The Rotational Light Curve of (79360) Sila-Nunam, an Eclipsing Binary in the Kuiper Belt
Authors:
Rabinowitz et al
Abstract:
We combine long-term photometric observations in multiple band passes to determine the rotational light curve for the binary Kuiper-Belt object (79360) Sila-Nunam. We measure an unambiguous fundamental period of 6.2562 +/- 0.002 d, within 0.02% of half the orbital period (Porb = 12.50995 +/- 0.00036 d) determined earlier from HST observations resolving the binary. The light curve is double-peaked, and well fit by the sum of two sinusoids: a primary with period Porb/2 and peak-to-peak amplitude 0.120 +/- 0.012 mag and a secondary with period Porb and peak-to-peak amplitude 0.044 +/- 0.010 mag. Excluding observations within ~0.1 deg of opposition, we measure a linear solar phase dependence with slope 0.147 +/- 0.018 mag deg-1 and a mean absolute magnitude in the Gunn g band of 6.100 +/- 0.006 mag. There is no rotational color variation exceeding 4%. We also observe that eclipses occur centered on light curve minima to within 0.3%, requiring the long axis of at least one of the two bodies to point precisely toward the other. Assuming the binary is doubly synchronous and both rotation axes are aligned with the orbital angular momentum vector, our observations jointly constrain triaxial shape models for Sila and Nunam such that the product of their long-to-intermediate axes ratios is 1.120 +/- 0.01. Hence both bodies are elongated by 6%, or else one is elongated by 6% to 12%, and the other by less than 6%.
Sunday, April 06, 2014
Observing Sila-Nunam, an Eclipsing Binary in the Kuiper Belt
The Origin of Phobos' Grooves
Character and origin of Phobos’ grooves
Authors:
Murray et al
Abstract:
Phobos’ parallel grooves, which are such a striking feature of its surface, have attracted interest since their discovery on Viking images in 1976 ( Veverka and Duxbury, 1977), but their origin is still in dispute today. The great increase in knowledge of Phobos’ surface features effected by images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard the E.S.A. Mars Express spacecraft has clearly demonstrated that only one hypothesis can seriously be upheld: that the grooves are chains of secondary impacts resulting from primary impact events on Mars ( Murray and Iliffe, 2011). But even this hypothesis has recently been questioned from a ballistic standpoint ( Ramsley and Head, 2013) mainly using estimated data for the grooves themselves. In the present paper we present summaries of extensive new measurements of groove sizes, pit separations, groove family parameters and geographical distribution. We also re-examine their unique characteristics, and present a review of past ideas. But we concentrate on extending and refining the work of Ramsley & Head using the new measurements, and the much-improved geodetic data from Mars Express (Willner et al., this issue). We find that the total mass of Mars ejecta required to form all the observed grooves on Phobos is between 2.0 × 109 and 2.7 × 1010 kg, and that the total mass of impact ejecta from all Mars craters between 19 and 384 km diameter likely to hit Phobos (in its present orbit) at sufficient velocity to form all the grooves is one or two orders of magnitude greater than this. The larger available ejecta mass from Mars is due to several factors, including the fact that Phobos is known to have orbited Mars at a greater distance at the time when the grooves were formed. A new rigorous celestial mechanical analysis of the transfer of ejecta from Mars to Phobos is presented, including N-body calculations that model not only the gravitational interaction of Mars, but also of Phobos and up to several hundred individual ejecta particles. This allows us to model the possible source areas on Mars of all observed groove families, and to conclude that more than one groove family may have been formed by different batches of ejecta from the same Mars impact event, and that the total number of Mars impact events responsible for creating the grooves may have been less than 10. The N-body calculations also allow us to model the complex gravitational interactions between Mars ejecta particles, and thus to assess the contrast in groove morphometry between those families centred on the sub-Mars and anti-Mars hemispheres.
Just What *IS* Near-Earth Object 2009 BD?
Constraining the Physical Properties of Near-Earth Object 2009 BD
Authors:
Mommert et al
Abstract:
We report on Spitzer Space Telescope IRAC observations of near-Earth object (NEO) 2009 BD that were carried out in support of the NASA Asteroid Robotic Retrieval Mission (ARRM) concept. We did not detect 2009 BD in 25 hrs of integration at 4.5 micron. Based on an upper-limit flux density determination from our data, we present a probabilistic derivation of the physical properties of this object. The analysis is based on the combination of a thermophysical model with an orbital model accounting for the non-gravitational forces acting upon the body. We find two physically possible solutions. The first solution shows 2009 BD as a 2.9+/-0.3 m diameter rocky body (rho = 2.9+/-0.5 g cm-3) with an extremely high albedo of 0.85(+0.20/-0.10) that is covered with regolith-like material, causing it to exhibit a low thermal inertia (Gamma = 30(+20/-10) SI units). The second solution suggests 2009 BD to be a 4+/-1 m diameter asteroid with pV = 0.45(+0.35/-0.15) that consists of a collection of individual bare rock slabs (Gamma = 2000+/-1000 SI units, rho = 1.7(+0.7/-0.4) g cm-3). We are unable to rule out either solution based on physical reasoning. 2009 BD is the smallest asteroid for which physical properties have been constrained, in this case using an indirect method and based on a detection limit, providing unique information on the physical properties of objects in the size range smaller than 10 m.
Evolution of Northeast Egypt During the NeoProterozoic
IMS zircon U–Pb and mica K–Ar geochronology, and Sr–Nd isotope geochemistry of Neoproterozoic granitoids and their bearing on the evolution of the north Eastern Desert, Egypt
Authors:
Eliwa et al
Abstract:
Granitic rocks are commonly used as means to study chemical evolution of continental crust, particularly, their isotopic compositions, which reflect the relative contributions of mantle and crustal components in their genesis. New SIMS and K–Ar geochronology, isotope, geochemical, and mineral chemistry data are presented for the granitoid rocks located in and around Gabal Dara in the Northern Eastern Desert of Egypt. The granitoid suite comprises quartz diorites, Muscovite (Mus) trondhjemites, and granodiorites intruded by biotite-hornblende (BH) granites and alkali feldspar (AF) granites. Mus trondhjemite, granodiorite and BH granite exhibit I-type calc alkaline affinities. Mus trondhjemite and granodiorite show medium-K calc-alkaline and metaluminous/mildy peraluminous affinities, whereas BH granites have high-K calc-alkaline and metaluminous character. Concordant 206Pb/238U weighted mean ages together with geochemical peculiarities suggest that Mus trondhjemites (741 Ma) followed by granodiorites (720 Ma) are genetically unrelated, and formed in subduction-related regime by partial melting of lower oceanic crust together with a significant proportion of mantle melt. The genesis of Mus trondhjemites is correlated with the main event in the evolution of the Eastern Desert, called “~750 Ma crust forming event”.
The field and geochemical criteria together with age data assign the high-K calc-alkaline BH granites (608–590 Ma) and alkaline AF granites (600–592 Ma) as post-collisional granites. The differences in geochemical traits, e.g. high-K calc-alkaline versus alkaline/peralkaline affinities respectively, suggest that BH granites and AF granites are genetically unrelated. The age overlap indicating coeval generation of calc-alkaline and alkaline melts, which in turn suggests that magma genesis was controlled by local composition of the source. The high-K calc-alkaline BH granites are most likely generated from lithospheric mantle melt which have been hybridized by crustal melts produced by underplating process. AF granites exhibit enrichment in K2O, Rb, Nb, Y, and Th, and depletion in Al2O3, TiO2, MgO, CaO, FeO, P2O5, Sr, and Ba as well as alkaline/peralkaline affinity. These geochemical criteria combined with the moderately fractionated rare earth elements pattern (LaN/YbN = 9–14) suggest that AF granite magma might have been generated by partial melting of Arabian–Nubian Shield (ANS) arc crust in response of upwelling of hot asthenospheric mantle melts, which became in direct contact with lower ANS continental crust material due to delamination. Furthermore, a minor role of crystal fractionation of plagioclase, amphibole, biotite, zircon, and titanomagnetite in the evolution of AF granites is also suggested. The low initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.7033–0.7037) and positive εNd(T) values (+ 2.32 to + 4.71) clearly reflect a significant involvement of depleted mantle source in the generation of the post-collision granites and a juvenile nature for the ANS.
