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Pine Island Glacier: A Scientific Quest in Antarctica to Determine What’s Causing Ice Loss

By Guest PostNovember 10, 2011EnvironmentAntarctica, bismarck, cold, glacier, glacier melt, global sea level rise, harsh, hazards, ice shelf, international polar year, ipy, logistics hub, mcmurdo station, models to predict glacier acceleration, NASA, national science foundation, north dakota, nsf, ocean cavity shape, ocean currents, oceanographic instruments, pine island glacier, pine island glacier ice shelf, project, ross island, scott borg, sea-level rise, stormy climate, united states antarctic program, warmer ocean water, Washington

*Researchers study heat delivered by ocean currents to bottom side of glacier that releases more than 19 cubic miles of ice each year*

An international team of researchers, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, will helicopter onto the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf, one of Antarctica’s most active, remote and harsh spots, in mid-December 2011–weather permitting.

The project’s mission is to determine how much heat ocean currents deliver to the underside of the Pine Island Glacier as it discharges into the sea. Quantifying this heat and understanding how much melting it causes is key to developing reliable models to predict glacier acceleration and therefore predict how much ice will be delivered from land into the ocean thus contributing to sea level rise. (more…)

Geologist Finds Fiery Volcano Offers Glimpse into Land That Time Forgot

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2011Science2009 expedition, birth of a subduction zone, boninite, carbon dioxide, chemical and mineralogical variations in a pristine specimen, david and lucile packard foundation, deep sea volcano, exploding rock and molten lava, fiji, gaseous water, geological and geochemical cycles, geologist, global geochemical cycles, glowing magma, joseph resing, kenneth rubin, lau basin, lava, noaa, nsf, oceanographer, relic volcanos, robert embley, samoa, southwest pacific ocean, submarine volcanic activity, sulfur dioxide, tectonic plate, tonga, university of hawaii at manoa, university of washington, west mata volcano

University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa geologist Kenneth Rubin is among the first scientists to witness exploding rock and molten lava from a deep sea volcano, seen during a 2009 expedition. He is co-author of a paper reporting that the eruption was near a tear in the Earth’s crust that is mimicking the birth of a subduction zone.

Scientists on the expedition collected boninite, a rare, chemically distinct lava that accompanies the formation of Earth’s subduction zones. (more…)

West Nile Virus Transmission Linked with Land-Use Patterns and “Super-spreaders”

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2011Scienceagricultural fields, american robin, atlantic in an airplane, bird hosts, disease causing organisms, ecology of infectious diseases, Environment, house sparrows, human activities, human infections, key species, knowledge, land use, marm kilpatrick, mosquito borne, mosquito vectors, national science foundation, new york, north and south america, nsf, robins, sam scheiner, santa cruz, tick borne viruses, transmission rates, united states, university of california, west nile virus

*Spread highest in urbanized and agricultural habitats*

After its initial appearance in New York in 1999, West Nile virus spread across the United States in just a few years and is now well established throughout North and South America.

Both the mosquitoes that transmit it and the birds that are important hosts for the virus are abundant in areas that have been modified by human activities.

As a result, transmission of West Nile virus is highest in urbanized and agricultural habitats. (more…)

U.S. Rivers and Streams Saturated With Carbon

By Guest PostOctober 19, 2011Environmentatmosphere, carbon cycling, carbon dioxide, climate, coastal waterways, david butman, efflux of carbon dioxide, gasoline, global scales, henry gholz, national science foundation, nsf, peter raymond, rivers and streams in the united states, source of atmospheric carbon dioxide

*Significant amount of carbon in land is leaking into streams and rivers, then to the atmosphere*

Rivers and streams in the United States are releasing substantially more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than previously thought.

