back to top
27.8 C
New York
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Home Blog Page 5

Iceland’s volcano eruptions may last decades

The progression of the 2021 Fagradalsfjall eruption.
The progression of the 2021 Fagradalsfjall eruption.

Scientists predict from geochemical data that Iceland is entering a new volcanic era that will last for decades, possibly centuries. Under an hour’s drive from the country’s capital city, the ongoing eruptions pose considerable risks for economic disruption, and they leave evacuated communities uncertain of a possible return.

Iceland’s ongoing volcanic eruptions may continue on and off for years to decades, threatening the country’s most densely populated region and vital infrastructure, researchers predict from local earthquake and geochemical data.

The eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula have forced authorities to declare a state of emergency, with a series of eight eruptions having occurred since 2021. This southwestern region is home to 70 percent of the country’s population, its only international airport, and several geothermal power plants that supply hot water and electricity. The most recent eruption in May through June triggered the evacuation of residents and visitors of the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, a popular tourist attraction, for the third time in more than two months.

Although Iceland sees regular eruptions because it sits above a volcanic hot spot, the Reykjanes Peninsula has been dormant for 800 years. Its last volcanic era continued over centuries however, prompting scientists to predict the renewed volcanism to be the start of a long episode.

Under an hour’s drive from the island’s capital city Reykjavík, the eruptions pose considerable risks for economic disruption, and they leave evacuated communities uncertain of a possible return.

An international team of scientists has been watching the volcanoes over the past three years. Analyzing seismic tomography imaging and the composition of lava samples, they’ve uncovered parts of the geological processes behind the new volcanic era. They predict the region may have to prepare for recurring eruptions lasting years to decades and possibly centuries.

The researchers report their findings in a paper published June 26 in the journal Terra Nova. The project included collaborations from the University of Oregon, Uppsala University in Sweden, University of Iceland, Czech Academy of Sciences and University of California, San Diego. The work follows an earlier Nature Communications study of the initial Reykjanes eruptions in 2021.

Almost all of Iceland’s island is built from lava, said Ilya Bindeman, a volcanologist and earth sciences professor at the UO. The country sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the tectonic plate boundary that causes North America and Eurasia to push further apart. The drifting of these plates can spark volcanic eruptions when hot rock from the earth’s mantle — the middle and largest layer of the planet — melts and rises to the surface.

Although scientists know the origin of Reykjanes Peninsula’s current eruptions is plate movement, the kind of magma storage and plumbing systems that feed them are unidentified, Bindeman said. The peninsula consists of eight volcanically active sites, so understanding whether there is one shared magma source or multiple independent ones and their depth can help predict the duration and impact of these eruptions.

Using geochemical and seismic data, the researchers investigated whether the magma of the initial eruptions from one volcano in the peninsula from 2021 to 2023 came from the same source as the magma in the recent eruptions of a different volcano to the west.

Bindeman specializes in isotopic analysis, which can help identify the “fingerprint” of magma. Magma is made of mostly eight elements, including oxygen and hydrogen, and 50 different trace elements in smaller concentrations and various ratios. The unique combination of trace elements can help differentiate magma sources from one another. Scientists can also measure the abundance of isotopes, elements with the same chemical property but different masses, in the magma. There are three different isotopes of oxygen, for example, Bindeman said.

“In the air we breathe, there’s a mixture of these oxygen isotopes and we don’t feel the difference,” he said. “Their differences are usually not important for chemical reactions but are important to recognize as their relative abundances in magma can differentiate one magma source from another.”

Analyzing samples of lava rock from two different volcanoes in the peninsula, their similar fingerprints implied a shared magma storage zone below the peninsula. Imaging of earth’s interior based on local earthquakes also suggested the existence of a reservoir about 5.5 to 7.5 miles in the earth’s crust, the shallowest layer.

However, that storage is ultimately fed by the melting rock deeper in the mantle, which can cause eruptions that last decades, with hundreds of square miles of magma surfacing, Bindeman said. Iceland’s hotspot also will have no problem fountaining that flow, he said.

Although this marks the beginning of potentially persistent volcanic episodes in Iceland, the researchers can’t precisely predict yet how long the episodes and the gaps between each will last.

“Nature is never regular,” Bindeman said. “We don’t know how long and how frequently it will continue for the next ten or even hundred years. A pattern will emerge, but nature always has exceptions and irregularities.”

Discussions are continuing on plans to safely drill into the volcanic sites to glean insights into the geological processes driving the eruptions.

Because the volcanic activity is less volatile and explosive than eruptions in other countries, it provides a rare opportunity for scientists to approach fissures actively erupting lava, Bindeman said. He called it a “natural laboratory” both astonishing and chilling.

“When you witness a volcanic eruption, you can feel that these are the massive forces of nature, and you yourself are very small,” Bindeman said. “These events are ordinary from the geological scale, but from the human scale, they can be devastating.”

Reference:
Valentin R. Troll, Frances M. Deegan, Thor Thordarson, Ari Tryggvason, Lukáš Krmíček, William M. Moreland, Björn Lund, Ilya N. Bindeman, Ármann Höskuldsson, James M. D. Day. The Fagradalsfjall and Sundhnúkur Fires of 2021–2024: A single magma reservoir under the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland? Terra Nova, 2024; DOI: 10.1111/ter.12733

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Oregon. Original written by Leila Okahata.

The rotation of Earth’s inner core has slowed, new study confirms

inner core (USC Graphic/Edward Sotelo)
inner core (USC Graphic/Edward Sotelo)

USC scientists have proven that the Earth’s inner core is backtracking — slowing down — in relation to the planet’s surface, as shown in new research published Wednesday in Nature.

Movement of the inner core has been debated by the scientific community for two decades, with some research indicating that the inner core rotates faster than the planet’s surface. The new USC study provides unambiguous evidence that the inner core began to decrease its speed around 2010, moving slower than the Earth’s surface.

“When I first saw the seismograms that hinted at this change, I was stumped,” said John Vidale, Dean’s Professor of Earth Sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “But when we found two dozen more observations signaling the same pattern, the result was inescapable. The inner core had slowed down for the first time in many decades. Other scientists have recently argued for similar and different models, but our latest study provides the most convincing resolution.”

The relativity of backtracking and slowing down

The inner core is considered to be reversing and backtracking relative to the planet’s surface due to moving slightly slower instead of faster than the Earth’s mantle for the first time in approximately 40 years. Relative to its speed in previous decades, the inner core is slowing down.

The inner core is a solid iron-nickel sphere surrounded by the liquid iron-nickel outer core. Roughly the size of the moon, the inner core sits more than 3,000 miles under our feet and presents a challenge to researchers: It can’t be visited or viewed. Scientists must use the seismic waves of earthquakes to create renderings of the inner core’s movement.

A new take on a repetitive approach

Vidale and Wei Wang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences utilized waveforms and repeating earthquakes in contrast to other research. Repeating earthquakes are seismic events that occur at the same location to produce identical seismograms.

In this study, the researchers compiled and analyzed seismic data recorded around the South Sandwich Islands from 121 repeating earthquakes that occurred between 1991 and 2023. They have also utilized data from twin Soviet nuclear tests between 1971 and 1974, as well as repeated French and American nuclear tests from other studies of the inner core.

Vidale said the inner core’s slowing speed was caused by the churning of the liquid iron outer core that surrounds it, which generates Earth’s magnetic field, as well as gravitational tugs from the dense regions of the overlying rocky mantle.

The impact on the Earth’s surface

The implications of this change in the inner core’s movement for Earth’s surface can only be speculated. Vidale said the backtracking of the inner core may alter the length of a day by fractions of a second: “It’s very hard to notice, on the order of a thousandth of a second, almost lost in the noise of the churning oceans and atmosphere.”

The USC scientists’ future research aspires to chart the trajectory of the inner core in even greater detail to reveal exactly why it is shifting.

“The dance of the inner core might be even more lively than we know so far,” Vidale said.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (EAR-2041892) and the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS-201904 and IGGCAS-202204).

Reference:
Wei Wang, John E. Vidale, Guanning Pang, Keith D. Koper, Ruoyan Wang. Inner core backtracking by seismic waveform change reversals. Nature, 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07536-4

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Southern California.

Laser tests reveal new insights into key mineral for super-Earths

JPL / NASA
JPL / NASA

Scientists have for the first time observed how atoms in magnesium oxide morph and melt under ultra-harsh conditions, providing new insights into this key mineral within Earth’s mantle that is known to influence planet formation.

High-energy laser experiments — which subjected tiny crystals of the mineral to the type of heat and pressure found deep inside a rocky planet’s mantle — suggest the compound could be the earliest mineral to solidify out of magma oceans in forming “super-Earth” exoplanets.

“Magnesium oxide could be the most important solid controlling the thermodynamics of young super-Earths,” said June Wicks, an assistant professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University who led the research. “If it has this very high melting temperature, it would be the first solid to crystallize when a hot, rocky planet starts to cool down and its interior separates into a core and a mantle.”

The findings are newly published in Science Advances.

They suggest that the way magnesium oxide transitions from one form to another could have important implications for the factors that control whether a young planet will be a snowball or a molten rock, develop water oceans or atmospheres, or have a mixture of those features.

“In terrestrial super-Earths, where this material is going to be a big component of the mantle, its transformation is going to contribute significantly to how quickly heat moves in the interior, which is going to control how the interior and the rest of the planet form and deform over time,” Wicks said. “We can think of this as a proxy for interiors of these planets, because it’s going to be the material that controls its deformation, one of the most important building blocks of rocky planets.”

Larger than Earth but smaller than giants like Neptune or Uranus, super-Earths are key targets in exoplanet searches because they are commonly found among other solar systems in the galaxy. While the composition of these planets can vary from gas to ice or water, rocky super-Earths are expected to contain significant amounts of magnesium oxide that can influence the planet’s magnetic field, volcanism, and other key geophysics like they do on Earth, Wicks said.

To mimic the extreme conditions this mineral might sustain during planet formation, Wick’s team subjected small samples to ultra-high pressures using the Omega-EP laser facility at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics. The scientists also shot X-rays and recorded how those light rays bounced off the crystals to track how their atoms rearranged in response to the increasing pressures, specifically noting at what point they transformed from a solid to a liquid.

When squeezed extremely hard, the atoms of materials like magnesium oxide change their arrangement to sustain the crushing pressures. That’s why the mineral transitions from a rock salt “phase” resembling table salt to a different configuration like that of another salt called cesium chloride as pressure increases. This makes for a transformation that can affect a mineral’s viscosity and impact on a planet as it comes of age, Wicks said.

