Ocean Scientists Shed New Light on Mariana Trench
February 7, 2012
An ocean mapping expedition has shed new light on deepest place on Earth, the 2,500-kilometer long Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean near Guam. Using a multibeam echo sounder, state-of-the-art equipment for mapping the ocean floor, scientists from the University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center found four “bridges” spanning the trench and measured its deepest point with greater precision than ever before.
Research professor James Gardner and affiliate professor Andrew Armstrong, both of UNH’s Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/UNH-NOAA Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM/JHC), presented their findings at the recent American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, the world’s largest annual meeting of Earth and planetary scientists.
Mapping the entire Mariana Trench – approximately 400,000 square kilometers — from August through October 2010, the researchers discovered four bridges spanning the trench and rising as high as 2,500 meters above its floor. While satellite images had suggested the trench might be spanned by one such ridge, Gardner says the mapping mission confirmed the existence of four such features. “That got me excited,” he says.
Deforestation Causes Cooling in Northern U.S. and Canada
November 21, 2011
The impact of deforestation on global warming varies with latitude, according to new research from a team of scientists representing 20 institutions from around the world. The surprising finding, which researchers say calls for new climate-monitoring strategies, will be published in the Nov. 17 issue of the journal Nature.
“It depends where the deforestation is,” said UC Davis atmospheric science Professor Kyaw Tha Paw U, a study co-author. “It could have some cooling effects at the regional scale, at higher latitudes, but there’s no indication deforestation is cooling lower latitudes, and in fact may actually cause warming.”
Deepest Explosive Eruption on the Sea Floor
December 21, 2009
Oceanographers using the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason discovered and recorded the first video and still images of a deep-sea volcano actively erupting molten lava on the seafloor.
Jason, designed and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the National Deep Submergence Facility, utilized a prototype, high-definition still and video camera to capture the powerful event nearly 4,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, in an area bounded by Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.
“I felt immense satisfaction at being able to bring [the science team] the virtual presence that Jason provides,” says Jason expedition leader Alberto (Tito) Collasius Jr., who remotely piloted the ROV over the seafloor. “There were fifteen exuberant scientists in the control van who all felt like they hit a home run. “
Yellowstone’s Magma Body Bigger than Previously Thought
December 16, 2009
The most detailed seismic images yet published of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano shows a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth of at least 410 miles, contradicting claims that there is no deep plume, only shallow hot rock moving like slowly boiling soup.
A related University of Utah study used gravity measurements to indicate the banana-shaped magma chamber of hot and molten rock a few miles beneath Yellowstone is 20 percent larger than previously believed, so a future cataclysmic eruption could be even larger than thought.
Environmental Services For Sustainable Developments
December 7, 2009
Environmental services form the core of Government services that keep the modern world free from diseases. Waste management and water treatment ensure that people living in developed countries can go about daily life without fear of contracting diseases that are potentially life threatening. Many people may be aware of the work carried out at water treatment facilities and at landfill sites, but as the concerns for the environment mount, there are moves toward providing sustainable environmental services that maintain the high standards that already exist.
Innovative Environmental Services Turn Biowaste Into Biofuel
December 3, 2009
Sustainable solutions for waste management are on the horizon as more technologies are being developed to find an alternative to traditional waste management. We take a look at the way environmental services are processing biowaste in a bid to provide a greener future for generations to come.
Biowastes come from organic matter such as kitchen scraps, sewage and manure. This category also includes items such as cloth and paper as long as they are not composed of any synthetic materials. Putting this type of waste into a landfill site can create a build up of methane, which in the past has been the cause of an underground fire. Environmental services ensure that there is an outlet for the gas, but this is release a large amount of methane into the atmosphere.
Is Nuclear Power A Solution For Global Warning?
November 25, 2009
It is a difficult argument as nuclear power has always been associated with potential danger but unlike other fossil fuels that release greenhouse gases nuclear power does not. Does this mean that nuclear power could potentially mitigate the effects of global warning? Here in this article we shall look at the advantages of nuclear power and whether it would have an impact on global warning at all.
To Predict Global Climate Change Look to the Sun
September 10, 2008
A trip to the beach during the summer requires the use of proper suntan lotion to prevent a very bad sunburn. In fact, a hot summer day makes us often retreat from the sun into the cover of nearby shade. However, a cold winter day will often make us long for the warmth of the sun’s direct rays.
When we plan each day, it is around the sun. The sun determines our scheduled activities in the daylight and during the dark of each night. The changing seasons are a function of the number of hours of sunlight. So, if the sun is such a factor in our lives each day, why do we not even consider the sun as a catalyst for future global climate change?
The Destructive Effects of Deforestation
September 8, 2008
Mankind is feeling the wrath of nature. It seems that more and more natural disasters are taking place; and this has led to consciousness about the earth’s resources. Forests are the most affected ecosystem in the planet. This is probably due to the fact that basic necessities need trees as a raw material.
What is even more appalling is man’s desire for wider land areas, so they cut off more trees in order to convert the area into a housing community or subdivision; and an agricultural land or worse, a dump site,this perhaps can be the answer to what is deforestation.
Wind Energy
April 7, 2008
Wind energy is a converted form of solar energy. The sun’s radiation heats different parts of the earth at different rates—most notably during the day and night, but also when different surfaces (for example, water and land) absorb or reflect at different rates. This in turn causes portions of the atmosphere to warm differently. Hot air rises, reducing the atmospheric pressure at the earth’s surface, and cooler air is drawn in to replace it. The result is wind.
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