European Free Trade Actively Courted by China, America Mildly Interested
NOTHING could be better designed to reassure Eurocrats that Europe remains a force in the world than the arrival in Brussels of the leaders of America and China, the two biggest economies, within days of each other. Barack Obama and Xi Jinping both paid homage to the European Union and sought better trade relations with Europe, the world’s biggest exporter. But there the similarities end. The American president talked mostly of universal values and security as he girded the transatlantic alliance to confront a newly aggressive Russia. Xi Jinping spoke instead of reviving the Silk Road and was non-committal over Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Europe is eager to do an ambitious transatlantic trade deal, but lukewarm about Mr Xi’s calls for a separate EU-China trade pact. Europe’s dealings with China are still marked by suspicion, not to say incomprehension. What to make of the gift by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, to Mr Xi, for instance? Whether by error or design, Mrs Merkel gave him an 18th-century map that excluded Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia and Manchuria from China’s domains; it also seemed to exclude the islands of Taiwan and Hainan. Official Chinese media either ignored the map or substituted it with a 19th-century one that showed China extending all the way into Siberia.
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Saturday, April 05, 2014
Neoarchean Accretion Along the Northern Margin of the Kaapvaal Craton
Ultrahigh temperature granulites and magnesian charnockites: evidence for Neoarchean accretion along the northern margin of the Kaapvaal Craton
Authors:
Rajesh et al
Abstract:
SHRIMP U-Pb analysis of zircon grains from an ultrahigh temperature Mg-Al granulite from the northern margin of the Kaapvaal Craton (Southern Marginal Zone) shows ages of ∼2.72 Ga for the peak metamorphism. Geochemical characteristics of syn-tectonic charnockites in the area are similar to magnesian charnockites, typically formed in subduction settings. In contrast to the prevailing models on peak metamorphism in the context of Neoarchean continent collision between Archean Zimbabwe and Kaapvaal cratons resulting in the formation of the Limpopo Complex, we relate the Neoarchean events to the accretion of this marginal block to the rest of the Kaapvaal Craton. In this model, the subduction event is marked by the formation of magnesian charnockites, and the ultrahigh temperature metamorphism dates the collision event.
Japan's Economy About to Tank?
FOR Izumi Yoshimura, an estate agent in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district, the increase in the consumption tax on April 1st from 5% to 8% is a triple blow. It lifts her cost of living; she will need to rejig her firm’s computer systems at great expense; and her commissions are likely to fall along with sales of apartments. Adding to the downbeat mood this week, the Tankan survey from the Bank of Japan showed that many firms are concerned about the dampening effect of the tax hike. Retailers were particularly gloomy.
Consumption is expected to crater in the weeks following the rise. The country’s GDP could shrink by as much as 4.1% (annualised) in the second quarter, say economists. It was mainly the central bank’s radical loosening of monetary policy, which began a year ago, combined with a big dollop of fiscal spending, that has lifted Japan’s growth up to now. Further easing by the central bank is likely to follow the tax rise, but the expected economic dip will also heap more pressure on Mr Abe to press ahead with other growth-boosting measures. Thus far his government has largely failed to deliver on its promise of structural reforms.
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China Making Changes to Retirement Ages do to Cost
IN THE 1950s, when China’s civil war was only just over and life expectancy still below 45, setting a relatively young retirement age seemed sensible to China’s new Communist Party rulers. But 60 years on, a recent study showed the nationwide average age of retirement is still 53 even though the economy is transformed and the average life expectancy is now 75. With the number of pensioners set to soar, and the number of young workers able to support them unable to keep up, China has been making long-overdue changes at both ends of the demographic spectrum. Late last year it started to ease its restrictive one-child policy. Now it is planning an adjustment to the retirement age.
Allowing people to choose if they want more than one child may prove more popular, but raising the retirement age is likely to bring more economic benefits. Officials at China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) have solicited advice from Chinese and foreign experts, including the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation. Many have advised raising standard retirement ages—currently 50 or 55 for women and 60 for men—by five years each.
The government has clearly signalled its intention to follow this advice. In October an MHRSS official openly supported the idea, and in November, an important meeting of senior party leaders included three “gradual” adjustments in retirement age in its official policy document. State media recently quoted a World Bank official saying the current arrangement is “not sustainable” and an MHRSS official has told Hong Kong media that adjustments are “inevitable”. As always, caution is the watchword. Yin Weimin, the MHRSS minister, said last month that officials mean to raise the retirement age and “will definitely introduce the plan before 2020”.
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Friday, April 04, 2014
First Ever Cyborg Olympics Brought to you by...DARPA
Couple the Defense Research Projects Agency’s major and well-funded interest in prosthetics with the grit shown by amputee veterans to excel in sports and you’ve got a heck of start for building a U.S. team for the first-ever bionic Olympics.
The Cybathlon, an international competition for athletes using advanced prosthetics, is to be held in October 2016 in Zurich, Switzerland.
“The competitions are comprised by different disciplines that apply the most modern powered knee prostheses, wearable arm prostheses, powered exoskeletons, powered wheelchairs, electrically stimulated muscles and novel brain-computer interfaces,” according to the games’ official website.
The games are being organized on behalf of the Swiss National Competence Center of Research in Robotics.
DARPA has a number of programs that ultimately, benefit not only the active-duty soldier, but the injured veteran who remains determined live with as few limitations as possible. DARPA has been hot at work on advanced prosthetics – legs, arms, hands – and exoskeletons.
Could hardly be a better opportunity to field test some of these technologies than a kind of Olympics specifically for men and women using them.
link.
Libra Tax: a Bitcoin Tax Startup
“Accountants are going to want a very accurate transaction history and value of Bitcoin at the time it was purchased and used or sold,” says Jake Benson, 25. At least one Bitcoin tax service — Bitcointaxes.info — invites users to manually enter their Bitcoin trades to calculate taxes, or to import it their trading activity from their chosen wallet service, such as Coinbase, Bitstamp or (eek) Mt. Gox. Founder Colin Mackie, a Seattle-based software engineer, started the service after he realized he needed it himself. “I was trying to calculate my own taxes [this Christmas], opened up Excel, and realized that was going to be impossible,” he says via chat. “So I started writing something.”
He says that approximately 400 people have used the site since it launched in February. That was before the guidance from the IRS came out; now he plans to update the service to incorporate the self-employment tax that Bitcoin “miners” are expected to pay, per the new guidance. Mackie says that 4,000 people visited his site the day the guidance came out, which is a “lot more” than usual.
