Down to Earth - October Extra
Get the latest Down to Earth HERE
Friday, 30 September 2016
Piltdown Man and Teilhard de Chardin
 |
| Eoanthropus dawsoni Was it a hoax gone wrong and who was the hoaxer? I thought it might be a hoax when I read that accompanying the bones was a piece of wood remarkably like a cricket bat. |
More Cambrian Fossils
 |
| Anomalocaridid. H Zell/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA All you want to know about Penis Worms Apparently they get their name from their shape. |
Fossil from China may reveal the origin of legs.
 |
| This millimetre-long fossil is the oldest to preserve muscle fibres. Zhang Xiguang, Author provided The origin of legs? |
Tuesday, 27 September 2016
New water plumes from Jupiter’s moon Europa raise hopes of detecting microbial life
 |
| Composite image of suspected water vapour plumes erupting at the seven o’clock position off the limb of Jupiter’s moon Europa. NASA
The Hubble Space Telescope has obtained evidence of Jupiter’s moon Europa erupting plumes of water vapour, NASA reports. Hubble first caught a glimpse of the jets in December 2012, but now more plumes have been revealed using a different technique.
Shorter version of the story |
Monday, 26 September 2016
Our Atmosphere is Leaking Oxygen!
 |
| Field site where the famous Vostok ice cores, which the present study uses, were drilled in Antarctica. Image: Michael Bender Researchers discovered that over the past 800,000 years, atmospheric oxygen levels have dropped by 0.7 percent. How exactly did they discover the leak? By observing ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, which contain trapped air bubbles representing snapshots of our atmosphere over the past million-odd years. Link to Gizmodo Link to Science article abstract. Subscription needed for full article
Housekeeping note:- You may notice that the links to FeedBlitz and FeedBurner which used to be at the top right of this blog have gone and are replaced by a request to send your email address to me. If you already get emails from me (which is most of you!) you do not need to resend your address. I already have all the addresses from Feedblitz.
We were getting reports that people subscribing through FeedBlitz were being overwhelmed by unsolicited advertising. If I send you the link to the blog in my weekly email you will get the blog ad-free!
If you are a newcomer and wish to subscribe to blog, send me your address. If you wish to un-subscribe also send your address.
|
Friday, 23 September 2016
News from North West Highlands Geopark
 |
| As Channel 4 puts Britan's geological heritage firmly in the lime light the North West Highland's is given special attention in a three part series presented by Dr Tori Herridge. Episode 1 was shot in the Geopark and features one on one discussion with our own Dr Laura Hamlet. |
An anonymous source has brought this to our attention. Note that the first programme is this Saturday.
What is Magma?
“Magma,” definition 5: A confused or disordered body or mass of something.
—Oxford English Dictionary Online (20 September 2016)
The authors of this article argue that we need a more precise definition of magma.
Defining Magma
—Oxford English Dictionary Online (20 September 2016)
 |
| Lava forms ropey pāhoehoe textures. How molten must the subsurface rock that fueled this lava be to get classified as “magma”? Credit: iStock.com/Justin Reznick |
Defining Magma
Wednesday, 21 September 2016
Mendip Rocks
We have recently heard about this. You can get the poster from THIS link. There are lots of interesting events from now to the end of October.
You can find details and times of these events, and others, on the Bristol Geology Calendar.
Thursday, 15 September 2016
Tuesday, 13 September 2016
Wednesday, 7 September 2016
Thursday, 1 September 2016
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)