Climate Change: Seafloor Graveyards Digitally Mapped - http://clapway.com/2015/08/14/climate-change-seafloor-digitally-mapped-102/

There’s a new digital map limning the composition of the seafloor, a major factor in global climate change, and it’s shown evidence of “microfossil” graveyards off the coast of Australia, in addition to other complex deep-ocean geology.

SEAFLOOR GRAVEYARD IS AVAILABLE ONLINE

The interactive map is actually available via the online journal Geology, published August 9th. This marks a first at creating an extensive, comprehensive map in the past 40 years. There hasn’t been a single attempt at such a map since the 1970s, which the University of Sydney has announced was drawn by hand. Back then, the impetus to understand how the planet reacts to global climate change wasn’t so great, either.

“The old map suggests much of the Southern Ocean around Australia is mainly covered by clay blown off the continent, whereas our map shows this area is actually a complex patchwork of microfossil remains,” said study author Adriana Dutkiewicz, a sedimentologist at the University of Sydney in a statement. “Life in the Southern Ocean is much richer than previously thought.”

SECRET TO GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AVERSION IN DEAD DIATOMS

The microfossils discovered are actually from a type of phytoplankton that takes in carbon dioxide and excretes oxygen. Known as diatoms, these phyloplankton take roughly 20% of breathable oxygen in the air, air we need to breathe. When they die, diatoms sink down to the dark musty abyssal of the oceans, dragging all the their carbon with them. This process is referred to as “carbon sink,” and it helps prevent the renown greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from spreading into and warming the planet’s fragile atmosphere.

The new map also showed scientists that masses of dead diatoms are resting in the Southern Ocean, which are not where diatoms ordinarily bloom on the ocean surface. Continuing our studies of these underwater distributions of dead diatoms will help us come to understand how oceans reacted to eras of greater climate change in the past, said Dutkiewicz. Color coding (visible on the map) represents what composes the seafloor from region to region: light green is “diatom ooze,” which is a mix of mud and diatom bits; blue is “calcareous ooze,” which is mud and calcium carbonate from microscopic shelled animals; and brown is simply clay. Red spots are volcanic ash and gravel, and yellow is sand.

DATA COLLECTION & MAP MAKING

So far the data incorporated to construct a map of the 15,000 seafloor samples has been collected exclusively from research cruises. After the ventures, big-data algorithms were used to synthesize the data into one contiguous map.

Dutkiewicz is excited that for this new map to guide future research missions.

“Australia’s new research vessel ‘Investigator’ is ideally placed to further investigate the impact of environmental change on diatom productivity,” she explained. “We urgently need to understand how the ocean responds to climate change.”

---

 

WANT TO SEE THE DARK PLACES WITHOUT THE BAD ENDING?

Climate Change: Seafloor Graveyards Digitally Mapped

New Horizons Finds Flowing Ice On Pluto? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/13/new-horizons-finds-flowing-ice-102/

One month has passed since New Horizons finally made its flyby of Pluto, limning the surface in spectacular definition with its Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI). The best part of this having happened a month ago is that these following months may be the greatest treat of the entire ordeal, because only after New Horizons sifts through its data for weeks, only after NASA develops and analyzes received telemetry and data are we to see the secrets of Pluto’s surface for ourselves.

NEW HORIZONS CARRIES ON

Recently, a new batch of close-ups was released by NASA which reveals evidence of eccentric ice flows across Pluto’s surface, which means the Earth is not the only body in this solar system with glacier-geology. New Horizon’s LORRI shows a major ice sheet that has glided over the dwarf planet’s surface in a way very similar to glacier movement on Earth.

Here on the 3rd rock from the sun, glaciers usually progress by surface flows round the bends of obstacles, toward the vertex of deepest depression, usually creating a sort of swirly surface, as viewed from above. Now these photos from New Horizons’ LORRI have shown us that such topological patterns are not unique to Earth.

GLACIER’S LOCATION

Scientists believe that this glacier-like movement could still be in motion, but it is difficult to determine if this is the case from the photographs alone. The ice flow flows from the center of Sputnik Planum, a smooth, craterless plain which lies in “the heart of the heart” of Pluto. This region, estimated to be no more than 100 million years old (roughly 1.4 times as long ago as the extinction event of the dinosaurs), is not only young, but also probably still undergoing geological change.

“We’ve only seen surfaces like this on active worlds like Earth and Mars,” pointed out mission co-investigator John Spencer of SwRI. “I’m really smiling.”

ICE COMPOSITE COMPOSES PLAINS

Ice on Pluto’s heart-shaped plain is composed of mostly nitrogen, but there are also rich traces of carbon monoxide and methane. Ralph, New Horizons’ other instrument, showed that carbon monoxide levels in the ice gradually increases as the device is pointed towards the center of Pluto’s heart.

