224 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects An Even Larger Ocean Of Life Fred Hoyle has written another book, The Intelligent Universe; A New View of Creation and Evolution. The subject matter is irresistible and, to make things more interesting, New Scientist has published a scathing review of it, castigating Hoyle for his doubts about evolution and terming his approach "dispicable." (My! How conventional people hate unconventional people!) In this new book, Hoyle goes far beyond his previous thesis, which in essence declared that from statistical considerations life could not have arisen and evolved on earth. Rather, life had to come from outer space, probably in the form of bacteria and viruses. Evolution was and is dependent upon new information arriving from outer space on tiny bits of life. Hoyle now greatly extends his theory: "But where did a knowledge of amino acid chains of enzymes come from? To use a geological analogy, the knowledge came from the cosmological equivalent of a previous era, from a previously existing creature if you like, a creature that was not carbon-based, one that was permitted by an environment that existed long ago. So information is handed on in a Universe where the lower symmetries of physics -- and characteristics of particles and atoms -- are slowly changing, forcing the manner of storage of the information to change also in such a way as to match the physics. It is this process that is responsible for our present ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Hint Of Extraterrestrial Oceans The Allende carbonaceous chondrite (a well-known meteorite) contains a layered mineral related to serpentine, which seems to have been formed under aqueous conditions before it was incorporated into the meteoric mass. In the sometimes obscure language of science, the authors say that the unusual characteristics of this mineral may ". .. reflect undetermined extraterrestrial conditions experienced by some chondrules and aggregates." (Tomeoka, Kazushige, and Buseck, Peter R.; "An Unusual Layered Mineral in Chondrules and Aggregates of the Allende Carbonaceous Chondrite," Nature, 299:327, 1982.) Comment. Usually "hydrous" and "sedimentary" meteorites are quickly forgotten! They don't conform to expectations. From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 37: Jan-Feb 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The earth is expanding and we don't know why Let us taunt the geologists now with an idea that many of them consider to be nonsense. The Expanding Earth Hypothesis goes back to at least 1933, a time when the Continental Drift Hypothesis was accorded the same sort of ridicule. Now, Continental Drift is enthroned; and ironically many of its strongest proponents are vehemently opposed to the Expanding Earth, ignoring the lessons of history. The data that suggest that the earth has expanded significantly over geological time come from the pleasant pastime of continent fitting. If one takes the pieces of continental and oceanic crust and tries to fit them together at various times over the past several hundred million years, taking into account the production of crust at the midocean ridges, the fit gets worse and worse as one works backward in time. Great gaps (or "gores") appear between the pieces of crust which geologists believed existed at these periods. (Of course, one can play this puzzle-piece game only at passive continent-ocean boundaries where the oceanic crust has not slid under the continental crust. The South Atlantic is a good place to work.) These embarrassing, grotesque gaps can be made to disappear almost as if by magic by assuming that the earth was smaller in the past. This seems, on the surface, to be a crazy idea. Why would an entire planet swell up like a balloon? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unidentified Phenomena September 17, 1982. South Atlantic Ocean. 2103 GMT on a clear dark night. "The first thing noticed was the formation of a bright patch of white light in the general area between Rasalhague and Alphecca. Gradually a dark eye formed in the centre of the patch in which shortly afterwards a very bright object appeared like a star of magnitude -2 . After one or two seconds this object appeared to undergo a tremendous explosion and became a large bright orange gaseous fireball, which appeared to be hurled earthwards directly down the observer's line of sight, growing constantly larger and larger. One witness described the fireball as resembling rolling orange smoke. The ball then ceased to increase in size, giving the impression that it had stopped. Its orange colour rapidly gave way to rainbow colours which gradually gave way to white and faded in brilliance until all that remained were several patches of luminous white light, although these were impressive in their own right." A similar phenomenon was noted the following night, although the ship was 7 farther south. September 18, 1982. South Atlantic Ocean. From a different ship in the same area as the one above. "The altitude of the first sighting was approximately 24 , level with the planet Jupiter and offset to its right. The six subsequent bursts were above the first, and slightly to the right, leaving a fantail of purple/white lenticular clouds which leaned ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects When The Earth Shifted Gears No one really knows just how the terrestrial magnetic field is generated or why it has reversed its direction so frequently in past geological time. Per-haps there is a clue in the following correlation: "The Mesozoic-Cenozoic histories of reversals in the earth's magnetic field and of periods of widespread anoxia in the ocean basins show a remarkable correlation; periods of black-shale deposition (' anoxic events') occur during lengthy periods without magnetic reversals (' quiet periods'). My assembly of published work indicates a remote connection between quiet periods and anoxic events and suggests its form: Magnetic quiet periods coincide with fast seafloor spreading. During these periods, buoyant spreading ridges displace seawater into broad shelves, thus decreasing earth's albedo and causing global warming. Temperature gradients, and thus density gradients, from pole to equator decrease in surface waters, and the deep ocean currents of oxygenated polar waters wane. Oxygen minimum zones intensify and widen; anoxic conditions throughout entire basins are indicated by black shales deposited in the deep sea. These relations thus suggest that the earth's interior processes and its climates are related and their status recorded by both magnetic polarity and anoxic event chronologies of the earth." (Force, Eric R.; "A Relation among Geomagnetic Reversals, Seafloor Spreading Rate, Paleoclimate, and Black Shales," Eos, 65:18, 1984.) Comment ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 24: Nov-Dec 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Polyna Mystery "Polyna" is a Russian word meaning "an enclosed area of unfrozen water surrounded by ice." Polynas form for some unknown reason in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. These transient ice-free "lakes" may cover 300,000 square kilometers, inferring a substantial influx of heat countering the frigid polar temperatures. Although small coastal polynas can be blown free of ice by strong Antarctic winds, the open-ocean polynas are much larger and do not seem to owe their origins to wind. One suggested explanation is that warm subsurface water rises suddenly to the surface, but it takes a lot of heat to keep hundreds of thousands of square kilometers ice-free. The most recent polyna opened up a region of