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Ice Age Magnetic Reversal Was Global Event And Linked With Super Volcano Eruption And Rapid Climate Variability, Says New Research

October 17, 2012 in Geology & Climate

During the last ice age, around 41,000 years ago, there was a very rapid and complete reversal of the Earth’s geomagnetic field, according to new research. There was already localized evidence of polarity reversals during this time, but with the new research, the theory that it was a global event is now strongly supported. And very interestingly, it is one that nearly coincided with the very fast, short-term climate variability of the last ice age and the largest volcanic eruption in the northern hemisphere during the last 100,000 years.

Magnetic studies using sediment cores taken from the Black Sea, done by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, have clearly shown that if you had a compass at the Black Sea during that time, it would have pointed towards the south, not the north.

But more importantly, new data gathered by the researchers when it’s combined with additional data from previous studies in the North Atlantic, the South Pacific, and Hawaii, strongly supports the theory that this polarity reversal was truly global.

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Tags: global magnetic reversal, laschamp event, Magnetic reversal, magnetic reversal climate, magnetic reversal volcanos, Phlegraean Fields, super volcano Italy, super volcanos climate, volcanic eruption Europe, volcanic eruption ice age 40000 years ago
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Planet With Four Suns Discovered, Circumbinary Planet In Quadruple Star System

October 16, 2012 in Space

A new planet has been discovered that has four suns in its sky. It directly orbits two of the stars, which are in turn orbited by two distant stars. The circumbinary star is the first of its kind to be discovered, and was originally spotted not by professional researchers but by citizen scientists from the website Planethunters.org.

A Yale-led international team of researchers confirmed its discovery of the planet and then characterized it as a circumbinary planet in a four-star system.

So far, out of all the planets discovered, only six of them are known to orbit double stars, and until now none of them were orbited by other stars.

“Circumbinary planets are the extremes of planet formation,” said lead author Meg Schwamb of Yale.

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Tags: Circumbinary planet, multiple sun star systems, multiple suns in sky, PH1 planet, planet four stars, planet four suns, planet hunters.org
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World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates List Released

October 16, 2012 in Animals & Insects

The 25 most endangered primates in the world have been identified in a new report released by the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity COP11 earlier today. The report, titled “Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates 2012-2014,” was created by the Primate Specialist Group of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission (SSC) and the International Primatological Society (IPS), in collaboration with Conservation International (CI) and the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation (BCSF).

Primates are the closest living relatives of humans, and the majority of them are rapidly moving towards extinction as their populations and environments are reduced, primarily by humans. All of the world’s apes, monkeys, and ‘true’ lemurs are nearing the brink, and a large number of them have already lost so much genetic diversity that it almost seems inevitable that they will become extinct in the not too distant future. In particular, many rare subspecies of apes are nearing the brink, including the lion-eating Bili Apes (chimps).

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Tags: extinct primates, lemurs endangered, lemurs extinction, most endangered primates, primates extinction, primates in peril, UN's Convention on Biological Diversity, Worlds most endangered primates
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Illegal Hunting And Bushmeat Trade Will Lead To Ecosystem Collapse In Many Parts Of Africa, New Report From Panthera Says

October 15, 2012 in Animals & Insects

Widespread illegal hunting throughout Africa and a growing bushmeat trade will lead to a ‘conservation crisis’ if there isn’t significantly more effort, focus and resources invested to combat them, according to a new report from Panthera. Illegal hunting is occurring much more frequently and having a much greater effect on animal populations in the savannas of Africa than was previously thought. These findings directly challenge previously held beliefs about the illegal bushmeat trade in Africa and its effects, with new research and analysis from experts in various fields.

The bushmeat trade has been considered a significant threat to the resources of indigenous peoples and to animal populations in the forests of Central and West Africa for a longtime, but until now there hasn’t been much attention focused on the African savannas. This is partly because there is a common misconception that the illegal hunting there is only on a small-scale, and is just for subsistence.

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Tags: Bushmeat trade effects, ecosystem collapse Africa, illegal hunting Africa damage, illegal hunting Africa extinction, Panthera bushmeat trade, TRAFFIC illegal hunting Africa
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Water On The Moon Produced By The Solar Wind

October 14, 2012 in Space

The solar wind appears to be the source of the water that has been found on the moon, according to new research. The water that is locked inside the lunar soils was very likely formed from the interaction of oxygen particles on the moon’s surface with the charged particles streaming from the sun, researchers from the University of Michigan have suggested.

The discovery of water on the moon was fairly recent; during just the last five years, numerous spacecraft observations and new analysis’s of the lunar samples taken by Apollo missions “have overturned the long-held belief that the moon is bone-dry.”

NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing satellite (LCROSS) was crashed into a permanently shadowed lunar crater in 2009, ejecting a plume of lunar material that was very dense with water ice. And the lunar regolith itself has been shown by various means to contain water, the regolith is what covers the lunar surface, a very fine layer of dust and rock fragments.

The source of this water has remained a debated point though. The primary theories have been that it was deposited by comets or other space debris. But theoretical models of “lunar water stability dating to the late 1970s suggest that hydrogen ions (protons) from the solar wind can combine with oxygen on the moon’s surface to form water and related compounds called hydroxyls, which consist of one atom of hydrogen and one of oxygen and are known as OH.”

But in the new research, infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry analyses of lunar samples taken by Apollo have shown that there are significant amounts of hydroxyl inside the glasses that are present in the samples. These glasses were created in the samples by micrometeorite impacts on the moon.

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Tags: hydrogen oxygen combining moon, Moon water, NASA water moon, solar wind produces water, water on the moon
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