India's First Geo Park to Come Up In Madhya Pradesh
The Geological Survey of India (GSI) approved the setting up of the country's first geo park at Lamheta village on the banks of the Narmada River in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh.
The estimated cost of this project is Rs. 35 crore and there is a provision to sanction additional funds if required, as the area around the upcoming geo park will be developed.
A geopark is a unified area that advances the protection and use of geological heritage in a sustainable way and promotes the economic well-being of the people who live there.
This site is already there in the UNESCO geo-heritage tentative list for the conservation of the natural heritage. Several dinosaur fossils had been found in the Narmada valley, particularly in the Bhedaghat-Lameta Ghat area of Jabalpur.
Jan 31, 2022
NASA Ocean Melting Greenland Mission
The ocean waters are melting the glaciers in Greenland as much as the warm air is melting them from the above. The Ocean Melting Greenland mission, generally referred to as OMG mission was launched by NASA. It was a five year mission. It ended on December 31, 2021. The mission mainly measured the ice loss in Greenland.
As per the study, if all the Greenland ice melts, then the global ocean level will increase by 7.4 metres.
The ice in Greenland is melting five times faster than they were 25 years ago.
There are more than 220 glaciers in Greenland. The ocean waters are melting them at faster rate.
The mission conducted a complete survey of the sea floor in the coasts of Greenland. It measured the ocean temperature year to year, place to place and top to bottom.
A complete map of the ocean was created. The mission measured the salinity of the water at different depths.
It also studied how the salty Atlantic water impacted the ice melting in Greenland.
Jan 30, 2022
Australia's New Plan to Protect Great Barrier Reef
Australia launched a new plan to protect the climate-ravaged Great Barrier Reef.
Government launched a USD 700 million package for protecting the Great Barrier Reef, in a hope of preventing vast network of corals from being removed from World Heritage list of UNESCOS'.
The Plan will help in avoid the reef from being placed on UNESCO's "in danger" list.
When the United Nations had earlier threatened to downgrade World Heritage listing of reef in 2015, Australia had created a "Reef 2050" plan and invested billions of dollars into protection. The measures are believed to have stopped the pace of decline. however, much of reef system has already been damaged.
Jan 28, 2022
Kerala Gets its First-ever Scientific Bird Atlas
Kerala Bird Atlas (KBA), the first-of-its-kind State-level bird atlas in India, has created solid baseline data about the distribution and abundance of bird species across all major habitats, giving an impetus to futuristic studies. It is being conducted as a citizen science-driven exercise with the participation of over 1,000 volunteers of the birdwatching community KBA has been prepared based on systematic surveys held twice over 60 days a year.
Conducted as a citizen science-driven exercise with the participation of over 1000 volunteers of the bird watching community, KBA was prepared based on systematic surveys held twice over 60 days a year during the wet (July to September) and dry (January to March) seasons between 2015 and 2020.
New Lizard Species Discovered in Arunachal Pradesh
A team of researchers from India and Russia unearthed an unknown group of lizards of the family of skinks from Arunachal Pradesh. The team comprised researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore (NCBS), Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai (BNHS), Abasaheb Garware College, Pune (AGC) and Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat (VNSGU) and Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow (LMSU).
The new genus and species, Protoblepharus Apatani, was discovered by the team who earlier discovered the Salazar pit viper and several other new species of snakes and lizards from the state, which were found during their expedition in 2019.
Jan 24, 2022
Scientists Name New Species of Rain Frog after Greta Thunberg
A new species of rain frog, discovered in the Panama Jungle, was named after Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg. The species was named as Pristimantis gretathunbergae, or popularly known as the Greta Thunberg Rain frog. The frog was originally discovered in 2012 and was thought to be part of the already categorised Pristimantis family. However, new DNA analysis confirmed that the frog is a new species.
The new specimen of the tropical amphibian was discovered by an international team of biologists led by doctors Abel Batista, from Panama, and Konrad Mebert (Switzerland) in Cerro Chucantí, a private reserve located in the province of Darién. It was named after Greta Thunberg when conservation nonprofit The Rainforest Trust held an auction that allowed the winner to name new species. The frog was discovered at a reserve established by the conservation organization AdoptaBosque with support from Rainforest Trust.