Earth sciences

Earth science (512)
Ecology & bionomics (8)
Geography & topography (294)
Geology & mineralogy (501)
Weather sciences (168)

Synopsis: Earth sciences:

Currently, green space and street plantings are relatively similar throughout the Western world, regardless of differences in local climate, geography, and natural history.

Increased interest in urban hydrology and stormwater management shows how badly our engineered landscapes fit into the land where they were built.

Over the past century, humans have been transforming the planet so profoundly that we are pushing it into a new geological era, the Anthropocene (the Age of man.

Or will something happen to push us off this trajectory oe perhaps back into Holocene-like conditions?

Using weather stations across the country Kilimo Salama has developed a unique"weather-based index insurance, Â which farmers can buy into at the beginning of the season,

Weather stations are equipped with small sim-cards that wirelessly transmit data every five minutes to a cloud-based server.

or Age of man, will be marked by a rapid decline in biodiversity as animals and plants disappear from the planet forever.

Many animals and plants have evolved to occupy specific geographical niches such as islands or mountain lakes.

Occasionally, during Earth's history, shifting tectonic plates have forced land masses together, enabling the separated biodiversity to mix for the first time.

resulting in the loss of many species. Dominant force Humans have been orchestrating tectonic-scale species migrations of their own,

Ten thousand years ago, at the beginning of the Holocene geological epoch, the weight of humans and domesticated animals was just 0. 1%of the total.

and others, discussing our impacts on the planet's biodiversity and geology, in a four-part series called The Age We Made,

In the Anthropocene (the Age of man), we have shifted this balance by releasing more carbon dioxide than plants can absorb.

But geologists are coming up with alternatives. For example, peridotite, which is a mixture of serpentine

but on geological timescales. To speed up the reaction, scientists are experimenting with dissolving the gas in water first

Enriching the world's soilone of the biggest drivers of the Anthropocene-the age of man-is muck.

"Ten years from now, this is going to be like radiocarbon dating, Â says Fisher, referring to a standard technique now used by all archaeologists to date finds."

Some 10,000 years ago, at the beginning of the Holocene geological age, there were only around five million of us on the planet.

if humanity is to remain in the"safe operating space  of Holocene-like conditions,

The sensors were developed by Elizabeth Cochran of the US Geological Survey and Jesse Lawrence of Stanford university an currently cost between $60 and $200 per sensor, a fraction of the cost of professional seismometers

Headed by computer scientist and geographer Muki Haklay and anthropologist Jerome Lewis the idea is to allow any community, regardless of their literacy to start, run,

we delved deep into the ground to extract fossil fuels made over geological timescales. Humans proved so clever and successful that we were able to overcome almost all the environmental limitations that restricted other species to their ecological niches.

Our population soared from around 10,000 individuals at the start of the Holocene, 10,000 years ago to 7 billion today.

Human scientists say Earth has entered the Anthropocene epoch oe the Age of man oe because we have become the dominant geological force on our planet.

We have changed the composition of the atmosphere oe which now contains more carbon dioxide molecules oe and the oceans,

for example, are scarring the rocks to leave telltale evidence of our human influence for geologists to discover many thousands of years into the future.

said Kwak Young-soon, social welfare director for Mapo District, one of Seouls 25 geographic districts.

according to Stephen Carpenter, one of the senior authors of the study and a professor at the Center for Limnology at UW-Madison. oethe main news is that agricultural production by clearing land in the tropics releases a lot of greenhouse

Southern California Long Overdue for A major Earthquake A trench at the Bidart Fan sector of the San andreas fault. Researchers find major quakes on the southern section, on average,

Southern California is long overdue for a major earthquake along the San andreas fault, according to a landmark study of historic seismic activity released August 20, 2010.

found that earthquakes along the San andreas fault have occurred far more often than previously believed. For years, scientists have said major earthquakes occurred every 250 to 450 years along this part of the San Andreas. The new study found big temblors on the fault every 88 years, on average.

which was published online in the journal Geology. oeit was thought that we werent at risk of having another large one any time soon.

Other seismic experts described the revelation as a major change in the way they think about earthquake risks along the southern San andreas fault. Thomas Jordan,

They used carbon dating and sophisticated imaging technology known as lidar to find signs of earth movements.

