DOCSLIB.ORG

Flooding Induced by Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide 10,11 204,206 87 86 B 207,208Pb Sr/ Sr

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Flooding Induced by Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide 10,11 204,206 87 86 B 207,208Pb Sr/ Sr Fiscal Year 2020 Annual Report VOL. 30, NO. 10 | OCTOBER 2020 Flooding Induced by Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide 10,11 204,206 87 86 B 207,208Pb Sr/ Sr 234U/ 230 Th Sr-Nd-Hf • Geochronology – U/Th age dating • Geochemical Fingerprinting – Sr-Nd-Hf and Pb isotopes • Environmental Source Tracking – B and Sr isotopes High-Quality Data & Timely Results isobarscience.com Subsidiary of OCTOBER 2020 | VOLUME 30, NUMBER 10 SCIENCE 4 Flooding Induced by Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide GSA TODAY (ISSN 1052-5173 USPS 0456-530) prints news Gregory Retallack et al. and information for more than 22,000 GSA member readers and subscribing libraries, with 11 monthly issues (March- Cover: Mississippi River flooding at West Alton, Missouri, April is a combined issue). GSA TODAY is published by The Geological Society of America® Inc. (GSA) with offices at USA, 1 June 2019 (Scott Olsen, Getty Images, user license 3300 Penrose Place, Boulder, Colorado, USA, and a mail- 2064617248). For the related article, see pages 4–8. ing address of P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140, USA. GSA provides this and other forums for the presentation of diverse opinions and positions by scientists worldwide, regardless of race, citizenship, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or political viewpoint. Opinions presented in this publication do not reflect official positions of the Society. © 2020 The Geological Society of America Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright not claimed on content prepared Special Section: FY2020 Annual Report wholly by U.S. government employees within the scope of their employment. Individual scientists are hereby granted 11 Table of Contents permission, without fees or request to GSA, to use a single figure, table, and/or brief paragraph of text in subsequent work and to make/print unlimited copies of items in GSA TODAY for noncommercial use in classrooms to further education and science. In addition, an author has the right to use his or her article or a portion of the article in a thesis GSA 2020 Connects Online or dissertation without requesting permission from GSA, provided the bibliographic citation and the GSA copyright 34 Not Just Another Video Call credit line are given on the appropriate pages. For any other use, contact [email protected]. 35 Registration Subscriptions: GSA members: Contact GSA Sales & Service, +1-888-443-4472; +1-303-357-1000 option 3; gsaservice@ geosociety.org for information and/or to place a claim for 35 Feed Your Brain—Lunchtime Enlightenment non-receipt or damaged copies. Nonmembers and institutions: GSA TODAY is US$105/yr; to subscribe, or for claims for non-receipt and damaged copies, contact gsaservice@ 36 Take a Trip Online: Four Free Field Trips Offered This Year geosociety.org. Claims are honored for one year; please allow sufficient delivery time for overseas copies. Peri- 37 Register for a Short Course Today! odicals postage paid at Boulder, Colorado, USA, and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to GSA Sales & Service, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 37 Diversity and Inclusion Events Open to All 80301-9140. GSA TODAY STAFF 37 Sign up to be a Mentor Executive Director and Publisher: Vicki S. McConnell 38 GeoCareers Science Editors: Mihai N. Ducea, University of Arizona, Dept. of Geosciences, Gould-Simpson Building, 1040 E 4th Street, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA, [email protected] 40 Pardee Keynote Symposia .edu; Peter Copeland, University of Houston, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Science & Research 42 GSA Resource & Innovation Center Building 1, 3507 Cullen Blvd., Room 314, Houston, Texas 77204-5008, USA, [email protected]. Member Communications Manager: Matt Hudson, [email protected] 44 Call for Nominations: 2021 GSA Awards & Medals Managing Editor: Kristen “Kea” Giles, [email protected], [email protected] 47 Call for Field Trip, Short Course, and Technical Session Proposals: Graphics Production: Emily Levine, [email protected] GSA 2021 Annual Meeting Advertising Manager: Ann Crawford, +1-800-472-1988 ext. 1053; +1-303-357-1053; Fax: +1-303-357-1070; [email protected] 48 Preliminary Announcement and Call for Papers: Northeastern Section GSA Online: www.geosociety.org GSA TODAY: www.geosociety.org/gsatoday 54 Preliminary Announcement and Call for Papers: Southeastern Section Printed in the USA using pure soy inks. 58 Preliminary Announcement and Call for Papers: Joint North-Central– South-Central Sections Meeting 61 2021 GSA Section Meetings 62 Geoscience Jobs & Opportunities 64 Groundwork: Does Our Vision of Diversity Reduce Harm and Promote Justice? 