one of the most significant fossil sites in the world. It's time the site was seriously considered for world heritage status." Co-author Professor Per Ahlberg, from Uppsala University, said: "What's really exceptional about the Gogo fishes is that their soft tissues are preserved in three dimensions. Most cases of soft-tissue preservation are found in flattened fossils, where the soft anatomy is little more than a stain on the rock. We are also very fortunate in that modern scanning techniques allow us to study these fragile soft tissues without destroying them. A couple of decades ago, the project would have been impossible."  The above story is based on <a href="https://news.curtin.edu.au/media-releases/new-curtin-led-research-discovers-the-heart-of-our-evolution/" rel="noopener noreferrer 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;"> provided by <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/" rel="noopener noreferrer 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">Curtin University</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;">.

Remarkable 380-Million-Year-Old Heart Discovered

The Gogo Fish Fossil Where the 380-million-year-old, 3d Preserved Heart Was Discovered by Researchers. Pictured at the Wa Museum. Credit: Ya...

Scientists Discover Cannonball-sized Dinosaur Eggs Filled With Crystals

dinosaur, evolution, Fossils 8:54 PM

Scientists Discover Cannonball-sized Dinosaur Eggs Filled With Crystals

These could easily be mistaken for ordinary rocks or a strange type of ball, but they are actually dinosaur eggs from Qianshan, China. Image...

Alert Level Raised at New Zealand's Taupo Volcano for 1st Time

earth, Natural Disasters, volcano 9:15 PM

Alert Level Raised at New Zealand's Taupo Volcano for 1st Time

Photo: (George Novak/New Zealand Herald via AP) New Zealand volcano which caused the world's largest eruption of the past 5000 years is...

Rare Mystery Diamonds Came From Outer Space, Scientists Report

Diamonds, gemstones, Researches 10:08 PM

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi46VSSwLrh3JSl-RTjvBJv-E3oKgjfHTLTMjmkNJ_Yp1L1xGqhSScGN8FMye3eJf1RPg55FEuJbRBAS65TKpA0n4k0CQggOCSvdEi5iohlrb_76m4jzs0eKHHt6oQEudnppxFwraCV3o4AekSG7yYHAUDYhIjJK51puFTsgUNlEK5omFiZw6ZxFp1l/s1200/Rare%20Mystery%20Diamonds%20Came%20From%20Outer%20Space,%20Scientists%20Report%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="1200" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi46VSSwLrh3JSl-RTjvBJv-E3oKgjfHTLTMjmkNJ_Yp1L1xGqhSScGN8FMye3eJf1RPg55FEuJbRBAS65TKpA0n4k0CQggOCSvdEi5iohlrb_76m4jzs0eKHHt6oQEudnppxFwraCV3o4AekSG7yYHAUDYhIjJK51puFTsgUNlEK5omFiZw6ZxFp1l/w640-h382/Rare%20Mystery%20Diamonds%20Came%20From%20Outer%20Space,%20Scientists%20Report%20(1).jpg" title="Rare Mystery Diamonds Came From Outer Space, Scientists Report" width="640" /></a></div>  Scientists have debated its existence. Tiny traces provided clues. Now, researchers have confirmed the existence of a celestial diamond after finding it on Earth's surface. The stone, called lonsdaleite, has a hardness and strength that exceeds that of a regular diamond. The rare mineral arrived here by way of a meteorite, new research has suggested. Strange diamonds from an ancient dwarf planet in our solar system may have formed shortly after the dwarf planet collided with a large asteroid about 4.5 billion years ago, according to scientists. The research team says they have confirmed the existence of lonsdaleite, a rare hexagonal form of diamond, in ureilite meteorites from the mantle of the dwarf planet. Lonsdaleite is named after the famous British pioneering female crystallographer Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, who was the first woman elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society. The team – with scientists from Monash University, RMIT University, CSIRO, the Australian Synchrotron and Plymouth University – found evidence of how lonsdaleite formed in ureilite meteorites and published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study was led by geologist Professor Andy Tomkins from Monash University. One of the senior researchers involved, RMIT Professor Dougal McCulloch, said the team predicted the hexagonal structure of lonsdaleite’s atoms made it potentially harder than regular diamonds, which had a cubic structure. <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> “This study proves categorically that lonsdaleite exists in nature,” said McCulloch, Director of the RMIT Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility. “We have also discovered the largest lonsdaleite crystals known to date that are up to a micron in size – much, much thinner than a human hair.” The team says the unusual structure of lonsdaleite could help inform new manufacturing techniques for ultra-hard materials in mining applications. <h4 style="text-align: left;">What’s the origin of these mysterious diamonds?</h4>McCulloch and his RMIT team, PhD scholar Alan Salek and Dr Matthew Field, used advanced electron microscopy techniques to capture solid and intact slices from the meteorites to create snapshots of how lonsdaleite and regular diamonds formed. “There’s strong evidence that there’s a newly discovered formation process for the lonsdaleite and regular diamond, which is like a supercritical chemical vapour deposition process that has taken place in these space rocks, probably in the dwarf planet shortly after a catastrophic collision,” McCulloch said. “Chemical vapour deposition is one of the ways that people make diamonds in the lab, essentially by growing them in a specialised chamber.” Tomkins said the team proposed that lonsdaleite in the meteorites formed from a supercritical fluid at high temperature and moderate pressures, almost perfectly preserving the shape and textures of the pre-existing graphite. “Later, lonsdaleite was partially replaced by diamond as the environment cooled and the pressure decreased,” said Tomkins, an ARC Future Fellow at Monash University’s School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment. “Nature has thus provided us with a process to try and replicate in industry. We think that lonsdaleite could be used to make tiny, ultra-hard machine parts if we can develop an industrial process that promotes replacement of pre-shaped graphite parts by lonsdaleite.”<h4 style="text-align: left;">What does it mean for us?</h4>Now that scientists know about this mineral, the discovery raises the question of whether they can replicate it. Tools such as saw blades, drill bits and mining sites need to be durably hard and wear resistant, so a ready supply of lonsdaleite could make them perform even better, Salek said. And now with a credible scientific theory as to how these larger deposits formed, a rough blueprint exists to make lonsdaleite in a lab. From this discovery, we can also learn more about the interactions of the universe, said Phil Sutton, a senior lecturer in astrophysics at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom. Sutton was not involved in the research. In uncovering the story of where we come from and how we evolved, he added, it's important to know that materials were exchanged between environments -- even across solar systems. The above story is based on <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2022/sep/space-diamonds#:~:text=Strange%20diamonds%20from%20an%20ancient,years%20ago%2C%20according%20to%20scientists." rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by  <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">RMIT University.</a>

