Geologists ‘Closely Monitoring’ Rising Magma Under Oregon Volcanic Region

<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/a/AVvXsEjismgzGV1d738QDuTLohuvJAa0Kfm3gGWz1IAoyDh6Lq9VoasuWW-ePs1J2RjOMiRxp0HvhvTp-FijaRyUaBp9VZyhjQOrVOl24ZYr4_2SfHwt7CnmDoebNp-vXm9X7TZXUCc6GrTtIn7Im79-zOdckF_ngWM1QCtjhITPlvv62Pnr4I9mA5h6Edug=s875" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="875" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjismgzGV1d738QDuTLohuvJAa0Kfm3gGWz1IAoyDh6Lq9VoasuWW-ePs1J2RjOMiRxp0HvhvTp-FijaRyUaBp9VZyhjQOrVOl24ZYr4_2SfHwt7CnmDoebNp-vXm9X7TZXUCc6GrTtIn7Im79-zOdckF_ngWM1QCtjhITPlvv62Pnr4I9mA5h6Edug=w640-h458" title="Magma beneath land close to the South Sister volcano in Oregon has caused an uplift in the area, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, offering potential clues to future volcanic activity." width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interferogram image made from InSAR monitoring, showing 1995-2001 ground uplift in the Three Sisters. Courtesy USGS</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>Magma beneath land close to the South Sister volcano in Oregon has caused an uplift in the area, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, offering potential clues to future volcanic activity.<br /><br />The uplift was detected by satellites used by the USGS to monitor the region. The data they collected showed an uplift of about 0.9 inches occurred between the summer of 2020 and August 2021 across a space 12 miles in diameter, roughly three miles away from South Sister.<br /><br />Magma uplift can indicate volcanic activity below the surface of the Earth. A research paper published in Frontiers in Earth Science in January 2021, which examined the Three Sisters Volcanic Center in Oregon (where the South Sister volcano is), found that changes to the uplift behavior in the area could be considered an important indicator of future volcanic activity.<br /><br />However Jon Major, the scientist-in-charge at the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory, said that the activity did not have scientists overly concerned about a possible imminent eruption at the site.<br /><br />"The current uplift at Three Sisters is small and progressing very slowly, so we do not expect an eruption soon. We infer that emplacement of magma at depths of about 4 miles below ground is responsible for this uplift. If that magma was to work its way closer to the surface and possibly head toward eruption, we would expect to see other signs indicting as much," he said.<br /><br />"As magma got closer to the surface we would see more rapid uplift, possibly focused in a narrower area. The magma would break rock to make pathways to the surface and so we would see increased numbers and sizes of earthquakes as well as a shallowing of earthquake source areas. Magma would also release its stored gasses, and we would see an increase in gas output. These are among the typical signs we look for before an eruption; we see no such signs at present," Major said.<br /></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div>South Sister last erupted over 2,000 years ago, spewing ash and thick viscous lava flows down its flanks. These impacts are still visible today.<br /><br />Major said that the most recent uplift at the site occurred during the mid-1990s and continued for more than 25 years, bringing a series of earthquakes with it that were so small most could not be felt by humans.<br /><br />The scientist said that if the most recent uplift reported by the USGS followed the same pattern, it would likely slow down.<br /><br />"Small bursts of episodic earthquakes may occur as the crust adjusts to magma input... if the magma started working its way to even shallower depths and approached the surface, we would expect to see increases in earthquakes, uplift, and gas release," he said.<p></p><p><br />Before the recent increase, the USGS stated the rate of uplift at the South Sister location had reportedly slowed down since scientists first recognized the phenomenon in the mid-1990s. <br /><br />“From 1995 to 2020, the area rose approximately 12 inches (30 centimeters) at its center,” USGS stated in a recent release. “Although the current uplift rate is slower than the maximum rate of about 2 inches per year measured in 1999-2000, it is distinctly faster than the rate observed for several years before 2020.”<br /><br />Despite the excitement, USGS and Burns have said that the public is not in any immediate danger. The volcano status is currently listed as “green,” and there is no sign of an imminent eruption.<br /><br />“While any magmatic intrusion could eventually lead to a volcanic eruption, an eruption would likely be preceded by detectable and more vigorous earthquakes, ground movement (deformation), and geochemical changes,” stated USGS. “In general, as magma moves upward during an intrusion, it causes continued or accelerated uplift, fractures rock to generate swarms of earthquakes, and releases significant amounts of volcanic gases, such as carbon dioxide. We do not detect any of these signs currently.”<br /><br />Burns told KOIN a team of scientists with Cascades Volcano Observatory will continue to closely monitor uplift at the site and will be ready if a threat is detected. <br /><br />“We have great maps for the whole Three Sisters area,” Burns explained, “So if [the volcano] does come back to life, we will know which people are going to have to get out of the way and be prepared for it.”<br /><br />He continued, “The good news is we’re prepared for it … We’re still at ‘green,’ but things are coming back to life now. Mother Nature writes her own history book, so it will be interesting to see what she will come up with this time.”<br /></p><p> <br /><i><u>The above story is based on <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/three-sisters/modern-deformation-and-uplift-sisters-region" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", georgia, times, serif; font-size: 13px; 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;">USGS</span></a>.</u></i></p>

Geologists ‘Closely Monitoring’ Rising Magma Under Oregon Volcanic Region

Interferogram image made from InSAR monitoring, showing 1995-2001 ground uplift in the Three Sisters. Courtesy USGS Magma beneath land close...

