EurekAlert! - Earth Science

UT Arlington research to benefit quality, flow in 150-mile Integrated Pipeline

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Texas at Arlington) A UT Arlington environmental engineer has been awarded a $394,300 grant from the Tarrant Regional Water District to ensure water quality and flow in the new facilities of the 150-mile Integrated Pipeline Project.

Geosphere details the geology of North America with 6 new papers online

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Geological Society of America) Each of the six new papers published in Geosphere on June 13 address geoscience compiled in specially themed issues: "CRevolution 2: Origin and Evolution of the Colorado River System II"; "The 36-18 Ma southern Great Basin, USA, ignimbrite province and flareup: Swarms of subduction-related supervolcanoes"; "New Developments in Grenville Geology"; and "Origin and Evolution of the Sierra Nevada and Walker Lane."

NOAA, partners predict possible record-setting deadzone for Gulf of Mexico

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(NOAA Headquarters) NOAA-supported modelers at the University of Michigan, Louisiana State University, and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium are forecasting that this year's Gulf of Mexico hypoxic "dead" zone will be between 7,286 and 8,561 square miles which could place it among the ten largest recorded. A second NOAA-funded forecast, for the Chesapeake Bay, calls for a smaller than average dead zone in the nation's largest estuary.

Personality test finds some mouse lemurs shy, others bold

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Duke University) In the last 10 years the study of animal personality has gained ground with behavioral ecologists. Researchers at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center and the Duke Lemur Center in Durham, N.C., have now found distinct personalities in the grey mouse lemur, the tiny, saucer-eyed primate native to the African island of Madagascar.

Small dam construction to reduce greenhouse emissions is causing ecosystem disruption

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Oregon State University) Researchers conclude in a new report that a global push for small hydropower projects, supported by various nations and also the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may cause unanticipated and potentially significant losses of habitat and biodiversity.

City slicker or country bumpkin

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) The origins of a young animal might have a significant impact on its behavior later on in life. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Germany, have been able to demonstrate in hand-reared blackbirds that urban-born individuals are less curious and more cautious about new objects than their country counterparts.

Origins of 'The Hoff' crab revealed

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Oxford) The history of a new type of crab, nicknamed 'The Hoff' because of its hairy chest, which lives around hydrothermal vents deep beneath the Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean, has been revealed for the first time.

Seismic gap outside of Istanbul

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres) Earthquake researchers have now identified a 30 kilometers long and ten kilometers deep area along the North Anatolian fault zone just south of Istanbul that could be the starting point for a strong earthquake.

Stone Age technological and cultural innovation accelerated by climate

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) According to a study by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the University of Cardiff and the Natural History Museum in London, technological innovation during the Stone Age occurred in fits and starts and was climate-driven. Abrupt changes in rainfall in South Africa 40,000 to 80,000 years ago triggered the development of technologies for finding refuge and the behavior of modern humans. This study was recently published in Nature Communications.

A guide for the study of the potential environmental impacts of offshore renewable energies

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Elhuyar Fundazioa) The global operator of renewable energy ACCIONA-Energy in collaboration with the Marine Research Unit of AZTI-Tecnalia has developed a guide that will facilitate the writing of the Environmental Impact Studies of Marine Renewable Energy Projects.

MIT and UC Berkeley launch energy-efficiency research project

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of California - Berkeley Haas School of Business) Researchers at MIT and UC Berkeley announce "The E2e Project," a new interdisciplinary research project that aims to evaluate and improve energy-efficiency policies and technologies. Its goal is to support and conduct rigorous and objective research, communicate the results and give decision-makers the real-world analysis they need to make smart choices.

US and Canadian researchers drive towards cheaper fuel cells for electric cars

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Waterloo) A million electric cars could be on roads across North America before the end of the decade with the help of research by the United States Department of Energy, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Waterloo.

Older males make better fathers says new research on beetles

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Exeter) Researchers at the University of Exeter found that older male burying beetles make better fathers than their younger counterparts. The study found that mature males, who had little chance of reproducing again, invested more effort in both mating and in parental care than younger males.

Second Atlantic season tropical depression forms

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Tropical Depression 2 formed in the western Caribbean Sea during the early afternoon hours on June 17. NOAA's GOES-13 satellite captured an image of the storm as it consolidated enough to become a tropical depression while approaching the coast of Belize. NOAA's GOES-13 satellite sits in a fixed orbit and monitors the weather in the eastern half of the continental United States and the Atlantic Ocean.

Pyrocumulus cloud billows from New Mexico fire

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) On June 12, 2013, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of the Silver fire burning east of Silver City, N.M. In addition to producing gray smoke plumes, the fire spawned a pyrocumulus cloud -- a tall, cauliflower-shaped cloud that billowed up above the smoke.

Scientists turn to the streets for help in monitoring waterways

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University at Buffalo) A project that asks hikers, fishermen, birdwatchers, school kids and nature-lovers of all stripes to monitor stream levels is expanding from its home base in Western New York to three new states: Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Bullfrogs may help spread deadly amphibian fungus, but also die from it

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Oregon State University) Amphibian populations are declining worldwide and a major cause is a deadly fungus thought to be spread by bullfrogs, but a two-year study shows they can also die from this pathogen, contrary to suggestions that bullfrogs are a tolerant carrier host that just spreads the disease.

First risk assessment of shale gas fracking to biodiversity

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Wiley) Fracking, the controversial method of mining shale gas, is widespread across Pennsylvania, covering up to 280,000 km² of the Appalachian Basin. New research in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences explores the threat posed to biodiversity including pollution from toxic chemicals, the building of well pads and pipelines, and changes to wetlands.

How useful is fracking anyway? Study explores return of investment

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Wiley) The value of a fuel's long-term usefulness and viability is judged through its energy return on investment; the comparison between the eventual fuel and the energy invested to create it. The energy return on investment study published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology finds that shale gas has a return value which is close to coal.

Efficient and inexpensive: Researchers develop catalyst material for fuel cells

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres) Efficient, robust and economic catalyst materials hold the key to achieving a breakthrough in fuel cell technology. Scientists from Jülich and Berlin have developed a material for converting hydrogen and oxygen to water using a tenth of the typical amount of platinum that was previously required. With the aid of state-of-the-art electron microscopy, the researchers discovered that the function of the nanometre-scale catalyst particles is decisively determined by their geometric shape and atomic structure.

Polymer-coated catalyst protects 'artificial leaf'

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres) One option is to use the electrical energy generated inside solar cells to split water by means of electrolysis, in the process yielding hydrogen that can be used for a storable fuel.

Jet stream changes cause climatically exceptional Greenland Ice Sheet melt

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Sheffield) Research from the University of Sheffield has shown that unusual changes in atmospheric jet stream circulation caused the exceptional surface melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet in summer 2012.

An innovative material for the green Earth

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology(UNIST)) Researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, S. Korea, developed a novel, simple method to synthesize hierarchically nanoporous frameworks of nanocrystalline metal oxides such as magnesia and ceria by the thermal conversion of well-designed metal-organic frameworks.

New 'embryonic' subduction zone found

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(Monash University) A new subduction zone forming off the coast of Portugal heralds the beginning of a cycle that will see the Atlantic Ocean close as continental Europe moves closer to America.

Submarine springs reveal how coral reefs respond to ocean acidification

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 EDT

(University of California - Santa Cruz) Ocean acidification due to rising carbon dioxide levels will reduce the density of coral skeletons, making coral reefs more vulnerable to disruption and erosion, according to a new study of corals growing where submarine springs naturally lower the pH of seawater. The study is the first to show that corals are not able to fully acclimate to low pH conditions in nature.