68 GSA Foundation Update 69 Mentoring365 Flooding Induced by Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Gregory J. Retallack* and Giselle D. Conde, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1272, USA ABSTRACT A direct consequence of rising CO2 is increasingly devastating flooding, because deciduous plants deploy fewer stomates each year as the atmospheric CO2 supplies more carbon for photosynthesis. When plants tran- spire less, more water runs off in streams and floods. Here we quantify this effect with high- resolution observations of changing density and size of stomates of a mesic tree, Ginkgo, since 1754. The observed decline in maxi- mum potential transpiration corresponds with rising water levels in the Mississippi River and represents a potential transpiration decline from 1829 to 2015 of 18 mL s–1 m–2: a reduction of 29%. Rising atmospheric CO2 and declining transpiration promote flooding, which handicaps lowland cultivation and ren- ders irrelevant insurance and zoning concepts such as the 100-year flood. INTRODUCTION Ongoing climatic change with rising atmo- spheric greenhouse gases (Yan et al., 2016) is disproportionally affecting tropical regions with sterilizing heat waves (Mora et al., 2017) and polar regions with disappearing sea ice (Kwok, 2018), but is less apparent in the American Midwest, thus allowing skepticism of global warming science (Wallace et al., 2014). Nevertheless, Midwestern cities and Figure 1. The paradox of rising water in the Missis- sippi River, but little change in climate or land use: (A) maximum and mean annual water level of the Mississippi River at Hannibal, Missouri (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2019); (B) mean annual pre- cipitation (mm) and mean annual temperature (°C) at Hannibal (crosses) and St. Charles (solid sym- bol), Missouri (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, 2019a); (C) area of farmed land in United States (Sohl et al., 2016; U.S. Department of Agriculture Statistics Service, 2019: millions of hectares, open symbols) and in five Minnesota counties of St. Croix watershed (Andersen et al., 1996; thousands of hectares, closed symbols: top to bottom, Polk, St Croix, Pierce, Chisago, and Washington counties). GSA Today, v. 30, https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG427.1. Copyright 2020, The Geological Society of America. CC-BY-NC. *[email protected] 4 GSA Today | October 2020 agriculture have been progressively ravaged by flooding (Fosu et al., 2018). Steadily increased floods and general level (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2019) of the Mississippi River (Fig. 1A) have been independent of local climatic changes in precipitation and temperature (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, 2019a), which have remained surprisingly flat (Fig. 1B). Nor can increases in farmed areas be blamed for rising flood levels, because Midwestern culti- vated acreage reached a plateau between 1900 and 1960 (Clausen, 1979; Sohl et al., 2016; Andersen et al., 1996; U.S. Department of Agriculture Statistics Service, 2019), and has declined slightly since then (Fig. 1C). Flooding is a long-term and direct response to rising atmospheric CO2 concen- trations of much greater consequence in mid-latitudes than temperature increases, and it has been observed for decades. Deciduous trees adapt to rising CO2 annu- ally by developing fewer stomates on spring leaves, because adequate CO2 for photosyn- thesis can be obtained by reduced air intake (Sugano et al., 2010; Chater et al., 2015). Fewer stomates also reduce plant transpira- tion of water, so that more precipitation runs off in rivers and floods (Betts et al., 2007). The relationship between CO2 and stomatal density has been known for some time (Woodward, 1987), and there have been many attempts at quantifying the rela- tionship (Royer et al., 2001; Retallack, 2001, 2009; Barclay and Wing, 2016; McElwain and Steinthorsdottir, 2017). Here we update quantification of stomatal response to Figure 2. Stomates from leaves of Ginkgo picked in 1754 from Deshima, Japan. Large atmospheric CO inferred from herbarium images with ~600 stomates