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Predatory Cockroach From Dinosaur Era Found Trapped in Amber

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjnjsbxOth47L5KiBWgwdmG8cVNaY2QNF9GAc6zua_NHzRsr-6YITZc5y6ojq4_ot4WIj5ian7zNJrLJV16UCKgW5usnrnuxqes7NTpfrjh1eHZKgPzJ7qVGVa0Uqsjt1kj_kWx4wY1akgttneR69GwmklD8QCOIoblnYrIAq88_aPwF0_zWCgpLBxB=s1209" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="803" data-original-width="1209" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjnjsbxOth47L5KiBWgwdmG8cVNaY2QNF9GAc6zua_NHzRsr-6YITZc5y6ojq4_ot4WIj5ian7zNJrLJV16UCKgW5usnrnuxqes7NTpfrjh1eHZKgPzJ7qVGVa0Uqsjt1kj_kWx4wY1akgttneR69GwmklD8QCOIoblnYrIAq88_aPwF0_zWCgpLBxB=w640-h426" title="Photo of the entire amber-encased fossil specimen of Huablattula hui, a cretaceous cockroach (Image credit: Ryo Taniguchi, et al. The Science of Nature.)" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo of the entire amber-encased fossil specimen of Huablattula hui, a cretaceous cockroach (Image credit: Ryo Taniguchi, et al. The Science of Nature.)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Creepy, big-eyed cockroach discovered trapped in amber from 100 million years ago <br /></h4><p>Researchers at Hokkaido University have revealed new insights into an extinct cockroach species by studying the sensory organs of a specimen preserved in the fossilized tree resin known as amber. Their findings, which were published in the journal The Science of Nature, suggest that extinct cockroach species may have had more diverse habitats and behaviours than their related living species.<br /><br />Animals are highly dependent on their sensory organs to detect information about their surroundings, such as sensing food, habitats, predators and mates. These organs are therefore crucial to their survival and evolution.<br /><br />“Fossils provide the only direct line of evidence for tracing the diversity and evolution of sensory organs. However, insect organs are rarely preserved in sediments because they are so small and fragile,” explains Ryo Taniguchi, researcher at Hokkaido University’s Department of Natural History Sciences. “One way to solve this problem is to study exceptionally well-preserved fossil material from amber.”<br /></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div><br />The Hokkaido team, in collaboration with colleagues at Fukuoka University, analysed the sensory organs of an extinct male cockroach species called Huablattula hui. They studied a specimen preserved in a piece of amber from Myanmar estimated to be approximately 100 million years old.<br /><br />They used a combination of techniques, including photography, microscopy, X-ray CT scans, 3D modelling and thin sectioning, to observe the cockroach in high resolution and compare its features to those of other species.<br /><br />“The cockroach specimen was remarkably well preserved and showed many morphological features in fine detail,” says Taniguchi.<br /><br />The researchers found that, compared to dark-dwelling species alive today, H. hui had relatively large, well-developed eyes. H. hui also had fewer receptors on its antenna for detecting information such as odours, physical contact and temperature. Taken together, these observations imply that the species was active in bright and open environments during the daytime, in contrast to many existing cockroach species that live in dark habitats, such as forest floors, caves or night environments.<br /><br />They also found that the species had a large number of sensory receptors on its antenna that resemble those used by male mantises to detect sex pheromones. The number and pattern of the receptors suggest that H. hui may have used them for communicating between sexes.<br /><br />Overall, these observations indicate that cockroaches living during the Cretaceous period, from 145 to 66 million years ago, may have inhabited a wider range of environments compared to related species alive today.<br /><br />This work shows that studying amber animal fossils is a powerful tool for understanding the evolution of sensory systems.<br /><br /><p></p><p><i><u>The above story is based on <a href="https://www.global.hokudai.ac.jp/blog/amber-fossil-reveals-new-clues-about-ancient-cockroach-ecology/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a data-wpel-link="external" href="https://www.global.hokudai.ac.jp/" id="dnn_ctr3682_View_spOrgLink" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4ca9e8; font-family: "Source Sans Pro"; font-size: 17px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; pointer-events: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Hokkaido University</a>. </u></i><br /></p>

Predatory Cockroach From Dinosaur Era Found Trapped in Amber

Photo of the entire amber-encased fossil specimen of Huablattula hui, a cretaceous cockroach (Image credit: Ryo Taniguchi, et al. The Scienc...

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Earth’s Water Came from Enstatite Chondrite-Like Asteroids

