Alaska is in danger

 Alaska is in danger

Alaska is in danger?

Yes, the world is likely to be expecting another tsunami soon.

Selon Wikipedia, a glacier is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries.

Glacier

On May 14/2020, a team of climatologists from various universities across the United States sent a letter to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources-ADNR warning of the possibility of an impending devastating tsunami in Prince William Fjord, Alaska.

Scientists attribute this, according to the report published on the "Science Alert" website on October 19, to landslides in the rocks, which lose their stability with the melting of glaciers expected in the next two decades. Scientists believe that these gradual collapses could trigger a devastating tsunami in the next 12 months.

Glacial retreat.

Receding glaciers in Prince William Sound along the southern coast of Alaska appears to be negatively impacting the mountain slopes of Barry Arm Sound, about 97 kilometers (east of Anchorage), which is the largest city in Alaska.

Analysis by satellite imagery indicates the appearance of a rock scar in the plateaus of the Bari Strait; Due to the retreat of the Bari Glacier, which is undergoing continuous melting. This indicates an already slow gradual landslide over this strait, and scientists fear that any sudden development of this landslide could have dire consequences.

The team relied in their study on measuring the height of sediment above water, the size of the land subject to landslide, and the slope angle of the slope, and found that 'such a collapse would cause a collapse 16 times the size. and 11 times more gravity than the landslide in Lituya Bay, Alaska in 1958. This then caused the longest tsunami wave in modern times.

Climate change and tsunami.

Glacier melt

Scientists believe that the speed of landslides on slopes can be affected by many factors such as heavy or prolonged rains, in addition to earthquakes which can cause cracks.

The hot weather is the most important factor among them, as it leads to the melting of the ice, causing the slopes to lose balance, and public opinion agrees that the rate of retreat of the glaciers increases the possibility of a greater number of cases of the dramatic collapse of slopes.

Several organizations, including the Alaska Natural Resources Department, the National Oceanic, and Atmospheric Administration, and the US Geological Survey, continuously monitor developments in Prince William Sound to track the evolution of the Barry Glacier, with the goal of updating constantly update forecasts on the consequences that could result from the expected destructive tsunami.

Preliminary modeling in the May report, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, indicates an expectation of a sudden major landslide resulting in an estimated tsunami hundreds of feet along the coastline, which will spread through Prince William Sound and the bays. . And the distant straits.

Finally, it can be said that the repercussions of the continued melting and relatively rapid retreat of glaciers in the era of climate change could cause similar types of landslides, and thus the occurrence of tsunamis in many other places of the world, not just in Alaska.

Mars is on a date with Earth

Mars is on a date with Earth

Mars is on the date of a close encounter with Earth.

Mars, it's far?

On October 13, the planet Mars will rise at sunset in an astronomical phenomenon called "opposition," in which the planet is facing the sun on the other side of the earth. If the sun goes down, it shines and vice versa.

The orbit of Mars.

The planet Mars revolves around the sun in a cycle of less than two Earth years (1.8 years) known as the "stellar cycle", but it meets Earth at a point close to each other once every 2.13 years, which is the "cycle of the conjunction" because it connects Mars to Earth and the Sun on a distant line. It is the lowest between them.

With each encounter, the distance between the two planets decreases to 57 million kilometers on the day of the "greatest encounter" which occurs once every 15 years, and the last time was two ago. years on July 27, 2018, and before that. on August 28, 2003, and the distance between them increases to 400 million kilometers while the planet is on the other side of us in its orbit around the sun.

In its current encounter with Earth, which takes place on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, the distance between us and Mars will be approximately 63 million km, which will allow amateurs to observe it with their telescopes.

How to see Mars.

As Mars slowly approaches Earth and winter sets in at its south pole, white ice caps begin to emerge behind the lenses of amateur telescopes.

And because the Martian atmosphere is thin, and in the event that it is calm and not excited by dust, the characteristics of the surface of Mars will also be clear, and the most important of these characteristics is a huge landmark called "Arabia" because it looks like it, and it is a light-colored area adjacent to a dark-colored landmark called in Latin "Certus Major", which is the Gulf of Libya on the coast of Sidra, located in the Libyan Jamahiriya. These names were launched by the International Astronomical Union.

Is Mars visible to the naked eye?

If you want to know more about Mars, you have to look east an hour after sunset, to find a bright red celestial body glowing in that direction, and no other light is better than this at except for Jupiter, which is close to a brilliant white in the middle of the sky.