But Benson says tracking Bitcoin trades could be even more automated. He launched Libra Tax in December, incorporated it weeks ago, and says he found an angel investor (today coincidentally). A responsible taxpayer would simply plug his or her Bitcoin wallet addresses into his service. Because Bitcoin is one huge public ledger, the service could pull data about all the Bitcoin that moved in and out of the wallet, automatically compute the value of the Bitcoin at the time, and calculate the tax burden. Users will be able to decide which exchanges they want to use to value the Bitcoin (Mt. Gox or Bitstamp or BTC-E…) and whether they want to “cash in” the first bitcoins they bought (the ones from years ago purchased for $2) or the last ones in (in case they want to claim capital losses for those purchased in November for $1,100).
Sounds great! Unfortunately, it’s not built yet.
link.
USS Freedom Class LCS is Undermanned by 25%
Some spectacular glitches marred the first overseas deployment of the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship, including an electrical failure that left the USS Freedom “briefly” dead in the water. Now Breaking Defense has obtained an unpublished Government Accountability Office study of Freedom‘s Singapore deployment that raises more serious questions about a long-standing worry: whether the small and highly automated LCS has enough sailors aboard to do up all the work needed, from routine maintenance to remedial training.By now, the Navy brass have surely gotten tired of GAO taking shots at LCS. But according to GAO, LCS sailors are getting literally tired of the ship: They averaged about six hours of sleep per day, 25 percent below the Navy’s eight-hour standard, and key personnel such as engineers got even less. That’s in spite of
- extensive reliance on contractors both aboard and ashore, with a “rigid” schedule of monthly returns to Singapore that restricted how far from port the LCS could sail;
- the decision to increase Freedom‘s core crew by 25 percent, from 40 to 50 — the maximum the ship can accommodate without a “significant” redesign; and
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- the 19-sailor “mission module” crew, who are supposed to operate LCS’s weapons, helicopters, and small boats, pitching in daily to help the core crew run the ship’s basic systems.
The core crew’s engineering department in particular told GAO they had no idea how they’d keep the ship going without help from the mission module’s engineers. But the module the Freedom took to Singapore, the “anti-surface warfare” module that includes several small boats, has many more engineers than the forthcoming mine-countermeasures and anti-submarine warfare modules. In fact, while the entire 19-sailor anti-surface module crew has skills useful in running the ship itself, the MCM crew has only four sailors who could help, and the ASW module only one. That means an LCS outfitted to hunt mines or subs would effectively be 15 to 18 sailors short — about 20 to 25 percent.
USMC's Amphibious Combat Vehicle Won't be Tracked
The Marine Corps is walking away from the high-speed Amphibious Combat Vehicle it envisioned – at least for the time being – but Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos said a wheeled version will have to do in this budget environment.
“We elected to switch and go to a wheeled vehicle,” Amos said on April 1 during a House Appropriations Committee hearing. “These are commercial off-the-shelf … they’re already being made by several different manufacturers.”
Unlike the planned ACV, the vehicle the Corps now calls the ACV 1.1 will not be able to deploy quickly from ship to shore from up to 12 miles out and it will not move on treads once landed. But what makes it a sound alternative is that the Corps already has other means to deploy it over water rapidly, Amos said. And the fact it will move on wheels makes it more survivable in a combat theatre.
Following it’s now cancelled Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, the Marine Corps seem to have abandoned efforts to quickly develop an amphibious vehicle that can both swim at what the Corps calls high water speeds of 13 to 15 knots and survive substantial land threats once ashore. Instead, the Corps plans to field a less-ambitious interim vehicle and simultaneously work on research and development aimed at reaching the desired combination of attributes for the future , senior leaders have said.
And then there’s the cost. Amos said the 300 ACV 1.1s he anticipates buying will cost about $3 million to $4.5 million each. The original ACV, the Corps had envisioned, would have cost between $12 million and $14 million each, he said.
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Evidence of an Insect Skeletonized Fern From Upper Triassic China
Evidence for insect-mediated skeletonization on an extant fern family from the Upper Triassic of China
Authors:
Feng et al
Abstract:
Leaf skeletonization represents a distinctive form of insect feeding behavior. It commonly occurs in angiosperm leaves after their initial appearance during the Early Cretaceous. This type of feeding behavior rarely has been documented in pre-Mesozoic fossils. We describe the earliest evidence of insect-skeletonized leaves of Dictyophyllum nathorstii Zeiller, affiliated with the extant fern family Dipteridaceae in the Late Triassic Yipinglang flora from southwestern China. The skeletonization generally is located adjacent to the pinna rachilla of the distal free portion of the leaf. In the skeletonized area, the interveinal tissue is completely removed, exposing the pinna rachilla, pinnule midveins, and lateral veins. Most nonvascular tissue has been removed between the vascular bundles, the latter forming polygonal meshes of varying size. Our report of insect-mediated skeletonization of fern leaves from southwestern China fills a spatiotemporal gap in the published data on the paleogeographical distribution and stratigraphic occurrence of plant–arthropod associations, and indicates an antagonistic relationship between a fern host and its insect herbivore.
Did Mars Have a Magma Ocean?
Can a fractionally crystallized magma ocean explain the thermo-chemical evolution of Mars?
Authors:
Plesa et al
Abstract:
The impact heat accumulated during the late stage of planetary accretion can melt a significant part or even the entire mantle of a terrestrial body, giving rise to a global magma ocean. The subsequent cooling of the interior causes the magma ocean to freeze rapidly from the core-mantle boundary (CMB) to the surface due to the steeper slope of the mantle adiabat compared to the slope of the solidus.
Assuming fractional crystallization of the magma ocean, dense cumulates are produced close to the surface, largely due to iron enrichment in the evolving magma ocean liquid (Elkins-Tanton et al., 2003). A gravitationally unstable mantle thus forms, which is prone
to overturn. We investigate the cumulate overturn and its influence on the thermal evolution of Mars using mantle convection simulations in 2D cylindrical geometry. We present a suite of simulations using different initial conditions and a strongly temperature-dependent viscosity. We assume that all radiogenic heat sources have been enriched during the freezingphase of the magma ocean in the uppermost 50 km and that the initial steam-atmosphere created by the degassing of the freezing magma ocean was rapidly lost, implying that the surface temperature is set to present-day values. In this case, a stagnant lid forms rapidly on top of the convective interior preventing the uppermost dense cumulates to sink, even when allowing for a plastic yielding mechanism. Below this dense stagnant lid, the mantle chemical gradient settles to a stable configuration. The convection pattern is dominated by small-scale structures, which are difficult to reconcile with the large-scale volcanic features observed over Mars’ surface and partial melting ceases in less than 900 Ma. Assuming that the stagnant lid can break because of additional mechanisms and allowing the uppermost dense layer to overturn, a stable density gradient is obtained, with the densest material and the entire amount of heat sources lying above the CMB. This stratification leads to a strong overheating of the lowermost mantle, whose temperature increases to values that exceed the liquidus. The iron-rich melt would most likely remain trapped in the lower part of the mantle. The upper mantle in that scenario cools rapidly and only shows partial melting during the first billion year of evolution. Therefore a fractionated global and deep magma ocean is difficult to reconcile with observations. Different scenarios assuming, for instance, a hemispherical or shallow magma ocean, or a crystallization sequence resulting in a lower density gradient than that implied by pure fractional crystallization will have to be considered.
Macroevolutionary Implications of Increased Marine Trophic Resources Through the Phanerozoic
Seafood through time revisited: the Phanerozoic increase in marine trophic resources and its macroevolutionary consequences
Authors:
Allmon et al
Abstract:
We review and synthesize multiple biotic and abiotic proxies for marine nutrient and food availability, primary productivity, and food quality (stoichiometry) and propose what their relationships may have been to macroevolutionary processes, especially speciation. This review confirms earlier suggestions that there has been an overall increase in marine primary productivity over the Phanerozoic, but indicates that the increase has been irregular and that present levels may not be the peak. We integrate these indicators into a new estimate of relative primary productivity in the global ocean through the Phanerozoic. We then combine multiple, frequently conflicting ecological-evolutionary hypotheses into a general model for how primary production may affect speciation over geological time scales. This model, an elaboration and extension of the “speciation cycle” previously proposed by Grant and Grant, attempts to explain why an increase in food supply sometimes is associated with decreased diversity, and at other times with increased diversification. We propose some simple tests for the application of this model to the fossil record.