the Weddell Sea for about three years (1973-1976). (Simon, C.; "Polynas Surrounded by Ice and Mystery," Science News, 122:183, 1982.) From Science Frontiers #24, NOV-DEC 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 38: Mar-Apr 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Life In The Dark Two most interesting discovery have been made recently in deep ocean waters. First, abundant plant life has been found at depths of up to 268 meters, well beyond the 200-meter limit biologists had set based on the availability of sunlight. It wasn't difficult to discount photosynthetic life at 268 meters, because light there is only 0.0005% that at the surface. But there it was; and it may be found even deeper now that we've taken off the blinders. (Littler, Mark M., et al; "Deepest Known Planet Life Discovered on an Uncharted Seamount," Science, 227:57, 1985.) The second discovery came at 10,000 feet in the Gulf of Mexico. There, scientists in the submersible Alvin found a well-developed community of large clams, crabs, mussels, and tube worms, which closely resembles those around the Pacific hydrothermal vents. These life colonies do not use sunlight at all, nor do they depend on other life forms based on solar energy. They employ chemosynthesis, and the hydrogen sulfide and other substances in the vented waters replace sunlight. Although there are no obvious vents at the Gulf of Mexico site, the waters there contain plenty of hydrogen sulfide, indicating seepage from somewhere. The life forms are all new to science, although they resemble those in the Pacific. (Anonymous; "Worms without ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 38: Mar-Apr 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Whales And Dolphins Trapped Magnetically Joseph L. Kirschvink, of the California Institute of Technology, has plotted the hundreds of beachings of whales and dolphins along the U.S . east coast. He finds that these cetaceans tend to run aground at spots where the earth's magnetic field is diminished by the local magnetic fields of rocks. These coastal magnetic lows are at the ends of long, continuous channels of magnetic minima that run for great distances along the ocean floors. Kirschvink believes that the stranded whales and dolphins were using these magnetic troughs for navigation and failed to see the stop sign at the beaches and ran aground. The mag-netic troughs in this view are superhighways for animals equipped with a magnetic sense. If Kirschvink's theory is correct, the magnetic sensors of the whales and dolphins are extremely sensitive, because the deepest magnetic troughs are only about 4% weaker than the background magnetic field. Magnetite crystals have been found in birds, fish, and insects, where they are thought to contribute to a magnetic sense of some sort. So far, no magnetite has shown up in whales and dolphins. (Weisburd, S.; "Whales and Dolphins Use Magnetic 'Roads,' Science News, 126:389, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 38: Mar-Apr 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unidentified Object April 9, 1983. North Atlantic Ocean. From the n.v . Dorsetshire. "At 2304 GMT, Mr. Haney pointed out a bright white object in the sky. It was bearing approximately 360 (T ) at an elevation of about 40 . It was moving rapidly southwards across the sky, leaving a bright trail behind it, like an afterglow. Also trailing astern of the object was a light trail of sparks (possibly large solid particles). The object disappeared behind clouds, bearing about 170 (T ) at an elevation of approximately 35 , and lighting the edges of the clouds. The time taken for the passage was around 20 seconds. It was obviously a very large object, judging from its apparent size as seen from sea level. The impression given was that of an object within the atmosphere, easily showing around a one-penny piece held at arm's length." (Edwards, R.A .F .; "Unidentified Flying Object," Marine Observer, 54:82, 1984) Comment. This seems to be a description of a large fireball, but the direction of flight (north-south) is unusual and the time of passage (20 seconds) extremely long for a meteor. Large, very sluggish fireball trailing sparks over the North Atlantic. From Science Frontiers #38, MAR-APR 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 29: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Astronomy And Earthquakes "Large earthquakes in southern California with epicenters between 33 and 36 N have statistically significant 12 hourly, lunar fortnightly and 18.6 -yr periodicities. Smaller earthquakes in the same region do not display these periodicities. A search for tidal effects associated with these periodicities shows that large earthquakes have significant correlations with the times and orientations of daily/semi-daily tidal stresses while the lunar fortnightly terms are associated with the ocean tides along the Southern Californian coast." (Kilston, S., and Knopoff, L; "Lunar-Solar Periodicities of Large Earthquakes in Southern California," Nature, 304:21, 1983.) Comment. The literature contains many similar correlations for quakes of various sizes, for various restricted geographical areas, and for various depths. Many of these studies are summarized in our Catalog volume Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds. For more information on this book, visit: here . One tidal strain component (normalized) plotted for 20 days before and after the earthquake of June 25, 1925, showing the large fortnightly modulation of the diurnal tide. Curiously (perhaps anomalously) the quake occurred during a period of minimum strain. From Science Frontiers #29, SEP-OCT 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 34: Jul-Aug 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Strange Object In The Sky January 20, 1983, 0515 GMT. The m.v . Baron Pentland was drifting off Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. A report was heard on the Christmas Island Radio that an object had been spotted high in the sky to the west of the island. The officers of the Baron Pentland picked up the object with binoculars and sextant. "First thoughts were that this was the satellite Cosmos 1402, but this was dismissed as it was a day too early and it was not moving fast enough. In fact it appeared stationary to the naked eye. Another school of thought was that this was a weather balloon. As can be seen from the simple sketch, it was unlike any weather balloon previously seen by the observers. It was of a squat cylinder shape, wider than it was tall. The circle at the bottom appeared to be dimly lit with a pale blue colour. The 'torso' was almost invisible, even with binoculars, giving the impression that there were two distinct and separate lights. The top 'light' appeared to be a dome atop the main body and it was extremely bright. By wedging the binoculars in the bridge doorway, it was possible to gain a very steady view as the vessel's main propulsion system was shut down and the seas were light. Thus a clearer picture was obtained and in this way the object was identified as being cylindrical ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 25: Jan-Feb 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Gas Hydrates And The Bermuda Triangle Gas hydrates are stable, solid lattices of water molecules, in which the water molecules are hydrogen-bonded into hollow spheres or oblate spheroids in which gas molecules are enclosed. They are not true compounds, but rather clathrates or inclusion compounds. They often form in huge masses in ocean-bottom sediments and, if disturbed by slumping or some other stimulus, can release immense quantities of gas