Rare Mystery Diamonds Came From Outer Space, Scientists Report

Scientists have debated its existence. Tiny traces provided clues. Now, researchers have confirmed the existence of a celestial diamond af...

Never-before-seen Diamond Crystal Structure Found Inside A Meteorite

Diamonds, Meteorite, Researches 9:42 PM

Never-before-seen Diamond Crystal Structure Found Inside A Meteorite

The Canyon Diablo Meteorite. Image credit: James St. John via Wikimedia Commons Weird Hexagonal Diamonds Came From an Asteroid-Dwarf Planet ...

Yellowstone National Park's Roads Are "Melting"

USA, volcano, Yellowstone 10:50 PM

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYUem_JAPsx_5_CLm_u879OrvdnSHYWhDNAcfdtnJbY6yYsQWrXXl6NqBaxem5Da_6HckRnEbYrgaDKTP09cQaXp_gumy7lmc81kGGULZCi6I-lnVHSE8fPLCJMrPPJFUbFAt1bemNHhkkks9FhWNZbPxtH82oFaJSqe_nV0NkcTrD-h2AqBNtQTMg/s1203/Yellowstone%20National%20Park's%20Roads%20Are%20Melting.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="1203" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYUem_JAPsx_5_CLm_u879OrvdnSHYWhDNAcfdtnJbY6yYsQWrXXl6NqBaxem5Da_6HckRnEbYrgaDKTP09cQaXp_gumy7lmc81kGGULZCi6I-lnVHSE8fPLCJMrPPJFUbFAt1bemNHhkkks9FhWNZbPxtH82oFaJSqe_nV0NkcTrD-h2AqBNtQTMg/w640-h346/Yellowstone%20National%20Park's%20Roads%20Are%20Melting.jpg" title="Yellowstone National Park's Roads Are "Melting"" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thermal images and accompanying photographs of hot areas on Firehole Lake Drive in Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. a hot pothole and deflected asphalt near Firehole Spring (images by Mark Wolf and Kiernan Folz-Donahue, July 13, 2022). </td></tr></tbody></table>  Roads in Yellowstone are melting “like silly putty.” They’re covered in ripples and potholes, and they’re getting warmed from under the Earth’s surface. No doubt you’ve heard the story—roads have melted in Yellowstone National Park, which is supposedly evidence that the region is “heating up” and that a volcanic eruption is imminent.  This story gained a lot of traction in 2014—that was the year of a magnitude-4.8 earthquake (the largest to have occurred in Yellowstone National Park since 1975), as well as the infamous “bison running” video that went viral but was badly misrepresented (the video was implied by some misinformation sources to show bison running for their lives because of impending volcanic activity, but according to the person that shot the video, was actually bison just running for the sake of running, and, what’s more, they were running into the park, not away from it). The spate of misrepresented information even prompted the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory to put out a news statement discussing the recent observations, how they were being misinterpreted, what was being flat-out made up, and that there was no sign of any imminent volcanic activity.  And as usual, volcanologists were right and misinformation sources were wrong (that’s why its called misinformation!). <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> The “melting road” story, however, has persisted as one of the legendary signs of Yellowstone’s restless nature.  And unlike the bison stampede story, there is some truth to the legend—roads actually are being heated from below at Yellowstone, and some are suffering damage as a result.  But it is not a sign of the area “heating up” or progressing toward a volcanic eruption. The “melting road” of 2014 fame was Firehole Lake Drive, which is located in the Lower Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park.  During the summer of that year, the road was closed for a few days because the asphalt in certain areas was starting to fail.  One park employee, who was supervising a tour group at the time, has memories of the mess caused by thick asphalt that ended up on the tires of the vehicle just before the road was closed. Thermal images and accompanying photographs of hot areas on Firehole Lake Drive in Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park.  Top shows a hot pothole and deflected asphalt near Firehole Spring (images by Mark Wolf and Kiernan Folz-Donahue, July 13, 2022).  Bottom shows thermal road damage between Great Fountain Geyser and White Dome Geyser, which is visible in the distance (images by Mark Wolf and Kiernan Folz-Donahue, July 21, 2022). Firehole Lake Drive traverses one of Yellowstone’s largest thermal areas and has a history of asphalt “deflection” that dates back decades, since well before the 2014 publicity.  The ground in the area is hot due to the abundant hydrothermal activity associated with features like Great Fountain Geyser and White Dome Geyser.  Laying asphalt directly onto such a surface is a recipe for trouble, especially during the hot summer months, when the asphalt is heated both from below, by hydrothermal sources, and from above, by the sun (it can get pretty hot in Yellowstone during summer months!). The result of this heating is that the asphalt softens and can flow, like silly putty.  This can create “ripples” in the road surface, and potholes are more likely to form.  When vehicles drive over the warmed asphalt, the road can suffer significant damage (as demonstrated by the tour bus incident from 2014).  This problem is not unique to Yellowstone.  For example, in 2012 an airplane at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., was temporarily immobilized when the tires sank into the asphalt during a spell of especially hot summer weather. Firehole Lake Drive is not the only place where thermal features cause challenges with road engineering.  The highway near the overpass at Old Faithful has been impacted by hydrothermal activity for many years.  The road adjacent to Beryl Spring, between Madison and Norris Junctions, has also required reengineering to deal with the presence of thermal ground adjacent to and beneath the roadbed, and park maintenance and engineering staff have developed innovative ways of dealing with the impacts of hydrothermal features on park infrastructure.  For example, in some areas of hot ground, like near Beryl Spring, insulating foam is applied before the road is laid to help mitigate the impact of the hot ground. Do roads sometimes “melt” in Yellowstone National Park?  The phrasing is a bit melodramatic, but indeed, roads can be impacted by the thermal ground they traverse.  This is nothing new, nor a sign of imminent volcanic activity.  Rather, it is a consequence of laying asphalt roads through areas where the ground can approach boiling temperatures, combined with high summer air temperatures.  The above story is based on <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo/news/melting-roads-yellowstone-national-park" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 300; 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;"> <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Yellowstone Volcano Observatory</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 300; 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;"> .