First Discovery of an Ichthyosaur From Carnian Triassic Sicily, Italy
Authors:DAL SASSO et alAbstract:Here we report for the first time on the presence of ichthyosaurs in Sicily, southern Italy. The deposit of origin (Mufara Formation) can be dated to the upper Carnian (Tuvalian substage) based on a typical association of ammonites, one of which (Shastites sp.) is embedded in the sediment still encrusting one of the bone specimens recently found. The latter consist of two isolated vertebral centra that are referred to the Ichthyosauria thanks to their disk-like shape (i.e. they are much taller than long) combined with the amphicelous condition, lack of transverse processes, and presence of rib articulations on the central sides. The largest specimen is more precisely an anterior dorsal vertebra from an adult individual, ascribed to Shastasauridae indet. By the presence of elongated reniform diapophyseal facets, cranially not truncated, and absence of parapophyses. The smaller specimen represents an anterior cervical element from an immature individual of a likely smaller-sized, indeterminate taxon. These finds indicate that the biodiversity of the Monte Scalpello Triassic fauna is higher than previously known, but above all represent the southernmost occurrence of Triassic ichthyosaurs in the western Tethys basin.
Did Hadean/Archean Earth Have Large Volcanic Channel Systems Like Venus, the Moon & Mars?
Did Large Volcanic Channel Systems Develop on Earth During the Hadean and Archean?
Author:
Leverington
Abstract:
The vestiges of large volcanic channels are preserved at the surfaces of the Moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars, and Io. The largest of these systems have widths of tens of kilometers and lengths of thousands of kilometers. Component channels were incised by voluminous low-viscosity lava flows, and are the surface expressions of magmatic systems that helped to dissipate internal heat accumulated through processes of accretion, differentiation, tidal interactions, and radioactive decay. Past development of large volcanic channels on these bodies suggests the possible formation of analogous systems on the Earth during the Hadean or Archean, a time frame of heightened internal temperatures and eruption of low-viscosity magmas. More generally, the geological record of the inner solar system suggests a predisposition of all rocky planets for early incision of large volcanic channels
is the European Union Headed for Japanese Style Delfation?!
VIEWED from one perspective, the euro area is a minor miracle. Instead of collapsing in a heap, as seemed possible two years ago, the currency club is not just intact but has a new member, Latvia, which joined in January. An economic recovery has been under way since last spring and appears to be strengthening. But seen from another standpoint the euro zone is an accident waiting to happen. As inflation slips ever lower, a slide into Japanese-style deflation looks increasingly likely. That would raise an already onerous debt burden in real terms and pull down growth.
The actions of the European Central Bank (ECB) will be crucial if such an outcome is to be averted.
link.
Thursday, April 03, 2014
Bank of China Shutting Down Bitcoin Exchanges ABefore April 15 Deadline
China may be tightening the noose around Bitcoin: two exchanges dealing in the virtual currency have been forced to suspend bank transfers from customers depositing yuan to buy bitcoins.
On Thursday, local exchange FXBTC said several banks had ordered it to close accounts used for taking customer deposits, due to tightened regulations from China's central bank. Now all commercial banks and third-party payment platforms have been ordered to close all related services tied to bitcoin transfers, the exchange said in on its website.
Hours before, another exchange, BTC38, issued a similar notice, and said due to the "influence from China's central bank" the site had been forced to revoke deposits via bank transfer. In the interim, the exchange can still accept withdrawals in Chinese yuan.
Last month, the bitcoin exchanges were put on alert when the publication Caixin reported that the nation was tightening regulations covering the virtual currency. By April 15, the nation's central bank would require all banks and third-party payment companies to close accounts operated by bitcoin exchanges.
But not all exchanges in China are reporting issues. On Thursday, BTCTrade.com said on its website it would temporarily suspend currency transfer over the Internet, but that bank transfers were still accepted.
Another exchange, OKCoin, said its bank transfers were still in operation.
China has been concerned about how to deal with bitcoin, and in December banned banks from trading in the virtual currency. Days later, China's online third-party payment companies began halting services for local exchanges.
In response, the local exchanges began setting up corporate bank accounts that could take direct deposits from customers.
The virtual currency was once rising in popularity in China. But the nation's government is concerned with Bitcoin's lack of central monetary authority, and its potential use for laundering money. Nonetheless, the government has said consumers are free to buy bitcoins.
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Russian Buildup Continues Near Novozybkov, Bryansk Oblast
Despite Russian claims to have withdrawn some troops from its borders with Ukraine, satellite imagery shows that Russian Army deployments to the border region appear to continue.
Last week, IHS Jane's noted the deployment of armoured units to the Novozybkov region in Bryansk oblast, which lies north of Kiev. As time passes, the specific locations of deployed units can be ascertained using satellite imagery.
Airbus Defence and Space imagery captured on 21 March 2014 shows Russian troop formations deployed to a training centre west of Belgorod.
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US Congress Continues to Rake US Air Force Over for Russian Rocket Engines
As tensions continue to escalate in Ukraine, U.S. lawmakers want to know how the Air Force plans to replace Russian-made rocket engines used to launch military satellites.
The Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, or EELV, program relies on the Russian RD-180 as the main engine on its Atlas V boosters.
Critics argue this is a risky practice since the relationship between the U.S. and Russia is deteriorating over the deployment of Russian troops and equipment into Crimea amid political and social unrest in southern Ukraine.
“It’s no secret that we have had some differences with Russia in the last few months,” said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Defense Subcommittee. “And yet in at least one important area we are dependent on Russia in terms of our American national defense.”
United Launch Alliance LLC, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., is the sole provider of medium and heavy lift rockets for the EELV program. ULA officials have assured lawmakers that it has a two-year supply of RD180 engines.
But Durbin said he is concerned it could cost up to $1 billion over five years if ULA produces the engines domestically.
“If we decided to produce this engine domestically, clearly we have a big bill to pay,” said Durbin, who asked Air Force leaders to explain their plans to resolve the issue during an April 2 hearing.
The Air Force is currently reviewing alternatives to the Russian engines in case the former communist country decides to stop supplying ULA with engines, said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James.
“We have initiated a review, which is due at the end of May, to get to the bottom of some of these questions and more importantly to provide some answers that if we did have it shut off, what would it mean?” she said. “I have learned spare parts are very important so that is a question that the review is also going to look at is do we have the spare parts for the two years … We are studying it quickly, and we hope to have some more answers shortly.”
Durbin questioned why the proposed budget seems to put “most of our faith in the ULA project to continue despite the question mark about Russian sources.”
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US Navy Muling Using UCLASS as a Tanker
he U.S. Navy is considering using its forthcoming Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) aircraft as an aerial refueling tanker to free up its fleet of Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets for more strike missions, several sources told USNI News.
“It’s definitely of interest,” one industry official said.
“On a typical air operations day, they might have to dedicate up to five Hornets to do tanking.”
Most of those tanker sorties are for “recovery tanking” around the carrier.
According to industry sources and retired service officials, up to 20 percent of a carrier air wing’s Super Hornet sorties are consumed by the tanker mission.
[...]