The team’s results show that magnesium oxide can exist in both of its phases at pressures ranging from 430 to 500 gigapascals and temperatures of around 9,700 Kelvin, nearly twice as hot as the surface of the sun. The experiments also show that the highest pressures the mineral can withstand before melting completely are upward of 600 gigapascals, about 600 times the pressure one would feel in the deepest trenches of the ocean.

“Magnesium oxide melts at a much higher temperature than any other material or mineral. Diamonds may be the hardest materials, but this is what will melt last,” Wicks said. “When it comes to extreme materials in young planets, magnesium oxide is likely going to be solid, whereas everything else that will be hanging out down there in the mantle is going to be turned to liquid.”

The study showcases the stability and simplicity of magnesium oxide under extreme pressures and could help scientists develop more accurate theoretical models to probe key questions about the behavior of this and other minerals within rocky worlds like Earth, Wicks said.

“The study is a love letter to magnesium oxide, because it’s amazing that it has the highest temperature melting point that we know of — at pressures beyond the center of Earth — and it still behaves like a regular salt,” Wicks said. “It’s just a beautiful, simple salt, even at these record pressures and temperatures.”

Other authors are Saransh Singh, Marius Millot, Dayne E. Fratanduono, Federica Coppari, Martin G. Gorman, Jon H. Eggert, and Raymond F. Smith of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Zixuan Ye and Anirudh Hari of Johns Hopkins University; J. Ryan Rygg of the University of Rochester; and Thomas S. Duffy of Princeton University.

This research was supported by NNSA through the National Laser Users’ Facility Program under contract Nos. DE-NA0002154 and DE-NA0002720 and the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program at LLNL (project No. 15-ERD-012). This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344. The research was supported by National Nuclear Security Administration through the National Laser Users’ Facility Program (contract Nos. DE-NA0002154 and DE-NA0002720) and the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program at LLNL (project Nos. 15-ERD-014, 17-ERD-014, and 20-ERD-044).

Reference:
June K. Wicks, Saransh Singh, Marius Millot, Dayne E. Fratanduono, Federica Coppari, Martin G. Gorman, Zixuan Ye, J. Ryan Rygg, Anirudh Hari, Jon H. Eggert, Thomas S. Duffy, Raymond F. Smith. B1-B2 transition in shock-compressed MgO. Science Advances, 2024; 10 (23) DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk0306

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins University. Original written by Roberto Molar Candanosa.

A mountainous mystery uncovered in Australia’s pink sands

Garnet washed up as pink sand on a beach in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park. Photo credit: University of Adelaide.
Garnet washed up as pink sand on a beach in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park. Photo credit: University of Adelaide.

Deposits of deep-pink sand washing up on South Australian shores shed new light on when the Australian tectonic plate began to subduct beneath the Pacific plate, as well as the presence of previously unknown ancient Antarctic mountains.

The pink sand is composed of a mineral called garnet, and a University of Adelaide research team, led by PhD candidate Sharmaine Verhaert and Associate Professor Stijn Glorie, used a new, cutting-edge method to show the garnet grains are around 590 million years old.

Garnet is known to have formed locally during the Delamerian orogeny, an event which created the Adelaide Fold Belt around 514-490 million years ago, and during the formation of the Gawler Craton in western South Australia between 3.3-1.4 billion years ago. These ages don’t match the garnet sand on South Australian shores.

“The garnet is too young to have come from the Gawler Craton and too old to have come from the eroding Adelaide Fold Belt,” says Verhaert.

“Garnet requires high temperatures to form and is usually associated with the formation of large mountain belts, and this was a time when the South Australian crust was comparatively cool and non-mountainous.”

The researchers, who published their findings in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, established the garnet does not originate from local source rocks, but they knew it had travelled from nearby as garnet is typically destroyed through prolonged exposure to the marine environment.

They discovered that the glacial sedimentary deposits of the Cape Jervis Formation, cropping out along the South Australian shorelines, contain layers of sand with garnet that is also around 590 million years old.

Ice-flow indicators in these glacial sedimentary deposits tell us that the garnet-rich glacial sands were brought to Australia by a north-west moving ice sheet during the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age, when Australia and Antarctica were connected in supercontinent Gondwana.

Garnet dating to the same period has been found previously in an outcrop in the Transantarctic Mountains in East Antarctica, at the edge of a colossal area that is completely concealed by a thick ice sheet. Researchers believe this area hosts evidence of a 590-million-year-old mountain belt hiding below the Antarctic ice.

“While it is currently not possible to sample directly under this ice sheet, it is conceivable that millions of years of ice transport eroded the bedrock underneath and transported this cargo of garnet north-westwards, towards the conjugate Antarctic-Australian margin,” says Associate Professor Glorie.

“The garnet deposits were then locally stored in glacial sedimentary deposits along the southern Australian margin until erosion liberated them and the waves and tides concentrated them on the South Australian beaches.

“We have effectively uncovered a major mountain building event that redefines the timing of the onset of convergence in the Pacific Ocean.”

The new University of Adelaide-developed approach to lutetium-hafnium dating, which uses a laser system attached to a mass-spectrometer, allowed this momentous discovery to be made from a simple enquiry.

“This journey started with questioning why there was so much garnet on the beach at Petrel Cove,” says Dr Jacob Mulder, who was also in the research team.

“It is fascinating to think we were able to trace tiny grains of sand on a beach in Australia to a previously undiscovered mountain belt under the Antarctic ice.”

Reference:
Sharmaine Verhaert, Stijn Glorie, Martin Hand, Jacob A. Mulder, Anthony R. Milnes, Jacqueline A. Halpin. An Ediacaran orogeny in subglacial East Antarctica is uncovered by detrital garnet geochronology. Communications Earth & Environment, 2024; 5 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s43247-024-01467-8

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Adelaide. Original written by Johnny von Einem.

Cascadia Subduction Zone, one of Earth’s top hazards, comes into sharper focus

A schematic cross section of the Cascadia Subduction Zone shows the ocean floor plate (light grey) moving under the North American continental plate, along with other features. (Courtesy USGS)
A schematic cross section of the Cascadia Subduction Zone shows the ocean floor plate (light grey) moving under the North American continental plate, along with other features. (Courtesy USGS)

A new study has produced the first comprehensive survey of the many complex structures beneath the seafloor in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, off British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California. It is providing scientists with key insights into how future disasters may unfold.

Off the coasts of southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and northern California lies a 600 mile-long strip where the Pacific Ocean floor is slowly diving eastward under North America. This area, called the Cascadia Subduction Zone, hosts a megathrust fault, a place where tectonic plates move against each other in a highly dangerous way. The plates can periodically lock up and build stress over wide areas — eventually to be released when they finally lurch against each other. The result: the world’s greatest earthquakes, shaking both seabed and land, and generating tsunamis 100 feet high or more. Such a fault off Japan caused the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Similar zones exist off Alaska, Chile and New Zealand, among other places. At Cascadia, big quakes are believed to come roughly every 500 years, give or take a couple hundred. The last occurred in 1700.

Scientists have long been working to understand the Cascadia Subduction Zone’s subterranean structures and mechanics, in order to delineate places most susceptible to quakes, how big they might be and what warning signs they might produce. There is no such thing as predicting an earthquake; rather, scientists try to forecast probabilities of multiple scenarios, hoping to help authorities design building codes and warning systems to minimize the damage when something happens.

A newly published study promises to greatly advance this effort. A research vessel towing an array of the latest geophysical instruments along almost the entire zone has produced the first comprehensive survey of the many complex structures beneath the seafloor. These include the geometry of the down-going ocean plate and overlying sediments, and the makeup of the overriding North American plate. The study was just published in the journal Science Advances.

“The models currently in use by public agencies were based on a limited set of old, low-quality 1980s-era data,” said Suzanne Carbotte, a marine geophysicist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who led the research. “The megathrust has a much more complex geometry than previously assumed. The study provides a new framework for earthquake and tsunami hazard assessment.”

With funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the data was gathered during a 41-day cruise in 2021 by Lamont’s research vessel, the Marcus G. Langseth. Researchers aboard the ship penetrated the seafloor with powerful sound pulses and read the echoes, which were then converted into images, somewhat similar to how physicians create interior scans of the human body.

One key finding: the megathrust fault zone is not just one continuous structure, but is divided into at least four segments, each potentially somewhat insulated against movements of the others. Scientists have long debated whether past events, including the 1700 quake, ruptured the entire zone or just part of it — a key question, because the longer the rupture, the bigger the quake.

The data show that the segments are divided by buried features including big faults, where opposing sides slide against each other perpendicular to the shore. This might help buffer against movement on one segment translating to the next. “We can’t say that this definitely means only single segments will rupture, or that definitely the whole thing will go at once,” said Harold Tobin, a geophysicist at the University of Washington and coauthor of the study. “But this does upgrade evidence that there are segmented ruptures.”

The imagery also suggests the causes of the segmentation: the rigid edge of the overriding North American continental plate is composed of many different kinds of rocks, formed at different times over many tens of millions of years, with some being denser than others. This variety in the continental rocks causes the incoming, more pliable oceanic plate to bend and twist to accommodate differences in overlying pressure. In some places, segments go down at relatively steep angles, in others at shallow ones.

The researchers zeroed in on one segment in particular, which runs from southern Vancouver Island alongside Washington state, more or less ending at the Oregon border. The subterranean topography of other segments is relatively rough, with oceanic features like faults and subducted seamounts rubbing up against the upper plate — features that might erode the upper plate and limit how far any quake may propagate within the segment, thus limiting the quake’s size. In contrast, the Vancouver Island to south alongside Washington State segment is quite smooth. This means that it may be more likely to rupture along its entire length at once, making it potentially the most dangerous section.

Also in this segment, the seafloor is subducting under the continental crust at a shallow angle relative to the other segments. In the other segments, most of the earthquake-prone interface between the plates lies offshore, but here the study found the shallow subduction angle means it probably extends directly under Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. This might magnify any shaking on land. “It requires a lot more study, but for places like Tacoma and Seattle, it could mean the difference between alarming and catastrophic,” said Tobin.

With funding from the U.S. Geological Survey, a consortium of state and federal agencies and academic institutions has already been poring over the data since it became available to sort through the implications.