bubbles. These gases rise to the surface, subdivided en route, and reach the surface as a huge upwelling of frothy, low-density fluid. A ship cannot float in such low-density fluids. If a large plume rose above the sea's surface, aircraft passing through it would lose engine power. Quoting the final paragraph: "Intermittent natural gas blowouts from hydrate-associated gas accumulations, therefore, might explain some of the many mysterious disappearances of ships and planes -- particularly in areas where deep-sea sediments contain large amounts of gas in the form of hydrate. This may be the circumstance off the southeast coast of the United States, an area noted for numerous disappearances of ships and aircraft." (McIver, Richard D.; "Role of Naturally Occurring Gas Hydrates in Sediment Transport," American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin, 66:789, 1982.) From Science Frontiers #25, JAN-FEB 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... They waded out, talking soothingly to the whales, and keeping their skins wet. When the tide came back in and refloated the whales, the New Zealanders turned them around and tried to guide them to deeper waters. Sometimes refloated cetaceans just turn around and reground themselves again, but this time the pilot whales were fortunate. A school of dolphins fishing offshore somehow apprehended the situation and swam into the shallows around the pilot whales. The dolphins then guided them out to sea. 76 of the pilot whales were thus saved. In a similar incident 5 years earlier at Whangarei harbor, a helicopter followed the dolphins and whales several miles out to sea, confirming interspecies aid. Such stories are reminiscent of those where drowning humans are helped by dolphins. (Anonymous; "Dolphin Pilots," Oceans, 17:50, 1984.) Reference. More instances where dolphins have come to the aid of humans are presented in BHX3 in Biological Anomalies: Humans III. Ordering information is located here . From Science Frontiers #35, SEP-OCT 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... - at least the shapes of the particles are characteristic of bacterial manufacture. Apparently these industrious bacteria have been busy producing magnetite ever since "lowly" life forms appeared in the Precambrian. These facts pose at least four questions: How much of the earth's iron ore has been concentrated biologically and is there a connection with the Gaia Hypothesis? Is it possible that magnetic field reversals, now believed to be of purely geophysical origin, might be biological artifacts (that is, due to population and/ or species changes of magnetic bacteria)? If magnetic field reversals are of geophysical origin, how do the magnetic bacteria find their food sources during the long periods of near-zero field? Lab experiments prove that magnetic bacteria require free oxygen to secrete magnetite, but the Precambrian atmosphere and oceans were supposedly devoid of oxygen until 2.3 billion years ago. How did the magnetic bacteria prosper before then? (Simon, C.; "Tiniest Fossils May Record Magnetic Field," Science News, 124:308, 1983.) From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 9: Winter 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Ancient Dispersal Of Useful Plants George F. Carter, a noted geographer, summarizes the botanical evidence for early transoceanic voyages. Domestic cotton. Thousands of years old in the Americas; believed to be a hybrid between New World wild cotton and species from southwest Africa. Bottle gourds. Of African origin but known in Peru about 11,000 years ago; dispersible by ocean currents but appeared in Peru only after humans learned how to navigate on the oceans. Sweet potatoes. A New World plant that has been known in Polynesia for at least 500 years; but the South American name for the sweet potato (kumara) turns out to be a Sanskrit word from India, which is most perplexing. Coconuts. Arrived in the Americas from the Indian Ocean region via Polynesia; can be dispersed by ocean currents, but this long eastward voyage would have been counter to many currents. Peanuts. Well-established on the Peruvian coast thousands of years ago, but the same variety was known in preShang China before 1500 BC. (Carter, George F.; "Kilmer's Law: Plant Evidence of Early Voyages," Oceans, 12:8 , 1979.) Reference. Our Handbook Ancient Man contains much more evidence for Precolumbian contacts with the New World. Information on this large volume is located at: here . From Science Frontiers #9 , Winter 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 21: May-Jun 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects What's ok in the mediterranean is verboten in the atlantic and the pacific Geologists and geophysicists have now satisfied themselves that a few million years ago the Mediterranean dried up nearly completely. The Deep Sea Drilling Project discovered in 1970 and 1975 that layers of evaporites existed beneath the Mediterranean's floor. In addition, over 80 years ago, the bed of the Rhone River was found to consist of river sands and gravels superimposed upon hundreds of feet of oceanic sediments. Beneath these deposits -- some 3000 feet down -- was a gorge cut in granitic rock. Other rivers emptying into the Mediterranean had cut similar gorges into solid rock long ago. No one could provide an acceptable explanation for the deep-cut gorges until the evaporites proved that the water level had been low enough for the rivers to cut the gorges subaerially. In other words, the Mediterranean's level fell several thousand feet, allowing the rivers to erode gorges much as the Colorado does today in the Grand Canyon. (Smith, E.G . Walton; "When the Mediterranean Went Dry," Sea Frontiers, 28:66, 1982.) Comment. The Med's buried gorges are obviously close cousins of the many submarine canyons found around the world's continental shelves. Most geologists strongly resist any explanation of the submarine canyons involving subaerial erosion, because no one believes the oceans ever dropped thousands of feet. True, the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 19: Jan-Feb 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Stratum Shuffling At Plate Boundaries In March 1981, the Glomar Challenger was drilling into the oceanic sediments north of Barbados. Here, oceanic sediments are apparently being scraped off the oceanic plate as it thrusts under the North American plate. As a result, older Miocene deposits now overlie younger Pliocene deposits. Direct observations of the pressure in the zone where the shearing occurs showed it to be some 20 bars higher than the equilibrium pressure of 550 bars. This higher pressure may support the theory that low-angle thrust faults many kilometers wide are physically possible because high pressure fluids lubricate the shear zone, allowing massive thicknesses of sediments to slide over one another without resulting in wholesale fracturing and obvious damage. (Anderson, Roger, N.; "Surprises from the Glomar Challenger," Nature, 293:261, 1981.) Comment. Scientific creationists have long thought that the many low-angle thrust faults, where many miles of older rock are superimposed on younger rock, contradict geological dating schemes and therefore the theory of evolution. Establishment geologists, although somewhat amazed at the sizes of some of the overthrusts, especially one in Wyoming, have never despaired of finding a reasonable physical mechanism that would preserve the Law of Superposition and the idea of dating rocks by their included fossils. The Glomar Challenger results should buoy their spirits. Nev-ertheless, we must wonder how widespread stratum shuffling