But industry sources are not convinced. By the mid-2020s, there probably will not be enough UCLASS air vehicles in the Navy arsenal to perform the aerial refueling mission especially as the Super Hornet airframe start to wear out, the industry sources said.
In that case the Navy will have to come up with an alternative.
“They may be forced to have a dedicated tanker on the deck,” an industry source said.
“This idea that UCLASS is somehow going to save Super Hornets from doing tanking—I’m not seeing how that’s really going to work when you look at the lifespan of the Super Hornets and when UCLASS is going to be in the fleet.”
That’s especially true if a carrier would only carry six UCLASS air vehicles—which would have to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions in addition to the tanker mission.
link.
Pleistocene Quaternary Indonesia was Very dry Between 33,000 to 16,000 Years ago
Using sediments from a remote lake, researchers from Brown University have assembled a 60,000-year record of rainfall in central Indonesia. The analysis reveals important new details about the climate history of a region that wields a substantial influence on the global climate as a whole.
The Indonesian archipelago sits in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool, an expanse of ocean that supplies a sizable fraction of the water vapor in Earth's atmosphere and plays a role in propagating El Niño cycles. Despite the region's importance in the global climate system, not much is known about its own climate history, says James Russell, associate professor of geological sciences at Brown.
"We wanted to assess long-term climate variation in the region," Russell said, "not just to assess how global climate influences Indonesia, but to see how that feeds back into the global climate system."
The data are published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study found that the region's normally wet, tropical climate was interrupted by a severe dry period from around 33,000 years ago until about 16,000 years ago. That period coincides with peak of the last ice age, when glaciers covered vast swaths of the northern hemisphere. Climate models had suggested that glacial ice could shift the track of tropical monsoons, causing an Indonesian dry period. But this is the first hard data to show that was indeed the case.
It's also likely, Russell and his colleagues say, that the drying in Indonesia created a feedback loop that amplified ice age cooling.
link.
Oxirane Identified in Titan's Atmosphere
ACCURATE SPECTROSCOPIC CHARACTERIZATION OF OXIRANE: A VALUABLE ROUTE TO ITS IDENTIFICATION IN TITAN'S ATMOSPHERE AND THE ASSIGNMENT OF UNIDENTIFIED INFRARED BANDS
Authors:
Puzzarini et al
Abstract:
In an effort to provide an accurate spectroscopic characterization of oxirane, state-of-the-art computational methods and approaches have been employed to determine highly accurate fundamental vibrational frequencies and rotational parameters. Available experimental data were used to assess the reliability of our computations, and an accuracy on average of 10 cm–1 for fundamental transitions as well as overtones and combination bands has been pointed out. Moving to rotational spectroscopy, relative discrepancies of 0.1%, 2%-3%, and 3%-4% were observed for rotational, quartic, and sextic centrifugal-distortion constants, respectively. We are therefore confident that the highly accurate spectroscopic data provided herein can be useful for identification of oxirane in Titan's atmosphere and the assignment of unidentified infrared bands. Since oxirane was already observed in the interstellar medium and some astronomical objects are characterized by very high D/H ratios, we also considered the accurate determination of the spectroscopic parameters for the mono-deuterated species, oxirane-d1. For the latter, an empirical scaling procedure allowed us to improve our computed data and to provide predictions for rotational transitions with a relative accuracy of about 0.02% (i.e., an uncertainty of about 40 MHz for a transition lying at 200 GHz).
Hummingbirds Split From Swifts During the Eocene Paleogene in Asia, but had Explosive Evolutionary Radition In South America
The first comprehensive map of hummingbirds' 22-million-year-old family tree—reconstructed based on careful analysis of 284 of the world's 338 known species—tells a story of rapid and ongoing diversification. The decade-long study reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on April 3 also helps to explain how today's hummingbirds came to live where they do.
Part of the secret to the birds' remarkable success lies in the formation of nine principal groups or clades, hummingbirds' unique relationship to flowering plants, and the birds' continued spread into new geographic areas, the researchers say.
"Hummingbirds have essentially been reinventing themselves throughout their 22-million-year history," says Jim McGuire of the University of California, Berkeley.
While all hummingbirds depend on flower nectar to fuel their high metabolisms and hovering flight, coordinated changes in flower and bill shape have helped to drive the formation of new species of both hummingbirds and plants. Remarkably, as many as 25 hummingbird species are able to coexist in some places.
"One of the really cool features of hummingbird evolution is that they all eat the same thing yet have diversified dramatically," McGuire says. "It really is a big surprise that hummingbirds have divided the nectarivore niche so extensively."
The new, time-calibrated evolutionary tree shows that ancestral hummingbirds split from the swifts and treeswifts about 42 million years ago, probably in Eurasia. By about 22 million years ago, the ancestral species of all modern hummingbirds had made its way to South America, and that's when things really took off.
link.
Hidden Pterosaur Diversity in Late Cretaceous Hungary
Does morphology reflect osteohistology-based ontogeny? A case study of Late Cretaceous pterosaur jaw symphyses from Hungary reveals hidden taxonomic diversity
Authors:
Prondvai et al
Abstract:
With a single complete mandible and 56 mandibular symphyseal fragments of various sizes, the Late Cretaceous Hungarian azhdarchid material has been considered one of the most extensive monospecific pterosaur assemblages in the world. Representing a broad size range, these elements have been thought to demonstrate a developmental series of Bakonydraco galaczi. As such, they were ideal to test whether absolute size and/or morphology reliably indicate relative ontogenetic stages in this pterosaur. Forty-five specimens were selected for multivariate morphometrics and classified into four size classes. After acquiring the morphometric data set, we thin-sectioned eight symphyses representing all size groups and classified them into relative ontogenetic stages based on qualitative microstructural inspection prior to quantitative histological analyses. Microstructural characters suggestive of developmental state were then quantified for intra- and interindividual uni- and multivariate analyses to test the correspondence among the results of qualitative and quantitative analyses. In contrast to our expectations, histological features identified the smallest specimen as an adult and not an early juvenile. The substantial size difference between this specimen and other adults, along with its distinct microanatomical and histological features, implies the presence of at least two pterosaur taxa in this symphysis assemblage. This hypothesis is further supported by multivariate morphometrics, which separate the smallest symphyses from all other specimens that form one continuous group. Although the latter group also shows considerable size variability in corresponding ontogenetic stages, this suggests developmental plasticity rather than the presence of even more taxa, and indicates that symphysis size and morphology are poor indicators of skeletal maturity in these animals. Hence, bone histology is an important independent test of the assessment of ontogenetic stage using size and morphology.
Methanosarcina Developed Efficient Methanogenic Pathways at the Time of the Permian Extinction
Methanogenic burst in the end-Permian carbon cycle
Authors:
Rothman et al
Abstract:
The end-Permian extinction is associated with a mysterious disruption to Earth’s carbon cycle. Here we identify causal mechanisms via three observations. First, we show that geochemical signals indicate superexponential growth of the marine inorganic carbon reservoir, coincident with the extinction and consistent with the expansion of a new microbial metabolic pathway. Second, we show that the efficient acetoclastic pathway in Methanosarcina emerged at a time statistically indistinguishable from the extinction. Finally, we show that nickel concentrations in South China sediments increased sharply at the extinction, probably as a consequence of massive Siberian volcanism, enabling a methanogenic expansion by removal of nickel limitation. Collectively, these results are consistent with the instigation of Earth’s greatest mass extinction by a specific microbial innovation.