and also non-stomatiferous areas below veins were counted 2 to ascertain total leaf conductance. Pressed leaves from Kew Herbarium and scanning specimens of Ginkgo biloba with an unprec- electron microscopy image courtesy of Chrissie Pritchard. edented data set ranging from leaves picked in 1754 (Fig. 2) through the definitive MATERIALS AND METHODS upturn of CO2 in the early twenty-first cen- sensed by stomatal ion channels, which tury (Fig. 3A). Such studies have been the direct gene expression for stomatal density We used scanning electron microscopy basis for determining CO2 levels from the in the developing leaf for that year (Sugano (SEM) images from herbarium specimens of distribution of stomates on fossil leaves et al., 2010; Chater et al., 2015). In decidu- Ginkgo biloba (Retallack and Conde, 2020) (Retallack, 2001, 2009)
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Cross-References ASTEROID IMPACT Definition and Introduction History of Impact Cratering Studies
    18 ASTEROID IMPACT Tedesco, E. F., Noah, P. V., Noah, M., and Price, S. D., 2002. The identification and confirmation of impact structures on supplemental IRAS minor planet survey. The Astronomical Earth were developed: (a) crater morphology, (b) geo- 123 – Journal, , 1056 1085. physical anomalies, (c) evidence for shock metamor- Tholen, D. J., and Barucci, M. A., 1989. Asteroid taxonomy. In Binzel, R. P., Gehrels, T., and Matthews, M. S. (eds.), phism, and (d) the presence of meteorites or geochemical Asteroids II. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 298–315. evidence for traces of the meteoritic projectile – of which Yeomans, D., and Baalke, R., 2009. Near Earth Object Program. only (c) and (d) can provide confirming evidence. Remote Available from World Wide Web: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ sensing, including morphological observations, as well programs. as geophysical studies, cannot provide confirming evi- dence – which requires the study of actual rock samples. Cross-references Impacts influenced the geological and biological evolu- tion of our own planet; the best known example is the link Albedo between the 200-km-diameter Chicxulub impact structure Asteroid Impact Asteroid Impact Mitigation in Mexico and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Under- Asteroid Impact Prediction standing impact structures, their formation processes, Torino Scale and their consequences should be of interest not only to Earth and planetary scientists, but also to society in general. ASTEROID IMPACT History of impact cratering studies In the geological sciences, it has only recently been recog- Christian Koeberl nized how important the process of impact cratering is on Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria a planetary scale.
    [Show full text]
  • Ediacaran) of Earth – Nature’S Experiments
    The Early Animals (Ediacaran) of Earth – Nature’s Experiments Donald Baumgartner Medical Entomologist, Biologist, and Fossil Enthusiast Presentation before Chicago Rocks and Mineral Society May 10, 2014 Illinois Famous for Pennsylvanian Fossils 3 In the Beginning: The Big Bang . Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago Fossil Record Order 95% of higher taxa: Random plant divisions domains & kingdoms Cambrian Atdabanian Fauna Vendian Tommotian Fauna Ediacaran Fauna protists Proterozoic algae McConnell (Baptist)College Pre C - Fossil Order Archaean bacteria Source: Truett Kurt Wise The First Cells . 3.8 billion years ago, oxygen levels in atmosphere and seas were low • Early prokaryotic cells probably were anaerobic • Stromatolites . Divergence separated bacteria from ancestors of archaeans and eukaryotes Stromatolites Dominated the Earth Stromatolites of cyanobacteria ruled the Earth from 3.8 b.y. to 600 m. [2.5 b.y.]. Believed that Earth glaciations are correlated with great demise of stromatolites world-wide. 8 The Oxygen Atmosphere . Cyanobacteria evolved an oxygen-releasing, noncyclic pathway of photosynthesis • Changed Earth’s atmosphere . Increased oxygen favored aerobic respiration Early Multi-Cellular Life Was Born Eosphaera & Kakabekia at 2 b.y in Canada Gunflint Chert 11 Earliest Multi-Cellular Metazoan Life (1) Alga Eukaryote Grypania of MI at 1.85 b.y. MI fossil outcrop 12 Earliest Multi-Cellular Metazoan Life (2) Beads Horodyskia of MT and Aust. at 1.5 b.y. thought to be algae 13 Source: Fedonkin et al. 2007 Rise of Animals Tappania Fungus at 1.5 b.y Described now from China, Russia, Canada, India, & Australia 14 Earliest Multi-Cellular Metazoan Animals (3) Worm-like Parmia of N.E.