really is. What stratigraphic sequence is now immune ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 7: June 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects More Milky Seas Seen August 4, 1977. Indian Ocean. The s.s . British Renown enetered a large area of milky sea. The intensity of light was so great that the deck appeared to be just a dark shadow. During the display, humidity seemed to increase and the radio operator reported a decrease in signal strengths at HF and MF frequencies. September 6, 1977. Indian Ocean. An area of bioluminescence resembling white sea fog was spotted near the m.v . Wild Curlew. Entering the area, the milky light seemed to hover above the sea's surface. So strong was the light that the clouds above were illuminated. (Anonymous; "Bioluminescence," Marine Observer, 48:118, 1978.) Reference. Section GLW9 in our Catalog: Lightning, Auroras collects many more observations of milky seas. For more information on this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #7 , June 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 9: Winter 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects An Ancient Planet Beneath A Youthful Veneer Gerald Wesserburg and Donald de Paolo, two California geologists, have studied the isotopic ratios of neodymium 143 and 144 in both continental and deep-sea lavas. If the underground lava sources were the same, the isotope ratios should be the same. But they are not. Midocean lavas are enriched in neodymium143 compared to continental lavas. Since neodymium-143 is a decay product of samarium, scientists have been able to establish the neodymium isotope ratio from the time of the Big Bang to the present. The isotope ratio for the mid-ocean lavas is just what would be expected on a planet where lighter surface materials had come to the surface during a molten state. The continental lavas, though, must tap very ancient reservoirs, possibly those of a true primitive earth. This ancient core is now swathed with younger materials from who knows where! This young envelope wraps around the whole planet, with the present continents being caused by slight protuberances on the ancient core. Whence the young veneer? A rain of material from some recent close encounter? (Anonymous; "Underground Sites of Ancient Earth," New Scientist, 83:886, 1979.) From Science Frontiers #9 , Winter 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 19: Jan-Feb 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Why so little lightning at sea?Using satellite data, Richard Orville and Bernard Vonnegut have compiled maps showing the global distribution of lightning at night. (At present, satellites can detect only nighttime flashes.) As might be expected, the flashes are strongly concentrated in the earth's tropical regions. The feature of the maps that is most difficult to understand is the very obvious dearth of lightning over the world's oceans. (Anonymous; "Patterns of Thunderbolts," New Scientist, 92:102, 1981.) Comment. Reinforcing these modern quantitative observations are the centuries-old speculations on why thunder is heard so rarely by mariners. From Science Frontiers #19, JAN-FEB 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 23: Sep-Oct 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Remarkable Engineering Design In Nature Two unusual examples of inspired design in nature have been described recently: (1 ) The swordfish possesses special tissues rich in mitochrondria and cytochrome-c that generate heat for the animal's eye and brain. Not only do these heating elements keep the swordfish eye and brain significantly warmer than the surrounding water but they also keep these organs warm and thus more effective during deep dives into the cold ocean depths. (Carey, Francis G.; "A Brain Heater in the Swordfish," Science, 216:1327, 1982.) (2 ) Plants, it seems, developed light pipes long before humans. Certain plant tissues (etiolated or dark-grown) act as multiple bundles of optical fibers and coherently transfer light over distances of at least 2 cm. Optical tests show that these natural light pipes are much more effective transmitters of light than media that simply scatter light. This unsuspected sophistication of Nature's design may require significant revisions in photobiology, which did not allow for such ingenuity. (Smith , Harry; "Light-Piping by Plant Tissues," Nature, 298:423, 1982.) Comment. Since some plants are known to emit light, we would not be surprised, the way things are going, to learn of natural plant lasers! From Science Frontiers #23, SEP-OCT 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 23: Sep-Oct 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Zoom Lens In The Atmosphere June 29, 1981. South Atlantic Ocean. At 1700 GMT, the master and third officer of the Rockhampton Star observed a vessel at a distance of 6 nautical miles. Its appearance was normal for that distance. At 12 n.m ., however, it was magnified four times over what it should have been for that distance. At 16 n.m ., the apparent magnification was eight. The interesting aspects of this phenomenon are: Increasing magnification with distance; and The magnified image was perfect in two dimensions and not distorted along the vertical axis as is usually the case in abnormal refraction. (White, A.H .; "Abnormal Refraction," Marine Observer, 52:80, 1982.) Comment. What kind of stable atmospheric lens can do this? Reference. Phenomena like that above are termed "telescopic mirages." These are cataloged at GEM2 in Rare Halos, Mirages. For a description of this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #23, SEP-OCT 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 7: June 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unwanted Noise On The Terrestrial Tape Recorder The hypothesis of continental drift and sea-floor spreading depends heavily upon the strip-like magnetic anomalies that parallel the active ocean ridges. Molten material pushing out along these ridges spreads out, solidifies, and is magnetized by the prevailing terrestrial magnetic field. Thus, the spreading sea floor becomes a "tape Recorder" preserving the record of changing terrestrial polarity over the past several hundred million years. As one drills into this thin conveyor-belt/tape-recorder, one would expect to encounter only rocks of one polarity. Not so! Some of the holes drilled by the Deep Sea Drilling Project have passed through several polarity zones. To illustrate, core 395A from the mid-Atlantic ridge is magnetized normally for the upper 170 meters, reversely for the next 310 meters, and normally again for 40 meters. Is the tape-recorder idea therefore incorrect? Some scientists argue that it is and that the whole modern edifice of plate tectonics is suspect. (Anonymous; "Testing Vine-Matthews," Open Earth, p. 28, April 1979.) From Science Frontiers #7 , June 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 14: Winter 1981 Supplement Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Worms with inside-out stomachs The recently discovered tube worms, living near the hot water vents on the ocean bottom off the Galapagos, have no mouths or guts. Their bodies are covered with thousands of feathery tentacles, each packed with blood vessels. Apparently, the tube worms extract nutrients directly from the sea water and expel wastes the same way -- having in effect external stomachs. These worms, which may be many feet long, contain enzymes that permit them to extract carbon dioxide from the seawater and fix it much like plants do during photosynthesis. George Somero, at Scripps, estimates that the enzyme levels in the worms are similar to those