As for tsunami hazard, that is “still a work in progress,” said Kelin Wang, a research scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada who was not involved in the study. Wang’s group is using the data to model features of the seafloor off Vancouver Island that might generate tsunamis. (In general, a tsunami occurs when the deep seafloor moves up or down during a quake, sending a wave to the surface that concentrates its energy and gathers height as it reaches shallower coastal waters.) Wang said his results will go to another group that models tsunamis themselves, and after that to another group that analyzes the hazards on land.

Practical assessments that could affect building codes or other aspects of preparedness may be published as early as next year, say the researchers. “There’s a whole lot more complexity here than was previously inferred,” said Carbotte.

Reference:
Suzanne M. Carbotte, Brian Boston, Shuoshuo Han, Brandon Shuck, Jeffrey Beeson, J. Pablo Canales, Harold Tobin, Nathan Miller, Mladen Nedimovic, Anne Tréhu, Michelle Lee, Madelaine Lucas, Hanchao Jian, Danqi Jiang, Liam Moser, Chris Anderson, Darren Judd, Jaime Fernandez, Chuck Campbell, Antara Goswami, Rajendra Gahlawat. Subducting plate structure and megathrust morphology from deep seismic imaging linked to earthquake rupture segmentation at Cascadia. Science Advances, 2024; 10 (23) DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adl3198

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Columbia Climate School. Original written by Kevin Krajick.

Fresh findings: Earliest evidence of life-bringing freshwater on Earth

The quantitative model used in the study explains the enigmatic melt degrees and layered structures observed in most cratons on Earth.
Earth.

New Curtin-led research has found evidence that fresh water on Earth, which is essential for life, appeared about four billion years ago — five hundred million years earlier than previously thought.

Lead author Dr Hamed Gamaleldien, Adjunct Research Fellow in Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences and an Assistant Professor at Khalifa University, UAE, said by analysing ancient crystals from the Jack Hills in Western Australia’s Mid West region, researchers have pushed back the timeline for the emergence of fresh water to just a few hundred million years after the planet’s formation.

“We were able to date the origins of the hydrological cycle, which is the continuous process through which water moves around Earth and is crucial for sustaining ecosystems and supporting life on our planet,” Dr Gamaleldien said.

“By examining the age and oxygen isotopes in tiny crystals of the mineral zircon, we found unusually light isotopic signatures as far back as four billion years ago. Such light oxygen isotopes are typically the result of hot, fresh water altering rocks several kilometres below Earth’s surface.

“Evidence of fresh water this deep inside Earth challenges the existing theory that Earth was completely covered by ocean four billion years ago.”

Study co-author Dr Hugo Olierook, from Curtin University’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the discovery was crucial for understanding how Earth formed and how life emerged.

“This discovery not only sheds light on Earth’s early history but also suggests landmasses and fresh water set the stage for life to flourish within a relatively short time frame — less than 600 million years after the planet formed,” Dr Olierook said.

“The findings mark a significant step forward in our understanding of Earth’s early history and open doors for further exploration into the origins of life.”

The authors are part of the Earth Dynamics Research Group and the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group, which sit within Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and the John de Laeter Centre.

Part of the research was done using the CAMECA 1300HR3 instrument in the John de Laeter Centre’s Large Geometry Ion Microprobe (LGIM) facility, which was funded by AuScope (via the Commonwealth National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy), the Geological Survey of Western Australia and Curtin University.

Reference:
Hamed Gamaleldien, Li-Guang Wu, Hugo K. H. Olierook, Christopher L. Kirkland, Uwe Kirscher, Zheng-Xiang Li, Tim E. Johnson, Sean Makin, Qiu-Li Li, Qiang Jiang, Simon A. Wilde, Xian-Hua Li. Onset of the Earth’s hydrological cycle four billion years ago or earlier. Nature Geoscience, 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01450-0

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Curtin University. Original written by Lucien Wilkinson.

A cracking discovery – eggshell waste can recover rare earth elements needed for green energy

Composite image using high-resolution microscopy and spectroscopy showing the absorption and replacement processes of rare earth elements in the eggshell.
Composite image using high-resolution microscopy and spectroscopy showing the absorption and replacement processes of rare earth elements in the eggshell.

A collaborative team of researchers has made a cracking discovery with the potential to make a significant impact in the sustainable recovery of rare earth elements (REEs), which are in increasing demand for use in green energy technologies. The team found that humble eggshell waste could recover REES from water, offering a new, environmentally friendly method for their extraction.

The researchers, from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Natural Sciences, and iCRAG, the Science Foundation Ireland research centre in applied geosciences, have just published their ground-breaking findings in the international journal ACS Omega.

REEs, which are essential for the technologies used in electric cars and wind turbines, for example, are in increasing demand but in relatively short supply. As a result, scientists must find new ways of extracting them from the environment — and in sustainable ways, with current methods often harmful.

Here, the researchers discovered that calcium carbonate (calcite) in eggshells can effectively absorb and separate these valuable REEs from water.

The researchers placed eggshells in solutions containing REEs at various temperatures from a pleasant 25 °C to a scorching 205 °C, and for different time periods of up to three months. They found that the elements could enter the eggshells via diffusion along the calcite boundaries and the organic matrix, and, at higher temperatures, that the rare earth built new minerals on the eggshell surface.

At 90 °C, the eggshell surface helped recover formations of a rare earth compound called kozoite. As things got hotter, the eggshells underwent a complete transformation with the calcite shells dissolving and being replaced by polycrystalline kozoite. And at the highest temperature of 205°C, this mineral gradually transitioned into bastnasite, the stable rare earth carbonate mineral that is used by industry to extract REEs for technology applications.

This innovative method suggests that waste eggshells could be repurposed as a low-cost, eco-friendly material to help meet the growing demand for REES, as the eggshells trap distinct rare earths within their structure over time.

Lead author Dr Remi Rateau commented on the significance of the research, stating, “This study presents a potential innovative use of waste material that not only offers a sustainable solution to the problem of rare earth element recovery but also aligns with the principles of circular economy and waste valorisation.”

Principal Investigator, Prof. Juan Diego Rodriguez-Blanco, emphasised the broader implications of the findings, adding: “By transforming eggshell waste into a valuable resource for rare earth recovery, we address critical environmental concerns associated with traditional extraction methods and contribute to the development of greener technologies.”

Work was conducted at the Department of Geology in the School of Natural Sciences, Trinity. iCRAG (Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences) is an SFI centre dedicated to advancing geosciences research with a focus on sustainable resource management and environmental protection.

Reference:
Rémi Rateau, Melanie Maddin, Adrienn M. Szucs, Luca Terribili, Kerstin Drost, Paul C. Guyett, Juan Diego Rodriguez-Blanco. Utilization of Eggshell Waste Calcite as a Sorbent for Rare Earth Element Recovery. ACS Omega, 2024; DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.4c00931

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Trinity College Dublin.

Could geometry offer a new explanation for why earthquakes happen?

San Andreas fault
San Andreas fault

Findings published in Nature by a team of Brown-led researchers challenge traditional beliefs about the cause of earthquakes and suggest that it depends not on friction, but on the ways faults are aligned.

By taking a close look at the geometrical makeup of rocks where earthquakes originate, researchers at Brown University are adding a new wrinkle to a long-held belief about what causes seismic quakes in the first place.

The work, described in the journal Nature, reveals that the way fault networks are aligned plays a critical role in determining where an earthquake will happen and its strength. The findings challenge the more traditional notion that it is primarily the type of friction happening at these faults that governs whether earthquakes happen or not, and they could improve current understandings of how earthquakes work.

“Our paper paints this very different sort of picture about why earthquakes happen,” said Brown geophysicist Victor Tsai, one of the paper’s lead authors. “And this has very important implications for where to expect earthquakes versus where to not expect earthquakes, as well as for predicting where the most damaging earthquakes will be.”

Fault lines are the visible boundaries on the planet’s surface where the rigid plates that make up the Earth’s lithosphere brush against each another. Tsai says that for decades, geophysicists have explained earthquakes as happening when stress at faults builds up to the point where the faults rapidly slip or break past each other, releasing pent-up pressure in an action known as stick-slip behavior.

Researchers theorized that the rapid slip and intense ground motions that follow are a result of unstable friction that can happen at the faults. In contrast, the thought is that when friction is stable, the plates then slide against each other slowly without an earthquake. This steady and smooth movement is also known as creep.

“People have been trying to measure these frictional properties, like whether the fault zone has unstable friction or stable friction and then, based on laboratory measurements of that, they try to predict if are you going to have an earthquake there or not,” Tsai said. “Our findings suggest that it might be more relevant to look at the geometry of the faults in these fault networks, because it may be the complex geometry of the structures around those boundaries that creates this unstable versus stable behavior.”

The geometry to consider includes complexities in the underlying rock structures such as bends, gaps and stepovers. The study is based on mathematical modeling and studying fault zones in California using data from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Quaternary Fault Database and from the California Geological Survey.

The research team, which also includes Brown graduate student Jaeseok Lee and Brown geophysicist Greg Hirth, offer a more detailed example to illustrate how earthquakes happen. They say to picture the faults that brush up against each other as having serrated teeth like the edge of a saw. When there are fewer teeth or teeth that are not as sharp, the rocks slide past each other more smoothly, allowing for creep. But when the rock structures in these faults are more complex and jagged, these structures catch on to one another and get stuck. When that happens, they build up pressure and eventually as they pull and push harder and harder, they break, jerking away from each other and leading to earthquakes.

The new study builds on previous work looking at why some earthquakes generate more ground motion compared to other earthquakes in different parts of the world, sometimes even those of similar magnitude. The study showed that blocks colliding inside a fault zone as an earthquake happens contributes significantly to the generation of high-frequency vibrations and sparked the notion that maybe geometrical complexity beneath the surface was also playing a role in where and why earthquakes happen.

Analyzing data from faults in California — which include the well-known San Andreas fault — the researchers found that fault zones that have complex geometry underneath, meaning the structures there weren’t as aligned, turned out to have stronger ground motions than less geometrically complex fault zones. This also means some of these zones would have stronger earthquakes, others would have weaker ones, and some would have no earthquakes.

The researchers determined this based on the average misalignment of the faults they analyzed. This misalignment ratio measures how closely the faults in a certain region are aligned and all going in the same direction versus going in many different directions. The analysis revealed that fault zones where the faults are more misaligned causes stick-slip episodes in the form of earthquakes. Fault zones where the geometry of the faults were more aligned facilitated smooth fault creep with no earthquakes.

“Understanding how faults behave as a system is essential to grasp why and how earthquakes happen,” said Lee, the graduate student who led the work. “Our research indicates that the complexity of fault network geometry is the key factor and establishes meaningful connections between sets of independent observations and integrates them into a novel framework.”