    [Show full text]
  • Soil: Our Common Ground – a Humanities Perspective
    Soil: our common ground – a humanities perspective Rebecca Lines-Kelly NSW Dept of Primary Industries, Wollongbar Agricultural Institute, Bruxner Highway Wollongbar 2477, Australia. Email [email protected] Abstract The story of soil is essentially the story of humanity. The words ‘earth and ‘ground’ are among the oldest in human language. Soil is the basis of our ancient religions, and of all our civilisations, and for the past 10,000 years its destruction has been the precursor of different civilisations’ downfall. All human communities have a cultural, sensual and spiritual attachment to the soil, but Western society has lost this attachment because of material prosperity, disconnection from the land, and a scientific culture that has fractured soil and its meaning, and in so doing, put it out of the reach of non-scientists’ understanding. As the repository of most soil knowledge, soil scientists have an important role in reconnecting people to soil. Introduction I came to soils late. Twelve years ago my journalism experience earned me a job producing soils information for farmers. My academic background had focussed on literature, drama and psychology. I knew nothing about soils, despite the fact that I had spent my childhood in the country, and my father was an agricultural scientist. My employers were unperturbed. We have more than enough information about soils, they said, but it is not accessible to farmers. We want you to make it easy to understand. So I set to work, and the most extraordinary thing happened. I fell in love with soil. There is no other way to explain it.
    [Show full text]
  • Cambrian Explosion Remains an Enigma for Organic Evolution: the Ediacaran Fauna: Much Ado About Ancient Lichens?
    HOME GODTUBE BOOKSTORE YOUTUBE ESSAYS PANORAMIO VIDEOS FAQ PHOTOS LINKS BLOG GENESIS WEEK The Cambrian Explosion Remains an Enigma for Organic Evolution: The Ediacaran Fauna: Much Ado About Ancient Lichens? Author: John Woodmorappe Subject: Geology Date: John Woodmorappe's Articles About John Woodmorappe According to the conventional evolutionary-uniformitarian time scale of Earth history, multicellular organisms first appeared in abundance about 550 million years ago, in the "Big Bang of Evolution," the Cambrian explosion. But (again, according to the conventional time scale) a handful of odd multicellular organisms existed before the astonishing explosion of new forms in the Cambrian. These organisms, from the so- called Ediacaran fauna, named after the town of Ediacara in southern Australia where their fossil remains were discovered in 1947, are said to be 600 million years old. Figure 1 shows one well-known Ediacaran form, Dickinsonia.1 Now a novel interpretation of these puzzling fossils is generating considerable controversy within the paleontological community. Some scientists (notably the German paleontologist Adolf Seilacher and Harvard's Stephen Jay Gould) have suggested that the Ediacaran fauna--known also as the Vendozoa or Vendobionta (from the Vendian geological period in which they occur)--were "failed experiments" in the evolution of multicellular animals. Unlike the Cambrian organisms, these odd designs left no ancestors.2 But the novel interpretation, from University of Oregon paleontologist Gregory Retallack, suggests
    [Show full text]
  • Color Barrier and Glass Ceiling in Academia
    feature journey to leadership Breaking the Color Barrier and Glass Ceiling in Academia By Patricia Soochan, AWIS member since 2003 ccording to a 2017 American Council on Education 2006. In contrast, they have held only about 30% of full (ACE) report, progressive bottlenecks remain a professorships since 2015. Among all women who were Astubborn feature of the pathway to academic full professors, 84% were white, compared to just 5% who leadership for women—meaning the higher their rank, were Black.1 the fewer there are. At the predoctoral level, women have earned more than 50% of all bachelor’s degrees since An ACE report the following year revealed that while 30% 1982 and more than 50% of all doctoral degrees since of college presidents were women, fewer than 10% were FIGURE 1. Characteristics of Presidents, by Gender HIGHEST DEGREE EARNED RACE/ETHNICITY PhD/EdD Professional Master's African Asian White Hispanic doctorate American American Bachelor's Other American Middle Multiple races Indian Eastern WOMEN WOMEN MEN MEN 0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100 22 association for women in science feature journey to leadership Black women. The report also compared some differences in career characteristics between men and women When considering long-term presidents (Figure 1).2 Large-scale, organization-focused interventions to career aspirations, only promote gender equity in the ranks of academic science— like NSF ADVANCE in the United States and Athena SWAN 13% of women college in the United Kingdom— have had some promising results, but none have addressed both deans saw themselves as future race and gender.