in a spinach leaf. (Anonymous; "15-Foot Sea Worm Has Plant Qualities," San Diego Evening Tribune, May 22, 1980. UPI dispatch) Comment. This curious biological anomaly developed in an ecological niche where the primary energy source for sustaining life is geothermal rather than solar. How did this remarkable situation arise? Do the tube worms have relatives in the fossil record showing a step-by-step development of inside-out stomachs? From Science Frontiers #14, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 6: February 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Humps Of Particles In The Gulf Stream Peculiar humps or hills of particulate material, thousands of feet long and hundreds high, have been observed in the Florida Current with ultrasensitive, 20-kilohertz sonar. The humps extend from the bottom of the oceanic mixed layer to near the surface. Sediment and plankton probably make up the humps, but the actual constitution and cause of the concentrations are unknown. Conceivably, currents could concentrate the particulate matter; so could some sort of coordinated, collective biological activity. (Proni, John R., et al; "Vertical Particulate Spires or Walls within the Florida Current and near the Antilles Current," Nature, 276:360, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #6 , February 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... of coral, scientists hope to spot natural and man-made changes in global chemistry. For example, the large-scale use of fossil fuels should depress the ratio by adding carbon-12 in undue quanti ties. The advent of the nuclear age boosts the ratio through the addition of carbon-14 to the environment. Predictably, the carbon ratio rises dramatical ly after 1950 (the bomb tests, etc.). Before this date, however, anomalies crop up: Coral-ring and tree-ring data differ substantaially when they should not; Coral-ring carbon ratios from relatively close locales, such as Bermuda (solid line) and the Florida Keys (dashed line), also differ significantly. Item 1 might be due to non-atmospheric carbon upwelling in deep-ocean water; but this would not explain the Bermuda and Florida discrepancies. (Anonymous; "Carbon-14 Variations in Coral," Open Earth, No. 3 p. 30, 1979 Comment. These discrepancies are particularly relevant to the carbon-14 dating of seashells, which often produces wildly incorrect ages. From Science Frontiers #8 , Fall 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 16: Summer 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Paradox Of The Drowned Carbonate Platforms The biological processes that build carbonate reefs and platforms are so efficient that platform growth potential is easily several times the rate of average geological subsidence or sea-level rise. Therein lies the paradox: the geological record is full of drowned carbonate platforms, inferring that the sea has frequently engulfed them in episodes that must be termed catastrophic. Since the usual long-term geologic processes are clearly inadequate, Schlager proposes several more violent schemes; including massive submarine volcanism (Middle Cretaceous) and extraterrestrial deterioration of the oceanic biological environment (Lake Devonian). (Schlager, Wolfgang; "The Paradox of Drowned Reefs and Carbonate Platforms," Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 92:197, 1981.) Reference. See Category ETE2 in our Catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds, for more on drowned sections of crust. More on this book can be found here . From Science Frontiers #16, Summer 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... the supposedly pristine air of Alaska is defiled by a peculiar haze concentrated at about 10,000 feet. The sky has a whitish, diffuse look; from an airplane the horizon seems to disappear entirely. Is the haze due to pollutants in this remote region? Recent studies indicate two components in the haze: (1 ) Dust, and (2 ) Sulfuric acid droplets. Both of these must be imported because there are no sources of such materials in the arctic. Violent wind storms in the Gobi Desert may carry some dust into the arctic. Strong winds might also transport sulphuric acid from Japanese industries to Alaska. These are speculations, though, and no one is sure where this haze comes from or how far it extends beyond Alaska into the stable, stagnant air over the Arctic Ocean. (Anonymous; "Alaska's Imported Haze," Mozaic, 9:41, September/October 1978.) From Science Frontiers #6 , February 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... east and west. Once the vessel reached the point where the cloud touched the surface, the visibility was reduced to approximately 1.5 n. mile. Whilst the vessel was passing the cloud, the barograph trace fell almost vertically and both the air and sea temperatures dropped several degrees." (Shepherd, F.; "Cloud," Marine Observer, 51:107, 1981.) Comment. This is just one more mysterious cloud arch, but on a very small scale. What bizarre meteorological conditions create such strange structures? Reference. Other unusual cloud phenomena may be found in Section GWC in our Catalog: Tornados, Dark Days. For more information on this book, visit: here . A curious cloud arch in the Strait of Gibralta. The ends terminated in the ocean at points 4 miles apart. From Science Frontiers #20, MAR-APR 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 13: Winter 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Violent Undersea Weather Long lines of frothing, turbulent water and transitory packets of large waves occasionally sweep across an otherwise placid sea. Usually dismissed as "rips," satellite photos reveal that these disturbances may be 125 miles long. Often several can be seen criss-crossing an ocean simultaneously from different directions. Some have a 12.5 -hour period. linking them to lunar tidal action. The surface manifestations, like the tip of the iceberg, only hint at what transpires beneath the surface. The long corridors of disturbance, moving at about 5 mph, mark where "internal waves" intersect the surface. Down be-low, submarines and other objects may suddenly rise or fall as much as 600 feet. Internal waves may in fact have caused several submarine disasters. How are internal waves created? Tid-al waters may spill over an undersea sill or ledge, creating a travelling disturbance. Some oceanographers liken the internal waves to the lee waves formed parallel to large mountain ranges. Manifestly, there is much to learn about undersea weather. (Anonymous; "Underwater Waves Held a Possible Clue to Disappearances of U.S . Submarines," Baltimore Sun, October 5, 1980.) Reference. We collect observations of periodic bands of waves under GHW2 in our Catalog: Earthquakes, Tides. To order, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #13, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... almost immediately while the fluid containing the parent atoms passes on. R.V . Gentry objects that mica is almost im permeable and that we must consider the possibility that our concepts of geological time are grotesquely wrong. York energetically defends established Geology using radioactive dating and paleontological arguments. His contempt of Gentry's position is scarcely veiled. This paper is an excellent review of the piechroic halo problem as well as a classic defense of the scientific status quo. (York, Derek; "Polonium Halos and Geochronology," EOS, 60:617, 1979.) Comment. York does not mention Gentry's years of careful work that led him to his heresy, nor are the many objections to radioactive dating discussed. It reminds one of the confident assertions of the permanency of