Yellowstone National Park's Roads Are "Melting"

Thermal images and accompanying photographs of hot areas on Firehole Lake Drive in Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. a hot poth...

Red Amber: Natural Rare Red Variety of Amber

amber, gemstones 7:26 PM

Red Amber: Natural Rare Red Variety of Amber

Natural Red amber. Photo: PrimeStoneIndonesia Amber is fossilized tree resin used for jewelry, decoration, medicine, and perfume. Specim...

There's a 'Lost City' Deep in The Ocean, And It's a Place Unlike Anywhere Else

earth, Geology, Researches 9:32 PM

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigVyisdRApozYFqgO4x3oBZgTtIS3-zwXtg3PCXx-O4CZ5Ivp87pBgipCr36XfaJwk9kC7vOSEEjvVsIrFUnJqHqS9A-gwV34ZFVl-TQECYcBa_ksZkH8i2KrhPBXYuxmxKgkF_FHZ2QmNP_2peuZRq0bsba-b_3xF7iMimYC86fdC8KQ6Tlc9giLu/s1232/There's%20a%20'Lost%20City'%20Deep%20in%20The%20Ocean,%20And%20It's%20a%20Place%20Unlike%20Anywhere%20Else%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="1232" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigVyisdRApozYFqgO4x3oBZgTtIS3-zwXtg3PCXx-O4CZ5Ivp87pBgipCr36XfaJwk9kC7vOSEEjvVsIrFUnJqHqS9A-gwV34ZFVl-TQECYcBa_ksZkH8i2KrhPBXYuxmxKgkF_FHZ2QmNP_2peuZRq0bsba-b_3xF7iMimYC86fdC8KQ6Tlc9giLu/w640-h480/There's%20a%20'Lost%20City'%20Deep%20in%20The%20Ocean,%20And%20It's%20a%20Place%20Unlike%20Anywhere%20Else%20(1).jpg" title="There's a 'Lost City' Deep in The Ocean, And It's a Place Unlike Anywhere Else" width="640" /></a></div>   Close to the summit of an underwater mountain west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a jagged landscape of towers rises from the gloom. Their creamy carbonate walls and columns appear ghostly blue in the light of a remotely operated vehicle sent to explore. They range in height from tiny stacks the size of toadstools to a grand monolith standing 60 meters (nearly 200 feet) tall. This is the Lost City. Discovered by scientists in 2000, more than 700 meters (2,300 feet) beneath the surface, the Lost City Hydrothermal Field is the longest-lived venting environment known in the ocean. Nothing else like it has ever been found. For at least 120,000 years and maybe longer, the upthrusting mantle in this part of the world has reacted with seawater to puff hydrogen, methane, and other dissolved gases out into the ocean. In the cracks and crevices of the field's vents, hydrocarbons feed novel microbial communities even without the presence of oxygen. Chimneys spewing gases as hot as 40 °C (104 °F) are home to an abundance of snails and crustaceans. Larger animals such as crabs, shrimp, sea urchins and eels are rare, but still present. Despite the extreme nature of the environment, it appears to be teeming with life, and some researchers think it's worth our attention and protection. <div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto">
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</div> While other hydrothermal fields like this one probably exist elsewhere in the world's oceans, this is the only one remotely operated vehicles have been able to find thus far. The hydrocarbons produced by the Lost City's vents were not formed from atmospheric carbon dioxide or sunlight, but by chemical reactions on the deep seafloor. Because hydrocarbons are the building blocks of life, this leaves open the possibility that life originated in a habitat just like this one. And not just on our own planet. "This is an example of a type of ecosystem that could be active on Enceladus or Europa right this second," microbiologist William Brazelton told The Smithsonian in 2018, referring to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter. "And maybe Mars in the past." Unlike underwater volcanic vents called black smokers, which have also been named as a possible first habitat, the Lost City's ecosystem doesn't depend on the heat of magma. Black smokers produce mostly iron- and sulfur-rich minerals, whereas the Lost City's chimneys produce up to 100 times more hydrogen and methane. The calcite vents of the Lost City are also much, much larger than black smokers, which suggests they've been active for longer. The tallest of the monoliths is named Poseidon, after the Greek god of the sea, and it stretches more than 60 meters high. Just northeast of the tower, meanwhile, is a cliffside with short bursts of activity. Researchers at the University of Washington describe the vents here as 'weeping' with fluid to produce "clusters of delicate, multi-pronged carbonate growths that extend outward like the fingers of upturned hands." Unfortunately, scientists aren't the only ones beckoned by that unusual terrain. In 2018, it was announced that Poland had won the rights to mine the deep sea around The Lost City. While there are no precious resources to be dredged up in the actual thermal field itself, the destruction of the city's surroundings could have unintended consequences. Any plumes or discharges, triggered by the mining, could easily wash over the remarkable habitat, scientists warn. Some experts are therefore calling for the Lost City to be listed as a World Heritage site, to protect the natural wonder before it's too late. For tens of thousands of years, the Lost City has stood as a testament to the enduring force of life. It would be just like us to ruin it. Sciencealert.com The above story is based on <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/lost-city-pumps-life-essential-chemicals-at-rates-unseen-at-typical-black-smokers/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by<a href="https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).</a>

