Devastated relatives of some of the passengers who died on Malaysia Airlines flight MH-370 have rowed with police in Beijing. Sky's Paul Kelso has the story so far.
BIG BANG NEWS
RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE, DIACHRONIC NEWS, COMMENTS, ,SPORTS,MUSIC,SKY AND STARS,AND MUSH MORE.
Αναζήτηση αυτού του ιστολογίου
Τετάρτη 26 Μαρτίου 2014
Fire Near AIG Campus
Watch a Gripping, Last-Second Rescue by Houston Fire Department
Yesterday, a giant, still under-construction apartment complex in Houston caught on fire. The flames spread quickly, and one unlucky construction worker found himself trapped on a balcony off the building's top floor. A worker at a neighboring office captured his daring escape—he was forced to leap from one floor's balcony to another to escape the heat—before firefighters finally arrive.
Yes, he survives, but just barely; seconds after he jumps to a firefighter's ladder, part of the building collapses behind him.
Somewhat amazingly, no one was injured in the massive fire, which took more than two hours for firefighters to get under control.
Δευτέρα 24 Μαρτίου 2014
Botched poaching attempt leaves 15 year old elephant dead in Aberdares Forest
News : Botched poaching attempt leaves 15 year old elephant dead in Aberdares Forest
The body of a fifteen-year-old elephant was found in the Aberdares Forest after a botched poaching attempt. Kenya Wildlife Services officers were unsuccessful in apprehending the gang that did not make off with the animal's tusks.
Σάββατο 22 Μαρτίου 2014
Jeffrey, el camello que toma cerveza
Jeffrey es un camello de 11 años de edad aficionado a tomar cerveza que vive como mascota en una granja en el Reino Unido. El animal fue un regalo de cumpleaños de Simon y Elizabeth Grant a su hijo Tom.
Según Grant, en numerosas ocasiones comparte su cerveza con el animal, que se la bebe gustosamente junto con su pienso y zanahorias.
De acuerdo con Simon, Jeffrey proviene de Holanda y es bastante amable con las personas. Además añadió que es posible que se trate del único camello-mascota del Reino Unido, ya que los demás ejemplares se encuentran en parques zoológicos y atracciones turísticas.
Según Grant, en numerosas ocasiones comparte su cerveza con el animal, que se la bebe gustosamente junto con su pienso y zanahorias.
De acuerdo con Simon, Jeffrey proviene de Holanda y es bastante amable con las personas. Además añadió que es posible que se trate del único camello-mascota del Reino Unido, ya que los demás ejemplares se encuentran en parques zoológicos y atracciones turísticas.
Air Force AP-3C Orion Search and Rescue - Malaysia Airlines MH370
Courtesy of the Australian Government Department of Defence. Storyful is a news agency that supplies verified UGC to news clients and manages rights for UGC video on YouTube and across the Web. curator@storyful.com
Παρασκευή 21 Μαρτίου 2014
Taliban Attacks Luxury Afghan Hotel Killing 9 Including 4 Foreigners
Δημοσιεύθηκε στις 20 Μαρ 2014
Afghan security forces say they've killed four assailants following an attack by the Taliban on a luxury hotel in capital Kabul. It's home to many United Nations staff and foreign delegations. So far, 9 killed including 4 Foreigners, in an attack where the suspects hid pistols in their socks.... This spokesman from the Afghan Interior Ministry explains.
Τρίτη 18 Μαρτίου 2014
When tectonics killed everything
When tectonics killed everything
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-11 (GEOS-11) image of the Earth acquired on June 14, 2000. Credit: NOAA |
It's often known as "The Great Dying."
About 252 million years ago, all life nearly vanished. More than 90 percent of ocean species and 70 percent of land species died. Trees, plants, reptiles, fish, insects, microbes—all nearly wiped out.
Scientists have unearthed many clues over the last decades, but they've yet to reach a final verdict. So far the evidence has pointed toward drastic changes on Earth and in the oceans. Oxygen levels were low in the oceans, making it difficult for many animals to survive. Carbon dioxide and methane levels were unusually high, contributing to major warming of the planet. Acid rain fell, and made sea water so acidic that all coral reefs disappeared. The inland turned into an dry desert, hot and arid, and devastated by major wild fires. The climate also varied between periods of sudden warming and cooling, making it impossible for many species to adjust.