The finding adds weight to the view of many seismologists that the San Andreas has been in a quiet period

The San andreas fault is considered one of the most dangerous in Southern California, partly because it is so long that its southern section is capable of producing a temblor as large as magnitude 8. 1. By contrast,

The U s. Geological Survey was concerned so that it dispatched its own team of investigators to the Carrizo Plain to look over the initial findings

a geophysicist at the U s. Geological Survey. oeand they made it through. They ran the gantlet

The system works by mimicking the natural hydrological cycle where seawater heated by the sun,

concludes German climatologist Hans von Storch. oeclimate research has been corrupted by politicization, just as nuclear physics was in the pre-Chernobyl days,

and it threatens to consume levelheaded climatologists. But it is a critical conflict because it revolves around something as massive as the total restructuring of industrial society,

The credibility crisis in climatology comes at an extremely unfavorable time. Since the failed December 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen, environment policy has been in a state of shock.

as a result of rising sea levels, accuses the Americans of engaging in intrigue to make climatology seem ridiculous.

it will be a catastrophe for climatology as a whole, says HÃ ttl. oewe can only monitor ourselves,

Despite the controversy, most climatologists agree that in the end the general view of climate change will not have changed significantly.

Anyone who speaks with leading climatologists today will discover how many questions remain open. The media, politicians and even scientists often talk about changes to the weather with a certainty that does not in fact exist.

with his thinning gray hair, is an unlikely adversary for climatologists, and yet he is largely responsible for the current tumult in their field. oethis is the computer

oeso I took six months to examine how climatologists arrive at their curves. Hitting Pay dirt Mcintyre normally works in the investment field, specializing in major mining projects.

with which US climatologist Michael Mann sought to prove that, during the last millennium, temperatures have increased never as sharply as they are rising today.

But with their self-aggrandizement, the climatologists made him into a legend on the Internet. A million people a month visit his blog, climateaudit. org.

The Smoking Gun of Climatology Most of all, however, Jones controlled the oesmoking gun of climatology:

the Earths temperature curve. The temperature records dating back to the beginning of industrialization are intended to prove that the average global temperature has increased already by almost one Degree celsius since 1850.

But these signs are compared nothing with the readings taken at weather stations. The problem is that the quality of the raw data derived from weather services around the world differs considerably.

At a number of weather stations temperatures rose because houses and factories had been built around them. Elsewhere, stations were moved and,

Most climatologists still believe Jones contention that he did not intentionally manipulate the data. However, that belief will have to remain rooted in good faith.

agricultural education is slimming down quite rapidly at tertiary level and physical infrastructure is being invested under,

or late Jurassic, said Michael Donoghue of Yale university. oemost molecular divergence times have shown that they might be older than that,

added Yale biologist Jeremy Beaulieu. oebut we actually find that they might be Triassic in origin,

Study Cars greatest contributor to warming For decades, climatologists have studied the gases and particles that have potential to alter Earths climate.

A meteorological dispersal model was applied to describe the spread of pollen and seeds in the atmosphere.

are defined by interests#and activities#rather than geography#:#Beijing has a lot in common with New york, London, or Mumbai.

Geoengineers Weather Control Specialists We are moving past the age of meteorology and climatology to one where the true power-brokers will wield the forces of nature. 47.

Plant Educators An intelligent plant will be capable of re-engineering itself to meet the demands of tomorrow s marketplace.

In the May-June issue of the journal American Mineralogist, a team of scientists announced the discovery of the new mineral krotite,

Cracked Egg refractory inclusion was sent to Dr. Chi Ma at California Institute of technology (Caltech) for very detailed nano-mineralogy investigation.

The American Mineralogist paper is authored by Chi Ma (Caltech), Anthony R. Kampf (NHM), Harold C. Connolly Jr.

including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you

For example, we may share geographic location with application providers when you opt in to their location services.#

but the ice caps only appeared relatively recently in geological history.##One of her most amazing fossil discoveries to date was made in the Transantarctic Mountains,

and that their surveyed geographic ranges have contracted by 23 percent to 87 percent,##they wrote.