There's a 'Lost City' Deep in The Ocean, And It's a Place Unlike Anywhere Else

Close to the summit of an underwater mountain west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a jagged landscape of towers rises from the gloom. Their c...

'Diamond Factory' Discovered at Boundary of Earth's Core

Diamonds, earth, Geochemistry, Geology 7:47 PM

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ySdwErp1lMlFEv-u65CgM-U6DGPp3RuGLS1cmEsWPPI7oSDEHK1cGmpL7voYIIqt5T99eYMzIbmOKhGcdQxTGrdwc7f9u1h8Rz2vHOD2gNTJhlWBlsqZMm6-1S-caTFuD6fw2d0u8urhwy_cI6k5ymrgPtvCDfCZDNtIgT9W9snVJaEad4pKS-Tr/s1140/'Diamond%20Factory'%20Discovered%20at%20Boundary%20of%20Earth's%20Core%20(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="855" data-original-width="1140" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ySdwErp1lMlFEv-u65CgM-U6DGPp3RuGLS1cmEsWPPI7oSDEHK1cGmpL7voYIIqt5T99eYMzIbmOKhGcdQxTGrdwc7f9u1h8Rz2vHOD2gNTJhlWBlsqZMm6-1S-caTFuD6fw2d0u8urhwy_cI6k5ymrgPtvCDfCZDNtIgT9W9snVJaEad4pKS-Tr/w640-h480/'Diamond%20Factory'%20Discovered%20at%20Boundary%20of%20Earth's%20Core%20(2).jpg" title="Mined in the municipality of Juína, Mato Grosso State, the diamonds were formed 410–660 kilometers deep inside the Earth Suzette Timmerman / The Australian National University" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mined in the municipality of Juína, Mato Grosso State, the diamonds were formed 410–660 kilometers deep inside the Earth. Credit: Suzette Timmerman / The Australian National University</td></tr></tbody></table>  Chemistry changes when pressures get high; a new study reveals the immense forces where the Earth’s mantle meets its core create a factory of diamonds and rust. Steel rusts by water and air on the Earth's surface. But what about deep inside the Earth's interior? The Earth's core is the largest carbon storage on Earth—roughly 90% is buried there. Scientists have shown that the oceanic crust that sits on top of tectonic plates and falls into the interior, through subduction, contains hydrous minerals and can sometimes descend all the way to the core-mantle boundary. The temperature at the core-mantle boundary is at least twice as hot as lava, and high enough that water can be released from the hydrous minerals. Therefore, a chemical reaction similar to rusting steel could occur at Earth's core-mantle boundary. Byeongkwan Ko, a recent Arizona State University Ph.D. graduate, and his collaborators published their findings on the core-mantle boundary in Geophysical Research Letters. They conducted experiments at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, where they compressed iron-carbon alloy and water together to the pressure and temperature expected at the Earth's core-mantle boundary, melting the iron-carbon alloy. <div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto">
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</div> The researchers found that water and metal react and make iron oxides and iron hydroxides, just like what happens with rusting at Earth's surface. However, they found that for the conditions of the core-mantle boundary carbon comes out of the liquid iron-metal alloy and forms diamond. "Temperature at the boundary between the silicate mantle and the metallic core at 3,000 km depth reaches to roughly 7,000 F, which is sufficiently high for most minerals to lose H2O captured in their atomic scale structures," said Dan Shim, professor at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration. "In fact, the temperature is high enough that some minerals should melt at such conditions." Because carbon is an iron loving element, significant carbon is expected to exist in the core, while the mantle is thought to have relatively low carbon. However, scientists have found that much more carbon exists in the mantle than expected. "At the pressures expected for the Earth's core-mantle boundary, hydrogen alloying with iron metal liquid appears to reduce solubility of other light elements in the core," said Shim. "Therefore, solubility of carbon, which likely exists in the Earth's core, decreases locally where hydrogen enters into the core from the mantle (through dehydration). The stable form of carbon at the pressure-temperature conditions of Earth's core-mantle boundary is diamond. So the carbon escaping from the liquid outer core would become diamond when it enters into the mantle." "Carbon is an essential element for life and plays an important role in many geological processes," said Ko. "The new discovery of a carbon transfer mechanism from the core to the mantle will shed light on the understanding of the carbon cycle in the Earth's deep interior. This is even more exciting given that the diamond formation at the core-mantle boundary might have been going on for billions of years since the initiation of subduction on the planet." Ko's new study shows that carbon leaking from the core into the mantle by this diamond formation process may supply enough carbon to explain the elevated carbon amounts in the mantle. Ko and his collaborators also predicted that diamond rich structures can exist at the core-mantle boundary and that seismic studies might detect the structures because seismic waves should travel unusually fast for the structures. "The reason that seismic waves should propagate exceptionally fast through diamond-rich structures at the core-mantle boundary is because diamond is extremely incompressible and less dense than other materials at the core-mantle boundary," said Shim. Ko and team will continue investigating how the reaction can also change the concentration of other light elements in the core, such as silicon, sulfur and oxygen, and how such changes can impact the mineralogy of the deep mantle. The above story is based on <a href="https://news.asu.edu/20220829-diamonds-and-rust-earths-coremantle-boundary" rel="noopener noreferrer 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;"> provided by <a href="https://www.asu.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer 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">Arizona State University</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 Andrea Chatwood.