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi42giPhAGGE8VPI1GXkbYAR2u5ZwkxQ0RBQKNkQMq4z4X3Du0-an6aMnNb_p9pV-GpDSCS86dkRosh5EHqdne_2lTAN_nY4VPRPeDwtt1NF5wghggmKDYtJjLskUNe0jVrCAGFKKF9ylKzYnYKLyq4WWVtViaxa99rInc-jY1cB4lZjog6IJu9S1zd=s1242" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Earth’s Water Came from Enstatite Chondrite-Like Asteroids" border="0" data-original-height="932" data-original-width="1242" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi42giPhAGGE8VPI1GXkbYAR2u5ZwkxQ0RBQKNkQMq4z4X3Du0-an6aMnNb_p9pV-GpDSCS86dkRosh5EHqdne_2lTAN_nY4VPRPeDwtt1NF5wghggmKDYtJjLskUNe0jVrCAGFKKF9ylKzYnYKLyq4WWVtViaxa99rInc-jY1cB4lZjog6IJu9S1zd=w640-h480" title="Earth’s Water Came from Enstatite Chondrite-Like Asteroids" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earth’s Water Came from Enstatite Chondrite-Like Asteroids. A piece of the enstatite chondrite meteorite Sahara 97096. Image credit: Christine Fieni / Laurette Piani / French National Museum of Natural History.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">A type of meteorite called an enstatite chondrite has similar isotopic composition to terrestrial rocks and thus may be representative of the material that formed Earth.  </span><br /></p><p>A new study finds that Earth's water may have come from materials that were present in the inner solar system at the time the planet formed -- instead of far-reaching comets or asteroids delivering such water. The findings published in <i>Science</i> suggest that Earth may have always been wet.<br /><br />Researchers from the Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques (CRPG, CNRS/Universite de Lorraine) in Nancy, France, including one who is now a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis, determined that a type of meteorite called an enstatite chondrite contains sufficient hydrogen to deliver at least three times the amount of water contained in the Earth's oceans, and probably much more.<br /><br />Enstatite chondrites are entirely composed of material from the inner solar system -- essentially the same stuff that made up the Earth originally.<br /><br />"Our discovery shows that the Earth's building blocks might have significantly contributed to the Earth's water," said lead author Laurette Piani, a researcher at CPRG. "Hydrogen-bearing material was present in the inner solar system at the time of the rocky planet formation, even though the temperatures were too high for water to condense."<br /><br />The findings from this study are surprising because the Earth's building blocks are often presumed to be dry. They come from inner zones of the solar system where temperatures would have been too high for water to condense and come together with other solids during planet formation.<br /><br />The meteorites provide a clue that water didn't have to come from far away.<br /><br />"The most interesting part of the discovery for me is that enstatite chondrites, which were believed to be almost 'dry,' contain an unexpectedly high abundance of water," said Lionel Vacher, a postdoctoral researcher in physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.<br /><br />Vacher prepared some of the enstatite chondrites in this study for water analysis while he was completing his PhD at Universite de Lorraine. At Washington University, Vacher is working on understanding the composition of water in other types of meteorites.<br /><br />Enstatite chondrites are rare, making up only about 2 percent of known meteorites in collections.<br /><br />But their isotopic similarity to Earth make them particularly compelling. Enstatite chondrites have similar oxygen, titanium and calcium isotopes as Earth, and this study showed that their hydrogen and nitrogen isotopes are similar to Earth's, too. In the study of extraterrestrial materials, the abundances of an element's isotopes are used as a distinctive signature to identify where that element originated.<br /><br />"If enstatite chondrites were effectively the building blocks of our planet -- as strongly suggested by their similar isotopic compositions -- this result implies that these types of chondrites supplied enough water to Earth to explain the origin of Earth's water, which is amazing!" Vacher said.<br /><br />The paper also proposes that a large amount of the atmospheric nitrogen -- the most abundant component of the Earth's atmosphere -- could have come from the enstatite chondrites.<br /><br />"Only a few pristine enstatite chondrites exist: ones that were not altered on their asteroid nor on Earth," Piani said. "In our study we have carefully selected the enstatite chondrite meteorites and applied a special analytical procedure to avoid being biased by the input of terrestrial water."<br /><br />Coupling two analytical techniques -- conventional mass spectrometry and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) -- allowed researchers to precisely measure the content and composition of the small amounts of water in the meteorites.<br /><br />Prior to this study, "it was commonly assumed that these chondrites formed close to the sun," Piani said. "Enstatite chondrites were thus commonly considered 'dry,' and this frequently reasserted assumption has probably prevented any exhaustive analyses to be done for hydrogen."</p><p> </p><p><u><i>The above story is based on <a href="https://source.wustl.edu/2020/08/meteorite-study-suggests-earth-may-have-always-been-wet/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; 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 face=""Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; 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.wustl.edu/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; 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;">Washington University in St. Louis</b></a><span face=""Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; 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;">. Original written by Talia Ogliore.</span></i></u> </p>

Earth’s Water Came from Enstatite Chondrite-Like Asteroids

Earth’s Water Came from Enstatite Chondrite-Like Asteroids. A piece of the enstatite chondrite meteorite Sahara 97096. Image credit: Christi...

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A Forgotten Continent From 40 Million Years Ago May Have Just Been Rediscovered

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBZhmVjwQyFNADUnxmm2KU3PXkPE8MYn0ZTggEKPDrsIHHXGlK_te702YsMFX4F7BHqvNnkfeD4I7NAHEIg_ZGh6Hjx-fN_OfOe9SgYWe8oqbZCKwtbqRrEAapW1i_bRMM0Qlo7UBAXNjsBs-D4WiMlST8yK7eH-rYQnplWCOWFof6suWJINY0KpfI=s1200" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="1200" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBZhmVjwQyFNADUnxmm2KU3PXkPE8MYn0ZTggEKPDrsIHHXGlK_te702YsMFX4F7BHqvNnkfeD4I7NAHEIg_ZGh6Hjx-fN_OfOe9SgYWe8oqbZCKwtbqRrEAapW1i_bRMM0Qlo7UBAXNjsBs-D4WiMlST8yK7eH-rYQnplWCOWFof6suWJINY0KpfI=w640-h328" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A lost continent that was wedged between Europe, Africa and Asia has been rediscovered. It covers the present-day Balkans and Anatolia and has been dubbed Balkanatolia (Alexis Licht, Grégoire Métais/CNRS)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">An ancient forgotten continent that was wedged between Europe, Africa and Asia has been rediscovered. It covers the present-day Balkans and Anatolia and has been dubbed Balkanatolia by researchers.</span></p><p>A team of French, American and Turkish palaeontologists and geologists led by CNRS researchers has discovered the existence of a forgotten continent they have dubbed Balkanatolia, which today covers the present-day Balkans and Anatolia. Formerly inhabited by a highly specific fauna, they believe that it enabled mammals from Asia to colonise Europe 34 million years ago. Their findings are published in the March 2022 volume of Earth Science Reviews.<br /><br />For millions of years during the Eocene Epoch (55 to 34 million years ago), Western Europe and Eastern Asia formed two distinct land masses with very different mammalian faunas: European forests were home to endemic fauna such as Palaeotheres (an extinct group distantly related to present-day horses, but more like today's tapirs), whereas Asia was populated by a more diverse fauna including the mammal families found today on both continents.<br /><br />We know that, around 34 million years ago, Western Europe was colonised by Asian species, leading to a major renewal of vertebrate fauna and the extinction of its endemic mammals, a sudden event called the 'Grande Coupure'. Surprisingly, fossils found in the Balkans point to the presence of Asian mammals in southern Europe long before the Grande Coupure, suggesting earlier colonisation.<br /><br />Now, a team led by CNRS researchers has come up with an explanation for this paradox. To do this, they reviewed earlier palaeontological discoveries, some of which date back to the 19th century, sometimes reassessing their dating in the light of current geological data.</p><p>The review revealed that, for much of the Eocene, the region corresponding to the present-day Balkans and Anatolia was home to a terrestrial fauna that was homogeneous, but distinct from those of Europe and eastern Asia. This exotic fauna included, for example, marsupials of South American affinity and Embrithopoda (large herbivorous mammals resembling hippopotamuses) formerly found in Africa. The region must therefore have made up a single land mass, separated from the neighbouring continents.<br /><br />The team also discovered a new fossil deposit in Turkey (Büyükteflek) dating from 38 to 35 million years ago, which yielded mammals whose affinity was clearly Asian, and are the earliest discovered in Anatolia until now. They found jaw fragments belonging to Brontotheres, animals resembling large rhinoceroses that died out at the end of the Eocene.<br /><br />All this information enabled the team to outline the history of this third Eurasian continent, wedged between Europe, Africa and Asia, which they dubbed Balkanatolia. The continent, already in existence 50 million years ago2 and home to a unique fauna, was colonised 40 million years ago by Asian mammals as a result of geographical changes that have yet to be fully understood. It seems likely that a major glaciation 34 million years ago, leading to the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet and lowering sea levels, connected Balkanatolia to Western Europe, giving rise to the 'Grande Coupure'.<br /><br /> </p><p><u><i> The above story is based on <a href="https://www.cnrs.fr/en/balkanatolia-forgotten-continent-sheds-light-evolution-mammals" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by<a href="https://www.cnrs.fr/en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> CNRS.</a></i></u></p>