    [Show full text]
  • Evaluation of Enhanced Recharge Potential to the Ogallala Aquifer in the Brazos River Basin, Hale County, Texas
    Report 355 by Bridget Scanlon, Edward S. Angle, Brent Christian, Jonathan Pi, Kris Martinez, Robert Reedy, Radu Boghici, and Rima Petrossian Texas Water Development Board P.O. Box 13231, Capitol Station Austin, Texas 78711-3231 August 2003 Texas Water Development Board Report 355 Evaluation of Enhanced Recharge Potential to the Ogallala Aquifer in the Brazos River Basin, Hale County, Texas by Bridget Scanlon1 Edward S. Angle Brent Christian Jonathan Pi Kris Martinez Robert Reedy1 Radu Boghici Rima Petrossian 1-The University of Texas at Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology August 2003 This page intentionally blank. ii Texas Water Development Board E. G. Rod Pittman, Chairman, Lufkin Thomas Weir Labatt III, Member, San Antonio Jack Hunt, Vice Chairman, Houston Wales H. Madden, Member, Amarillo Dario Vidal Guerra, Jr., Member, Edinburg William W. Meadows, Member, Fort Worth J. Kevin Ward, Executive Administrator Authorization for use or reproduction of any original material contained in this publication, i.e., not obtained from other sources, is freely granted. The Board would appreciate acknowledgment. The use of brand names in this publication does not indicate an endorsement by the Texas Water Development Board or the State of Texas. Published and distributed by the Texas Water Development Board P.O. Box 13231, Capitol Station Austin, Texas 78711-3231 August 2003 Report 355 (Printed on recycled paper) iii This page intentionally blank. iv Table of Contents 1.0 Executive Summary ...........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Effect of Cover Crop on Carbon Distribution in Size and Density
    Article Effect of Cover Crop on Carbon Distribution in Size and Density Separated Soil Aggregates Michael V. Schaefer 1,2 , Nathaniel A. Bogie 3,4 , Daniel Rath 5, Alison R. Marklein 1,6, Abdi Garniwan 1, Thomas Haensel 1, Ying Lin 7, Claudia C. Avila 1 , Peter S. Nico 6, Kate M. Scow 5,8, Eoin L. Brodie 6,9, William J. Riley 6 , Marilyn L. Fogel 7,10, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe 3 , Teamrat A. Ghezzehei 3, Sanjai Parikh 5 , Marco Keiluweit 11 and Samantha C. Ying 1,12,* 1 Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521; USA; [email protected] (M.V.S.); [email protected] (A.R.M.); [email protected] (A.G.); [email protected] (T.H.); [email protected] (C.C.A.) 2 Pacific Basin Research Center, Soka University of America, Laguna Hills, CA 92656, USA 3 Environmental System, University of California, Merced, CA 95343, USA; [email protected] (N.A.B.); [email protected] (A.A.B.); [email protected] (T.A.G.) 4 Geology Department, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192, USA 5 Department of Land, Air, and Water Resource, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; [email protected] (D.R.); [email protected] (K.M.S.); [email protected] (S.P.) 6 Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; [email protected] (P.S.N.); [email protected] (E.L.B.); [email protected] (W.J.R.) 7 Environmental Dynamics and GeoEcology Institute, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA; [email protected] (Y.L.); [email protected] (M.L.F.) 8 Agricultural
    [Show full text]
  • Post-Impact Hydrothermal Activity in Meteorite Impact Craters and Potential Opportunities for Life
    Bioastronomy 2002: Life Among the Stars IAU Symposium, Vol. 213, 2004 R.P.Norris and F.H.Stootman (eds.) Post-Impact Hydrothermal Activity in Meteorite Impact Craters and Potential Opportunities for Life Christian Koeberl Department of Geological Sciences, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, A-1090 Vienna, Austria, [email protected] Wolf Uwe Reimold Impact Cratering Research Group, School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa, [email protected] Abstract. Impact craters are prominent landforms on all objects with a solid surface in the solar system. The formation of an impact structure is a high-energy, high-temperature transient event which introduces large amounts of energy into a limited area. This energy can, in part, be expanded on the creation and activation of a hydrothermal system within and even outside of the crater. Depending on the crater size and geology of the target region, this hydrothermal system may persist for extended periods of time. Such impact-induced hydrothermal systems could well have provided conditions supportive of the development of life on the early Earth and it is not unreasonable to assume that similar conditions could have led to life-favoring circumstances on other planets and satellites. 1. Introduction Studies during the last few decades have convinced most workers that the planets formed by collision and hierarchical growth starting from small objects, Le., from dust to planetesimals to planets. All planets and satellites of the solar system that have solid surfaces (e.g., Mercury, Venus, Mars, the asteroids) are covered by craters. Impact cratering has been either the most important, or one of the most important processes that affected the shaping of their surfaces.