The researchers say more work needs to be done to fully validate the model, but this initial work suggests the idea is promising, especially because the alignment or misalignment of faults is easier to measure than fault frictional properties. If valid, the work can one day be weaved into earthquake prediction models.

That remains far off for now as the researchers begin to outline how to build upon the study.

“The most obvious thing that comes next is trying to go beyond California and see how this model holds up,” Tsai said. “This is potentially a new way of understanding how earthquakes happen.”

Reference:

Jaeseok Lee, Victor C. Tsai, Greg Hirth, Avigyan Chatterjee, Daniel T. Trugman. Fault-network geometry influences earthquake frictional behaviour. Nature, 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07518-6

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Brown University

Yowah Nut Opal

Yowah Nut Opal
Yowah Nut Opal

Introduction

Yowah Nut Opal is a unique and captivating gemstone known for its distinctive appearance and vibrant play of colors. Found exclusively in the Yowah opal field in Queensland, Australia, this gemstone is highly prized by collectors and jewelers alike. The name “Yowah Nut” derives from the opal’s resemblance to nuts or nodules, encapsulating the precious opal within a hardened outer shell. This article delves into the geological formation, history, and significance of Yowah Nut Opal, exploring its unique characteristics and the region from which it originates.

Geological Formation

The Origins of Opal

Opal is a mineraloid composed of silica and water, formed through a process of sedimentation. It typically occurs in areas with rich deposits of sandstone and volcanic ash, where water percolates through the earth, dissolving silica from the rocks. This silica-laden water then seeps into voids and cracks in the earth’s crust. Over time, the water evaporates, leaving behind silica deposits that gradually solidify to form opal. The unique play of colors in opal, known as opalescence, is due to the diffraction of light passing through these silica spheres.

Formation of Yowah Nut Opal

Yowah Nut Opal specifically forms within ironstone concretions, or nodules, often referred to as “nuts.” These nodules are typically spherical or ellipsoidal, ranging in size from a few millimeters to several centimeters in diameter. The formation process of Yowah Nut Opal involves several stages:

  1. Sedimentary Deposition: The region where Yowah Nut Opal is found was once a vast inland sea. Over millions of years, sedimentary layers, including sandstone and claystone, accumulated on the seabed.
  2. Silica Infusion: As water infiltrated these sedimentary layers, it dissolved silica from the surrounding rocks. This silica-rich water then filled cavities within the ironstone nodules.
  3. Opalization: Over time, the water evaporated, leaving behind deposits of silica. In favorable conditions, these silica deposits transformed into opal. The opal within Yowah Nuts often exhibits striking colors and patterns, encapsulated by the harder ironstone exterior.
  4. Fossilization and Erosion: Geological processes such as fossilization and erosion exposed these opal-filled nodules near the earth’s surface, making them accessible for mining.

The Yowah Opal Field

Location and Geology

The Yowah Nut Opal field is located in southwestern Queensland, Australia, approximately 130 kilometers west of Cunnamulla. This region is part of the larger Eromanga Basin, known for its rich deposits of opal. The Yowah field is characterized by its arid climate, sparse vegetation, and rugged terrain, typical of the Australian outback.

The geology of the Yowah Nut Opal field is dominated by sedimentary rock formations, primarily sandstone and claystone, dating back to the Cretaceous period. The presence of ironstone concretions, within which Yowah Nut Opal is found, is a distinctive feature of this area. These ironstone nodules are embedded within the sedimentary layers, and their opal content is revealed through mining and exploration.

Mining and Extraction

Mining in the Yowah Nut Opal field is a challenging and labor-intensive process, often carried out by small-scale miners and prospectors. The extraction of Yowah Nut Opal involves several steps:

  1. Prospecting: Miners use various techniques to locate opal-bearing nodules, including ground-penetrating radar, drilling, and surface exploration. The presence of ironstone nodules is a key indicator of potential opal deposits.
  2. Excavation: Once a promising area is identified, miners use excavators, jackhammers, and other tools to break through the overlying sedimentary layers. The ironstone nodules are carefully extracted to avoid damaging the opal inside.
  3. Processing: The extracted nodules are then split open, either manually or using mechanical saws, to reveal the opal within. This process requires skill and precision to ensure that the opal is not damaged during extraction.
  4. Sorting and Grading: The opal is sorted and graded based on its color, pattern, and overall quality. High-quality Yowah Nut Opal is characterized by its vibrant colors and intricate patterns, making it highly sought after in the gemstone market.

Unique Characteristics of Yowah Nut Opal

Color and Patterns

One of the most captivating features of Yowah Nut Opal is its vibrant play of colors. This phenomenon, known as opalescence, occurs when light interacts with the microscopic silica spheres within the opal. The diffraction of light results in a stunning display of colors, ranging from blues and greens to reds and oranges. The intensity and variety of colors in Yowah Nut Opal are often considered superior to other types of opal.

The patterns within Yowah Nut Opal are equally unique. The opal can form intricate and mesmerizing patterns, including:

  1. Pinfire Pattern: Characterized by small, pinpoint flashes of color.
  2. Harlequin Pattern: Featuring larger, angular patches of color.
  3. Floral Pattern: Resembling the shapes of flowers or petals.
  4. Mosaic Pattern: A complex arrangement of color patches, resembling a mosaic.

These patterns, combined with the vibrant colors, make each piece of Yowah Nut Opal a unique and highly desirable gemstone.

Ironstone Matrix

Unlike other types of opal, Yowah Nut Opal is often found encased within an ironstone matrix. This ironstone shell provides a striking contrast to the colorful opal inside, enhancing its visual appeal. The ironstone matrix also adds to the durability and stability of the opal, making it suitable for various types of jewelry and decorative items.

Cabochons and Freeform Pieces

Yowah Nut Opal is commonly cut and polished into cabochons, showcasing its vibrant colors and patterns. Cabochons are smooth, domed gemstones that highlight the opal’s natural beauty. Additionally, some Yowah Nut Opal pieces are left in their natural, freeform shapes, preserving the unique contours and features of the original nodule.

Historical and Cultural Significance

Indigenous Australian Connection

Opal has been cherished by Indigenous Australians for thousands of years. The gemstone holds cultural and spiritual significance, often associated with the Dreamtime, a central concept in Indigenous Australian mythology. According to Dreamtime stories, opal is the result of a rainbow touching the earth, imbuing the stone with its vibrant colors.

Yowah Nut Opal, with its distinctive appearance, has a special place in Indigenous Australian culture. The gemstone is sometimes used in traditional ceremonies and as a symbol of connection to the land and ancestral heritage.

Discovery and Early Mining

The Yowah opal field was discovered in the late 19th century, during a period of opal rushes in Australia. Prospectors and miners flocked to the region in search of opal, leading to the establishment of small mining communities. The discovery of Yowah Nut Opal brought attention to the unique and valuable gemstone, sparking interest from collectors and jewelers worldwide.

Early mining efforts were often rudimentary, relying on manual labor and basic tools. Despite the challenges, miners persevered, uncovering some of the most exquisite Yowah Nut Opal specimens ever found.

The Modern Yowah Opal Industry

Advances in Mining Technology

In recent years, advances in mining technology have improved the efficiency and safety of opal extraction in the Yowah field. Modern equipment, such as hydraulic excavators, drills, and saws, allows miners to access deeper and more remote opal deposits. Additionally, improved processing techniques enable the careful extraction and preservation of opal, minimizing damage and maximizing yield.

Environmental and Ethical Considerations

As the demand for opal continues to grow, there is an increasing focus on sustainable and ethical mining practices. Efforts are being made to minimize the environmental impact of opal mining, including land rehabilitation and water management. Ethical considerations also extend to the fair treatment of miners and the support of local communities.

Global Market and Demand

Yowah Nut Opal is highly prized in the global gemstone market, known for its exceptional quality and unique characteristics. The gemstone is sought after by collectors, jewelers, and enthusiasts, driving demand and market value. Yowah Nut Opal is often featured in high-end jewelry, including rings, pendants, and earrings, as well as in decorative art pieces.

Conclusion

Yowah Nut Opal is a truly remarkable gemstone, distinguished by its vibrant colors, intricate patterns, and unique formation within ironstone nodules. Found exclusively in the Yowah opal field in Queensland, Australia, this gemstone holds cultural, historical, and economic significance. From its geological origins to its modern-day extraction and global demand, Yowah Nut Opal continues to captivate and inspire those who encounter its natural beauty. As mining practices evolve and sustainability becomes a priority, the legacy of Yowah Nut Opal will endure, preserving its place as one of nature’s hidden gems.

T. Rex not as smart as previously claimed

Photograph of a T. rex skeletal cast at Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt, Germany. T. rex lived at the end of the Cretaceous (about 66 million years ago) and was exclusive to western North America. Credit: Kai R. CasparKai R. Caspar
Photograph of a T. rex skeletal cast at Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt, Germany. T. rex lived at the end of the Cretaceous (about 66 million years ago) and was exclusive to western North America. Credit: Kai R. CasparKai R. Caspar

Dinosaurs were as smart as reptiles but not as intelligent as monkeys, as former research suggests.

An international team of palaeontologists, behavioural scientists and neurologists have re-examined brain size and structure in dinosaurs and concluded they behaved more like crocodiles and lizards.

In a study published last year, it was claimed that dinosaurs like T. rex had an exceptionally high number of neurons and were substantially more intelligent than assumed. It was claimed that these high neuron counts could directly inform on intelligence, metabolism and life history, and that T. rex was rather monkey-like in some of its habits. Cultural transmission of knowledge as well as tool use were cited as examples of cognitive traits that it might have possessed.

However the new study, published today in The Anatomical Record, involving the University of Bristol’s Hady George, Dr Darren Naish (University of Southampton) and led by Dr Kai Caspar (Heinrich Heine University) with Dr Cristian Gutierrez-Ibanez (University of Alberta) and Dr Grant Hurlburt (Royal Ontario Museum) takes a closer look at techniques used to predict both brain size and neuron numbers in dinosaur brains. The team found that previous assumptions about brain size in dinosaurs, and the number of neurons their brains contained, were unreliable.

The research follows decades of analysis in which palaeontologists and biologists have examined dinosaur brain size and anatomy, and used these data to infer behaviour and lifestyle. Information on dinosaur brains comes from mineral infillings of the brain cavity, termed endocasts, as well as the shapes of the cavities themselves.