Many of these changes have been tied to the eruption of two major volcanoes—one in southern China 260 million years ago, and one in northern Russia 251 million years ago. These would have released the large amounts of carbon dioxide, leading to greenhouse effects and global warming. The carbon dioxide also made the seawater acidic, killing off many marine organisms. The eruptions would also have led to the catastrophic release of methane, another potent greenhouse gas, stored as methane "ice" nearby under the seabed.
But the drama may have already started earlier, some scientists think. Drastic drops in sea levels had already perturbed ocean currents and wind patterns, inducing climate change.
And yet, all these clues could in fact be related.
When All the World Was One
In a paper published this month in Science China, Earth Sciences, two scientists attempt to pull the curtain further back, to give a fuller picture. According to Dr. Yin Hongfu and Dr. Song Haijun of China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), all the events described above may have been set in motion 50 million years before the climax of the catastrophe.
According to the paper, here's how the story may have begun.
According to the paper, here's how the story may have begun.
Some 300 million years ago, at the beginning of the Permian period, all the world's lands had joined into a single supercontinent, Pangea, and all the world's sea water had formed a global ocean, Panthalassa.
The formation of Pangea led to higher mountains and deeper oceans. According to an equilibrium principle, a giant continent should have a thicker crust than each scattered continent, and the oceans should become deeper. This recession of water away from the land would have eliminated a lot of the biodiversity that thrives in shallow water near the coasts. This recession would have also led to changes in ocean currents and wind patterns, initiating global climate changes.
What's more, the inland region of one giant continent would become dry and arid, leading to the disappearance of much vegetation.
But something else also went on, deep within the Earth.
When the lands joined, some tectonic plates moved under others and sunk deep into the Earth's mantle. That cooler material then may have reached all the way to the Earth's core layer. Evidence for that includes the reversal of Earth's magnetic field that occurred around that time, an event called the Illawarra magnetic reversal.
The accumulation of cool material near Earth's core then could have led to the formation of a large mantle plume (by a process called thermo-convection), other researchers had suggested. That "super-plume" would eventually reach the Earth's surface in two separate bursts—first with an eruption in China 260 million years ago, and then with the other in Russia 251 million years ago.
By that point, all life had nearly vanished.
In short, the paper argues that the Great Dying may have been an ongoing process tied to the formation of Pangea, which led to sea level change and climate change, but also and ultimately to what went on inside the Earth.
The formation of Pangea led to higher mountains and deeper oceans. According to an equilibrium principle, a giant continent should have a thicker crust than each scattered continent, and the oceans should become deeper. This recession of water away from the land would have eliminated a lot of the biodiversity that thrives in shallow water near the coasts. This recession would have also led to changes in ocean currents and wind patterns, initiating global climate changes.
What's more, the inland region of one giant continent would become dry and arid, leading to the disappearance of much vegetation.
But something else also went on, deep within the Earth.
When the lands joined, some tectonic plates moved under others and sunk deep into the Earth's mantle. That cooler material then may have reached all the way to the Earth's core layer. Evidence for that includes the reversal of Earth's magnetic field that occurred around that time, an event called the Illawarra magnetic reversal.
The accumulation of cool material near Earth's core then could have led to the formation of a large mantle plume (by a process called thermo-convection), other researchers had suggested. That "super-plume" would eventually reach the Earth's surface in two separate bursts—first with an eruption in China 260 million years ago, and then with the other in Russia 251 million years ago.
By that point, all life had nearly vanished.
In short, the paper argues that the Great Dying may have been an ongoing process tied to the formation of Pangea, which led to sea level change and climate change, but also and ultimately to what went on inside the Earth.
Problems with Pangea
However, many scientists disagree with the theory that the formation of Pangea played any role in the extinction. Some argue that the formation of Pangaea happened too early, and that the dying happened too rapidly, for the two events to be linked.
Others don't think that sea level changes played a role in the extinction. "I don't agree with all the links they propose," says Paul Wignall, a Professor of Palaeoenvironments at the University of Leeds. "The peak regression [low sea levels] in the late Permian is significantly before the mass extinction and so unlikely to be a factor."
As for the other factors, most scientists seem to have reached a consensus. "The paper is not really saying anything new but giving an overview of the key factors responsible," Wignall adds. "Nearly all, including me, blame volcanism."
But the paper's real point, it seems, is that both the formation of Pangea and the volcanic eruptions were caused by processes deep inside the Earth—which could have been related, even if one occurred before the other.