the ocean basins made only a few years ago. York might be correct, but the "we now know that" approach is disturbing. From Science Frontiers #9 , Winter 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... and that the moment of extinction was coupled with anomalous trace element enrichments, especially of iridium and osmium. The rarity of these two elements in the crust of the Earth indicates that an extraterrestrial source, such as the impact of a large meteorite may have provided the required amounts of iridium and osmium." (Smit, J., and Hertogen, J.; "An Extraterrestrial Event at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary," Nature, 285:198, 1980.) "Evidence is presented indicating that the extinction, at the end of the Cretaceous, of large terrestrial animals was caused by atmospheric heating during a cometary impact and that the extinction of calcareous marine plankton was a consequence of poisoning by cyanide released by the fallen comet and of a catastrophic rise in calcitecompensation depth in the oceans after the detoxification of the cyanide." (Hsu, Kenneth J.; "Terrestrial Catastrophe Caused by Cometary Impact at the End of Cretaceous," Nature, 285:201, 1980.) From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 18: Nov-Dec 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Iridium-rich layers and catastrophism Kyte et al have discovered a 2.3 -millionyear-old sedimentary layer under the Antarctic Ocean that contains iridium and gold concentrations comparable to those in the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. The noble metals are mostly contained in millimeter-sized grains that resemble ablation debris from a large extraterrestrial object. Unlike the Cre taceous-Tertiary episode, however, the newly found layer is not accompanied by evidence of mass biological extinctions. (Kyte, Frank T., et al; "High Noble Metal Concentrations in a Late Pliocene Sediment," Nature, 292:417, 1981.) Comment. Perhaps those paleontologists who deny the existence of sudden biological extinctions at the CretaceousTertiary boundary are correct and something else besides catastrophism impacted terrestrial life at that juncture. Reference. The implications of iridium "spikes" are found in Category ESB1 in our Catalog: Anomalies in Geology. To order, go to: here . From Science Frontiers #18, NOV-DEC 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... spend his life collecting data and weighing possible explanations. After 50 years, he has concluded that these colossal submarine features have no single cause. Subaerial erosion, turbidity currents, submarine slumping, and faulting have all played roles. Anomalists will be most interested in Shepard's insistence that the evidence shows that subaerial erosion has played a major part in carving out the submarine canyons. This explanation is definitely frowned upon by most geologists because the Pleistocene sea levels dropped only about 100 meters according to current thinking. How could subaerial erosion account for canyons several thousand feet below present sea level? Shepard persists; the evidence is there. The continental margins must have risen and then sank back! He also points out that the Mediterranean seems to have dried up in recent geological times. Could the major oceans have dropped thousands of feet in a similar fashion? Shepard doesn't intimate this, saying only that the submarine canyons still present puzzles. (Shepard, Francis P.; "Submarine Canyons: Multiple Causes and Long-Time Persistence," American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin, 65:1062, 1981.) Reference. We catalog submarine-canyon anomalies under ETV1 in Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds. For more information on this book, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #17, Fall 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 2: January 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Another Indian Ocean Light Wheel March 27, 1976. Position 10 N., 101 E. "At 1917 GMT, C.J .A . Cladingbowl, the Second Officer of the s.s . Benattow saw pulsating parallel bands of light rushing toward the ship from 045 T. After two to three minutes, the bands assumed a spoke formation with the center of rotation unseen but in the direction of 315 T. The spokes were about 22 m in width, with 22 m between each spoke. Rotating clockwise, the spokes swept past the vessel at ever increasing speeds, reaching two spokes per second maximum. By 1925, the display had reverted to the parallel band form. Then, the bands changed into a counterclockwise rotating wheel. The performance ended when the display again reverted to parallel bands and faded out altogether. The light from the spokes was white to light green and its intensity increased with the speed of rotation." (Cowie, R.E .; "Bioluminescence," Marine Observer, 47:17, 1977.) Reference. Lightwheels and other weird forms of bioluminescence are cataloged in Chapter GLW of Lightning, Auroras. For details, see: here . A = Locus of Center of spoke formation at beginning B = Ship's course C = Locus of center of spoke formation at end D = Advancing bands of light E = Direction of movement of spoke formation From Science Frontiers #2 , ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 1: September 1977 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects New England Seamounts Once Near Surface Exploration of the New England Seamount chain by the research submarine Alvin confirmed that some of these peaks, now all a kilometer or more below the surface, were once at or above the surface of the ocean. This undersea mountain chain contains more than 30 major peaks and stretches 1,600 miles southeast from the New England coast. Deep-sea dredging has previously brought up Eocene limestone of shallow-water origin from the submerged mountain tops, but the Alvin explorations resulted in the first eye-witness accounts of dead coral (which grows only near the surface) and rock samples containing strands of dead algae that grows only within 100 meters of the surface. The New England Seamounts have therefore either subsided on the order of a kilometer since Eocene times or sealevel has altered drastically. The Alvin dives also discovered a series of very striking and perplexing buttes obviously the results of erosion (see drawing on cover). The buttes are apparently composed of volcanic rock and are only a few meters high. Some unexplained, extremely vesicular (holefilled) rocks seen on the sea floor during the dives seem to be identical to samples occasionally dredged up and formerly classified as cinders jettisoned from old steamships. The underwater surveys suggested that these "cinders" have a natural (still mysterious) origin. (Heirtzler, J.R ., et al; "A Visit to the New England Seamounts," American Scientist, ...