Reading Entrails to See Who Ate What in the Cambrian Marine Ecosystem
Gut Contents as Direct Indicators for Trophic Relationships in the Cambrian Marine Ecosystem
Author:
Vannier
Abstract:Present-day ecosystems host a huge variety of organisms that interact and transfer mass and energy via a cascade of trophic levels. When and how this complex machinery was established remains largely unknown. Although exceptionally preserved biotas clearly show that Early Cambrian animals had already acquired functionalities that enabled them to exploit a wide range of food resources, there is scant direct evidence concerning their diet and exact trophic relationships. Here I describe the gut contents of Ottoia prolifica, an abundant priapulid worm from the middle Cambrian (Stage 5) Burgess Shale biota. I identify the undigested exoskeletal remains of a wide range of small invertebrates that lived at or near the water sediment interface such as hyolithids, brachiopods, different types of arthropods, polychaetes and wiwaxiids. This set of direct fossil evidence allows the first detailed reconstruction of the diet of a 505-million-year-old animal. Ottoia was a dietary generalist and had no strict feeding regime. It fed on both living individuals and decaying organic matter present in its habitat. The feeding behavior of Ottoia was remarkably simple, reduced to the transit of food through an eversible pharynx and a tubular gut with limited physical breakdown and no storage. The recognition of generalist feeding strategies, exemplified by Ottoia, reveals key-aspects of modern-style trophic complexity in the immediate aftermath of the Cambrian explosion. It also shows that the middle Cambrian ecosystem was already too complex to be understood in terms of simple linear dynamics and unique pathways.
Venetian Separatist Linked to Crimea Arrested With "Tank" on Terrorist Charges
Italian police on Wednesday arrested 24 alleged separatists for terrorism after thwarting a plan to take over St Mark's Square in Venice armed with guns and a rudimentary "tank" made from a digger.
Police said they had arrested activists from a group called "The Alliance" on charges of "terrorism conspiracy and subversion of the democratic order," which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The underground group, made up of radical separatists from the Lombardy, Sardinia and Veneto regions, had been planning to "liberate" the iconic Venetian piazza using weapons from the Albanian mafia and set up a new independent government, police said.
They were planning an attack "by hundreds of people, some of them armed" and "an insurrection from the inhabitants of northern Italy most affected by the economic crisis," law enforcers said in a statement.
"The tank was built to be used for a spectacular action on St Mark's Square," police said.
The plan comes after more than two million residents of Venice and its surrounding region last month voted overwhelmingly in favour of breaking away from the rest of the country and forming their own state.
The online poll, although not legally binding and open to manipulation, showed the strenth of separatist feeling in Italy's northern regions.
link.
Finland, Sweden Considering Joining NATO Because of Crimea?
When Russian warplanes staged a mock bombing run on Sweden last year, air defences were caught napping. It was the middle of the night and no Swedish planes were scrambled.
Instead, Danish jets belonging to NATO's Baltic mission based in Lithuania, took to the air to shadow the Russians.
The discussion that incident triggered over Sweden's ability to defend itself has grown with Russia's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. As in neighbour and fellow EU member Finland, Swedes wonder whether to seek shelter in the U.S.-led NATO alliance, abandoning Stockholm's two centuries of formal neutrality.
Sweden has talked of a "doctrinal shift" in defence policy. In Helsinki, where "Finlandisation" became a Cold War byword for self-imposed neutrality driven by fear of a powerful neighbour, the government has talked of an "open debate" on joining NATO.
Talk of NATO underscores anxieties that feed calls for more defence cooperation and spending. But membership seems distant, with voters in both countries sceptical of the benefits, and wary of the costs of taking on new international commitments.
Both nations have a history of dealing with Moscow in their own particular ways. Sweden's loss of Finland to Russia in the time of Napoleon prompted it to give up on war and armed pacts.
Finland, which won independence during Russia's revolution of 1917 but nearly lost it fighting the Soviet Union in World War Two, kept close to the West economically and politically during the Cold War but avoided confrontation with Moscow.
Like Sweden, it joined the European Union only in 1995.
For all the scepticism about NATO, however, worries have been growing in Scandinavia since Russia's action in Crimea.
link.
Wednesday, April 02, 2014
Ukraine: And the Pain Plays on
The bitter-sweetness of victory? That's the feeling at the moment. There are a number of events underway which could ruin Ukraine, but may help instead.
Yanukovych has given what has to be one of the bizarrest interviews since Charlie Sheen. He stated he did ask for help from Putin with soldiers, but hopes to negotiate the return of Crimea. He calls his request an utter mistake. The man is a complete idiot.
The Right Sector handed over a fair amount of improvised weapons to the National Guard. However, they did state they would be rearming until the situation in Ukraine has improved.
Poroshenko - the chocolate king (but not of chicago!) - seems to be gaining steam running for president. I hope he's better than Yanukovich. There are supposed to be 38 (!) candidates including Darth Vader! (oy) No to Timoshenko!!! I hope Yatsenyuk keeps the PM spot though.
Ukrainians keep catching Russians with car loads of weapons. Not sure what to make of this.
The Russians, despite some earlier reports, have not pulled back their troops. Not even a battalion.
NATO has stated Russian can overrun eastern and southern Ukraine in no more than 5 days.
Russia has upped the price of gas to Ukraine. They have stated they may increase the price further to recoup the discounts they gave earlier to Ukraine. jerks. In retaliation, the West has promised to help Ukraine with getting off its Russian gas addiction. Perhaps this will include LNG stations on the Black Sea. One could hope.
Russia has also issued warnings to Ukraine about moving closer to NATO.
On the embarrassing side Lyudmila Putina dressed in Ukrainian colors. ;)
Government Accountability Office Report on Puerto Ricoan Statehood Released
The Government Accountability Office is projecting that Puerto Rico would receive billions of additional federal dollars if it became a state, with some observers predicting the report will rekindle the statehood debate over the financially troubled island.
The GAO report, released Monday, estimates that federal spending on many programs would increase by hundreds of millions or billions of dollars if Puerto Rico became the 51st state. That would potentially allow the commonwealth's government to use its revenues to address its mounting debt problem, spurred by the popularity of its bonds, which are tax-exempt at the federal, state, and local levels.
The bonds were downgraded to speculative grade by all three major rating agencies earlier this year. The study did not produce specific figures, but projects possible spending ranges for various categories.
Many of the most significant changes would likely involve social welfare spending. The GAO said Medicare spending could increase by as much as $1.5 billion annually under statehood, while Medicaid spending could increase from about $400 million to about $1.5 billion per year. However, the report also said spending on Medicare could remain almost flat, depending on the number people eligible to receive it. Supplemental security income spending on the island could increase very much to between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion from roughly $24 million on a similar federal program in 2011, according to the report.
The report estimated a roughly $115 million annual increase in federal highway spending. Puerto Ricans, who are American citizens, would also pay the U.S. government about another $2 billion annually in federal income taxes, the report states. Corporate income tax from companies operating in Puerto Rico might increase between $700 million and $5 billion according to the GAO, but some businesses might leave Puerto Rico if they lose the favorable corporate tax climate they currently enjoy there. Under special multi-year agreements with Puerto Rico, some of these corporations pay corporate income tax rates far below the commonwealth's maximum rate of 39%. Instead they pay a special excise tax, the legality of which has been questioned by some observers and even the Internal Revenue Service.
link.
General Dynamics Threatens to Quit Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle Competition
General Dynamics Land Systems cannot and will not compete for the Army’s largest surviving weapons program, the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle, unless the service changes how it is handling the program, GDLS’s senior spokesman told me yesterday afternoon. A GDLS withdrawal would be yet another embarrassment for the Army’s chronically troubled acquisition system, since it would effectively leave AMPV with a single bidder to replace its aging and vulnerable M113 transports, BAE Systems, which is offering a modified version of its current M2 Bradley.