Besides Jupiter and a little to the left of it, you can also see the planet Saturn a little faint, and so you have gathered the vision of 3 bright planets in the sky at a time.

Suspicious movement.

Mars is a planet with an external orbit with respect to the Earth (i.e. it is slower in its rotation around the sun than the Earth), it stops during its movement from west to east (as seen in relation to distant stars), then returns from east to west, that is, in the opposite direction of its initial motion. About a month or so, it stops again to return to its first eastward movement as it was.

The explanation is that the fast Earth when it reaches the point of passing slow Mars, shows its inhabitants that Mars has started to turn around, and as soon as the Earth moves away from it in its orbit, the phenomenon disappears and Mars returns to its original form of motion. All the exoplanets that follow it participate in this phenomenon, but it is less visible and perceptible.

Hobbyists and those interested should not miss any activity or activity to observe Mars, as its view from behind telescope lenses is truly magnificent, as it is the closest planet to Earth at this time.

Antarctica floods cities

Antarctica floods cities

The melting ice in Antarctica and its disastrous consequences for the coastal cities of the world.

Antarctica

An international research team has warned of the danger of escalating warming, which in turn increases the rate of ice mass loss on the continent and the implications of this irreparable loss for coastal cities. cultural heritage sites around the world, from London to Mumbai, and New York to Shanghai, in a new study by the team on the stationary state of Antarctica.

Serious consequences.

The study was followed by researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and Columbia University in New York in the United States (New York's Colombia University).

In their study, published on September 23 in the journal Nature, a team of researchers shows how well the Antarctic ice sheet can resist warming.

The study followed the environmental impact over a period of approximately one million hours (approximately 114 years) from the date of the start of the detailed simulations of the climate models they developed.

They were able to determine the exact location at which the glacier would become unstable, as well as the associated warming levels. They found that when ice becomes unstable, it thaws and moves toward the ocean with disastrous long-term consequences.

For example, if the global average temperature level persists for a sufficiently long period of time at 4 degrees above pre-industrial levels, then the melting of Antarctica alone could raise the global sea level by more than 6 meters.

Direct correlation relationship.

Antarctica contains more than half of the Earth's freshwater, frozen in a vast ice cap about 5 kilometers thick.

In view of the warming of ocean waters and the atmosphere; Due to human greenhouse gas emissions, good Antarctic cover loses mass and eventually becomes unstable.

Thus, at a level of two degrees of warming, the melting of the ice and its accelerated flow in the ocean will ultimately lead to a height of 2.5 meters from the global sea level from Antarctica alone.

At 4 degrees of global warming, the sea level rise will be 6.5 meters, and at approximately 6 degrees the sea level will rise for an additional 12 meters, in the event of the continuous escalation of global warming degrees over a long period of time as is the case we are living in today.

Melting is slow but eternal.

Antarctica is considered a heritage foundation in Earth's nearly 34 million-year-old history, and simulations conducted by researchers have indicated that once melted, it will not return to its original state even. if the temperatures drop again.

In fact, temperatures are doomed to return to pre-industrial levels to allow a full recovery, which is an extremely unlikely scenario.

This means that what we lose from the southern continent is considered irrecoverable losses, due to intrinsic mechanisms of the behavior of the ice caps under global warming conditions, as the main driver of ice loss is warm water from there. the ocean, which causes higher melting under the ice shelves, which in turn leads to destabilizing the Earth's ice cap.

Once temperatures cross the 6-degree threshold above pre-industrial levels, giant icebergs slowly sink to lower altitudes as the air is warmer; This melts more ice, as it does in Greenland.

Our fate is in our hands. (Put oil on the fire).

The loss and melting of ice have accelerated considerably over the past decades in Antarctica. However, the authors did not explicitly address the issue of timescale in their work; Instead, they assessed the critical levels of warming, at which parts of the Antarctic ice sheet would become unstable.

This is where the researchers' original contribution lies in their study of determining the timescale of the cascading impacts of global warming.

Ultimately, it is our combustion of coal and oil that determines current and future greenhouse gas emissions, and so we can decide now whether we will be successful in stopping warming and protecting what lies behind it. rest. “Antarctica, and in a better sense to protect cities and cultural sites around the world, from Copacabana to Rio. From Janeiro to the Sydney Opera House to a dark fate in case we fail to stop this warming. So to give up on the Paris Agreement and not respect it means giving up cities like Hamburg, Tokyo, and New York.