A Forgotten Continent From 40 Million Years Ago May Have Just Been Rediscovered

A lost continent that was wedged between Europe, Africa and Asia has been rediscovered. It covers the present-day Balkans and Anatolia and h...

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Mystery Tsunami That Spread Around The World in 2021 Can Finally Be Explained

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhl9rRI3Eo4Zzxqv-ZA-8Jtp8NsJf02R5636CJZIgnvolwOGL59i_uHNhEuKaizOJO53iKG64hkh54r3aBXLZ_ubU6S5KSXML1OMeMeIu2afgHjevTyRqqP1YSpSwbFYBndk_ZwZLEF5uZxKVhH2rH_NxTKaxOk0lEOMIlkdHq5Iwz5nJKYpiN7WmG3=s1208" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="496" data-original-width="1208" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhl9rRI3Eo4Zzxqv-ZA-8Jtp8NsJf02R5636CJZIgnvolwOGL59i_uHNhEuKaizOJO53iKG64hkh54r3aBXLZ_ubU6S5KSXML1OMeMeIu2afgHjevTyRqqP1YSpSwbFYBndk_ZwZLEF5uZxKVhH2rH_NxTKaxOk0lEOMIlkdHq5Iwz5nJKYpiN7WmG3=w640-h262" title="Mystery Tsunami That Spread Around The World in 2021 Can Finally Be Explained" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The mystery tsunami traveled 6,000 miles through three oceans. Image: NOAA Center for Tsunami Research<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">Last year in August, a surprise tsunami in the South Atlantic Ocean mushroomed to distances over 10,000 kilometers (more than 6,000 miles) away, rippling through the North Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian Oceans.<br /><br />Scientists have uncovered the source of a mysterious 2021 tsunami that sent waves around the globe.<br /><br />In August 2021, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit near the South Sandwich Islands, creating a tsunami that rippled around the globe. The epicenter was 47 kilometers below the Earth's surface—too deep to initiate a tsunami—and the rupture was nearly 400 kilometers long, which should have generated a much larger earthquake.<br /><br />Seismologists were puzzled and sought to understand what really happened that day in the remote South Atlantic.<br /><br />A new study revealed the quake wasn't a single event, but five, a series of sub-quakes spread out over several minutes. The third sub-quake was a shallower, slower magnitude 8.2 quake that hit just 15 kilometers below the surface. That unusual, "hidden" earthquake was likely the trigger of the worldwide tsunami.<br /></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div><br />The study was published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes short-format, high-impact papers with implications that span the Earth and space sciences.<br /><br />Because the South Sandwich Islands earthquake was complex, with multiple sub-quakes, its seismic signal was difficult to interpret, according to lead study author Zhe Jia, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology. The magnitude 8.2 quake was hidden within the tangle of seismic waves, which interfered with each other over the course of the event. The hidden quake's signal wasn't clear until Jia filtered the waves using a much longer period, up to 500 seconds. Only then did the 200-second-long quake, which Jia said accounted for over 70% of the energy released during the earthquake, become clear.<br /><br />"The third event is special because it was huge, and it was silent," Jia said. "In the data we normally look at [for earthquake monitoring], it was almost invisible."<br /><br />Predicting hazards for complex earthquakes can be difficult, as the South Sandwich Islands quake demonstrates. The USGS initially reported the magnitude 7.5 quake and only added the 8.2 event the following day, as the surprise tsunami lapped on shores up to 10,000 kilometers away from its point of origin.<br /><br />"We need to rethink our way to mitigate earthquake-tsunami hazards. To do that, we need to rapidly and accurately characterize the true size of big earthquakes, as well as their physical processes," Jia said.<br /><br />Because this type of earthquake can result in unexpected tsunami, it's critical to improve our predictions. "With these complex earthquakes, the earthquake happens and we think, 'Oh, that wasn't so big, we don't have to worry.' And then the tsunami hits and causes a lot of damage," said Judith Hubbard, a geologist at the Earth Observatory of Singapore who was not involved in the study. "This study is a great example of how we can understand how these events work, and how we can detect them faster so we can have more warning in the future."<br /><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Sneaky seismic signals</h4><p style="text-align: left;">When an earthquake hits, it sends waves of vibration through the Earth. The global network of earthquake monitors uses those seismic waves to pinpoint the time, location, depth and magnitude of an earthquake. Common monitoring often focuses on short- and medium-periods of waves, Jia said, and longer periods can be left out. But even incorporating long periods into monitoring, on its own, isn't enough to catch complex earthquakes with messy seismic signals.<br /><br />"It's hard to find the second earthquake because it's buried in the first one," Jia said. "It's very seldom complex earthquakes like this are observed. … And if we don't use the right dataset, we cannot really see what was hidden inside."<br /><br />A simple earthquake can easily be pinpointed and described, Jia said. But a messy one needs to be carefully broken down into its constituent parts, to find out what unique combination of simpler earthquakes built up the complex one.<br /><br />Jia and his colleagues developed an algorithm to tease apart the seismic signals during those messy earthquakes. By "decomposing" complex earthquake signals into simpler forms, using waves over different periods (varying from 20 to 500 seconds long), the algorithm can identify the location and properties of different sub-earthquakes. It's akin to someone with perfect pitch hearing five dissonant notes struck at once, yet being able to identify each individual note.<br /><br />"I think a lot of people are daunted by trying to work on events like this," said Hubbard. "That somebody was willing to really dig into the data to figure it out is really useful."<br /><br />Both Jia and Hubbard noted a long-term goal is to automate the detection of such complex earthquakes, as we can for simple earthquakes. For the 2021 quake, the tsunami was small by the time it reached shores, and most of the permanent residents of the remote, volcanic islands are penguins. But complex earthquakes can pose significant hazards if they generate larger tsunami or strike in a densely populated region.<br /><br /> </p><p style="text-align: left;">The above story is based on materials provided by <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021GL097104" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Geophysical Research Letters</a>.. <br /></p>