The links between inner Earth, Earth's surface, and the evolution of life is "an important theme of the earth system science that is worthy of further investigation," wrote the authors.
But they also concede that their hypothesis is just that, an hypothesis, and that more research is needed. They end the paper, perhaps fittingly, with a quote by an ancient Chinese poet named Qu Yuan, who wrote:
"Long as might be the road, keep searching above and below I would."
Others don't think that sea level changes played a role in the extinction. "I don't agree with all the links they propose," says Paul Wignall, a Professor of Palaeoenvironments at the University of Leeds. "The peak regression [low sea levels] in the late Permian is significantly before the mass extinction and so unlikely to be a factor."
As for the other factors, most scientists seem to have reached a consensus. "The paper is not really saying anything new but giving an overview of the key factors responsible," Wignall adds. "Nearly all, including me, blame volcanism."
But the paper's real point, it seems, is that both the formation of Pangea and the volcanic eruptions were caused by processes deep inside the Earth—which could have been related, even if one occurred before the other.
The links between inner Earth, Earth's surface, and the evolution of life is "an important theme of the earth system science that is worthy of further investigation," wrote the authors.
But they also concede that their hypothesis is just that, an hypothesis, and that more research is needed. They end the paper, perhaps fittingly, with a quote by an ancient Chinese poet named Qu Yuan, who wrote:
"Long as might be the road, keep searching above and below I would."
The iron in the Earth's inner core weakens dramatically before it melts, explaining the unusual properties that exist in the moon-sized solid centre of our planet that have, up until now, been difficult to understand.
Scientists use seismic waves -- pulses of energy generated during earthquakes -- to measure what is happening in the Earth's inner core, which at 6000 km beneath our feet is completely inaccessible.
Problematically for researchers, the results of seismic measurements consistently show that these waves move through the Earth's solid inner core at much slower speeds than predicted by experiments and simulations.
Now, in a paper published in Science, scientists from UCL have proposed a possible explanation. They suggest that the iron in the Earth's core may weaken dramatically just before melting, becoming much less stiff. The team used quantum mechanical calculations to evaluate the wave velocities of solid iron at inner-core pressure up to melting.
They calculated that at temperatures up to 95% of what is needed to melt iron in the Earth's inner core, the speed of the seismic waves moving through the inner core decreases linearly but, after 95%, it drops dramatically.
At about 99% of the melting temperature of iron, the team's calculated velocities agree with seismic data for the Earth's inner core. Since independent geophysical results suggest that the inner core is likely to be at 99-100% of its melting temperature, the results presented in this paper give a compelling explanation as to why the seismic wave velocities are lower than those predicted previously.
Professor Lidunka Vočadlo, from the UCL department of Earth Sciences and an author of the paper said: "The Earth's deep interior still holds many mysteries that scientists are trying to unravel.
"The proposed mineral models for the inner core have always shown a faster wave speed than that observed in seismic data. This mismatch has given rise to several complex theories about the state and evolution of the Earth's core."
The authors stress that this is not the end of the story as other factors need to be taken into account before a definitive core model can be made. As well as iron, the core contains nickel and light elements, such as silicon and sulphur.
Professor Vočadlo said: "The strong pre-melting effects in iron shown in our paper are an exciting new development in understanding the Earth's inner core. We are currently working on how this result is affected by the presence of other elements, and we may soon be in a position to produce a simple model for the inner core that is consistent with seismic and other geophysical measurements. "
Παρασκευή 14 Μαρτίου 2014
Raw: Baby Gorilla Born in Rare C-section
An infant gorilla was been delivered by a rare animal Caesarean-section at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park on Wednesday. (March 14)
Πέμπτη 13 Μαρτίου 2014
Rare Diamond Reveals Earth's Interior is All Wet
Rare Diamond Reveals Earth's Interior is All Wet
By Becky Oskin, Senior Writer | March 13, 2014 01:52am ET
A diamond from Juína, Brazil, containing a water-rich inclusion of the olivine mineral ringwoodite.Credit: Richard Siemens/University of Alberta |
"It's actually the confirmation that there is a very, very large amount of water that's trapped in a really distinct layer in the deep Earth," said Graham Pearson, lead study author and a geochemist at the University of Alberta in Canada. The findings were published today (March 12) in the journal Nature.
The worthless-looking diamond encloses a tiny piece of an olivine mineral called ringwoodite, and it's the first time the mineral has been found on Earth's surface in anything other than meteorites or laboratories. Ringwoodite only forms under extreme pressure, such as the crushing load about 320 miles (515 kilometers) deep in the mantle.