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... Project Sourcebook Subjects A Sinuous Line Of Sea Snakes In the Malacca Straits, on May 4, 1932, a surface congregation of sea snakes 10 feet wide and 60 miles long was observed. Helicopter pilots off Viet Nam and Pakistan have reported similar but much smaller concentrations. Groups of several thousand have also been noted in Panama Bay. This tendency to gather in great numbers at the surface is an enigmatic aspect of sea snakes. One possible answer may lie in the surface feeding habits of some species, such as the yellow-bellied sea snake. These creatures seem to float passively on the sea surface, feeding and reproducing, letting the winds and currents accumulate them in long drift lines. (Minton, Sherman A., and Heatwole, Harold; "Snakes and the Sea," Oceans, 11:53, April 1978.) From Science Frontiers #4 , July 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 89: Sep-Oct 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects RHYTHMIC SUBMARINE VOLCANOS AND EL NINOS An El Nino commences when a giant high pressure system centered near Easter Island weakens slightly and causes a shift in the circulation of Pacific Ocean currents. Weather patterns from North America to Australia lurch ponderously in sympathy. El Ninos occur every 4-7 years, suggesting some periodic phenomenon is waving a geophysical baton. The real cause of El Ninos is still obscure. However, the recent discovery of over 1,000 previously unmapped submarine volcanos rising from the seafloor in the eastern Pacific may lead to El Nino's source. The synchronous eruption of, say, 100 of these volcanos might warm the ocean around Easter Island a tad -- just enough to warm the atmosphere above a bit -- resulting in a shift of the high pressure area. The area of intense volcanic activity covers 55,000 square miles of sea floor where the Pacific and Nazca plates are separating. In addition to the active volcanos, many plumes of 800 F water gush from the sea floor in this area. The volcano-El Nino link is, therefore, not so far-fetched. (Nash, Nathaniel C.; "Volcano Group in Pacific May Cause El Nino," Pittsburgh Post Gazette, February 14, 1993. Cr. E. Fegert) Comment. If submarine volcanos do cause the El Ninos, and the El Ninos are periodic, the submarine volcanism would have to be periodic, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 130: Jul-Aug 2000 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Still Another East-Coast Pre-Clovis Dig There are More Pyramids in Sudan than All of Egypt Astronomy Anomalous High Altitude Luminosity (AHAL) Biogenic Magnetite in ALH84001 The Drifters Biology Attention, Pupils! Has Human Evolution Been Directed by Bacteria? The Midi-Chlorians are with Us ! Geology Baikal: The Inland Ocean Bog Breath Geophysics The Saguenay Earthquake Lights Hailstorms as Imaginative Sculptors Psychology Epiphanies as Vascular Anomalies! Physics Two Wrong-Way Phenomena! Unclassified A Magic Square with a Magic Product The Wimpatch ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 126: Nov-Dec 1999 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A PARADE OF EARLY VISITORS TO AMERICA Ancient stage design Astronomy It's all in the seeing It's all in the believing Biology Swimming up the wrong streams Knismesis and gargalesis Geology Flotsam on the great sand sea Geophysics Towering shafts of light Icy comets, oceans, life Psychology The number module The vegetable connection ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 146: Mar-Apr 2003 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Equator Correction Did the Ainu Reach Mexico? An Iron-Age Spread Coon Cats Continued Astronomy The Alien Planets The Bottom Two-Thirds of a Cosmological Iceberg Biology The Outer Ocean of Life The Shape-Shifting Icon Biology's "Dark Matter" Did ID (Intelligent Design) have Dimensional Limits? Geology The KTB Bombardment D'Émeraudes en Forme de Coquillages Geophysics The Possible Detection of two Quark Nuggets Piercing the Earth The Naga Fireballs Nach Sturm Regnete es Fische auf die Felder Unclassified The best UFO Cases ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 151: Jan - Feb 2004 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology 7,000-year-old circles in Modern Crop Fields Fingers Lost and Found Astronomy Not Enough TNOs (Trans-Neptunian Objects = KBOs Kuiper-Belt Objects) Was the Big Bang Dodecahedral? Biology Thickening the Ocean's Biomass Sponging on Sponges What else is Meant to Be? Geology Building a Fire with Wood 45 Million Years old The Shrinking of Chicxulub Geophysics The Deadliest Forest Fire in American History The Yellowstone-Lake Bulge Want Big Waves for Surfing? Forget Hawaii and Australia! Anomalous Auroral Flashes Psychology Why Sleep? If we must Sleep, Why must we Dream too? Chemistry Lab-made Microfossils ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 121: Jan-Feb 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Continent Lost In The Pacific Ocean Our title is also the English title of a book published recently in Japan. The subtitle quoted below implies that we are not discussing the supposed lost continent of Mu. "Riddle of the Submarine Ruins in the Ryukyu Islands" Rather, the underwater site is that introduced in SF#118 and located southwest of Okinawa. It is hardly the size of a continent. The book's author is Masaaki Kimura, and he has filled his book with stunning underwater photographs and diagrams of this "lost continent." Unfortunately, except for a Contents page, which is in English, the rest of the book is in Japanese. We'll have to settle for the Contents page, which is rather revealing. Human Beings under the Sea The Submarine Ruins Discovered Were the Ryukyu Islands a Continent? Discovery of a Civilization Lost in the Sea An Ancient Civilization in Southernmost Japan A Continent Lost in the Pacific Ocean Submersion of the Land and Tectonics of the Earth Hypotheses for the Land Lost in the Pacific Ocean A Utopia Sunk in the Pacific Ocean Pretty inflammatory stuff, so much so that we must be wary indeed! One of the drawings in our photocopy is good enough to reproduce here. The immediate impression, as with many of the underwater photographs, is that surely this structure is artificial. But we must remember that Nature has her playful moods and has deposited simulacra everywhere, perhaps even ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 118: Jul-Aug 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Glitches In The Terrestrial Conveyor Belt According to plate tectonics, the earth's continents are being transported -- very slowly -- on a subterranean conveyor belt of sorts. Although plate tectonics, nee continental drift, was ridiculed 50 years ago, it has been very successful in accounting for many geological phenomena. The theory is rarely challenged these days, but there are anomalies out there. "According to the simple plate-tectonic theory, the age of oceanic lithosphere is zero at a spreading oceanic ridge and increases with distance from the ridge. Thus the lithosphere of the central Atlantic, which current palaeogeographical reconstructions assure us began to open no earlier than 120 million years ago, has zero age at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and, supposedly an age of about 120 million years close to the land masses of Africa and South America at the appropriate latitude. Yet, Bonatti and others (Nature, v. 380, p. 518, 1996) have now recovered samples of 140-million-year-old pelagic limestones not even from the edges of the Atlantic but right in the middle of the ocean, close to the ridge. How can this be possible?" The only explanation (? ) seems to be that this errant chunk of crust got "trapped" in the middle of the Atlantic -- like a misdirected suitcase on an airport conveyor belt. (Anonymous; "Old Rocks near the MidAtlantic Ridge ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 116: Mar-Apr 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Global cooling has begun!G. Bond of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and his colleagues have been tracking the movements of past ice sheets using the trails of rocky debris they leave behind on the ocean floor. A type of igneous rock called "gabbro" is indicative of the passage of past ice sheets. For example, 100,000 years ago, when the last ice age began, the amount of gabbro in ocean-floor sediments jumped from 2% to 8%. Despite all today's furor over global warming, Bond et al are finding in current