But he says the app writing world has experienced tectonic shifts since then. Can someone drop everything

Below, via Edible Geography s Nicola Twilley, are ranked the results of that endeavor. These are#per the eminent body of the Royal Society#the top 20 innovations in food and drink,

if spatially large enough, might have noticeable impacts on local to regional meteorology, #Liming Zhou, associate professor at the State university of New york,

And such increased energy for sure could be at least partially responsible for the catastrophic earth changes we re experiencing with our highly excited sun and its emissions, the huge uptick in tectonic activity

it will be similar to the way maps helped us frame our thinking about world geography.

This would be a new form of geography#for humanity. 4.)Whole Earth Plant Genealogy Project Same as#3

A host of other industries followed#eading to the ongoing outsourcing boom#s containers made geography nearly irrelevant.

Geology. com). 2.)Being#oeblind as a bat#means not being blind at all. While many use echolocation to navigate,

930,000 Rehabilitation expenses included costs incurred by USFS emergency rehabilitation programs, Denver water, US Geological Survey (USGS) mapping,

Part of the solution lies in improved links between African countries whose postcolonial borders often don t make geographic sense and place artificial barriers between areas of surplus food production and areas of deficit.

That number appears to be fixed, according to UNESCO s Intergovernmental Council of the International Hydrological Program (HIP.

which has evidenced itself in the measureable hydrological cycles of the planet. This obviously unsustainable course is causing the contamination of our fresh water supply.

Geoengineers Weather Control Specialists We are moving past the age of meteorology and climatology to one where the true power-brokers will wield the forces of nature.

Final Thoughts In much the same way that the 1985 Apple Laserwriter gave birth to desktop publishing,

Why we need plants on Mars The HI-SEAS team selected Mauna loa because they believe the mineralogy of its basaltic

of the American Meteorological Society</a>the wind explanation is the most likely of the two.</

water walk as a miracle in 2006 Florida State university Professor of Oceanography Doron Nof came up with a much simpler explanation:<

and 25 known volcanic vents and lava flows reevaluated thanks to dogged work by geologists with the U s. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U s. Forest Service.

It's giving us this serendipitous window on the history of climate in Southeast Alaska for the last 1 million years said Susan Karl a research geologist with the USGS in Anchorage and the project's leader.

if the two were related sort of a geologic genetic test. But even though the two volcanoes had erupted at about the same time in the past their chemistry was wildly different.

And what really captured the geologist's attention were signs that the little volcano squeezed out lava that oozed next to glaciers.

We're convinced now there's probably a whole bunch of green knobs out there covered with timber that may be vents that may have never been mapped said James Baichtal a geologist with the U s. Forest Service based in Thorne Bay Alaska and a project leader.

I didn't know they were nearly this extensive said Ben Edwards a volcanologist at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania who is involved not in the project

The tortured history of this corner of North america a legacy of collision between the North america and Pacific tectonic plates created a meshwork of leaky faults and fractures.

That's one of those really great days in geology. You couldn't have written a better script

Rivers were thought once of as passive pipes study co-author Jeffrey Richey a professor of oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle said in a statement.

People thought this was one of the components that just got dumped into the ocean Nick Ward a doctoral student in oceanography at the University of Washington

The oldest algae crusts contained 646 years of layers confirmed by carbon dating the researchers said.

Peering back into the lineages of the bees the scientists noticed something unusual with all four groups beginning roughly 65 million years ago at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods.

The 10 Weirdest Animal Discoveries The end of the Cretaceous period corresponding to the beginning of the Paleogene Period was known already to be a dynamic time in history.

About 10 million years ago during a time period known as the Miocene epoch the east African climate became dryer

and count back to see how old the tree was Cathy Connor a geology professor at the University of Alaska Southeast who was involved in the investigation told Livescience's Ouramazingplanet.

and piecing them together with radiocarbon dating and stratigraphic work would help piece together the chapters of the story Connor said.

The Evidence oehighest trees nowadays in Thailand are almost 60 meters (200 feet) Â wrote Philippe in response to my email query about his new paper coming out in the April issue of the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.

These well-preserved fossils discovered in two core samples drilled in northern Switzerland are about 245 million years old dating back to the earliest known dinosaur in the middle Triassic period.

However back in the middle Triassic both areas were located in the subtropics and the region that is now Switzerland was much drier than the Barents sea region suggesting the flowering plants spanned a broad range of environments.

but there will be more stress under increased temperatures''said Mark Svoboda a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

and ocean perspectives Karen Heywood a professor of physical oceanography at the University of East Anglia in the U k. and principal investigator of one of the istar program's ocean investigations said in a statement.

or something that started in more recent times said Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand a marine geologist with The british Antarctic Survey.