General Dynamics spokesman Peter Keating told me the Army must either (1) relax its mobility requirements so GDLS’s eight-wheel-drive Stryker could qualify or (2) provide enough technical data on the tracked Bradley that GDLS can come up with its own tracked offering. But while the company filed a protest last month with the Army Materiel Command (which is expected to reply Friday) he said, “we are not optimistic that we’re going to get a successful outcome at this level.” (Emphasis mine). That wording implies that GDLS plans to ask the Government Accountability Office to overrule the Army, though Keating would not confirm it: “We’ll take it one step at a time,” he said.
“We know how to build vehicles, we want to compete on this, we simply don’t have all the information… so we cannot compete,” Keating said. “We have asked them [the Army] for the data; they have not provided it.” Why not? “You’d have to ask them.”
link.
Russia Sells S-400 Triumf to China
Plans to allow China to become the first export customer for Russia's Almaz-Antey S-400 Triumf (SA-21 'Growler') surface-to-air missile system are gaining momentum as President Vladimir Putin has approved the delivery of up to four systems, Russian newspaper Pravda reported on 31 March.
According to the paper, Putin has approved in principle the transfer of between two and four S-400 systems. Aleksey Fomin, director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said that the negotiations which had been conducted over the last three years are now in the final stage.
The deal, should it progress, would mark a further deepening of the military-technical relationship between Russia and China.
link.
How Fast was the Onset of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum? Was a Comet to Blame?!?!
A Comet Caused the PETM!
Evidence for a rapid release of carbon at the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum
Authors:
Wright et al
Abstract:
The Paleocene/Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) and associated carbon isotope excursion (CIE) are often touted as the best geologic analog for the current anthropogenic rise in pCO2. However, a causal mechanism for the PETM CIE remains unidentified because of large uncertainties in the duration of the CIE’s onset. Here, we report on a sequence of rhythmic sedimentary couplets comprising the Paleocene/Eocene Marlboro Clay (Salisbury Embayment). These couplets have corresponding δ18O cycles that imply a climatic origin. Seasonal insolation is the only regular climate cycle that can plausibly account for δ18O amplitudes and layer counts. High-resolution stable isotope records show 3.5‰ δ13C decrease over 13 couplets defining the CIE onset, which requires a large, instantaneous release of 13C-depleted carbon. During the CIE, a clear δ13C gradient developed on the shelf with the largest excursions in shallowest waters, indicating atmospheric δ13C decreased by ∼20‰. Our observations and revised release rate are consistent with an atmospheric perturbation of 3,000-gigatons of carbon (GtC).
No! It Did NOT!
Onset of carbon isotope excursion at the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum took millennia, not 13 years
Authors:
Zeebee et al
Abstract:
The Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) may represent the best paleo-analog for rapid and massive carbon release to the ocean and atmosphere. Thus, constraining the carbon release rate at its onset is critical. Wright and Schaller (1) use records from apparently rhythmically layered shelf sediments to argue that the layering is annual and that the onset of the carbon isotope excursion (CIE, fingerprint for carbon release) in the surface ocean was complete in 13 y. Using basic carbon cycle and climate considerations, we show this is not feasible. In fact, Wright and Schaller’s isotope records indicate that the CIE onset took at least several millennia. This finding rules out a cometary origin of the carbon release.
Yes, it did!
Reply to Pearson and Nicholas, Stassen et al., and Zeebe et al.: Teasing out the missing piece of the PETM puzzle
Authors:
Wright et al
Abstract:
Understanding the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) critically depends on knowing the rate at which the perturbation carbon was released. In our report (1) we argue that the layered Marlboro Clay may provide this important constraint. Our strongest evidence in support of the rapid release of carbon at the onset of the PETM is the differential response of the %CaCO3 and δ13C in the Millville core. The sharp %CaCO3 decrease occurred over 4 mm, compared with the δ13C decrease over an interval of 25 cm (figure 3 in ref. 1). Temporal differences are predicted by a rapid (instantaneous) release of light carbon, which would lower the surface ocean Graphic in a matter of months, in contrast to the carbon isotopic equilibrium exchange, which occurs on the scale of a decade (2) and can only be recorded in a core with a high sedimentation rates (1). Based on the rhythmic bedding in the Marlboro Clay, we argue that the drop in %CaCO3 occurred in less than a year and the δ13C equilibrium was on the order of a decade.
My guess is probably not given all we know of the PETM.
The Habitability of Enceladus
Follow the Plume: The Habitability of Enceladus
Authors:
McKay et al
Abstract:
The astrobiological exploration of other worlds in our Solar System is moving from initial exploration to more focused astrobiology missions. In this context, we present the case that the plume of Enceladus currently represents the best astrobiology target in the Solar System. Analysis of the plume by the Cassini mission indicates that the steady plume derives from a subsurface liquid water reservoir that contains organic carbon, biologically available nitrogen, redox energy sources, and inorganic salts. Furthermore, samples from the plume jetting out into space are accessible to a low-cost flyby mission. No other world has such well-studied indications of habitable conditions. Thus, the science goals that would motivate an Enceladus mission are more advanced than for any other Solar System body. The goals of such a mission must go beyond further geophysical characterization, extending to the search for biomolecular evidence of life in the organic-rich plume. This will require improved in situ investigations and a sample return.
Mouse Brain Mapped
The brain is an incredibly complex organ. The tiny mouse brain, for example, contains over 86 million neurons, each with over 1,000 different connections, clustered in different groupings. In a sense, the neural networks resemble a complex highway system between cities. To navigate the brain, researchers are going to need some maps, and two of the most detailed maps have just been created.
Scientists from the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle pored through massive data sets to build two new maps: one of gene expression in the developing human brain, and another of neural networks in a mouse brain. The maps, which are publicly available, will serve as resources for researchers around the world.
Already, the data are revealing valuable insights about formation of autism and the way mammalian brains process information. Scientists shared their findings in two separate papers published today in the journal Nature.
link.
Birds Drove Cope's Rule in Pterosaur Evolution
Competition and constraint drove Cope's rule in the evolution of giant flying reptiles
Authors:
Benson et al
Abstract:
The pterosaurs, Mesozoic flying reptiles, attained wingspans of more than 10 m that greatly exceed the largest birds and challenge our understanding of size limits in flying animals. Pterosaurs have been used to illustrate Cope’s rule, the influential generalization that evolutionary lineages trend to increasingly large body sizes. However, unambiguous examples of Cope’s rule operating on extended timescales in large clades remain elusive, and the phylogenetic pattern and possible drivers of pterosaur gigantism are uncertain. Here we show 70 million years of highly constrained early evolution, followed by almost 80 million years of sustained, multi-lineage body size increases in pterosaurs. These results are supported by maximum-likelihood modelling of a comprehensive new pterosaur data set. The transition between these macroevolutionary regimes is coincident with the Early Cretaceous adaptive radiation of birds, supporting controversial hypotheses of bird–pterosaur competition, and suggesting that evolutionary competition can act as a macroevolutionary driver on extended geological timescales.
Global Warming Impacts on Permo-Triassic Terrestrial Ecosystems: No Forests for 10 Million Years?