This according to researchers publishing their results in the current issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. (more…)

First Global Picture of Greenhouse Gases Emerges from Pole-to-Pole Research Flights

By Guest PostSeptember 10, 2011Environmentandy watt, anne-marie schmoltner, Antarctic, Arctic, black carbon particles, britton stephens, carbon dioxide, climate, concentrations of greenhouse gases, earth, global distribution of gases, gulfstream v aircraft, harvard university, hiaper, hiaper pole to pole observations, high performance instrumented airborne platform for environmental research, hippo, Houston, industrial age, los angeles, national science foundation, natural carbon dioxide uptake and storage, new zealand, nsf, pacific, particles in the atmosphere, portrait of greenhouse gases, ryan spackman, steven wofsy

*Three-year series of scientific missions from Arctic to Antarctic produces new views of atmospheric chemistry*

A three-year series of research flights from the Arctic to the Antarctic has successfully produced an unprecedented portrait of greenhouse gases and particles in the atmosphere.

The far-reaching field project, known as HIPPO, ends this week, and has enabled researchers to generate the first detailed mapping of the global distribution of gases and particles that affect Earth’s climate. (more…)

Fossil Discovery Represents New Milestone in Early Mammal Evolution

By Guest PostAugust 26, 2011Nature, Scienceancestors of mammals, carnegie mammalogist, carnegie museum of natural history, China, chong xi yuan, chuck lydeard, dna based methods of dating evolution, earliest known fossil of eutherians, eomaia, eutherian mammals, evolutionary hypotheses, fossil, fossil record, genetic data, john wible, juramaia sinensis, jurassic, jurassic mother from china, kangaroos, mammal evolution, marsupials, metatherians, molecular clock, monotremes, national science foundation, northeast china fossil, nsf, paleontologist, placental mammals, platypus, qiang ji, qing jin meng, shrew like mammal, zhe xi luo

*Northeast China fossil provides new information about earliest ancestors of today’s mammals*

A well-preserved fossil discovered in northeast China provides new information about the earliest ancestors of most of today’s mammal species–the placental mammals. (more…)

Ancient Whale Skulls and Directional Hearing: A Twisted Tale

By Guest PostAugust 25, 2011Nature, Scienceaaron wood, archaeocetes, asymmetric skulls, baleen whales, basilosaurus isis, biological sonar, ct scans, echolocation, fossil, julia fahlke, modern whale, mysticetes, national science foundation, nsf, odontocetes, paleontologist, philip gingerich, richard lane, robert welsh, signs of artificial deformation, skewed skulls, symmetrical skulls, terrestrial mammals, three dimensional digital model, three dimensional torsion, toothed whales, twist, university of michigan

*Skewed skulls may have helped early whales find direction of sounds in water*

Skewed skulls may have helped early whales find the direction of sounds in water and are not solely, as previously thought, a later adaptation related to echolocation.

Scientists affiliated with the University of Michigan and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) report the finding in a paper published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

Newly Discovered Icelandic Current Could Change North Atlantic Climate Picture

By Guest PostAugust 22, 2011Environmentamoc, atlantic meridional overturning circulation, climate specialists, current, daniel j torres, denmark overflow, denmark strait overflow water, dsow, earth climate, east greenland current, equator, eric itsweire, future climate change, great ocean conveyor belt, greenland, greenland scotland ridge, Iceland, kjetil våge, michael a spall, national science foundation, nij, north icelandic jet, nsf, numerical model, ocean circulation system, ocean response to climate change, physical oceanographers, plumes, r v knorr, relationship between ocean circulation and climate, rise in global temperatures, robert s pickart, svein østerhus, warming related phenomena, whoi, woods hole oceanographic institution

An international team of researchers, including physical oceanographers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), has confirmed the presence of a deep-reaching ocean circulation system off Iceland that could significantly influence the ocean’s response to climate change in previously unforeseen ways.

The current, called the North Icelandic Jet (NIJ), contributes to a key component of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), also known as the “great ocean conveyor belt,” which is critically important for regulating Earth’s climate. As part of the planet’s reciprocal relationship between ocean circulation and climate, this conveyor belt transports warm surface water to high latitudes where the water warms the air, then cools, sinks, and returns towards the equator as a deep flow. (more…)

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