The fungi and ecosystem

The fungi and ecosystem

The fate of plants in the face of climate change is linked to fungi.

Fungi

In a new series of studies, researchers have revealed that fungi will be one of the most important determinants of ecosystem response to future climate change, helping certain types of plants weather droughts and floods by expanding their roots with food and water. But these organisms are not immune to climate change, they say.

The vegetation and forest cover of the earth depend on what is underground, where about 90% of all plants have an invisible support system represented by fungal organisms that form thin threads that connect the roots of plants and they bring food and water.

In contrast, plants provide a constant supply of carbon to fungi, and this symbiotic relationship is scientifically known as mycorrhizae.

Symbiotic relationships.

At the American Environmental Association's annual conference in August, researchers revealed the results of a number of new scientific studies on the role of fungi in protecting forests from the risks of climate change.

These studies have shown, according to the journal Science, that fungi can play a role - more than just establishing symbiotic relationships with the organisms that live around them - by having the ability to determine how ecosystems respond to climate change, through to their ability to help. the plants survive. Life in hotter and drier conditions.

However, other studies have confirmed that climate change could in turn disrupt symbiotic relationships and possibly accelerate the disappearance of their host plants.

According to the researchers, these fungal relationships come in two forms: arbuscular mycorrhizae, common in tropical forests, and some temperate forests as well as in fields and grasslands, in which fungi invade root cells and extend thin filaments called stringy mushrooms.

Ectomycorrhizal form in which fungi settle on the outer surface of the roots and their filament networks lead to the growth of fungi on moist forest soils.

Both types take up phosphorus and other plant nutrients, capture nitrogen from decomposing organic matter and help store carbon in the soil.

Selective help.

To learn about the importance of the symbiotic relationship between fungi and plants in the face of the effects of climate change, Catherine Geering, an environmental specialist at Northern Arizona University, and her colleagues planted seedlings of two groups of plants, the 'one with mushrooms and the other without them. , under different irrigation systems.

The researchers found that the ectomycorrhizal-like symbiotic relationship played an important role in drought tolerance.

It has also been observed that the type of symbiotic relationship prevalent in a particular region is linked to different types of trees and that this relationship determines how plants and entire ecosystems respond to climate change. Which has led scientists to wonder if the fungi themselves help determine the type of forest that grows in this area.

The fungi are under threat.

But these symbiotic relationships, as scientists claim, are not immune to the impact of climate change, as many studies mention.

Christopher Fernandez, a soil ecologist at the University of Minnesota who simulated the effect of warming and drought processes on fungi below the ground in northern hemisphere forests, confirmed that as the atmosphere heats up and dries up, the diversity of fungi decreases.

If the same disturbance occurs with the evolution of climate change, the number of plant species that successfully establish symbiotic relationships with fungi could decrease, which could starve trees of nutrients.

“The picture has become clearer now. We cannot really ignore the symbiotic relationships between fungi and plants in response to climate change, ”Matthias Relig, an ecologist at the Free University of Berlin, told the conference.

Mars with a network of immense lakes

Mars with a network of immense lakes

For the first time, the discovery of a network of huge lakes on the surface of Mars.

Mars

An international research team has been able to discover a network of lakes that lie beneath the layers of snow at the south pole of Mars, the first time this type of water formation has been discovered on the surface of the Red Planet, which will radically affect future research plans on Mars.

Radar payslips.

The results of the study were published in Nature Astronomy, and the University of Southern Queensland, in which it participated, issued a statement on the 28th of September.

To achieve these results, this team used the radar detection mechanism on board the Italian spacecraft "MARSIS", which has been in orbit around Mars since 2003.

According to the new study, "MARSES" searches for water under the snow by the same mechanism by which it detects subglacial lakes at the planet's poles, as it launches radio waves at the surface of the planet and then receives its reaction which varies between bouncing off rocks, snow or water.

The subglacial lake is a term for the presence of water lakes under ice caps, and they form because the high pressure below lowers the melting point of ice and turns into water.

Although this is not the first time that scientists have discovered the presence of water in this area of the south pole of Mars, as a study published in the prestigious journal Science indicated that there was a lake of water in the same area for two years ago, this is the first time that we have discovered a network of lakes.

According to the study, this detection not only confirms the validity of the results of the first detection, but also proves that it was not a coincidence and that the presence of several lakes suggests that it was a common phenomenon on the surface of the Red Planet, and also indicates that the geology of the planet carries it as something natural and possible.