'Diamond Factory' Discovered at Boundary of Earth's Core

Mined in the municipality of Juína, Mato Grosso State, the diamonds were formed 410–660 kilometers deep inside the Earth. Credit: Suzette Ti...

Giant Sauropod Dinosaur Skeleton Unearthed in Portugal

dinosaur, Fossils 10:06 PM

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG5uP3kq4rQGzVd9VTwL2p5vwsxtYaq_llT1NAFvPYRFHKsfLqXzsGDdrry1Y7vYhwyypmxuEh4db_BMxik3SxBQJ3BaIOK1W5F6b-krhdLvtYCFq1yVhtWtTcImehYD32_QVFeu873UuSthrvX7NmWDXOJpdTw3mikqDBg_69AzuWe-7R077toNH8/s1146/Paleontologists%20in%20Portugal%20have%20unearthed%20the%20fossilized%20skeleton%20of%20what%20could%20be%20the%20largest%20dinosaur%20ever%20found%20in%20Europe.%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="858" data-original-width="1146" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG5uP3kq4rQGzVd9VTwL2p5vwsxtYaq_llT1NAFvPYRFHKsfLqXzsGDdrry1Y7vYhwyypmxuEh4db_BMxik3SxBQJ3BaIOK1W5F6b-krhdLvtYCFq1yVhtWtTcImehYD32_QVFeu873UuSthrvX7NmWDXOJpdTw3mikqDBg_69AzuWe-7R077toNH8/w640-h480/Paleontologists%20in%20Portugal%20have%20unearthed%20the%20fossilized%20skeleton%20of%20what%20could%20be%20the%20largest%20dinosaur%20ever%20found%20in%20Europe.%20(1).jpg" title="Giant Sauropod Dinosaur Skeleton Unearthed in Portugal" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The excavation campaign at the Monte Agudo paleontological site (Pombal, Portugal) Credit: Instituto Dom Luiz </td></tr></tbody></table>  <h4 style="text-align: left;">Portuguese man accidentally uncovers a 25-metre-long dinosaur skeleton in his own backyard</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">Paleontologists in Portugal have unearthed the fossilized skeleton of what could be the largest dinosaur ever found in Europe. </h4>The remains of what could be the largest dinosaur to be found in Europe are being uncovered in a backyard in Pombal, a city in the central region of Portugal. The remains, that could correspond to a sauropod dinosaur with approximately 12 meters high and 25 meters long, are now being studied by an international research team. It all started in 2017. While carrying out construction work, the owner of a property in Pombal noticed the presence of several fragments of fossilized bones in his yard and contacted the research team, who carried out the first excavation campaign in that same year. More recently, between 1 and 10 August, 2022, Portuguese and Spanish paleontologists working on the site have been unearthing what may be the remains of the largest sauropod dinosaur to be found in Europe. Sauropods are herbivorous, quadrupedal dinosaurs, with long neck and tails. "It is not usual to find all the ribs of an animal like this, let alone in this position, maintaining their original anatomical position. This mode of preservation is relatively uncommon in the fossil record of dinosaurs, in particular sauropods, from the Portuguese Upper Jurassic," says Elisabete Malafaia, Postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Ciências ULisboa), Portugal.<div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> <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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH0lUAq3RmLRKWD-qw1hia4G-q3PHtwWluWU3WDxFNhYKf5MaIcvr_Ux2LYJ7wvbTv9m0gDDu04_ffOAuxB-T-hb7mbHbCbNWWH7uZ9ihSi7LKlTagmZUU_342HW6f4Onhe2g2-Org4c3qelhHke0DN3b3oqC73mAV8MY7TzhZgLO56X2uryEz5yp2/s1080/largest-dinosaur-skele%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1080" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH0lUAq3RmLRKWD-qw1hia4G-q3PHtwWluWU3WDxFNhYKf5MaIcvr_Ux2LYJ7wvbTv9m0gDDu04_ffOAuxB-T-hb7mbHbCbNWWH7uZ9ihSi7LKlTagmZUU_342HW6f4Onhe2g2-Org4c3qelhHke0DN3b3oqC73mAV8MY7TzhZgLO56X2uryEz5yp2/w640-h426/largest-dinosaur-skele%20(1).jpg" title="Giant Sauropod Dinosaur Skeleton Unearthed in Portugal" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The excavation campaign at the Monte Agudo paleontological site (Pombal, Portugal) resulted in the extraction of part of the fossilized skeleton of a large sauropod dinosaur. Credit: Instituto Dom Luiz (Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon). </td></tr></tbody></table> So far, an important set of elements of the axial skeleton has been collected from the site, which includes vertebrae and ribs of a possible brachiosaurid sauropod dinosaur. The Brachiosauridae group is composed of large species that lived from the Upper Jurassic to the Lower Cretaceous, approximately 160 to 100 million years ago, and are characterized by the presence of markedly developed forelimbs. Some of the most emblematic dinosaur species belong to this group of sauropods, such as Brachiosaurus altithorax and Giraffatitan brancai, as well as the Portuguese Late Jurassic species found in Portugal's West region, Lusotitan atalaiensis. The preservation characteristics of the fossils and their disposition indicate the possible presence of other parts of the skeleton of this individual, a hypothesis that will be tested in future excavation campaigns in the deposit. "The research in the Monte Agudo paleontological locality confirms that the region of Pombal has an important fossil record of Late Jurassic vertebrates, which in the last decades has provided the discovery of abundant materials very significant for the knowledge of the continental faunas that inhabited the Iberian Peninsula at about 145 million years ago," adds Elisabete Malafaia.  The above story is based on <a href="https://ciencias.ulisboa.pt/pt/noticia/20-06-2022/celebra%C3%A7%C3%A3o-dos-111-anos-da-faculdade-com-uma-viagem-ao-futuro" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by the <a href="https://www.ulisboa.pt/en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Lisbon.</a>