What's in the mantle?
Most of Earth's volume is mantle, the hot rock layer between the crust and the core. Too deep to drill, the mantle's composition is a mystery leavened by two clues: meteorites, and hunks of rock heaved up by volcanoes. First, scientists think the composition of the Earth's mantle is similar to that ofmeteorites called chondrites, which are chiefly made of olivine. Second, lava belched by volcanoes sometimes taps the mantle, bringing up chunks of odd minerals that hint at the intense heat and pressure olivine endures in the bowels of the Earth.
In recent decades, researchers have also recreated mantle settings in laboratories, zapping olivine with lasers, shooting minerals with massive guns and squeezing rocks between diamond anvils to mimic the Earth's interior.
These laboratory studies suggest that olivine morphs into a variety of forms corresponding to the depth at which it is found. The new forms of crystal accommodate the increasing pressures. Changes in the speed of earthquake waves also support this model. Seismic waves suddenly speed up or slow down at certain depths in the mantle. Researcher think these speed zones arise from olivine's changing configurations. For example, 323 to 410 miles (520 to 660 km) deep, between two sharp speed breaks, olivine is thought to become ringwoodite. But until now, no one had direct evidence that olivine was actually ringwoodite at this depth. [Infographic: What is Earth Made Of?]
"Most people (including me) never expected to see such a sample. Samples from the transition zone and lower mantle are exceedingly rare and are only found in a few, unusual diamonds," Hans Keppler, a geochemist at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, wrote in a commentary also published in Nature today.
Earth's deepest ocean
The diamond from Brazil confirms that the models are correct: Olivine is ringwoodite at this depth, a layer called the mantle transition zone. And it resolves a long-running debate about water in the mantle transition zone. The ringwoodite is 1.5 percent water, present not as a liquid but as hydroxide ions (oxygen and hydrogen molecules bound together). The results suggest there could be a vast store of water in the mantle transition zone, which stretches from 254 to 410 miles (410 to 660 km) deep.
"It translates into a very, very large mass of water, approaching the sort of mass of water that's present in all the world's ocean," Pearson told Live Science's Our Amazing Planet.
Keppler noted that it's possible the volcanic eruption that brought the deep diamond to Earth's surface may have sampled an unusually water-rich part of the mantle, and that not all of the transition-zone layer may be as wet as indicated by the ringwoodite.
"If the source of the magma is an unusual mantle reservoir, there is the possibility that, at other places in the transition zone, ringwoodite contains less water than the sample found by Pearson and colleagues," Keppler wrote. "However, in light of this sample, models with anhydrous, or water-poor, transition zones seem rather unlikely."
Ride on a rocket
A violent volcanic eruption called a kimberlite quickly carried this particular diamond from deep in the mantle. "The eruption of a kimberlite is analogous to dropping a Mentos mint into a bottle of soda," Pearson said. "It's a very energetic, gas-charged reaction that blasts its way to Earth's surface."
The ringwoodite discovery was accidental, as Pearson and his co-authors were actually searching for a means of dating the diamonds. The researchers think careful sample preparation is the key to finding more ringwoodite, because heating ultradeep diamonds, as happens when scientists polish crystals for analysis, causes the olivine to change shape.
"We think it's possible ringwoodite may have been found by other researchers before, but the way they prepared their samples caused it to change back to a lower-pressure form," Pearson said.
RED BEARD: MERCEDES-BENZ FASHION WEEK ISTANBUL PRESENTED BY AMERICAN EXP...
Runway looks from the RED BEARD Fall/Winter 2014 Collection at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Istanbul presented by American Express. The Official Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Istanbul presented by American Express YouTube channel provides extensive coverage of runway shows including ARZU KAPROL, ECE GÖZEN, DB BERDAN, JANUCHA BY JALE HÜRDOĞAN, BURÇE BEKREK, ZEYNEP TOSUN, NİAN. RED BEARD Sonbahar/Kış 2014 Koleksiyonu defilesinden görüntüler. Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Istanbul presented by American Express YouTube kanalında ARZU KAPROL, ECE GÖZEN, DB BERDAN, JANUCHA BY JALE HÜRDOĞAN, BURÇE BEKREK, ZEYNEP TOSUN, NİAN ve daha birçok defileyi izleyebilirsiniz.
)
)
Εγγραφή σε:
Αναρτήσεις (Atom)