Mystery Tsunami That Spread Around The World in 2021 Can Finally Be Explained

The mystery tsunami traveled 6,000 miles through three oceans. Image: NOAA Center for Tsunami Research Last year in August, a surprise tsuna...

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How Does a Major Subduction Zone Get Started? It May Begin Small

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj1zx8xqa07WHuGt1DmO4Xv7irMXU-SSB6v8sx6oB_XXdhoA-8-AhBh6VXAwj22xQ32uA5qMFFoiDD2-CT8h6u_2qbKgacBGMH7OiobALvQZ1FvufTVTWPVc47RSTNoNfEn8VtJWINZVnheUvzAAhyNecl_J5KsDjAxWklc_A2I1tkcs2Lb-WCU6a4t=s1200" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="1200" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj1zx8xqa07WHuGt1DmO4Xv7irMXU-SSB6v8sx6oB_XXdhoA-8-AhBh6VXAwj22xQ32uA5qMFFoiDD2-CT8h6u_2qbKgacBGMH7OiobALvQZ1FvufTVTWPVc47RSTNoNfEn8VtJWINZVnheUvzAAhyNecl_J5KsDjAxWklc_A2I1tkcs2Lb-WCU6a4t=w640-h428" title="Subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate results in the formation of the Coastal Ranges and Cascade Volcanoes, as well as a variety of earthquakes, in the Pacific Northwest. Olympic and Mt. Rainier national parks showcase the contrasting landscapes of the two parallel mountain ranges." width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate results in the formation of the Coastal Ranges and Cascade Volcanoes, as well as a variety of earthquakes, in the Pacific Northwest. Olympic and Mt. Rainier national parks showcase the contrasting landscapes of the two parallel mountain ranges.<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Modified from “Oregon's Island in the Sky: Geology Road Guide to Marys Peak, by Robert J. Lillie, Wells Creek Publishers,</span></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p>One longstanding enigma in geology is how one tectonic plate can break Earth’s rock-hard shell and begin diving under another in the process known as subduction.<br /><br />Now, a new study describes how a small break in one tectonic plate was squeezed and pulled over millions of years until it unzipped and set in motion a runaway geologic process. The study, of an emerging subduction zone off New Zealand, was just published in the journal Nature Geoscience.<br /><br />“We now know how subduction nucleated and how fast it’s growing,” said lead author Brandon Shuck. “That’s important to know because subduction is the main driver of plate tectonics. It builds mountains, forms new oceans and drives chemical cycling from the deep earth all the way to the atmosphere.” Shuck did the work for his doctoral thesis at the University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences; he is now a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.<br /><br />Earth is believed to be the only planet in the Solar System to undergo subduction, which is key to the cycling of carbon that makes life possible here. “We do believe that subduction didn’t always happen on Earth, so understanding how [it] initiates today is a critical step to understanding how our world eventually became a habitable planet,” said the study’s coauthor Harm Van Avendonk, a senior research scientist at the University of Texas.<br /><br />The research began in 2018 aboard Lamont-Doherty’s research vessel Marcus G. Langseth off New Zealand, where Shuck and his shipmates endured weeks of bad weather to gather detailed seismic images of the seafloor.<br /><br />Onshore, Shuck matched the images with rock samples from other ocean expeditions. This provided a geologic timeline to reconstruct an unzipping plate. According to his reconstruction, a small break appeared in the Australian plate around 16 million years ago, which slowly grew as it collided with other tectonic plates. When the break had unzipped far enough, the heavier portion of the plate broke through the earth’s rocky shell (known as the lithosphere), setting it on a downward conveyor that has continued for the last 8 million years. Today, the new subducting margin is about 300 miles long.<br /><br />“That’s pretty small at the scale of global tectonics,” Shuck said. “But it’s going to keep growing all the way down to Antarctica.” he predicted. “Once it gets that big, more than 1,000 miles long, it could change the motion of neighboring tectonic plates.”<br /><br />For now, the only sign on the surface is a handful of volcanoes near New Zealand’s South Island. Most emerged in the last hundred thousand years. They are likely to grow into a longer volcanic chain as the split spreads south in the future, Shuck said.<br /><br />Shuck’s study reconciles two opposing ideas about how subduction starts: with the gradual back and forth of plates bumping against one another, or by plates spontaneously and rapidly collapsing under their own weight. The new research suggests that sometimes the two ideas might both be part of the equation.<br /><br />“The work shows that there may, instead, be multiple scenarios driving subduction initiation,” said Fabio Crameri, a Swiss geophysicist who wrote a Nature Geoscience commentary accompanying the study.  “Even if the same scenario isn’t true for every subduction zone, their model challenges our current systems for classifying subduction zone initiation and highlights the need for 4D modelling.”</p><p> </p><p><i><u> The above story is based on <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-022-00894-6" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences.</a></u></i><br /></p>