Giant Sauropod Dinosaur Skeleton Unearthed in Portugal

The excavation campaign at the Monte Agudo paleontological site (Pombal, Portugal) Credit: Instituto Dom Luiz Portuguese man accidentally ...

Scientists Discover Fossils of Giant Sea Lizard That Ruled the Oceans 66 Million Years Ago

Earth History, extinction, Fossils 9:45 PM

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFDRQWcOad_tyMMjC3-0BX7s1c9PHqlOd4xj-DxgpdfY4zjDV0ayYTmRBRrR6fCGagWdhac38JuF4VhOp99q0SvqNc8fQkB6Lfr6Fpcba6xECHgPHmQOkCtJ3nZi5KPjmYENhKF2aJI2Y9sfKG_QDbN3T-j-6Z92su_6m3g20YgO-bBk-Mfv5cEcWW/s1210/thalassotitan-bath-skull%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="1210" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFDRQWcOad_tyMMjC3-0BX7s1c9PHqlOd4xj-DxgpdfY4zjDV0ayYTmRBRrR6fCGagWdhac38JuF4VhOp99q0SvqNc8fQkB6Lfr6Fpcba6xECHgPHmQOkCtJ3nZi5KPjmYENhKF2aJI2Y9sfKG_QDbN3T-j-6Z92su_6m3g20YgO-bBk-Mfv5cEcWW/w640-h440/thalassotitan-bath-skull%20(1).jpg" title="Thalassotitan atrox grew up to 12 metres (40 feet) and was at the top of the food chain." width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thalassotitan atrox grew up to 12 metres (40 feet) and was at the top of the food chain.</td></tr></tbody></table> Fossils of a giant killer mosasaur have been discovered, along with the fossilised remains of its prey. Researchers have discovered a huge new mosasaur from Morocco, named Thalassotitan atrox, which filled the apex predator niche. With massive jaws and teeth like those of killer whales, Thalassotitan hunted other marine reptiles— plesiosaurs, sea turtles, and other mosasaurs. At the end of the Cretaceous period, 66 million years ago, sea monsters really existed. While dinosaurs flourished on land, the seas were ruled by the mosasaurs, giant marine reptiles. Mosasaurs weren’t dinosaurs, but enormous marine lizards growing up to 12 metres (40 feet) in length. They were distant relatives of modern iguanas and monitor lizards. Mosasaurs looked like a Komodo dragon with flippers instead of legs, and a shark-like tail fin. Mosasaurs became larger and more specialised in the last 25 million years of the Cretaceous, taking niches once filled by marine reptiles like plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Some evolved to eat small prey like fish and squid. Others crushed ammonites and clams. The new mosasaur, named Thalassotitan atrox, evolved to prey on all the other marine reptiles. The remains of the new species were dug up in Morocco, about an hour outside Casablanca. Here, near the end of the Cretaceous, the Atlantic flooded northern Africa. Nutrient rich waters upwelling from the depths fed blooms of plankton. Those fed small fish, feeding larger fish, which fed mosasaurs and plesiosaurs - and so on, with these marine reptiles becoming food for the giant, carnivorous Thalassotitan. <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> Thalassotitan, had an enormous skull measuring 1.4 metres (5 feet long), and grew to nearly 30 feet (9 metres) long, the size of a killer whale. While most mosasaurs had long jaws and slender teeth for catching fish, Thalassotitan had a short, wide muzzle and massive, conical teeth like those of an orca. These let it seize and rip apart huge prey. These adaptations suggest Thalassotitan was an apex predator, sitting at the top of the food chain. The giant mosasaur occupied the same ecological niche as today’s killer whales and great white sharks. Thalassotitan’s teeth are often broken and worn, however eating fish wouldn’t have produced this sort of tooth wear. Instead, this suggests that the giant mosasaur attacked other marine reptiles, chipping, breaking, and grinding its teeth as it bit into their bones and tore them apart. Some teeth are so heavily damaged they have been almost ground down to the root. <h4 style="text-align: left;">Fossilised remains of prey</h4>Remarkably, possible remains of Thalassotitan’s victims have been discovered. Fossils from the same beds show damage from acids, with teeth and bone eaten away. Fossils with this peculiar damage include large predatory fish, a sea turtle, a half-meter long plesiosaur head, and jaws and skulls of at least three different mosasaur species. They would have been digested in Thalassotitan’s stomach before it spat out their bones. “It’s circumstantial evidence,” said Dr Nick Longrich, Senior Lecturer from the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath and lead author on the study, published in Cretaceous Research. “We can’t say for certain which species of animal ate all these other mosasaurs. But we have the bones of marine reptiles killed and eaten by a large predator. “And in the same location, we find Thalassotitan, a species that fits the profile of the killer – it’s a mosasaur specialised to prey on other marine reptiles. That’s probably not a coincidence.” The huge mosasaurs bear injuries sustained in violent combat with other mosasaurs, with injuries to their face and jaws sustained in fights. Other mosasaurs show similar injuries, but in Thalassotitan these wounds were exceptionally common, suggesting frequent, intense fights over feeding grounds or mates. “Thalassotitan was an amazing, terrifying animal,” said Dr Nick Longrich, who led the study. “Imagine a Komodo Dragon crossed with a great white shark crossed with a T. rex crossed with a killer whale.” The new mosasaur lived in the final million years of the Age of Dinosaurs, a contemporary of animals like T. rex and Triceratops. Along with recent discoveries of mosasaurs from Morocco, it suggests that mosasaurs weren’t in decline before the asteroid impact that drove the Cretaceous mass extinction. Instead, they flourished. Professor Nour-Eddine Jalil, a co-author on the paper from the Museum of Natural History in Paris, said: “The phosphate fossils of Morocco offer an unparalleled window on the paleobiodiversity at the end of Cretaceous. “They tell us how life was rich and diversified just before the end of the ‘dinosaur era’, where animals had to specialise to have a place in their ecosystems. Thalassotitan completes the picture by taking on the role of the megapredator at the top of the food chain.” “There’s so much more to be done,” said Longrich. “Morocco has one of the richest and most diverse marine faunas known from the Cretaceous. We’re just getting started understanding the diversity and the biology of the mosasaurs.”  <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The above post is reprinted from <a href="https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/scientists-discover-fossils-of-giant-sea-lizard-that-ruled-the-oceans-66-million-years-ago/" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #565656; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">materials</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> provided by <a href="https://www.bath.ac.uk/" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #565656; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">University of Bath</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; 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 face="Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; 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;">