The team found that their brain size had been overestimated — especially that of the forebrain — and thus neuron counts as well. In addition, they show that neuron count estimates are not a reliable guide to intelligence.

To reliably reconstruct the biology of long-extinct species, the team argues, researchers should look at multiple lines of evidence, including skeletal anatomy, bone histology, the behaviour of living relatives, and trace fossils. “Determining the intelligence of dinosaurs and other extinct animals is best done using many lines of evidence ranging from gross anatomy to fossil footprints instead of relying on neuron number estimates alone,” explained Hady from Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences.

Dr Kai Caspar explained: “We argue that it’s not good practice to predict intelligence in extinct species when neuron counts reconstructed from endocasts are all we have to go on.”

“Neuron counts are not good predictors of cognitive performance, and using them to predict intelligence in long-extinct species can lead to highly misleading interpretations,” added Dr Ornella Bertrand (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont).

“The possibility that T. rex might have been as intelligent as a baboon is fascinating and terrifying, with the potential to reinvent our view of the past,” concluded Dr Darren Naish. “But our study shows how all the data we have is against this idea. They were more like smart giant crocodiles, and that’s just as fascinating.”

Reference:
Kai R. Caspar, Cristián Gutiérrez‐Ibáñez, Ornella C. Bertrand, Thomas Carr, Jennifer A. D. Colbourne, Arthur Erb, Hady George, Thomas R. Holtz, Darren Naish, Douglas R. Wylie, Grant R. Hurlburt. How smart was T. rex? Testing claims of exceptional cognition in dinosaurs and the application of neuron count estimates in palaeontological research. The Anatomical Record, 2024; DOI: 10.1002/ar.25459

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Bristol.

First ‘warm-blooded’ dinosaurs may have emerged 180 million years ago

The artist’s impression shows a dromaeosaur, a type of feathered theropod, in the snow. This dinosaur group is popularly known as a raptor. A well-known dromaeosaur is Velociraptor, portrayed in the film Jurassic Park. Credit: Davide Bonadonna/Universidade de Vigo/UCL
The artist’s impression shows a dromaeosaur, a type of feathered theropod, in the snow. This dinosaur group is popularly known as a raptor. A well-known dromaeosaur is Velociraptor, portrayed in the film Jurassic Park. Credit: Davide Bonadonna/Universidade de Vigo/UCL

The ability to regulate body temperature, a trait all mammals and birds have today, may have evolved among some dinosaurs early in the Jurassic period about 180 million years ago, suggests a new study led by UCL and University of Vigo researchers.

In the early 20th century, dinosaurs were considered slow-moving, “cold-blooded” animals like modern-day reptiles, relying on heat from the sun to regulate their temperature. Newer discoveries indicate some dinosaur types were likely capable of generating their own body heat but when this adaptation occurred is unknown.

The new study, published in the journal Current Biology, looked at the spread of dinosaurs across different climates on Earth throughout the Mesozoic Era (the dinosaur era lasting from 230 to 66 million years ago), drawing on 1,000 fossils, climate models and the geography of the period, and dinosaurs’ evolutionary trees.

The research team found that two of the three main groupings of dinosaurs, theropods (such as T. rex and Velociraptor) and ornithischians (including relatives of the plant eaters Stegosaurus and Triceratops), moved to colder climates during the Early Jurassic, suggesting they may have developed endothermy (the ability to internally generate heat) at this time. In contrast, sauropods, the other main grouping which includes the Brontosaurus and the Diplodocus, kept to warmer areas of the planet.

Previous research has found traits linked to warm-bloodedness among ornithischians and theropods, with some known to have had feathers or proto-feathers, insulating internal heat.

First author Dr Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, of UCL Earth Sciences, said: “Our analyses show that different climate preferences emerged among the main dinosaur groups around the time of the Jenkyns event 183 million years ago, when intense volcanic activity led to global warming and extinction of plant groups.

“At this time, many new dinosaur groups emerged. The adoption of endothermy, perhaps a result of this environmental crisis, may have enabled theropods and ornithischians to thrive in colder environments, allowing them to be highly active and sustain activity over longer periods, to develop and grow faster and produce more offspring.”

Co-author Dr Sara Varela, of the Universidade de Vigo, Spain, said: “Theropods also include birds and our study suggests that birds’ unique temperature regulation may have had its origin in this Early Jurassic epoch.

“Sauropods, on the other hand, which stayed in warmer climates, grew to a gigantic size at around this time — another possible adaptation due to environmental pressure. Their smaller surface area to volume ratio would have meant these larger creatures would lose heat at a reduced rate, allowing them to stay active for longer.”

In the paper, the researchers also investigated if sauropods might have stayed at lower latitudes to eat richer foliage unavailable in colder polar regions. Instead, they found sauropods seemed to thrive in arid, savannah-like environments, supporting the idea that their restriction to warmer climates was more related to higher temperature and then to a more cold-blooded physiology. During that time, polar regions were warmer, with abundant vegetation.

The Jenkyns event occurred after lava and volcanic gasses erupted from long fissures in the Earth’s surface, covering large areas of the planet.

Co-author Dr Juan L. Cantalapiedra, of the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain, said: “This research suggests a close connection between climate and how dinosaurs evolved. It sheds new light on how birds might have inherited a unique biological trait from dinosaur ancestors and the different ways dinosaurs adapted to complex and long-term environmental changes.”

The study involved researchers from UCL, University of Vigo, the University of Bristol and the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, and received funding from the European Research Council, the Spanish Ministry of Research, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society.

Reference:
Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Juan L. Cantalapiedra, Lewis A. Jones, Sara Gamboa, Sofía Galván, Alexander J. Farnsworth, Paul J. Valdes, Graciela Sotelo, Sara Varela. Early Jurassic origin of avian endothermy and thermophysiological diversity in dinosaurs. Current Biology, 2024; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.051

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University College London.

Researchers discover hidden step in dinosaur feather evolution

The specimen under natural light (a) and UV light (b) showing distinct fluorescence hues for bone (cyan) and soft tissues (yellow) against a dark purple sedimentary matrix.
The specimen under natural light (a) and UV light (b) showing distinct fluorescence hues for bone (cyan) and soft tissues (yellow) against a dark purple sedimentary matrix.

Palaeontologists at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland have discovered that some feathered dinosaurs had scaly skin like reptiles today, thus shedding new light on the evolutionary transition from scales to feathers.

The researchers studied a new specimen of the feathered dinosaur Psittacosaurus from the early Cretaceous (135-120 million years ago), a time when dinosaurs were evolving into birds. The study shows, for the first time, that Psittacosaurus had reptile-like skin in areas where it didn’t have feathers.

The study, published today in Nature Communications, was led by UCC palaeontologists Dr Zixiao Yang and Prof. Maria McNamara of UCC’s School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, who teamed with scientists based in Nanjing University (China).

The team used ultraviolet (UV) light to identify patches of preserved skin, which are invisible in natural light. Further investigation of the fossil skin using X-rays and infrared light revealed spectacular details of preserved cellular structure.

Dr Yang says:

“The fossil truly is a hidden gem. The fossil skin is not visible to the naked eye, and it remained hidden when the specimen was donated to Nanjing University in 2021. Only under UV light is the skin visible, in a striking orange-yellow glow.

“What is really surprising is the chemistry of the fossil skin. It is composed of silica — the same as glass. This type of preservation has never been found in vertebrate fossils. There are potentially many more fossils with hidden soft tissues awaiting discovery.”

The most exciting aspect of the discovery, however, is what it tells us about the evolution of feathers in dinosaurs. Prof. McNamara, senior author on the study, says:

“The evolution of feathers from reptilian scales is one of the most profound yet poorly understood events in vertebrate evolution. While numerous fossils of feathers have been studied, fossil skin is much more rare.

“Our discovery suggests that soft, bird-like skin initially developed only in feathered regions of the body, while the rest of the skin was still scaly, like in modern reptiles. This zoned development would have maintained essential skin functions, such as protection against abrasion, dehydration and parasites. The first dinosaur to experiment with feathers could therefore survive and pass down the genes for feathers to their offspring.”

The Psittacosaurus specimen NJUES-10 is currently housed in Nanjing University.

Reference:
Zixiao Yang, Baoyu Jiang, Jiaxin Xu, Maria E. McNamara. Cellular structure of dinosaur scales reveals retention of reptile-type skin during the evolutionary transition to feathers. Nature Communications, 2024; 15 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48400-3

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University College Cork.

Rock steady: Study reveals new mechanism to explain how continents stabilized

These ancient metamorphic rocks called gneisses, found on the Arctic Coast, represent the roots of the continents now exposed at the surface. The scientists said sedimentary rocks interlayered in these types of rocks would provide a heat engine for stabilizing the continents. Credit: Jesse Reimink. All Rights Reserved.
These ancient metamorphic rocks called gneisses, found on the Arctic Coast, represent the roots of the continents now exposed at the surface. The scientists said sedimentary rocks interlayered in these types of rocks would provide a heat engine for stabilizing the continents. Credit: Jesse Reimink. All Rights Reserved.

Ancient, expansive tracts of continental crust called cratons have helped keep Earth’s continents stable for billions of years, even as landmasses shift, mountains rise and oceans form. A new mechanism proposed by Penn State scientists may explain how the cratons formed some 3 billion years ago, an enduring question in the study of Earth’s history.

The scientists reported today (May 8) in the journal Nature that the continents may not have emerged from Earth’s oceans as stable landmasses, the hallmark of which is an upper crust enriched in granite. Rather, the exposure of fresh rock to wind and rain about 3 billion years ago triggered a series of geological processes that ultimately stabilized the crust — enabling the crust to survive for billions of years without being destroyed or reset.

The findings may represent a new understanding of how potentially habitable, Earth-like planets evolve, the scientists said.

“To make a planet like Earth you need to make continental crust, and you need to stabilize that crust,” said Jesse Reimink, assistant professor of geosciences at Penn State and an author of the study. “Scientists have thought of these as the same thing — the continents became stable and then emerged above sea level. But what we are saying is that those processes are separate.”

Cratons extend more than 150 kilometers, or 93 miles, from the Earth’s surface to the upper mantle — where they act like the keel of a boat, keeping the continents floating at or near sea level across geological time, the scientists said.

Weathering may have ultimately concentrated heat-producing elements like uranium, thorium and potassium in the shallow crust, allowing the deeper crust to cool and harden. This mechanism created a thick, hard layer of rock that may have protected the bottoms of the continents from being deformed later — a characteristic feature of cratons, the scientists said.

