General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - November 2017

Nov 2017

Aug 18, 2020

Highest Temperature on Earth' as Death Valley, US Hits 54.4C

What could be the highest temperature ever reliably recorded on Earth - 130F (54.4C) - may have been reached in Death Valley National Park, California.
The recording is being verified by the US National Weather Service.
It comes amid a heatwave on the US's west coast, where temperatures are forecast to rise further this week.
The scorching conditions have led to two days of blackouts in California, after a power plant malfunctioned.
The reading was recorded in Furnace Creek in Death Valley.
Before this, the highest temperature reliably recorded on Earth was 129.2F (54C) - also in Death Valley in 2013.
A higher reading of 134F, or 56.6C a century earlier, also in Death Valley, is disputed. It is believed by some modern weather experts to have been erroneous, along with several other searing temperatures recorded that summer.

Woolly Flying Squirrel, Thought to be Extinct, Spotted in Gangotri National Park

Woolly flying squirrel, that was thought to be extinct some seventy years back, was spotted at Gangotri National Park in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi, informed Forest Research Institute.
However, the scientists of Wildlife Institute of India situated in Dehradun have spoken of the presence this squirrel in the Bhagirath valley, and rare photographs of the have also been found.
Woolly flying squirrel uses its furry claws as a parachute to fly.
The Woolly Flying Squirrel is listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Aug 14, 2020

Europe's Earliest Bone Tools Found in Britain

Archaeologists say that they have identified the earliest known bone tools in the European archaeological record.
The implements come from the renowned Boxgrove site in West Sussex, which was excavated in the 1980s and 90s.
The bone tools came from a horse that humans butchered at the site for its meat.
Flakes of stone in piles around the animal suggest at least eight individuals were making large flint knives for the job.
Researchers also found evidence that other people were present nearby - perhaps younger or older members of a community - shedding light on the social structure of our ancient relatives.
During excavations, archaeologists uncovered hundreds of stone tools, along with animal bones, that dated to 500,000 years ago.
They were made by the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor for modern humans and Neanderthals.
Researchers found a shin bone belonging to one of them - it's the oldest human bone known from Britain.

Aug 12, 2020

New Butterfly Species Found In Matheran Hill Station

According to the Bombay Natural History Society, as many as 77 new species of butterflies have been found in the ecologically sensitive forest of Matheran Hill Station near Mumbai during a study conducted there over the last eight years.
With this, the total number of butterfly species in the Matheran Forest has now gone up to 140.
Matheran is spread over an area of 214.73 sq km and is located about 80 km from the Maharashtra capital.
The eight-year-long rigorous study undertaken by BNHS from 2011 to 2019 has resulted in the discovery of 77 new species of butterflies in Matheran.
After a span of 125 years, for the first time such a study was undertaken to discover the flying beauties at Matheran.

Aug 09, 2020

Breakthrough: Restored Corals Ready to Become Parents

For the first time, massive corals restored to Florida's Coral Reef are ready to become parents in the wild—a breakthrough in Mote Marine Laboratory's scientific efforts to restore critically imperiled coral reefs, the "rainforests of the sea," to self-sustaining life.
This month, Mote's coral reproduction scientist, Dr. Hanna Koch, identified gametes (eggs and sperm) inside colonies of two threatened, yet key, reef-building species that Mote restored to Florida Keys reefs in recent years: the massive or mounding species called mountainous star coral (Orbicella faveolata) and branching staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis). Both species are listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The presence of gametes indicates that these corals are sexually mature, gravid (pregnant), and ready to produce the next generation of coral "babies" with fresh genetics to help revive declining coral populations.
These corals are achieving critical milestones for the entire field of coral reef restoration—showing the first signs that they are capable of producing new generations of corals on their own. These and other corals in Mote's restored populations survived big challenges to reach this point, demonstrating resilience. Their success validates the significance and progress of Mote's science-based, resilience-focused coral restoration.

Aug 08, 2020

Canada's Last Fully Intact Arctic Ice Shelf Collapses

The last fully intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic collapsed, losing more than 40% of its area in just two days.
The Milne Ice Shelf is at the fringe of Ellesmere Island, in the sparsely populated northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.
Above normal air temperatures, offshore winds and open water in front of the ice shelf are all part of the recipe for ice shelf break up.
The shelf's area shrank by about 80 square kilometers.
The Arctic has been warming at twice the global rate for the last 30 years, due to a process known as Arctic amplification.

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