How Does a Major Subduction Zone Get Started? It May Begin Small

Subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate results in the formation of the Coastal Ranges and Cascade Volcanoes, as well as a variety of earthquak...

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Earth’s Inner Core Could Exist As Exotic Matter Between Liquid And Solid

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqVsqiJLQMXBolxcY4fKNtp89wfky3EB50auco-KgCM5PEi4Hr9TQC1x7k-1Hboa-7cF8I5cPBVW-JZdgcLibJ3Lb16hRv2WXVt4XvtlFFM82uSaxSs0tlYKKXHCKdFfonKH7j1Je3DyjkObuscb0wCQ0xIejsoBmgAqe4VJsYJrf7rQWRIXnC7smo=s1209" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1173" data-original-width="1209" height="620" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhqVsqiJLQMXBolxcY4fKNtp89wfky3EB50auco-KgCM5PEi4Hr9TQC1x7k-1Hboa-7cF8I5cPBVW-JZdgcLibJ3Lb16hRv2WXVt4XvtlFFM82uSaxSs0tlYKKXHCKdFfonKH7j1Je3DyjkObuscb0wCQ0xIejsoBmgAqe4VJsYJrf7rQWRIXnC7smo=w640-h620" title="The Earth is layered like a giant onion, and finding out what goes on below our feet requires some nifty physics.(Supplied: Institute of Geochemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences)" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Earth is layered like a giant onion, and finding out what goes on below our feet requires some nifty physics.(Supplied: Institute of Geochemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences)</td></tr></tbody></table><h4 style="text-align: left;"><b> </b></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;"><b>Earth's inner core is 'superionic', a state of matter somewhere between solid and liquid, study suggests</b><br /></h4><p>We've known for a while that Earth's deepest depths, its "solid iron" inner core, isn't made of pure iron — and now scientists say it might not be solid either. Simulations by a team of researchers in China suggest our planet's innards are somewhere between solid and liquid in a "superionic" state.<br /></p><p>Earth's core, the deepest part of our planet, is characterized by extremely high pressure and temperature. It is composed of a liquid outer core and solid inner core.<br /><br />The inner core is formed and grows due to the solidification of liquid iron at the inner core boundary. The inner core is less dense than pure iron, and some light elements are believed to be present in the inner core.<br /></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div><br />A joint research team led by Prof. HE Yu from the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGCAS) has found that the inner core of the Earth is not a normal solid but is composed of a solid iron sublattice and liquid-like light elements, which is also known as a superionic state. The liquid-like light elements are highly diffusive in iron sublattices under inner core conditions.<br /><br />A superionic state, which is an intermediate state between solid and liquid, widely exists in the interior of planets. Using high-pressure and high-temperature computational simulations based on quantum mechanics theory, researchers from IGCAS and the Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR) found that some Fe-H, Fe-C and Fe-O alloys transformed into a superionic state under inner core conditions.<br /><br />In superionic iron alloys, light elements become disordered and diffuse like a liquid in the lattice, while iron atoms remain ordered and vibrate about their lattice grid, forming the solid iron framework. The diffusion coefficients of C, H and O in superionic iron alloys are the same as those in liquid Fe.<br /><br />"It is quite abnormal. The solidification of iron at the inner core boundary does not change the mobility of these light elements, and the convection of light elements is continuous in the inner core," said Prof. HE Yu, the first and corresponding author of the study.<br /><br />One longstanding mystery about the inner core is that it is quite soft, with quite low shear wave velocity. The researchers calculated the seismic velocities in these superionic iron alloys and found a significant decrease in shear wave velocity. "Our results fit well with seismological observations. It is the liquid-like elements that make the inner core soften," said co-first author SUN Shichuan from IGCAS.<br /><br />Highly diffusive light elements can affect seismic velocities, providing critical clues for understanding other mysteries in the inner core. The anisotropic structure, seismic wave attenuations, and structural changes of the inner core during past decades can be rationalized in the superionic model by considering the distribution and convection of these liquid-like elements in the inner core. <p></p><p><br /></p><p><i><u>The above story is based on <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04361-x" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by<a href="https://english.cas.cn/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Chinese Academy of Sciences.</a></u></i><br /></p>

Earth’s Inner Core Could Exist As Exotic Matter Between Liquid And Solid

The Earth is layered like a giant onion, and finding out what goes on below our feet requires some nifty physics.(Supplied: Institute of Geo...

