Tag Archives: magnetite

Geochemical ‘fingerprints’ leave evidence that megafloods eroded steep gorge

By Guest PostAugust 10, 2013Environmentassam valley, bay of bengal, brahmaputra river, columbia river basin, david montgomery, downstream, evidence, ganges river delta, geochemical fingerprints, geochemical signature, giant dam, heavy mineral, himalaya mountains, hydroelectric generation, ilmenite, India, karl lang, katharine huntington, lake erie, lake michigan, lake missoula, magnetite, megafloods, namche barwa, prehistoric megaflood, southern asia, steep gorge, tibetan plateau, tsangpo gorge, university of washington, uranium bearing zircon, western montana, yarlung tsangpo river, yiggong river

The Yarlung-Tsangpo River in southern Asia drops rapidly through the Himalaya Mountains on its way to the Bay of Bengal, losing about 7,000 feet of elevation through the precipitously steep Tsangpo Gorge.

For the first time, scientists have direct geochemical evidence that the 150-mile long gorge, possibly the world’s deepest, was the conduit by which megafloods from glacial lakes, perhaps half the volume of Lake Erie, drained suddenly and catastrophically through the Himalayas when their ice dams failed at times during the last 2 million years. (more…)

Badwater Basin: Death Valley Microbe Thrives There

By Guest PostDecember 30, 2011Sciencebadwater basin, basin, bw 1, chemistry of the environment, christopher lefevre, david pignol, death valley national park, dennis bazylinski, enriqueta barrera, greigite, greigite producing bacterium, iron oxide, magnetic bacteria, magnetic properties, magnetite, magnetite producing bacteria, microbial magnetism, minerals, nano sized crystals, nanotech, national science foundation, nevada, nicolas menguy of pierre, novel biotech, precious metals, silver state, sulfate reducing bacteria, university of aix marseille, university of nevada las vegas, unlv

*Discovery may lead to novel biotech and nanotech uses*

Nevada, the “Silver State,” is well-known for mining precious metals.

But scientists Dennis Bazylinski and colleagues at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) do a different type of mining.

They sluice through every water body they can find, looking for new forms of microbial magnetism.

In a basin named Badwater on the edge of Death Valley National Park, Bazylinski and researcher Christopher Lefèvre hit pay dirt. (more…)