ocean sediments the same gabbro precursors. Conclusion: a new ice age is in the making. (Anonymous; "Big Freeze," New Scientist, p. 21, December 20/27, 1997.) From Science Frontiers #116, MAR-APR 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 108: Nov-Dec 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Glow Below Is there such a thing as sunless photosynthesis? Did photosynthesis evolve at the earth's surface or deep in the oceans near hydrothermal vents? Such questions are engendered by the strength of the mysterious glow that emanates from these deep-sea vents. It is at these cracks in the ocean floor that very hot, mineralladen water gushes forth, and where colonies of bizarre tube worms, blind shrimp, and hyperthermophilic (high temperature-loving) bacteria thrive. (For details, see SF#60 or p. 238 in Science Frontiers, the book) The first anomaly is the strength of the glow itself. It is not all thermal radiation emitted by the 350 C water spewing forth from the vents; in fact, it is 19 times more intense than expected from theory. Something else is contributing energy, but no one knows what it is so far. The unexpected intensity of the vent glows also asks some provocative questions of the biologists: Is the glow strong enough to sup port photosynthesis? Quite likely, seems to be the answer. Are life forms in the vicinity of the vents employing photosynthesis? We don't know yet, but some bacteria do photosynthesize. Might not life and perhaps photo synthesis, too, have originated at the vents rather than on the planet's surface? This is an attractive possi bility, because very early in the earth's history the surface was ...
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... sing, and then only during the mating season. In contrast, the songs of blue whales are exceedingly dull. They consist of only five notes repeated in various combinations. Since both sexes sing most of the year, the songs of the blue whale probably have nothing to do with reproduction. Then, why do they sing? A clue to the purpose of the blue whales' songs is found in their precision timing. One note is sung every 128 seconds. Furthermore, these notes (sound pulses) carry for hundreds of kilometers. C. Clark, a Cornell scientist, believes these notes are really sonar pulses used for fixing a whale's location. Echoes returned from distant seamounts, continental shelves, and other undersea topography enable the whales to map their positions within the wide ocean basins as they wander far and wide. (Hecht, Jeff; "Rhythm of Blues Charts the Ocean Depths," New Scientist, p. 19, June 20, 1998.) Comment. Short -range sonar is widely used by bats, Oilbirds, Edible-nest Swifts, and, of course, dolphins. As far as we know, the blue whale is the only animal employing sonar for longrange mapping. However, some birds seem to use distant infrasound sources (ocean surf, wind flowing over mountain ranges, etc.) as crude beacons during migration. From Science Frontiers #119, SEP-OCT 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 115: Jan-Feb 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The hilina slump a.k .a . "the big crack"Huge chunks of the Hawaiian Islands have been sliding into the Pacific Ocean for hundreds of thousands of years. (SF#101) Geologists classify these slides as either "slumps" or "debris avalanches." Slumps move just a few inches a year but are prone to bigger, jerky adjustments. Debris avalanches are fast cascades of rocks and soil. In Hawaii, both varieties of movement can involve massive blocks of real estate. In the huge Nu'uanu debris slide, stone blocks 6 miles across tumbled 30 miles out to sea. Both slumps and debris slides may create colossal tsunamis. (Tsunamis are miscalled "tidal waves," but they have nothing to do with tides and do not behave like tides or wind-driven waves.) When large pieces of the Hawaiian Islands slip into the ocean, the entire Pacific Rim is smashed by the resulting tsunamis. In New South Wales, Australia, there is geological evidence that part of this coast was scoured by a Hawaiigenerated tsunami 100,000 years ago. The postulated wave started out about 375-meters ( -mile) high in Hawaii. By the time is reached Australia, it was about 40 meters high. (SF#85) Worse waves may be on tap. A 4,760 cubic mile chunk of the Big Island (Hawaii) is breaking away at the rate ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 119: Sep-Oct 1998 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Waterfall Phenomena Waterfalls are more than just cascades of disorganized water molecules. There must be some structure and regularities in these streams of crashing fluid because waterfalls generate remarkable acoustical and luminous phenomena. First, we recall those curious pure acoustical tones that have recently been detected by seismic recorders in the ocean near French Polynesia. (SF#115) Geologist W.A . Charlie has associated these tones in the ocean with the strange but well-verified pure tones heard emanating from some waterfalls. Charlie recalls that the famous European geologist A. Heim observed that 15 Alpine waterfalls all produced two nonharmonizing groups of pure acoustical notes. These, a Zurich musician likened to the major-C triad and F. (Heim published his observations in a paper entitled: "Tone der Wasserfalle." Verhandlung der Schweizeren Naturforschung Gesellschaft, 8:209, 1874) In his letter to the magazine Earth (now defunct), Charlie wondered if the same resonant tonegenerating mechanism (rising clouds of bubbles) operated in both the oceans and waterfalls. (Charlie, Wayne A.; "Musical Monotones," Earth , 7:7 , June 1998.) Comments. In our catalog Earthquakes, Tides (GQV2), we recorded how waterfalls produce low-frequency terrestrial vibrations with one frequency predominating. This characteristic frequency is inversely proportional to the height of the waterfall. Just as fascinating are the remarkable flashes of light that emanate (rarely) from ...
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... Mar-Apr 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Did a methane burp down twa800?The potential for methane eruptions from offshore sediments to sink ships and down aircraft was proposed by W.D . McIver way back in 1982, in the Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. (SF#25/208) The source of methane-gas releases (" burps") is the rapid decomposition of methane hydrate, which exists in prodigious quantities in offshore sediments. Some geologists have estimated that there is twice as much methane in methane-hydrate deposits as in all terrestrial natural-gas fields. What makes methane hydrate potentially lethal is its instability. Landslides and small quakes can release huge plumes of methane bubbles into the ocean and thence into the atmosphere. Ships might founder in the lowdensity froth of bubbles, and aircraft might be adversely affected, too. This is where TWA800 comes in. R. Spalding, a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories has been monitoring mysterious atmospheric explosions and believes that some of these detonations are consistent with the atmospheric ignition of huge methane plumes. (Other detonations are due to meteors.) Spalding proposes the following scenario: The ocean floor releases a massive methane gas plume, which rapidly rises to the surface and ascends into the atmosphere. The lighter-than-air methane cloud gains altitude, mixing with oxygen and thereby gaining explosive poten tial. An electrical disturbance -- possibly caused by the rising cloud itself or a lightning strike -- detonates the cloud. Awesome energy is ...
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