Volcanic hot spots such as the ones that created the Hawaiian Islands have long been considered stationary points, created by processes deep within the earth's interior.
Volcanic hot spots such as the ones that created the Hawaiian Islands have long been considered stationary points, created by processes deep within the earth's interior.
Using new paleomagnetic data and analyses, researchers John Tarduno, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester; Richard Bono, a former post-doctoral research associate in Tarduno's lab and now a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Liverpool; and Hans-Peter Bunge, a geophysicist at Munich University, provide conclusive evidence that hot spots are not fixed but are moving.
The research, published in Nature Communications, solves a major debate about the origin of the large-scale structure of the earth's surface and deep interior.
Scientists Discover Why Some Sharks Glow In The Dark
It may not sound like the best way to go incognito, but some species of shark that lurk on the ocean floor glow a bright green hue visible to others of their kind.
Scientists said they identified the molecules responsible for the predators' biofluorescence, and that it might perform other functions too like fighting microbial infection.
The research, published in the journal iScience, pinpoints a previously unknown family of small-molecule metabolites.
"It's very different from all the other forms of marine biofluorescence" such as the processes seen in jellyfish and corals, David Gruber, a senior professor at City University of New York and co-author of the study said.
"This is a small molecule and it shows that in the blue ocean, animals are evolving this ability to absorb blue light and transform it into other colours."
The paper focused on two species, the swell shark and chain catshark, that Gruber studied during scuba trips in Scripps Canyon.
They dwell at depths of 30 metres or more, where only light at the blue end of the spectrum penetrates: if you were bitten there and started bleeding, it would look inky black.
Aug 09, 2019
UN Body Makes Pitch For Vegetarian Diets
The report by a UN body on environment has made a strong pitch for vegetarianism.
Global warming cannot be tackled by cutting fossil fuel emissions alone, the UN body on climate change (IPCC) warned in a special report, adding that changing climate was threatening the world's food production and calling for vegetarian food habits as well as sustainable farm practices
Average land temperature has already crossed a redline mentioned in the Paris Agreement according to the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Climate Change and Land report's summary for policy makers that also warned that measures to tackle global warming will be found wanting unless they focus on land-use, agriculture, and food.
Average land temperature has increased by 1.53 degree C since the pre-industrial period and the global mean temperature, which includes land and ocean, is higher by 0.87 degree C, according to the summary of the IPCC report released in Geneva.
9-Year-Old Now Face Of Manipur Green Mission
A nine-year-old Manipuri girl, Valentina Elangbam who shed copious tears after two trees she planted were cut down has been named brand ambassador of the chief minister's Green Manipur Mission.
The chief minister of the state, N Biren Singh and H Balkrishna, director, public relations department, released an order appointing her ambassador of the green mission
The chief minister's Green Manipur Mission is a move to restore greenery across Manipur.
Less Plastic, More Jute Bags At Van Mahotsav
Polythene bags, which are used to grow saplings from nurseries, will this year see a reduction in their numbers, for more eco-friendly jute bags during the government's Van Mahotsav drive that will be launched on 09th august,2019.
The drive will be launched by Kailash Gahlot, forest minister of Delhi, from Isapur forest in west Delhi. More than 1,000 schools, both government and government-aided, would be participating in the initiative.
Forest officials said some saplings will still come wrapped in plastic cover. However, these polythene pouches will be collected and sent to waste-to-energy plants for disposing them in an environment-friendly manner.
The forest department and other greening agencies would be undertaking their mass plantation drive during which more than 3.1 lakh saplings would be planted across 128 locations. Citizens and RWAs can collect free saplings from 14 forest department nurseries across Delhi.
Aug 08, 2019
Rapid and disturbing increase in deforestation across Amazon jungle in Brazil
New data from the Brazilian space institute published point to a surge in deforestation in the Amazon, fuelling fears that President Jair Bolsonaro's pro-agrobusiness policies will accelerate deforestation.
Figures of the National Institute for Space Research, a federal agency, show that more forest was lost between May and July in 2019 than during the same period in 2018, 2017 and 2016.
In July,2019 alone, the rainforest lost 2,254 square kilometres of vegetation, between three and five times the surfaces lost the same month in the past four years.
This is the biggest surge in deforestation rates since the institute adopted its current methodology in 2014.
Brazil contains about 60% of the Amazon rainforest, a key regulator in the planet's living systems. Its trees take in as much as 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year and release 20% of the planet's oxygen.
Ancient Bird That Stood a Metre Tall
Scientists have discovered fossils of the world's largest parrot, standing up to one metre tall and weighing 7kg with a massive beak able to crack most food sources.
The new bird, described in the journal Biology Letters, has been named 'Heracles Inexpectatus' to reflect its Herculean myth-like size and strength - and the unexpected nature of the discovery.
New Zealand is well known for its giant birds.
The fossil is about the size of the giant 'dodo' pigeon of the Mascarenes and twice the size of the critically endangered flightless
New Zealand kakapo, was previously the largest known parrot.
The new parrot was found in fossils up to 19 million years old from near St. Bathans in Central Otago, New Zealand, in an area well known for a rich assemblage of fossil birds from the Miocene period.
Aug 05, 2019
 Goa govt to push for eco-sensitive zones
The Goa government will write to the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEF&CC) to designate low-lying coastal lands and mudflats ,known as "khazans," as ecosensitive zones, under the Coastal Zone Management Plan.
All khazans, aquaculture ponds and salt pans should be demarcated and categorised as eco-sensitive zones.
The Coastal Zone Management Plan is a mandatory requirement under the CRZ (Coastal Regulation Zone) notification with areas within 200 metres from the point of the highest water level during the yearly spring tide designated as eco-sensitive and earmarked as "no development" zones.
Lands falling with 500 metres of the high tide line are earmarked as "regulated."
In plantation campaign, govt aims at 3 lakh plants in a day
The Delhi government will conduct its mega plantation drive for this year on August 9, 2019 and has aimed to plant over 300,000 tree saplings and shrubs across the national capital.
Scarcity of land has forced the forest department to reduce the overall plantation target of 2019 to 2.4 million from 2018's 3.2 million.
Isapur village near southwest Delhi's Najafgarh has been identified as the main site for the mass drive to be launched by environment minister Kailash Gahlot.
Aug 04, 2019
Tigers in India face lurking threat from virus
A potential virus — Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) — that can be transmitted from CDV-infected dogs living in and around wildlife sanctuaries has started to raise concern among wildlife biologists.
Canine distemper is a contagious and serious disease caused by a virus that attacks the respiratory, gastrointestinal and nervous systems of puppies and dogs.
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