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Scientists Discover 100-Million-Year-Old Fossil Flowers Preserved in Amber

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihTwvVz0VL6yxVJGlHh_AZLukAriv9YgEbekOK-SH2FgojDMZMYCQRjfWmuqBMWlBhiXJ23LHT7ih8bS2IYnhwGdf-hjuoJHb8G6RrpkPpRIq8sLgLHrktXqrkOgo8C-wtMulaSvD2Q1Dr13uhxSwxoG8SQmxybQtMysCkHbuagdwa1OYej4VcfZZz=s1920" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Scientists Discover 100-Million-Year-Old Fossil Flowers Preserved in Amber" border="0" data-original-height="1166" data-original-width="1920" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEihTwvVz0VL6yxVJGlHh_AZLukAriv9YgEbekOK-SH2FgojDMZMYCQRjfWmuqBMWlBhiXJ23LHT7ih8bS2IYnhwGdf-hjuoJHb8G6RrpkPpRIq8sLgLHrktXqrkOgo8C-wtMulaSvD2Q1Dr13uhxSwxoG8SQmxybQtMysCkHbuagdwa1OYej4VcfZZz=w640-h388" title="Holotype of Eophylica priscastellata. Image credit: Shi et al.," width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scientists Discover 100-Million-Year-Old Fossil Flowers Preserved in Amber. Holotype of Eophylica priscastellata. Image credit: Shi et al., <br /><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Paleontologists have identified two new types of fossil flowers — one identical to those of the living genus Phylica and the other a sister to Phylica — in Cretaceous amber from the Hkamti and Tanaing mines, northern Myanmar, dated to at least 99 million years ago.<p></p><p style="text-align: left;">Flowers discovered perfectly preserved in globs of amber bloomed at the feet of dinosaurs, suggesting that some flowering plants in South Africa today have remained unchanged for 99 million years, a new study reveals.<br /><br />The two flowers once bloomed in what is now Myanmar and may shed light on how flowering plants evolved -- a major episode in the history of life that was once described by Charles Darwin as an "abominable mystery."<br /><br />Flowers are ephemeral: They bloom, transform into a fruit and then disappear. As such, ancient flowers aren't well represented in the fossil record, making these ancient blooms -- and the history they carry with them -- particularly precious.<br /><br />"Leaves are generally produced in larger numbers than flowers and are much more robust -- they have a higher preservation potential. A leaf is discarded 'as is' at the end of its useful life, while a flower transforms into a fruit, which then gets eaten or disintegrates as part of the seed dispersal process," said study author Robert Spicer, a professor emeritus in the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences at The Open University in the United Kingdom.<br /></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div><br />"These particular flowers are almost identical to their modern relatives. There really are no major differences," added Spicer, who is also a visiting professor at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden in China.<br /><br />The evolution and spread of flowering plants (angiosperms) is thought to have played a key role in shaping much of life as we know it today. It brought about the diversification of insects, amphibians, mammals and birds and ultimately marking the the first time when life on land became more diverse than in the sea, according to the study, which published in the journal Nature Plants on Monday.<br /><br />"Flowering plants reproduce more quickly than other plants, have more complex breeding mechanisms -- a wide variety of flower forms, for example, often in close 'collaboration' with pollinators. This drives mutual coevolution of many lineages of plants and animals, shaping ecosystems," Spicer said.<br /><br />Phylica pubescens, seen here at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, in Cape Town, South Africa, is from the same genus as a 99 million-year-old flower.<br /><br />One of the flowers preserved in amber was named by researchers Eophylica priscatellata and the other Phylica piloburmensis, the same genus as the Phylica flowers that are native to South Africa today.<br /><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Mystery solved?</span></h4><p style="text-align: left;">The sudden appearance of flowering plants in the fossil record in the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago), with no obvious ancestral lineage from earlier geologic periods, had puzzled Darwin. It appeared to be in direct contradiction to an essential element of his theory of natural selection -- that evolutionary changes take place slowly and over a long period of time.<br /><br />It was in a private letter to botanist Joseph Hooker in 1879, published in a 1903 volume of Darwin's letters, that he described it as an "abominable mystery."<br />Exactly when flowering plants first emerged still isn't clear, Spicer said, but the early flowers preserved in amber do shed some light on the mystery.<br /><br />The specimens exhibit traits that are identical to those seen in flowers in fire-prone areas, such as the unique fynbos regions of South Africa. All 150 species of Phylica are native to this biologically rich and diverse region. They were also found alongside amber that contained partially burned plants.<br /><br />"Here we have preserved in amber all the details of one such early flower just at the time when flowering plants begin to spread across the globe, and it shows superb adaptation to seasonally dry environments that supports vegetation exposed to frequent wildfires," Spicer said.<br /><br />"If many of the early flowers were exposed to fires in such semi-arid landscapes, it explains why the early phases of angiosperm evolution are so poorly represented in the fossil record -- fossil(s) do not normally form in such semi-dry environments," he added.<br /><br />Spicer said that fire must have been a frequent event over a long period of time for evolution to have shaped the flowers into a form that could cope with fire and produce seeds that can find their way into the burned land surface. In Phylica's case, their flowers are protected by leaves that cluster at the twig tip.<br /><br />While many ferns, conifers and some flowering plants seen today, such as plane trees and magnolia, grew during dinosaur times, Spicer said that Phylica piloburmensis was the first flowering plant known to have an all but identical relative alive today.<br /><br />Dinosaur-era amber fossils are only found in deposits from Kachin State in northern Myanmar, and ethical concerns related to human rights abuses about the provenance of amber from the region have emerged in recent years.<br /><br />The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology called for a moratorium on research on amber sourced from Myanmar after 2017, when the country's military took control of some amber mining areas.<br /><br />Spicer said the amber was acquired from local sellers before 2016 and was legally obtained under the rules in place at the time. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><u>The above story is based on <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-021-01091-w" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Open University.</a></u></i><br /></p>

Scientists Discover 100-Million-Year-Old Fossil Flowers Preserved in Amber

Scientists Discover 100-Million-Year-Old Fossil Flowers Preserved in Amber. Holotype of Eophylica priscastellata. Image credit: Shi et al., ...