“The recipe for making and stabilizing continental crust involves concentrating these heat-producing elements — which can be thought of as little heat engines — very close to the surface,” said Andrew Smye, associate professor of geosciences at Penn State and an author of the study. “You have to do that because each time an atom of uranium, thorium or potassium decays, it releases heat that can increase the temperature of the crust. Hot crust is unstable — it’s prone to being deformed and won’t stick around.”

As wind, rain and chemical reactions broke down rocks on the early continents, sediments and clay minerals were washed into streams and rivers and carried to the sea where they created sedimentary deposits like shales that were high in concentrations of uranium, thorium and potassium, the scientists said.

Collisions between tectonic plates buried these sedimentary rocks deep in the Earth’s crust where radiogenic heat released by the shale triggered melting of the lower crust. The melts were buoyant and ascended back to the upper crust, trapping the heat-producing elements there in rocks like granite and allowing the lower crust to cool and harden.

Cratons are believed to have formed between 3 and 2.5 billion years ago — a time when radioactive elements like uranium would have decayed at a rate about twice as fast and released twice as much heat as today.

The work highlights that the time when the cratons formed on the early middle Earth was uniquely suited for the processes that may have led them to becoming stable, Reimink said.

“We can think of this as a planetary evolution question,” Reimink said. “One of the key ingredients you need to make a planet like Earth might be the emergence of continents relatively early on in its lifespan. Because you’re going to create radioactive sediments that are very hot and that produce a really stable tract of continental crust that lives right around sea level and is a great environment for propagating life.”

The researchers analyzed uranium, thorium and potassium concentrations from hundreds of samples of rocks from the Archean period, when the cratons formed, to assess the radiogenic heat productivity based on actual rock compositions. They used these values to create thermal models of craton formation.

“Previously people have looked at and considered the effects of changing radiogenic heat production through time,” Smye said. “But our study links rock-based heat production to the emergence of continents, the generation of sediments and the differentiation of continental crust.”

Typically found in the interior of continents, cratons contain some of the oldest rocks on Earth, but remain challenging to study. In tectonically active areas, mountain belt formation might bring rocks that had once been buried deep underground to the surface.

But the origins of the cratons remain deep underground and are inaccessible. The scientists said future work will involve sampling ancient interiors of cratons and, perhaps, drilling core samples to test their model.

“These metamorphosed sedimentary rocks that have melted and produced granites that concentrate uranium and thorium are like black box flight recorders that record pressure and temperature,” Smye said. “And if we can unlock that archive, we can test our model’s predictions for the flight path of the continental crust.”

Penn State and the U.S. National Science Foundation provided funding for this work.

Reference:
Jesse R. Reimink, Andrew J. Smye. Subaerial weathering drove stabilization of continents. Nature, 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07307-1

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Penn State. Original written by Matthew Carroll.

Can coal mines be tapped for rare earth elements?

Coal core
Coal core

Deposits of designated critical minerals needed to transition the world’s energy systems away from fossil fuels may, ironically enough, be co-located with coal deposits that have been mined to produce the fossil fuel most implicated in climate change.

Now, research led by the University of Utah has documented elevated concentrations of a key subset of critical minerals, known as rare earth elements, or REEs, in active mines rimming the Uinta coal belt of Colorado and Utah.

These findings open the possibility that these mines could see a secondary resource stream in the form of metals used in renewable energy and numerous other high-tech applications, according to study co-author Lauren Birgenheier, an associate professor of geology and geophysics.

“The model is if you’re already moving rock, could you move a little more rock for resources towards energy transition?” Birgenheier said. “In those areas, we’re finding that the rare earth elements are concentrated in fine-grain shale units, the muddy shales that are above and below the coal seams.”

This research was conducted in partnership with the Utah Geological Survey and Colorado Geological Survey as part of the Department of Energy-funded Carbon Ore, Rare Earth and Critical Minerals project, or CORE-CM. The new findings will form the basis for a grant request of an additional $9.4 million in federal funding to continue the research.

While these metals are crucial for U.S. manufacturing, especially in high-end technologies, they are largely sourced from overseas.

“When we talk about them as ‘critical minerals,’ a lot of the criticality is related to the supply chain and the processing,” said Michael Free, a professor metallurgical engineering and the principal investigator on the DOE grant. “This project is designed around looking at some alternative unconventional domestic sources for these materials.”

The association between coal and REE deposits has been well documented elsewhere, but little data had been previously gathered or analyzed in Utah and Colorado’s coal fields.

“The goal of this phase-one project was to collect additional data to try and understand whether this was something worth pursuing in the West,” said study co-author Michael Vanden Berg, Energy and Minerals Program Manager at the Utah Geological Survey. “Is there rare earth element enrichment in these rocks that could provide some kind of byproduct or value added to the coal mining industry?”

Researchers analyzed 3,500 samples from 10 mines, four mine waste piles, seven stratigraphically complete cores, and even some coal ash piles near power plants.

“The coal itself is not enriched in rare earth elements,” Vanden Berg said. “There’s not going to be a byproduct from mining the coal, but for a company mining the coal seam, could they take a couple feet of the floor at the same time? Could they take a couple feet of the ceiling? Could there be potential there? That’s the direction that the data led us.”

The team deployed two different methods to record levels of rare earths, expressed in parts per million, or ppm, in the samples. One was a hand-held device for quick readings in the field, the other used Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry, or ICP-MS, in an on-campus lab.

“We’re mostly using this portable x-ray fluorescence device, which is an analysis gun that we hold to the rock for two minutes, and it only gives us five or six of the 17 rare earth elements,” Birgenheier said. If samples showed concentrations higher than 200 ppm, they ran a more complete analysis using the more costly mass spectrometry equipment.

The Department of Energy has set 300 ppm as the minimum concentration for rare earth mining to be potentially economically viable. But for the study, researchers deemed concentrations greater than 200 ppm to be considered “REE enriched.”

The study found the highest prevalence of such concentrations in coal-adjacent formations of siltstone and shale, while sandstone and the coal itself were mostly devoid of rare earths.

The team has analyzed 11,000 samples to date, far more than were used in the published study. Next steps include determining how much rare earth ore is present, likely to be done with colleagues at the University of Wyoming and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

Reference:
Haley H. Coe, Lauren P. Birgenheier, Diego P. Fernandez, Ryan D. Gall, Michael D. Vanden Berg, Andrew Giebel. Rare earth element enrichment in coal and coal-adjacent strata of the Uinta Region, Utah and Colorado. Frontiers in Earth Science, 2024; 12 DOI: 10.3389/feart.2024.1381152

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Utah. Original written by Brian Maffly.

Subduction zone splay faults compound hazards of great earthquakes

Magnified through a microscope, diatoms, which are a type of siliceous microalgae preserved within sediment, helped the researchers determine the salinity levels of the core samples. Photo courtesy of Jessica DePaolis.
Magnified through a microscope, diatoms, which are a type of siliceous microalgae preserved within sediment, helped the researchers determine the salinity levels of the core samples. Photo courtesy of Jessica DePaolis.

Groundbreaking research has provided new insight into the tectonic plate shifts that create some of the Earth’s largest earthquakes and tsunamis.

“This is the first study to employ coastal geology to reconstruct the rupture history of the splay fault system,” said Jessica DePaolis, postdoctoral fellow in Virginia Tech’s Department of Geosciences. “These splay faults are closer to the coast, so these tsunamis will be faster to hit the coastline than a tsunami generated only from a subduction zone earthquake.”

Subduction zones around the world, areas where one tectonic plate shifts under another, create the largest earthquakes — those over magnitude 8.0 — triggering tsunamis and altering ecosystems in their wake. DePaolis, along with Tina Dura, assistant professor of natural hazards, and colleagues from the United States Geological Survey, found evidence that splay faults, the crustal faults connected to the subduction zones, may shift during subduction zone earthquakes and contribute to local coastal destruction and ecological change more regularly than previously realized.

Such a shift of the splay fault underwater can create a tsunami that could reach the nearest shores in 30 minutes or less, DePaolis said.

Published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, the study should affect hazard awareness at subduction zones around the world. Splay faults exist at subduction zones bordering Ecuador, Cascadia, Chile, and Japan, suggesting they may contribute to tsunami hazards at those locations as well.

When tectonic plates shift at a subduction zone, it occurs miles under the ocean surface. Because splay faults are connected to these zones, their location makes researching them a challenge.

Fortunately, secondary, or surface level, effects of these shifts have been geologically recorded on Montague Island in Prince William Sound in Alaska, making it the only current land mass to sit atop a splay fault to exhibit such effects in its soil.

Typically, the resultant lifting of land from the tectonic plate shifting beneath it, called uplift, from subduction zone earthquakes can be as much as 1 to 3 meters. This is true for most onshore locations impacted by the 1964 earthquake, which hit 9.2 on the Richter scale. However, on Montague Island, splay faults created 11 meters of uplift and initiated drainage of a coastal lagoon, effectively altering its ecosystem from a marine lagoon to a freshwater bog.

“The island is kind of stuck in the middle of these splay faults, so anytime these splay faults rupture, it’s actually recording the uplift,” DePaolis said. “It has this exaggerated uplift that’s just not common in subduction zone-only earthquakes.”

DePaolis and her team examined the effects of the splay fault ruptures on Montague Island. By analyzing 42 sediment cores, they found stratigraphic evidence of the 1964 earthquake and a secondary shift caused by the splay fault. They noticed there was a clear sedimentary change from pre-earthquake lagoon silt to post-earthquake rooted soil.

“There are definitely islands that uplift with subduction zone earthquakes, but they don’t necessarily have faults going through them causing that exaggerated uplift, so it’s a really unique place,” said Dura, an affiliated faculty member of the Global Change Center and the Fralin Life Sciences Institute.

Researchers have believed that a secondary shift from the splay faults was possible. But that idea has been only theoretical until now because this is the first known land mass to record the stratigraphic evidence.

Team members also utilized diatoms, a type of siliceous microalgae preserved within the sediments that is sensitive to changes in salinity, to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental changes that occurred following the 1964 earthquake. They found a clear shift from a highly saline marine lagoon environment out of the reach of tides, indicating uplift of the coast.

Comparing the findings of the 1964 earthquake core samples to samples deeper in the coastal stratigraphy, the research team discovered sedimentary and diatom evidence of three other instances where the splay fault ruptured. This evidence correlated with four of the last eight documented subduction zone earthquakes in the region.