NEW HORIZONS FOR SEMANTICS?

In addition to eliminating Earth’s uniquity when it comes to glaciers, this recent discovery has led many to question the fundamentals of glaciers, such as whether glaciers of varying chemical compositions are still worthy of the designation “glaciers,” and whether the term can even signify extraterrestrial phenomena. But this isn’t an exercise in the philosophy of language, so we turn to the National Snow and Ice Data Center for a definition: Glaciers are an amalgam of fallen snow that’ve compressed into large, thickened ice masses over a good number of years. Since it is difficult to include nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane ice into a list of phenomena formed by snow, both the media and scientists are perfectly happy using the term “glacier-like” to refer to the above described phenomena.

---

 

WANT YOUR KIDS TO GET OUT MORE? TRAIN THEM FOR SPACE!

New Horizons Finds Flowing Ice On Pluto?

#MagneticFields may have #reversed in this region. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/30/south-africa-fires-show-how-magnetic-field-reversed-earths-poles-356/

An ancient practice of ritualistic cleansing in South African agricultural communities has led researchers to record a magnetic field history of the region that is believed to play a major role in the reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles. The study, which was the first of its kind, was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Study is First to Record Magnetic Field History in South Africa

Three universities teamed up to acquire the first record of magnetic fields in South Africa using minerals from the Iron Age and archaeological data from ritualistic burning ceremonies in agricultural settlements.

Research findings revealed that with the archaeological evidence and the current weakening of the magnetic fields, South Africa’s core region may be the genesis of the most recent (as in 800,000 years ago recent) and even future pole reversals, which take nearly 15,000 years to complete once started.

The study was led by John Tarduno, geophysicist from the University of Rochester, and carried out by researchers from South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand and University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Their data is groundbreaking in the field of earth sciences and geophysics because it suggests that pole reversals don’t begin in random locations as previously thought.

How Archaeology and Minerals Revealed the Importance of the Magnetic Fields

Tarduno and his research team wanted to collect concrete evidence to accurately record South Africa’s magnetic fields from the Iron Age rather than use estimates from models using approximate data collected around the world. They turned to archaeologists for extra help.

These experts on ancient African rituals and practices explained the early practices of cleansing villages through burning huts and grain bins. While it seems like a rather unimportant event for geophysicists, this practice of igniting the village would have created a fire that reached over 1000 degrees Celsius as it consumed the clay floors of the structures.

This fire would be so scorching hot it would burn through, erasing the old information stored in the magnetite while creating a new record of magnetic information, like field strength and direction.

So, in other words, they would be able to actually see when the magnetic intensity in the area had increased or decreased thanks to the practices of these ancient Africans.

That’s exactly what happened too! Tarduno’s team found a 30% decrease in magnetic field intensity in the Iron Age (1225 to 1550 AD). This parallels what is happening today in the region, leading the researchers to the conclusion that this gradual weakening may reappear every few (thousand) years.

Earth Sciences, Geophysics, and Even More Technical Understanding of the Magnetic Fields

The research data was collected from sites along Zimbabwe and Botswana, focusing near the Limpopo River. The sites were all within a region with an extremely weak magnetic field strength called the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA).

Other research has shown Earth’s magnetic field in the North and South Poles has decreased 16% of the past nearly 200 years with most of the weakening has occurred in the SAA. Some scientists believe this is the first sign of the Earth going into a pole reversal. However, the research team has said that weakening fields may recover without the poles reversing. It happens all the time!

Meanwhile, their study has proven, for the first time, that the low magnetic field strength in the Southern Hemisphere’s SAA is a result of geology. This region features a core that is overlain with hot, dense mantle rock that is 3000 km below the surface and 6,000 km across the region.

So How Does South Africa Fit Into This?

The researchers hypothesized that the specific region in South Africa actually affects Earth’s magnetic field as the liquid iron within the Earth shifts its flow near the region thanks to the special feature of the hot, dense mantle rock. This shift causes irregularities in the field, which results in lesser magnetic intensities.

The area, which is called a Large Low Shear Velocity Province (LLSVP), is theorized to perhaps be the trigger for magnetic pole reversals as the weak magnetic field gets larger.

However, the research team pointed out that though the new data is interesting, it cannot predict or conclusively say that we are in a reversal or will soon be in one. Instead, it simply suggests that the latest research on magnetic fields in South Africa shows a possible pattern in Earth’s pole reversals, which in itself is pretty impressive.

---

 

The power of the sun in your own home or office:

South Africa: Fires Show How Magnetic Field Reversed Earth’s Poles