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‘Novel Ocean-Crust Mechanism Could Affect World’s Carbon Budget’

By Guest PostNovember 17, 2010Environment, Scienceadam soule, atmosphere, baja peninsula, bathymetry, carbon, climate, CO2, crust, daniel lizarralde, earth, gas, giora proskurowski, greenhouse gases, guaymas basin, gulf of california, hydrothermal vent, jeff s seewald, methane, molten magma, north guaymas, ocean, red sea, s adam soule, seafloor, tectonic plates, undersea ridges, volcanic rocks

The Earth is constantly manufacturing new crust, spewing molten magma up along undersea ridges at the boundaries of tectonic plates. The process is critical to the planet’s metabolism, including the cycle of underwater life and the delicate balance of carbon in the ocean and atmosphere.

Now, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have observed ocean crust forming in an entirely unexpected way—one that may influence those cycles of life and carbon and, in turn, affect the much-discussed future of the world’s climate.

Working at the Guaymas basin in the Gulf of California, WHOI scientists confirmed what they suspected from brief glimpses of the area during previous missions: The inner Earth is injecting swaths of magma called sills as far as 50 kilometers away from the plate boundary, on each side of the ridge —nearly 10 times farther from such an active ocean ridge than had been observed before. (more…)

Taking Measure of the Greenhouse Effect

By Guest PostOctober 15, 20101 commentEnvironment, Scienceaerosols, andrew lacis, atmosphere, carbon dioxide, climate change, climate models, climate science, clouds, CO2, CO2 emissions, computer simulations, earth, gases, gavin schmidt, goddard institute for space studies, greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases, heat-absorbing components, heat-trapping gas, methane, mining activities, NASA, nitrous oxide, ozone, planet, reto ruedy, ron miller, trace gases, water vapor

WASHINGTON — Scientists have long known that heat-absorbing components of Earth’s atmosphere, such as clouds and certain gases, prevent our planet from being an ice-covered ball. Now a study, for the first time, comprehensively calculates the relative contributions of the components responsible for that heating, known as the greenhouse effect.

Besides clarifying an important aspect of climate science, the study also demonstrates that rising concentrations of one heat-trapping gas — carbon dioxide — leads to much more greenhouse warming than just the heat the gas absorbs directly itself.

Various studies have looked at the contributions of water vapor, CO₂, and other greenhouse gases. But none had systematically estimated the contributions of each of the main players, says climate scientist Gavin Schmidt of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and lead author of the new research. (more…)

Deep Plumes of Oil Could Cause Dead Zones in the Gulf

By Guest PostAugust 21, 20101 commentEnvironmentalistair adcroft, dead zones, deepwater horizon spill, dissolved oil, gulf of mexico, hypoxic zones, methane, methane plumes, national oceanic and atmospheric administration, noaa, ocean hypoxia, oil, oxygen, pollution, princeton university, robert hallberg, simulation, toxic concentrations

WASHINGTON — A new simulation of oil and methane leaked into the Gulf of Mexico suggests that deep hypoxic zones or “dead zones” could form near the source of the pollution.

The research investigates five scenarios of oil and methane plumes at different depths and incorporates an estimated rate of flow from the Deepwater Horizon spill, which released oil and methane gas into the Gulf from April to mid July of this year.

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BP, Deepwater Horizon and the Armageddon Scenario

By PravdaJuly 25, 20103 commentsEnvironment, Politicsbp exploration, chris landau, deepest oil, deepwater horizon, environmental catastrophe, extinction, gas, gas bubbles, geologist, gulf of mexico, halliburton inc, late paleocene, media blackout, methane, ocean bed, oilrig, permian, south korea, state-of-the-art, terrence aym, thermal maximum, tiber reservoir, wildlife

What exactly is going on in the Gulf of Mexico? When there are reports of media blackouts, then the natural reaction is to start investigating, and in the current environmental catastrophe, the more stones one turns, the more horrific the potential scenario becomes. While scare mongering is as pointless as it is dangerous, the truth remains that the media have the duty to inform.

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Plant’s role in global warming

By Guest PostApril 30, 2010Environment, Scienceandy mcleod, atmosphere, Bangladesh, campus, carbon dioxide, earth, forestry and agriculture, global warming, methane, moulana bhashani science and technology university, ozone, percent of earth’s emission, plants, santosh, school of geosciences, tangail, university of edinburgh

Plants remain an effective way of tackling global warming despite emitting small amounts of an important greenhouse gas, a study has shown.

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Tag Archives: methane

‘Novel Ocean-Crust Mechanism Could Affect World’s Carbon Budget’

Taking Measure of the Greenhouse Effect

Deep Plumes of Oil Could Cause Dead Zones in the Gulf

BP, Deepwater Horizon and the Armageddon Scenario

Plant’s role in global warming