Radiocarbon dating of the fossils gave researchers a 10000-year history of the past location of the ice.

The results appear in the January 2013 issue of the journal Geology. Hillenbrand and his colleagues also discovered there could have been three

Changes in sea ice affect ocean circulation which in turn affects atmospheric circulation that then impacts the globe said Bruce Forbes a geographer at the Arctic Center at the University of Lapland in Finland who was involved not in the study.

The Andean collection allowed the researchers to study how the gene responsible for turning on AT2 production varies depending on a plant's geographic location.

With new discoveries in astrophysics evolutionary biology molecular genetics geology and paleoanthropology a continuous story has emerged starting from the Big bang. This is both a new cosmology that humanity is embedded in and a grand tour of science.

and consciousness turning us into a near-geologic force on the Earth. In the end every hominid species went extinct except one.

According to this research a study published in 2006 by a team led by A l. Westerlingof the Scripps Institution of Oceanography

because meteorologists have yet to fully grasp why tornadoes form when they form and how to predict their paths.

Mcgovern's work could help meteorologists look for clues in storms that make tornado conditions more likely.

The eventual goal said William Gallus a meteorologist at Iowa State university is warn-on-forecast.

In other words meteorologists would be able to forecast tornadoes and issue warnings rather than waiting to see rotation

#Causes of Global Warming Earth's climate has always been in a state of flux according to data gleaned from the geological record ice core samples and other sources.

#Cenozoic era: Facts About Climate, Animals & Plants The Cenozoic era which began about 65 million years ago

and continues into the present is documented the third era in the history of Earth. The current locations of the continents and their modern-day inhabitants including humans can be traced to this period.

The era began on a big down note catching the tail end of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event at the close of the Cretaceous period that wiped out the remaining non-avian dinosaurs.

The term Cenozoic first spelled Kainozoic was used originally in an 1840 entry in the Penny Cyclopedia encyclopedia in an article written by British geologist John Phillips. The name is derived from the Greek phrase meaning oerecent life.

The Cenozoic era is divided into three periods: The global climate of the early portion of the Cenozoic Period was much warmer than it is today

and the overall climate of the Earth was much more consistent regardless of proximity to the equator.

The most significant period of global warming known as the Paleocene ocene Thermal Maximum took place of 55.8 million years ago.

Each segment of the Cenozoic experienced different climates. During the Paleogene Period most of the Earth s climate was tropical.

The Neogene Period saw a drastic cooling which continued into the Pleistocene epoch of the Quaternary period.

During the Pleistocene epoch glaciers covered central North america extending as far east as New york south to Kansas and Nebraska and west to the northern West Coast.

and the Rocky mountains were formed during the Cenozoic era. Life During the Cenozoic era The Cenozoic era is also known as the Age of mammals

because the extinction of many groups of giant mammals allowing smaller species to thrive and diversify because their predators no longer existed.

The beginning of the Paleogene Period was a time for the mammals that survived from the Cretaceous period.

Cave lions Sabre-toothed cats cave bears giant deer woolly rhinoceroses and woolly mammoths were prevailing species of the Quaternary period.

Without the dinosaurs plant life had an opportunity to flourish during the Cenozoic era. Nearly every plant living today had its roots in the Cenozoic era.

During the early part of the era forests overran most of North america. However as the climate cooled forests died off creating open land.

The Great lakes that formed in the western United states during the Eocene epoch were the perfect home for bass trout

and traditions vary by geography and the more than 50 ethnic groups that reside in this country of 1. 34 billion people.

Food Like other aspects of Chinese life cuisine is influenced heavily by geography and ethnic diversity.

and we're seeing it in many different facets of fire activity study co-author Philip Dennison a geographer at the University of Utah said Tuesday (Dec 10) here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

and the one seen during the past 10000 years of geologic history called the Holocene during

what it has been during the Holocene say the study authors adding that doing so depends on the cumulative amount of emissions released into the atmosphere throughout the industrial period not just those emitted today.