Scientists Discover Fossils of Giant Sea Lizard That Ruled the Oceans 66 Million Years Ago

Thalassotitan atrox grew up to 12 metres (40 feet) and was at the top of the food chain. Fossils of a giant killer mosasaur have been disco...

113-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Tracks Uncovered at Texas Park

dinosaur, Earth History, USA 9:08 PM

113-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Tracks Uncovered at Texas Park

Dinosaur tracks at Valley State Park Mike O'Brien/Dinosaur Valley State Park Dinosaur tracks from 113 million years ago uncovered due to...

Explosive New Tectonic Discovery May Help Explain Location of Silver and Gold Ore Deposits

Geochemistry, Gold, Mining, Tectonic 9:10 PM

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh--EiO3aqxaPnxRYsblJQK4HUKD1YYVOIm4HOqZPxOsXTQK8vwQPRjmUDseCuO_67L04n2KhC4-ClB6879eUKQTGBfdAJerG2zZtpsoSquHwvcEJREgjmGfotr6vTKd3gyvc7VM8GGzB9d9viaDNe70XBZjwjmxCZaxIeHT8hY8ni920Q5Uto9Vjz6/s1200/Gold%20Ore%20vein.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="799" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh--EiO3aqxaPnxRYsblJQK4HUKD1YYVOIm4HOqZPxOsXTQK8vwQPRjmUDseCuO_67L04n2KhC4-ClB6879eUKQTGBfdAJerG2zZtpsoSquHwvcEJREgjmGfotr6vTKd3gyvc7VM8GGzB9d9viaDNe70XBZjwjmxCZaxIeHT8hY8ni920Q5Uto9Vjz6/w640-h426/Gold%20Ore%20vein.jpg" title="Gold Ore vein" width="640" /></a></div> The percentage of water in arc volcanoes, which form above subduction zones, may be far more than many previous studies have calculated. This increased amount of water has broad implications for understanding how Earth's lower crust forms, how magma erupts through the crust, and how economically important mineral ore deposits form, according to a new paper led by authors from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), "High water content of arc magmas recorded in cumulates from subduction zone lower crust," published in Nature Geoscience. The estimated water concentrations in primitive arc magmas from this study are more variable and significantly higher than the average of about four weight percent of water found in other studies, according to the paper. The results show that primitive arc H2O after extensive crystal fractionation in the lower arc crust, the paper adds. "The big picture here is that water is essentially the lubricant of plate tectonics. The water content is going to affect all sorts of different parameters involved in how tectonic plates move," says lead author Benjamin Urann, who was a doctoral student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) -- WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering at the time of the study. <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> "Being able to get some idea of what the actual water content of the arc magmas is, which is what we did in this study, can help refine estimates of how much water is being subducted deep into the mantle globally; quantify different water reservoirs on Earth, including surface and deep water reservoirs; and better understand the transport between these different reservoirs," says Urann, who is currently a National Science Foundation Ocean Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Wyoming. Urann added that the paper also discusses the implications of water content for forming economically important ore deposits, such as porphyry copper deposits. These deposits make up about 60% of the world's source of copper, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Many earlier studies have relied on techniques such as measuring melt inclusions -- which are tiny droplets of magma that have been trapped by a crystals that grows around them -- and measuring lava and other volcanic deposits that have erupted to the Earth's surface. "However, these methods have inherent limitations that obfuscate the full range of H20 in arc magmas," the paper states. Urann and his Ph.D. supervisor, Véronique Le Roux, who is a co-author of the paper, developed methods with the Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry instrument located at WHOI to measure water content in minerals, with their work building on other efforts that suggested that arc magmas should contain significantly more H20 than inferred from melt-inclusion measurements. The researchers determined that instead of examining lava samples that have erupted to the Earth's surface, it would be fruitful to examine deep crustal magmas that have not lost too much of their water content. "Although you can't retrieve the liquid magma at these depths, what you may be able to sample is a cumulate: it is magma that has solidified at depth in the crust. We're lucky enough that sometimes with plate tectonics, some of those really deep crusts are exhumed at the surface," says Le Roux, associate scientist in the Geology and Geophysics department at WHOI, and Faculty member of the MIT-WHOI Joint Program. The researchers used cumulates that the paper's co-authors had collected from the Kohistan paleo-arc terrane in the Himalaya Mountain range in northwestern Pakistan. Instead of examining surface rocks that travel far up through the crust as magma, and lose much of their water content in the process, the researchers examined magma -- lower crustal cumulates -- that had crystallized deep down in the crust at a high enough pressure to retain their original water content signature. Le Roux says that "analyzing water in cumulate minerals is a new promising approach to access the deep levels of the crust in subduction zones." The researchers calculated that the magma they analyzed contained between 10-20 weight percent of water depending on the magma's composition. "While this weight percent of water had been predicted experimentally as being possible, it had never been shown on natural samples," Le Roux said. "The bottom line is that arc magmas can be wetter than we thought," said Urann. This study was supported by NSF awards to Le Roux, Behn, and Chin, funding from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ocean Venture Fund and from the National Science Foundation's (NSF, USA) Division of Ocean Sciences Post-doctoral Research Fellow grant to Urann;; and support from the Visiting Scholar at SCIENCE programme at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, to Le Roux.  The above story is based on <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/arc-volcanoes-are-wetter-than-previously-thought-with-scientific-and-economic-implications/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px; 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; 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;"> provided by <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px; 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">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution</a><span 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; 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;">.