    [Show full text]
  • Drivers of Change in Ecosystem Condition and Services
    Chapter 7 Drivers of Change in Ecosystem Condition and Services Coordinating Lead Author: Gerald C. Nelson Lead Authors: Elena Bennett, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Kenneth G. Cassman, Ruth DeFries, Thomas Dietz, Andrew Dobson, Achim Dobermann, Anthony Janetos, Marc Levy, Diana Marco, Nebojsa Nakic´enovic´, Brian O’Neill, Richard Norgaard, Gerhard Petschel-Held, Dennis Ojima, Prabhu Pingali, Robert Watson, Monika Zurek Review Editors: Agnes Rola, Ortwin Renn, Wolfgang Weimer-Jehle Main Messages . ............................................ 175 7.1 Introduction ........................................... 175 7.2 Indirect Drivers ........................................ 176 7.2.1 Demographic Drivers 7.2.2 Economic Drivers: Consumption, Production, and Globalization 7.2.3 Sociopolitical Drivers 7.2.4 Cultural and Religious Drivers 7.2.5 Science and Technology Drivers 7.3 Direct Drivers . ........................................ 199 7.3.1 Climate Variability and Change 7.3.2 Plant Nutrient Use 7.3.3 Land Conversion 7.3.4 Biological Invasions and Diseases 7.4 Examples of Interactions among Drivers and Ecosystems ......... 212 7.4.1 Land Use Change 7.4.2 Tourism 7.5 Concluding Remarks .................................... 214 NOTES ................................................... 214 REFERENCES .............................................. 214 173 ................. 11411$ $CH7 10-27-05 08:42:07 PS PAGE 173 174 Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Scenarios BOXES 7.16 Trends in Global Consumption of Nitrogen Fertilizers, 7.1 War as a Driver of Change
    [Show full text]
  • Greenhouse Gases: a New Group of Soil Micro-Organisms Can Contribute to Their Elimination
    http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29050800 U.S. Geologist Discovers Earth-Like Soils on Mars 22 Aug 2014 by Sci-News.com Paleosols (ancient fossilized soils) filling the Yellowknife Bay geologic formation within the 3.7-billion-year-old Gale Crater on Mars are strong evidence that the planet was once much warmer and wetter, says geologist Dr Gregory Retallack of the University of Oregon, based on images recently released by NASA. Paleosols found inside Gale Crater on Mars are evidence of habitable environments, but have yielded no conclusive evidence of life. Image credit: Gregory J. Retallack. “The images, taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, reveal Earth-like soil profiles with cracked surfaces lined with sulfate, ellipsoidal hollows and concentrations of sulfate comparable with soils in the Antarctic Dry Valleys and the Chile’s Atacama Desert,” Dr Retallack said. http://www.sci-news.com/space/science-earth-like-soils-mars-02113.html Managing water resources in forest restoration 14 hours ago Frances O’Donnell, Ph.d., works with flowtography equipment in the forest. Hundreds of thousands of acres on the Coconino National Forest are slated for thinning during the next 20 years. Two NAU researchers want the forest restoration efforts to result in better water quality and quantity, a shift that could reduce wildfire risk, prevent post-fire flooding and save cities money in water treatment costs. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-09-resources-forest.html#jCp Greenhouse gases: A new group of soil micro-organisms can contribute to their elimination 28 Aug 2014 INRA research scientists in Dijon have shown that the ability of soils to eliminate N2O can mainly be explained by the diversity and abundance of a new group of micro-organisms that are capable of transforming it into atmospheric nitrogen (N2).