In their new study Uno and his team tested the radiocarbon dating technique on the tusks of two elephants that died in 2006 and 2008 as well as elephant and hippo teeth monkey hair and oryx horn.

and Uno are also using the radiocarbon dating technique to investigate the growth rate of animals. Now that we can determine growth rates in teeth we can use them as a tape recorder of sorts Uno said.

Wasser envisioned the carbon-14 dating technique being useful in a variety of ways. For example if used in combination with other methods that use DNA to determine the geographical origin of an ivory sample the carbon-14 dating technique could help investigators determine how recently hotspots for elephant poaching have been active.

Also if the ivory in a large seizure included samples of multiple ages it might suggest that the ivory was obtained from government stockpiles

</p><p>The most recent and most familiar mass extinction is the one that finished the reign of the dinosaurs the end-Cretaceous

or Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event often known as K-T. The only survivors among the dinosaurs are the birds.</

#Cretaceous period: Facts About Animals, Plants & Climate The Cretaceous period was the last and longest segment of the Mesozoic era.

It lasted approximately 79 million years from the minor extinction event that closed the Jurassic period about 145.5 million years ago to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event dated at 65.5 million years ago.

In the early Cretaceous the continents were in very different positions than they are today.

Sections of the supercontinent Pangaea were drifting apart. The Tethys Ocean still separated the northern Laurasia continent from southern Gondwana.

although the Central Atlantic had begun to open up in the late Jurassic period. By the middle of the period ocean levels were much higher most of the landmass we are familiar with was underwater.

Cretaceous period plants One of the hallmarks of the Cretaceous period was the development and radiation of the flowering plants.

Cretaceous period animals During the Cretaceous period birds replaced the Pterosaurs in the air. The origin of flight is debated by many experts.

and became widely diversified during the Cretaceous. Confuciusornis (125 to 140 million years) was sized a crow bird with a modern beak but enormous claws at the tips of the wings.

Dinosaurs That Learned To fly By the end of the Jurassic the giant Sauropods such as Apatosaurus were becoming extinct.

Evidence suggests that by the early Cretaceous they were being replaced by large herds of herbivorous Ornithischians such as Stegosaurus Iguanodon and the Ceratopsians.

Theropods including Tyrannosaurus rex continued as apex predators until the end of the Cretaceous. K-Pg extinction event About 65 million years ago nearly all large vertebrates and many tropical invertebrates became extinct in

what was clearly a geological climatic and biological event with worldwide consequences. Geologists call it the K-Pg extinction event

because it marks the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods. The event was formally known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) event but the International Commission on Stratigraphy

which sets standards and boundaries for the geologic time scale now discourages the use of the term Tertiary.

The K is from the German word for Cretaceous Kreide. Â The Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan dates precisely to this time.

The crater site is more than 1000 feet across and chemical analysis shows that the sedimentary rock of the area was melted

There is also evidence of a series of huge volcanic eruptions along the tectonic border between India

Cretaceous period climate All over North america the highest Cretaceous fossils are found directly beneath a thin layer of sediments that contain an unusual amount of iridium an element otherwise uncommon in Earth s crust.

and diversify in the new Cenozoic era e

#Crikey! Crocodiles and Alligators Snack on Fruit Crocodiles and alligators are infamous carnivores but it turns out they do not live on meat alone scientists have discovered unexpectedly that these predators occasionally snack on fruit as well.

A team led by the U s. Geological Survey (USGS) goes through this complicated procedure in the Yellowstone national park area about 70 to 100 times a year.

Hydrological studies in the Rocky mountains involving the tiny mountain pine beetle a species of bark beetle have big implications for water resource management in Colorado and elsewhere.

What we're interested in is trying to understand what the climate might be in relation to a fire event Phil van Mantgem a research ecologist with the U s. Geological Survey who led the research told Livescience.

Climatologists believe fires are increasing at the same time because higher air temperatures coupled with lower humidity makes forests drier and better fuel for wildfires.

Climatic conditions were largely based on estimates from nearby weather stations not direct measurements as many parks and forests don't have weather stations.

Also no uncontrolled fires were included in the study and effects such as bark beetles or parasites on stressed trees were measured not.

and includes participation from the U s. Geological Survey the National park service and the U s. Forest Service.

because homes are being put into hazardous conditions said Jon Keeley a fire ecologist with the U s Geological Survey (USGS). The important thing is not to blame it on the fire event

< Back - Next >

Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011