“There’s a huge amount of displacement on these faults that can create those really quick, local, large tsunamis,” DePaolis said. “So you have that local tsunami coming in really quickly and right behind that, you’re going to have the tsunami that was created by the subduction zone itself. All of a sudden you’re having these massive and destructive tsunamis kind of coming in rapidly one after another.”

Reference:
Jessica M. DePaolis, Tina Dura, Robert C. Witter, Peter J. Haeussler, Adrian Bender, Janet H. Curran, D. Reide Corbett. Repeated Coseismic Uplift of Coastal Lagoons Above the Patton Bay Splay Fault System, Montague Island, Alaska, USA. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 2024; 129 (5) DOI: 10.1029/2023JB028552

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Virginia Tech. Original written by Felicia Spencer.

308-million-year-old arachnid discovered in the Mazon Creek locality

Fossilized Douglassarachne acanthopoda, noted for its up-armored spiny legs, might have resemblance to modern harvestmen, but with a more experimental body plan. Credit: Paul Selden
Fossilized Douglassarachne acanthopoda, noted for its up-armored spiny legs, might have resemblance to modern harvestmen, but with a more experimental body plan. Credit: Paul Selden

More than 300 million years ago, all sorts of arachnids crawled around the Carboniferous coal forests of North America and Europe. These included familiar ones we’d recognize, such as spiders, harvestmen and scorpions—as well as exotic animals that now occur in warmer regions like whip spiders and whip scorpions.

But there were also quite bizarre arachnids in these habitats belonging to now extinct groups. Even among these strange species now lost to time, one might have stood out for its up-armored legs.

The ancient critter was recently described in a new paper published in the Journal of Paleontology, co-written by Paul Selden from the University of Kansas and the Natural History Museum of London and Jason Dunlop from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

“Douglassarachne acanthopoda comes from the famous Mazon Creek locality in Illinois and is about 308 million years old,” said lead author Selden. “This compact arachnid had a body length of about 1.5 centimeters and is characterized by its remarkably robust and spiny legs—such that it is quite unlike any other arachnid known, living or extinct.”

The KU researcher said Carboniferous Coal Measures are an important source of information for fossil arachnids, representing the first time in Earth’s history when most living groups of arachnids occurred together. Yet, the fauna was still quite different to today.

“Spiders were a rather rare group, only known at that time from primitive lineages, and they shared these ecosystems with various arachnids which have long since died out,” said co-author Dunlop.

“Douglassarachne acanthopoda is a particularly impressive example of one of these extinct forms. The fossil’s very spiny legs are reminiscent of some modern harvestmen, but its body plan is quite different from a harvestman or any other known arachnid group.”

This led the two scientists to conclude it doesn’t belong in any of the known arachnid orders.

“Unfortunately, details such as the mouth parts cannot be seen, which makes it difficult to say exactly which group of arachnids are its closest relatives,” Selden said. “It could belong to a wider group, which includes spiders, whip spiders and whip scorpions. Whatever its evolutionary affinities, these spiny arachnids appear to come from a time when arachnids were experimenting with a range of different body plans.

“Some of these later became extinct, perhaps during the so-called ‘Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse,’ a time shortly after the age of Mazon Creek when the coal forests began to fragment and die off. Or perhaps these strange arachnids clung on until the end Permian mass extinction?”

According to the team, Mazon Creek fossil locality is one of the most important windows into life in the late Carboniferous, producing a wide range of fascinating plants and animals. The present fossil was discovered in a clay-ironstone concretion in the 1980s by Bob Masek and later acquired by the David and Sandra Douglass Collection and displayed in their Prehistoric Life Museum.

“The genus name Douglassarachne acknowledges the Douglass family, who kindly donated the specimen to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for scientific study once it became apparent that it represented an undescribed species,” Dunlop said. “Then, acanthopoda refers to the unique and characteristic spiny legs of the animal.”

Reference:
Paul A. Selden et al, A remarkable spiny arachnid from the Pennsylvanian Mazon Creek Lagerstätte, Illinois, Journal of Paleontology (2024). DOI: 10.1017/jpa.2024.13

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Kansas

Earth scientists describe a new kind of volcanic eruption

Telephoto view looking east of the active lava lake within Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea. Credit: N. Deligne / USGS / Public Domain
Telephoto view looking east of the active lava lake within Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea. Credit: N. Deligne / USGS / Public Domain

No two volcanic eruptions are exactly alike, but scientists think a series of explosive eruptions at Kīlauea volcano fit into a whole new category.

By analyzing the dynamics of 12 back-to-back explosions that happened in 2018, researchers describe a new type of volcanic eruption mechanism. The explosions were driven by sudden pressure increases as the ground collapsed, which blasted plumes of rock fragments and hot gas into the air, much like a classic stomp-rocket toy.

Researchers from the University of Oregon, United States Geological Survey and China’s Sichuan University report their findings in a paper published May 27 in Nature Geoscience.

The particular string of explosions at the summit of Kīlauea was part of a sequence of events that included lava flows erupting from lower on the flank of the volcano. Those lava flows destroyed thousands of homes and displaced residents on the Island of Hawai’i for months.

Understanding exactly what happened in past volcanic eruptions, colloquially called “hindcasting,” allows volcanologists to make better forecasts about future eruptions and give more accurate warnings to people in an eruption’s path.

For the most part, explosive volcanic eruptions are either primarily driven by rising magma, vaporized groundwater, or some combination of the two, according to Josh Crozier, who did this research as a doctoral student at the UO. But these eruptions didn’t quite fit the mold.

“These eruptions are quite interesting in that they don’t really seem to involve either of those,” Crozier said. “The eruptive material contained very little that looked like fresh magma that was blasted out, but there’s no evidence for significant groundwater being involved, either.”

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, part of the U.S. Geological Survey, keeps close tabs on Kīlauea. The volcano is covered with scientific instruments, from ground sensors that measure the shaking of the earth to tools that analyze the gases released from the volcano.

“A cool thing about these eruptions is that there were a bunch of them in sequence that were remarkably similar; that’s relatively unusual,” said Leif Karlstrom, a volcanologist at the UO. “Typically, volcanic eruptions don’t happen with as much regularity.”

So the team had more data than usual to work with, and they could dig deeper into the specific dynamics of the eruptions.

Putting all that data into a variety of atmospheric and subsurface models, the scientists pieced together a new story about what happened on Kīlauea during the string of events in 2018.

Before each explosion at the summit, magma was slowly draining from an underground reservoir. (This magma was feeding lava flows 40 kilometers away, on the eastern flank of the volcano.) As the reservoir depleted, the ground above it — the crater within the caldera at the volcano’s summit — suddenly collapsed.

That quickly increased the pressure in the reservoir. And because there was a pocket of accumulated magmatic gas sitting at the top of this reservoir, the pressure increase squeezed the magmatic gas and bits of rubble through a conduit and blasted them out of a vent in Kīlauea’s crater.

The researchers compare the eruption dynamic to a stomp-rocket toy, where stepping on an air bag connected to a hose launches a projectile into the air.

“The ‘stomp’ is this whole kilometer-thick chunk of rock dropping down, pressurizing the pocket, and then forcing material directly up,” Crozier said. And the ‘rocket’ is, of course, the gas and rocks erupting from the volcano.

Caldera collapse is fairly common, Crozier notes. So while this is the first time scientists have specifically spelled out this specific stomp-rocket mechanism, it’s probably not the only time it’s occurred.

The study was able to link geophysical observations to the properties of the volcanic plume in the atmosphere.

“This link is very rare,” said Joe Dufek, a volcanologist at the UO. “It points to new ways for us to observe eruptions and to combine sensor measurements with computer simulations to better assess hazards from eruptions.”

The fact that this was a series of smaller eruptions may have made it easier to see the underlying mechanism, Dufek said. Other complex processes weren’t overshadowing the stomp-rocket component.

But that’s not to say that Kīlauea is simple. A typical textbook drawing of a volcano shows magma moving upwards through chambers at different depths. But it’s rarely that straightforward, and a volcano like Kīlauea, decked out in scientific instruments, provides an opportunity to dig into the details.

“This is an example, and there’s an increasing number of these, where the pathways of magma ascent are quite geometrically complex,” Karlstrom said. “It gives us a much more nuanced picture of what volcanic plumbing systems look like.”

Reference:

Josh Crozier, Josef Dufek, Leif Karlstrom, Kyle R. Anderson, Ryan Cahalan, Weston Thelen, Mary Benage, Chao Liang. Explosive 2018 eruptions at Kīlauea driven by a collapse-induced stomp-rocket mechanism. Nature Geoscience, 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01442-0

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Oregon. Original written by Laurel Hamers.

Artificial geysers can compensate for our mineral shortages

Take a close look at these seabed minerals! Green copper minerals are seen here precipitated in a sectioned sulphide sample, retrieved from a scientific cruise conducted by the Norwegian Offshore Directorate across the Mohns Ridge in 2020. Credit: Øystein Leiknes Nag/Norwegian Offshore Directorate
Take a close look at these seabed minerals! Green copper minerals are seen here precipitated in a sectioned sulphide sample, retrieved from a scientific cruise conducted by the Norwegian Offshore Directorate across the Mohns Ridge in 2020. Credit: Øystein Leiknes Nag/Norwegian Offshore Directorate

By imitating nature, it may be possible to recover seabed minerals by extracting hot water from the Earth’s crust. We can harvest green energy and be sensitive to the environment—all at the same time.

Seabed minerals: Here’s something you probably don’t know. The copper found in the Norwegian mines at Røros and Løkken, and which once made the country very wealthy, was formed from smoking “chimneys” on the ocean floor.

In the Earth’s remote past, this copper was carried up through the crust by seawater that had originally been drawn downwards into the scorching depths. If we humans can learn to imitate part of this process, it may be possible to apply it to sensitively recover a variety of minerals from the oceans offshore Norway.

At SINTEF, we believe that seabed minerals should only be recovered if we can develop methods that minimize any negative environmental impacts. We are now in the process of identifying one such method.

Or, in other words, of obtaining the “building blocks” being called for by the green transition. At the same time, we can obtain valuable geothermal heat that we can convert into emissions-free energy.

From the scorching depths to the deck of a platform

In the heated debate currently raging about seabed minerals, now fueled once again by WWF’s recent notification to sue the Norwegian state, many people have expressed their fear of negative ecological consequences resulting from the exploitation of these resources.

At SINTEF, we believe that seabed minerals should only be recovered if we can develop methods that minimize any negative environmental impacts. We are now in the process of identifying one such method.

Our idea is to transport the mineral-rich water and bypass the process of precipitation on the seabed, recovering the minerals directly from the scorching depths in the Earth’s crust from where they originate. Extraction will take place on the deck of an offshore platform.