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Continents on Ancient Earth Were Created by Giant Meteorite Impacts

Earth History, Meteorite, Tectonic 8:59 PM

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-O2sL5H_geKF75t4cZSg2qlK5lqV4SMFEVae7pEu8w0umvEawFsuN33CgQkEqQVkgcGs79xt47n7eFTn-BCGpnMlKCAYq1fO2ROLdiewBmAbyaqOmMfEtBVBU2N2vZ_xuvd-Al3bq7N7zr_thlGFgMY33b6iz15QRvMhrnOYT5HE7DGZWYjs1DCnD/s1202/tectonic-plates-in-tectonic-plates-geography.4b4d0f1%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="1202" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-O2sL5H_geKF75t4cZSg2qlK5lqV4SMFEVae7pEu8w0umvEawFsuN33CgQkEqQVkgcGs79xt47n7eFTn-BCGpnMlKCAYq1fO2ROLdiewBmAbyaqOmMfEtBVBU2N2vZ_xuvd-Al3bq7N7zr_thlGFgMY33b6iz15QRvMhrnOYT5HE7DGZWYjs1DCnD/w640-h428/tectonic-plates-in-tectonic-plates-geography.4b4d0f1%20(1).jpg" title="Continents on Ancient Earth Were Created by Giant Meteorite Impacts" width="640" /></a></div>  One of Earth's defining features is its plate tectonics, a phenomenon that shapes the planet's surface and creates some of its most catastrophic events, like earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. While some features of plate tectonics have been spotted elsewhere in the Solar System, the Earth is the only planet we know of with the full suite of processes involved in this phenomenon. And all indications are that it started very early in our planet's history.New Curtin research has provided the strongest evidence yet that Earth's continents were formed by giant meteorite impacts that were particularly prevalent during the first billion years or so of our planet's four-and-a-half-billion year history. Dr Tim Johnson, from Curtin's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the idea that the continents originally formed at sites of giant meteorite impacts had been around for decades, but until now there was little solid evidence to support the theory. "By examining tiny crystals of the mineral zircon in rocks from the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia, which represents Earth's best-preserved remnant of ancient crust, we found evidence of these giant meteorite impacts," Dr Johnson said. <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> "Studying the composition of oxygen isotopes in these zircon crystals revealed a 'top-down' process starting with the melting of rocks near the surface and progressing deeper, consistent with the geological effect of giant meteorite impacts. "Our research provides the first solid evidence that the processes that ultimately formed the continents began with giant meteorite impacts, similar to those responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, but which occurred billions of years earlier." Dr Johnson said understanding the formation and ongoing evolution of the Earth's continents was crucial given that these landmasses host the majority of Earth's biomass, all humans and almost all of the planet's important mineral deposits. "Not least, the continents host critical metals such as lithium, tin and nickel, commodities that are essential to the emerging green technologies needed to fulfil our obligation to mitigate climate change," Dr Johnson said. "These mineral deposits are the end result of a process known as crustal differentiation, which began with the formation of the earliest landmasses, of which the Pilbara Craton is just one of many. "Data related to other areas of ancient continental crust on Earth appears to show patterns similar to those recognised in Western Australia. We would like to test our findings on these ancient rocks to see if, as we suspect, our model is more widely applicable." Dr Johnson is affiliated with The Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR), Curtin's flagship earth sciences research institute.  <i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px; 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;">The above post is reprinted from <a href="https://news.curtin.edu.au/media-releases/study-finds-evidence-that-giant-meteorite-impacts-created-the-continents/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">materials</a> provided by <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Curtin University</a>. Original written by Lucien Wilkinson.

Continents on Ancient Earth Were Created by Giant Meteorite Impacts

One of Earth's defining features is its plate tectonics, a phenomenon that shapes the planet's surface and creates some of its mos...

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