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Dinosaur Hunters Find 180-Million-Year-Old 'Sea Dragon' Skeleton With One-Tonne Skull

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4GPy9gswUgvHRxxBiWi5LGt54XABtdjbwQ4sGFHHAgvfeduQgTfrTmwojdTjucMdeJrW4Gt08DP2eP4unwYs1JZ1B4KsHJs2T8wWn4O6maeZR37rLMY9jmYCGp2BTSJfn9Ot6ScBpLOeNwYB68FPhwB_yiRzbsToxRlzEm-fHRfwCsB05-6fFeUA/s1240/Dinosaur%20Hunters%20Find%20180-Million-Year-Old%20'Sea%20Dragon'%20Skeleton%20With%20One-Tonne%20Skull%20(1).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dinosaur Hunters Find 180-Million-Year-Old 'Sea Dragon' Skeleton With One-Tonne Skull" border="0" data-original-height="698" data-original-width="1240" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4GPy9gswUgvHRxxBiWi5LGt54XABtdjbwQ4sGFHHAgvfeduQgTfrTmwojdTjucMdeJrW4Gt08DP2eP4unwYs1JZ1B4KsHJs2T8wWn4O6maeZR37rLMY9jmYCGp2BTSJfn9Ot6ScBpLOeNwYB68FPhwB_yiRzbsToxRlzEm-fHRfwCsB05-6fFeUA/w640-h360/Dinosaur%20Hunters%20Find%20180-Million-Year-Old%20'Sea%20Dragon'%20Skeleton%20With%20One-Tonne%20Skull%20(1).jpeg" title="Dinosaur Hunters Find 180-Million-Year-Old 'Sea Dragon' Skeleton With One-Tonne Skull" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dinosaur Hunters Find 180-Million-Year-Old 'Sea Dragon' Skeleton With One-Tonne Skull. The ichthyosaur skeleton is the largest and most complete fossil of its kind ever found in the UK. Photograph: Anglian Water/PA<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br />The remains of a monstrous, 33-foot-long (10 meters) "sea dragon" that swam in the seas when dinosaurs were alive some 180 million years ago have been unearthed on a nature reserve in England. The behemoth is the biggest and most complete fossil of its kind ever discovered in the U.K.<br /><br />"It is a truly unprecedented discovery and one of the greatest finds in British palaeontological history," excavation leader Dean Lomax, a paleontologist and visiting scientist at the University of Manchester, said in a statement. <br /><br />Though many such ichthyosaurs have been found in the U.K., none have been as large as the current discovery.<br /><br />Ichthyosaurs are an extinct order, or large group, of marine reptiles that evolved in the Triassic period about 250 million years ago and disappeared from the fossil record 90 million years ago, in the late Cretaceous period. They had long snouts and looked similar to modern-day dolphins.<br /><br />The newly discovered fossil belonged to a large species of ichthyosaur called <i>Temnodontosaurus trigonodon </i>— the first time this species has appeared in the U.K. Joe Davis, a conservation team leader for the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, found the ichthyosaur on the Rutland Water Nature Reserve in the East Midlands, according to the statement.<br /><br />Davis was walking across a drained lagoon with Paul Trevor, who also works on the reserve for the trust, when he saw what appeared to be clay pipes sticking out of the mud and remarked to Trevor that they looked like vertebrae. Davis was familiar with sea creature bones, having previously found whale and dolphin skeletons while working on the Hebrides, a series of islands off northwest Scotland.<br /><br />"We followed what indisputably looked like a spine and Paul [Trevor] discovered something further along that could have been a jawbone," Davis said. "We couldn't quite believe it."<br /><br />Archaeologists excavated the fossil between August and September in 2021. The discovery will be featured on a British television series called "Digging for Britain," which airs in the U.K. on Tuesday (Jan. 11) on BBC Two.<br /><br />Archaeologists are still studying and conserving the ichthyosaur fossil and scientific papers about the discovery will be published in the future, according to the statement, though no timeframe was given.<br /><br />The spectacular specimen, only recently revealed to the public, is still wrapped in its plaster cast, stored in a secret location, and has not yet been studied in detail. The researchers plan to prepare academic papers describing the discovery once it has been cleaned up and conserved.<br /><br />"Despite the thousands of ichthyosaurs discovered in Britain, none of them are quite as large as this specimen, and few examples of this genus [have] been found in the UK that are this complete," Larkin added in a blog post.<br /><br />Luckily for fossil fiends, the team took a 3D scan of the fully exposed specimen (which you can view in jaw-dropping detail here) before any bones were removed.<br /><br />The researchers also took samples of fossils surrounding the main specimen, including squid-like ammonites and belemnites, to better understand the environment where the ichthyosaur lived and died, and to date the animal to roughly 182 million years old.<br /><br />"If our identification of the ichthyosaur is correct, as a species called<i> Temnodontosaurus trigonodon</i>, this will provide new details on the geographic range of the species, as it hasn't been confirmed from the UK before," says paleontologist Mark Evans of the University of Leicester.<br /><br />Most other <i>Temnodontosaurus</i> fossils, known for their incredibly large eyes, have been found in Germany and North America, with another in Chile.<br /><br />The team plans to apply for funding for the next phase of conservation to clean and prepare the fossil, after which they hope the creature's skeleton will be placed on permanent display close to where it was found.<br /><br /></p><p><u>The above story is based on <a href="https://www.lrwt.org.uk/seadragon" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by Rutland Wildlife Trust manag. </u></p>

Dinosaur Hunters Find 180-Million-Year-Old 'Sea Dragon' Skeleton With One-Tonne Skull

Dinosaur Hunters Find 180-Million-Year-Old 'Sea Dragon' Skeleton With One-Tonne Skull. The ichthyosaur skeleton is the largest and m...

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