Water heated by molten rock

Below the sea surface, some distance from land, there are several locations where so-called black smoker geysers eject mineral-rich waters brought up from the depths of the crust.

This phenomenon is the result of water first having been drawn down into fractures in the volcanic rocks of the seabed and then all the way down into the mantle, which is the layer of molten rock lying beneath the crust. Here, the water is subject to intense heat and is able to take up particles of metals and minerals. These are exactly the materials we need to make our batteries, wind turbines and electric vehicle engines.

Then, the mineral-rich water rises from the mantle, through the crust, and up to the seabed, where it is ejected from the black smoker geysers.

Electricity from steam

At SINTEF, we are working on the idea of imitating part of this process by constructing artificial geysers. Firstly, by drilling wells for sending seawater down into the mantle—and then others for transporting the mineral-rich water back to the surface.

This water will be transported in pipes up to platforms where the particles will be separated.

The pressure at the Earth’s surface will cause the water to boil. Our idea is to use the steam to generate electricity, which will then be sent onshore. The revenues from selling the electricity will be used to pay for parts of the mineral recovery process.

Discovered in the 1970s

SINTEF has been here before—demonstrating that imitating nature can be a very fruitful venture. Specifically, that the properties of underwater shales are ideal for dealing with abandoned oil wells.

The phenomenon that we are seeking to imitate today—these “black smokers” on the seabed—was discovered in the 1970s in an area of the Pacific Ocean at the boundary between two tectonic plates.

Many underwater geysers of this type have been identified on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in Norwegian waters. These are locations where molten magma still occurs close to the seabed. Some of them are probably still active today.

Sulfide minerals

The smoker chimneys are made up of particles that are precipitated when the hot, mineral-rich water is ejected from the geysers into the cold seawater. Other fractions of the ejected mass of particles have sunk to the seabed, forming great mounds of gravel at the base of the chimneys.

As time passes, many of the chimneys stop ejecting. They seal up and die, tipping over onto the “piles of gravel.”

These gravel piles represent the biggest and most concentrated occurrences of sulfide minerals on the seabed. The sulfide family is one of the two main groups of seabed minerals known from Norwegian oceans.

Key metals

According to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, the natural geysers have deposited minerals containing key metals such as zinc, cobalt, nickel, vanadium, tungsten and silver. Not to mention copper, which occurs in concentrations much greater than those we encounter in mines onshore.

Our idea assumes that humans will succeed in drilling wells that can withstand the temperatures they will encounter close to bodies of molten rock. Experts are already working on this problem..

“Our concept will not be put into practice tomorrow, but it may not be too far into the future either. The timing will depend on the efforts that we are prepared to put into developing the idea. We still need more data about the subsurface, combined with some smart technological innovations.

Supply security for the green transition

If our idea succeeds, this will help the European Parliament, the Norwegian government and everyone else who is looking to safeguard supply security for the green transition.

We have great faith that our concept represents a sensitive and realistic approach to minerals recovery, and are looking forward to continuing with its development.

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Exploring the Beauty and Mystery of Flower Agate

 

Flower Agate
Flower Agate

Introduction

There are several mesmerising minerals in the gemstone world, each with its own narrative to tell. Flower Agate is one gemstone that has piqued the interest of both collectors and enthusiasts. Flower Agate stands out as a beautiful work of nature’s art, with its exquisite flower designs and enticing colours. In this in-depth examination, we will look at the geological origins, features, formations, and importance of this fascinating mineral.

Geological Origins

Flower Agate, officially classed as a chalcedony variation, is a member of the vast quartz mineral family. Chalcedony is a microcrystalline form of quartz distinguished by its fine-grained structure and waxy lustre. Flower Agate is distinguished from other chalcedony kinds by its distinctive interior patterns like blossoming flowers, which give it an airy and appealing look.

The geological processes that create Flower Agate are as interesting as the gemstone itself. Flower Agate is thought to have formed as a result of volcanic activity, in which silica-rich fluids permeated voids within host rocks such as basalt. Over time, these fluids crystallise, resulting in complex formations within the voids. The abundance of impurities and mineral inclusions contributes to Flower Agate’s unique colours and patterns.

Description and Appearance

One of Flower Agate’s most outstanding aspects is its gorgeous interior patterns, which are very similar to blooming flowers. These patterns usually appear as dendritic structures or plumes that are elaborately intertwined into the transparent chalcedony matrix. Flower Agate’s colours span from subtle pastels to vivid hues, with pink, peach, white, and green being particularly frequent. The combination of colours and patterns within each specimen creates a sense of depth and dimension, adding to its attraction.

Flower Agate, in addition to its visual appeal, has favourable physical qualities that make it desirable as a gemstone. Its Mohs hardness ranges from 6.5 to 7, making it excellent for usage in a variety of jewellery and lapidary arts. Flower Agate’s relatively high resilience means it can resist the rigours of daily usage, making it a popular option for gemstone fans looking for both beauty and endurance.

Formation and Occurrence

Flower Agate is most commonly found in areas with a history of volcanic activity, where the geological conditions required for its creation exist. Madagascar, China, and the United States are notable suppliers of Flower Agate, with each producing specimens with distinct colours and patterns.

Madagascar is well-known for its broad variety of gemstones, but it is especially known for creating high-quality Flower Agate specimens. The deposits in Madagascar sometimes produce examples with vibrant pink and peach hues, covered with exquisite flower designs that equal the splendour of a botanical garden. Collectors and lapidary artists value these examples for their outstanding beauty and workmanship.

Flower Agate is most often found in Guangdong Province, China, and is recognised for its delicate pastel colours and beautiful dendritic structures. The examples from China have a tranquil grace evocative of cherry blossoms in full bloom. While not as well known as Madagascar examples, Chinese Flower Agate has a devoted following among gemstone enthusiasts.

Flower Agate has been discovered in various regions in the United States, including Oregon and Washington. Although less frequent than other sources, American Flower Agate has its own distinct beauty, with specimens varying in colour from gentle whites to bright greens. These examples are prized by local collectors and lapidary aficionados for their unique beauty and historical relevance.

Significance and uses

Beyond its visual appeal, Flower Agate has symbolic meaning in many civilizations and traditions. Flower Agate is thought to represent growth, rejuvenation, and abundance in metaphysical circles, making it an attractive option for spiritual healing and meditation activities. It is frequently connected with the heart chakra, which promotes peace, compassion, and emotional balance.

Flower Agate is highly valued in the jewellery and creative arts industries for its flexibility and beauty. Its exquisite patterns and calming colours make it an excellent material for making striking items like pendants, earrings, and rings. Flower Agate is also used by lapidary artisans to create beautiful artefacts like as carvings and sculptures, where its natural beauty can be fully appreciated.

Furthermore, Flower Agate demonstrates nature’s ongoing inventiveness and brilliance. Its creation over millions of years demonstrates the incredible durability and beauty of the Earth’s geological heritage. As a result, Flower Agate acts as a concrete reminder of the interdependence of geology, art, and culture, bridging the gap between the natural world and human creation.

Conclusion

Finally, Flower Agate reflects the natural world’s enchanting beauty and mystery. Flower Agate, with its geological roots in volcanic settings and gorgeous formations of blossoming flowers, continues to fascinate the imaginations of collectors, enthusiasts, and spiritual searchers alike. As we continue to uncover the mysteries of this enchanted diamond, we develop a greater appreciation for the wonderful diversity of Earth’s geological riches and the enduring fascination of nature’s workmanship.

Unraveling the Mysteries of Utroba Cave

Utroba Cave, Bulgaria
Utroba Cave, Bulgaria

Utroba Cave, located in Bulgaria’s gorgeous Rhodope Mountains, is a natural marvel that draws both explorers and scientists. This underground labyrinth, with its complex structures and timeless beauty, provides insight into the region’s geological past and the forces that formed it over millions of years.

The cave is located 20 kilometers from the city of Kardzhali near the village of Ilinitsa and it dates to 480 BC. It is also referred to as “The Cave Womb” or “Womb Cave” because the entrance is the shape of a vulva. The inside of the cave resembles a uterus. Locally it is also called “The Blaring Rock”.

The Origins of Utroba Cave

Utroba Cave, also known as “The Womb” in Bulgarian, is the result of a gradual yet constant dance between rock and water. The cave, formed in the core of limestone, began its journey aeons ago, when ancient oceans flooded most of what is now Bulgaria. As water percolated through the porous rock, it dissolved the limestone, forming enormous caverns under the surface.

A Geological Tapestry

Utroba Cave’s walls, a geological tapestry spanning millennia, tell its tale. The cave’s formations—stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and flowstones—are the result of water and time. Each drop of mineral-rich water leaves a small deposit of calcite, eventually forming these beautiful formations over thousands of years.

Time’s Impression

To really understand Utroba Cave, consider the massive periods required in its development. Stalactites, which dangle like icicles from the ceiling, develop at a pace of millimetres each century, whereas stalagmites rise almost imperceptibly from the cave floor. Together, they see nature’s slow, patient work, which unfolds across epochs too vast for the human intellect to completely comprehend.

Geological Processes in Play

The development of Utroba Cave demonstrates the complicated interaction of geological processes. It starts with the dissolving of limestone, also known as karstification, in which carbonic acid in rainfall combines with calcium carbonate in the rock, eventually eroding it away. Over time, this results in networks of underground corridors and chambers, such as those discovered in Utroba Cave.

The Role of Water

Water is the major sculptor in caverns like Utroba, forming the scenery both above and below earth. As it seeps through cracks and fissures in the rock, it dissolves the limestone, expanding existing passageways and generating new ones. Underground rivers and streams continue to carve out the cave system, transporting sediments and sculpting the formations we see today.

Geological Time in Perspective

Understanding the immensity of geological time requires confronting the humbling fact of our own fleeting existence. Utroba Cave has evolved over millions of years, long before people roamed the world. It demonstrates the persistent force of natural processes, which are still shaping our globe in subtle and deep ways.

Conclusion

Utroba Cave is a testament to nature’s everlasting beauty and the unstoppable march of geological time. Its structures, formed over millions of years, provide a glimpse into the Rhodope Mountains’ distant history and the forces that shaped it. As we explore the depths of Utroba Cave, let us marvel at nature’s grandeur and consider our role in the great fabric of time.

1...456...334Page 5 of 334

Related Articles

All
Facebook Instagram Linkedin TikTok Twitter Youtube
© © 2011-2024. All Rights Reserved.