Impacts of global warming on Permo-Triassic terrestrial ecosystems
Authors:
Benton et al
Abstract:
Geologists and palaeontologists have expressed mixed views about the effects of the end-Permian mass extinction on continental habitats and on terrestrial life. Current work suggests that the effects on land were substantial, with massive erosion following the stripping of vegetation, associated with long-term aridification and short-term bursts of warming and acid rain. Wildfires at the Permo-Triassic boundary contributed to the removal of forests and the prolonged absence of forests from the Earth's surface for up to 10 Myr. These physical crises on land impinged on the oceans, suggesting tight interlocking of terrestrial and marine crises. Levels of extinction on land may well have been as high as in the sea, and this is certainly the case for tetrapods. The mass extinction seems to have been less profound for plants and insects, but it is hard at present to disentangle issues of data quality from reductions in abundance and diversity. Several killing agents have been proposed, and of these tetrapods may have succumbed primarily to acid rain, mass wasting, and aridification. Plants may have been more affected by the sudden effects of heating and wildfires, and the crisis for insects has yet to be explored.
New Type of Evidence for Ancient Impacts?
Discovery of mafic impact melt in the center of the Vredefort dome: Archetype for continental residua of early Earth cratering?
Authors:
Cupelli et al
Abstract:
Melting by impact heating is thought to have been a significant process in the modification of early planetary crusts; however, crustally derived melt bodies in ancient terrestrial crust are frequently presumed to be absent due to erosion. Here we demonstrate that in the central basement uplift of the 2.020 Ga Vredefort impact basin (South Africa), components of mafic impact melt have survived amid Archean gneiss as decimeter-scale dikes and lenses of variably foliated gabbronorite. Zircon microstructural, trace element, and isotopic analyses (U-Pb, Lu-Hf) of the gabbronorite reveal a dominant population of 2.02 Ga unshocked igneous zircon with apparent Ti-in-zircon temperatures of 800–900 °C, similar to those from the mafic sublayer of the Sudbury impact melt sheet. Highly negative subchondritic εHf values of –1.4 ± 1.1 to –7.9 ± 1.4 are consistent with a depleted mantle model age of ca. 3 Ga and gabbronorite derivation from the once superjacent Witwatersrand basin lithologies. The recrystallized igneous mineral textures and Archean felsic gneiss inclusions in the gabbronorite are attributable to the effects of emplacement and crater modification following ∼20 km elevation of the central uplift. Long mistaken as preimpact basement, the setting and characteristics of the Vredefort gabbronorite may provide new benchmarks in the search for remnants of large cratering events and melt residua on Earth's cratons.
JP Morgan Blocked Payments by Russian Embassy in Kazakhstan
Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday U.S. bank JP Morgan had "illegally" blocked a payment from its embassy in Kazakhstan to insurance agency Sogaz "under the pretext of anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the United States".
In a statement on its website, the Russian Foreign Ministry suggested the action, which it called "unacceptable, illegal and absurd", would have consequences for the U.S. embassy and consulate in Russia.
JP Morgan gave no immediate comment.
"Washington should understand any hostile action against a Russian diplomatic mission not only constitutes a flagrant violation of international law but is rife with consequences that will inevitably effect the work of the embassy and general consulate of the United States in Russia," the statement said.
Sogaz is partly owned by Abros, according to the Sogaz website. Abros is a subsidiary of Bank Rossiya, according to Russian media reports.
link.
China Pissed at Phillipines Over Attempting to use International Law to Settle South China Sea Disputes
China summoned the Philippines ambassador on Monday to lodge a strong complaint over Manila's seeking of international arbitration in a festering territorial dispute over the South China Sea.
The Philippines filed the case against China on Sunday at an arbitration tribunal in The Hague, subjecting Beijing to international legal scrutiny over the waters for the first time.
The United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines, said on Sunday that the right of any state to use dispute resolution mechanisms under the Convention on the Law of the Sea should be respected.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department accused China's coastguard of "harassment" of Philippine vessels and called its attempt on Saturday to block a Philippine resupply mission to the Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed atoll, "a provocative and destabilizing action."
Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told the Philippines' ambassador that Beijing was "extremely dissatisfied and resolutely opposed" to the case Manila had brought to The Hague, repeating that China did not accept it and would not participate.
"The Philippines forcing of international arbitration is not conducive towards resolving the Sino-Philippine dispute over the South China Sea," the Foreign Ministry cited Liu as saying.
link.
India's Progress Towards National Manned Space Flight
Out of a population of nearly 1.3 billion, only four Indian nationals have received training for a designated spaceflight mission and only one of them actually made it. This week marks the 30th anniversary of Rakesh Sharma’s eight days in space as part of the Soviet’s Interkosmos program in 1984. He never went back and despite announcements in 2006 that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would engage in Human Space Flight (HSF), now in 2014 there is no prospect of an imminent launch of an Indian astronaut by ISRO. However, a single successful rocket launch early this year suggests that ISRO may finally be making some headway.
link.
Tuesday, April 01, 2014
German Chancellor Angel Merkel Embraces "Useful" Crimean Precedent
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that she accepts and embraces the precedent of Russia's action in Crimea.
Merkel broadcast to all Germany giving an impassioned speech filled with several powerful statements:
"I believe that the Europeans, first and foremost, the Russians, will also understand the necessity. Russia should unequivocally support the sincere, unstoppable desire of the Germans for national unity. I am confident Russia will not have forgotten this, and I expect the citizens of Russia will also support the aspirations of Germans, of historical Germany, to restore unity.
"Today, it is imperative to end this hysteria, to refute the rhetoric of the so-called Great Patriotic War and to accept the obvious fact: Germany is an independent, active participant in international affairs. Like other countries, it has its own national interests that need to be taken into account and respected.
"Russia remains a belligerent nation, in our historic territory. I simply cannot imagine that we would travel to Kongisberg to visit Russian sailors. Of course, most of them are wonderful guys, but it would be better to have them come and visit us, be our guests, rather than the other way round."
Germany's Defense Ministry said Tuesday that Merkel ordered the 26th Airborne Brigade to see the rights of German speakers in Kaliningrad. This would followed by the 10th Armored Division, Panzerbrigade 21, and 37th Mechanized Infantry Brigade.
A Merkel spokesman on condition of anonymity said Kommando Spezialkräfte forces were already operating in the country.
Germany has said it has the right to protect German speakers in Prussia, and used that as justification for taking over Kaliningrad which it referred to as Konigsberg.
The State Department said that if true, Washington would welcome the German movement of troops and that the process should be accelerated.
The United States estimates Russia has 5,000 troops within the Kaliningrad Oblast, while Moscow says the number is closer to 100,000.
The French News Agency Tuesday quoted a spokesman for the Polish defense ministry's general staff as saying Russian forces have been "gradually withdrawing" from the Kaliningrad Oblast in recent days -- adding that this could be linked either to a "a regular rotation" or to "the preparations for operations somewhere east, near Rostov-on-Don."
Ms. Merkel's spokesman said the hotline from Moscow kept ringing off the hook and if the Russian intelligence had half a brain it would have figured out her cell phone number by now.
Ms. Merkel's spokesman also said if she and President Putin discussed "possible further steps to rectify the situation" in Prussia, he might not like it.
The Kremlin, for its part, said in a statement Tuesday that Mr. Putin had emphasized in the attempted emergency phone conversation with Ms. Merkel the importance of "territorial integrity" in Kaliningrad Oblast within Russia, "absolute necessity of respect for international law" and "not involving the poor Poles in yet another damned foolish thing."
When asked, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated, "Poles must understand history but we must also overcome it if it is obstructing our contemporary goals." When pressed, Tusk confessed, "I asked Merkel, whom I cannot get angry with, if Poland joined her, we would get to kill Russians? When she said yes, my reply was 'Excellent!' and I rubbed my hands together."
link.
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