    [Show full text]
  • Meteorite Impact Cratering on Earth: Hazards, and Geological and Biological Consequences
    C. Koeberl · Meteorite impact cratering on Earth: Hazards, and geological and biological consequences Meteorite impact cratering on Earth: Hazards, and geological and biological consequences Ao. Univ. Prof. Dr. Christian Koeberl [email protected] University of Vienna Department of Geological Science Center for Earth Sciences Althanstrasse 14 1090 Vienna Tel: +43-1-4277-53110; Fax: -1-4277-9534 Impact is a unique, short-time, high-energy geological process. Craters are periods of time, an average cratering rate can be estab- a fundamental and common topographic form on the surfaces of planets, lished). Part of the problem regarding recognition of the satellites, and asteroids. On large planetary bodies, of the size of the Moon remnants of impact events is the fact that terrestrial pro- and larger, craters can form in a variety of processes, including volcanism, cesses (sedimentation, erosion, plate tectonics, etc.) either impact, subsidence, secondary impact, and collapse. The two most im- cover or erase the surface expression of impact structures portant processes are volcanism and impact. On smaller bodies (e. g., of on Earth. Many impact structures are covered by younger the size of minor planets), impact may be the only process that can form craters (as shown, for example, by the numerous craters that pockmark (i. e., post-impact) sediments and are not visible on the the surfaces of asteroids). In the explanation of terrestrial crater-like struc- surface. Others were mostly (or entirely) destroyed by tures, the interpretation as volcanic features and related structures (such erosion. In some cases, ejecta have been found far from as calderas, maars, cinder cones) has traditionally dominated over impact- any possible impact structure.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapman Conference on the Quest for Sustainability of Heavily Stressed Aquifers at Regional to Global Scales
    Chapman Conference on the Quest for Sustainability of Heavily Stressed Aquifers at Regional to Global Scales Conveners Jim Butler (Conference Co-Chair) Kansas Geological Survey University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas, USA Jaime Gómez-Hernández (Conference Co-Chair) Universitat Politècnica de València Valencia, Spain Debra Perrone University of California Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, California, USA Tom Gleeson University of Victoria Victoria, British Columbia, Canada David Hyndman Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan, USA Yoshihide Wada International Institue for Applied Systems Analysis Laxenburg, Austria Program Committee Nick Brozovic University of Nebraska Lincoln Lincoln, Nebraska, USA António Chambel Universidade de Évora Évora, Portugal Peter Dietrich Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research/UFZ Leipzig, Germany Thomas Harter University of California Davis Davis, California, USA Neno Kukuric International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre Delft, Netherlands Di Long Tsinghua University Beijing, China Rebecca Nelson University of Melbourne Melbourne, Australia Tess Russo Global Good Intellectual Ventures USA and Denmark David Sanz-Martinez University of Castilla-La Mancha Ciudad Real, Spain Bridget Scanlon University of Texas Austin, Texas, USA Richard Taylor University College London London, United Kingdom Anne Van Loon University of Birmingham Birmingham, United Kingdom Karen Villholth International Water Management Institute Pretoria, South Africa Don Whittemore Kansas Geological Survey Lawrence, Kansas, USA Scientific Program MONDAY, 21 OCTOBER 8:30 a.m.– 9:00 a.m. Registration 9:00 a.m.– 9:10 a.m. Introduction Auditorium of the Blue Cube 9:10 a.m.– 1:00 p.m. Oral Session I: Status of heavily stressed aquifers: regional scale Auditorium of the Blue Cube Conveners: James Butler, Jaime Gómez-Hernández 9:10 a.m.
    [Show full text]