On the other hand, the results of the study indicate that the water in these new lakes is likely to be salty and contains elements such as calcium, magnesium, and sodium, a finding that will help in the future to study the geological history of the planet.

But most strikingly, it might one day answer the most important question: if Mars once held so much water, where has it all gone?

Therefore, this opens an additional door to questions about the existence of life on the Red Planet. Although it is an arid desert with a bad climate, life can be found in these subglacial lakes among the nutrients of many bacteria.

Creatures feeding on viruses

Creatures feeding on viruses

A surprising discovery. Scientists discover, for the first time, creatures feeding on viruses.

virus as food

Viruses are found in astronomical numbers all over Earth, from the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans. Even its biomass is equivalent to about 25 billion people, but the strange thing, despite its abundance and richness in nutrients, is that there are no known living organisms that use it for food.

There is a growing body of evidence indicating that at least one group of organisms can feed on viruses, namely "protozoa and unicellular microorganisms".

Researchers in Frontiers in Microbiology published on September 24, 2020, the first convincing evidence that two groups of environmentally important marine primate organisms, namely Choanozoa and picozoa, two virus eaters, hunt their prey in a process. Ingestion.

A big surprise.

Dr. Ramunas Stepanauskas is the study leader and director of the Center for Single Cell Genomics at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine.

"Our data shows that many precursor cells contain the DNA genes of a wide variety of non-infectious viruses rather than bacteria, which clearly shows that they feed on viruses rather than bacteria. This was a big surprise," says Stepanauskas.

He adds that these results contradict prevailing views on the role of viruses and protozoa in marine food webs.

If the results of the study are correct, then a centuries-old doctrine will be turned upside down, instead of seeing viruses only as pathogens and seeing them play a role in nourishing and sustaining life.

"Viruses are rich in phosphorous and nitrogen, and they can be a good supplement to a diet rich in carbon," says Julia Brown, a microbiologist at Bigelow Laboratory and first author of the study, in the press release published on the science website Eurek Alert. . Also, "removing viruses from the water may reduce the number of viruses available to infect other organisms."

Sample collection and analysis.

Ramunas Stepanuskas and his colleagues started this research project more than ten years ago. Initially, they intended to study the pioneer marine preferences for prey, many of which feed on bacteria, but the results surprised them.

Surface seawater samples, including 1,698 pioneer individuals, were collected from the northwest Atlantic Ocean in the Gulf of Maine, the United States in 2009, and from the Mediterranean Sea off Catalonia, Spain, in 2016.

Stepanuskas and his colleagues then divided the cells and analyzed their contents. The team concluded that any genetic material that differs from the genetic material of protists may be a sign of something they ate.

After several rounds of analyzes, the researchers were surprised to find that there was not much bacterial material to be found. Instead, there were viruses of all shapes and sizes. Even viral genes were found in the cells of all the precursors of the funiculus and picosa groups.

It was a strange discovery, says Julia Brown. Although, since the 1990s, researchers have speculated that some early species could use viruses for food, this research did not receive much attention thereafter.

The issue of viral consumption.

However, finding viral genetic material in or around a cell does not guarantee that the virus was once food. For example, some viruses may have infected protists or just be stuck to the surface of cells.

However, Dr. Brown says it is "very unlikely that these viruses will be able to infect all the protists in which they are found."

"The new study alone cannot demonstrate the consuming relationship between protists and viruses," says Rika Anderson, a microbial ecologist at Carleton College in Minnesota who was not involved in the study, in a published report. in the New York Times.

But protists are found in a bewildering array of habitats, such as rotting tree stumps and animal guts, and they may have at least developed several strategies for foraging. “They eat everything, I wouldn't be surprised if they fed on viruses. "

Dr. Stepanauskas and Dr. Brown say that certain types of viruses are only found in certain groups of protists, suggesting that this was not just a coincidence.

Elephant deaths

Elephant deaths

Uncover the mystery of the massive elephant deaths in Botswana.

Elephant life

The Botswana Wildlife Service has revealed that hundreds of elephants that mysteriously died in the famous Okavango Delta were caused by poisoning by cyanobacteria.

This landlocked southern African country has the largest elephant population in the world, estimated at around 130,000 people.

Uncover the mystery and continue your search.

As noted in a report from the "Science Alert" website, since last March, more than 300 of these thick-skinned animals have died under mysterious circumstances, and their intact tusks have ruled out the possibility that the hunters killed them.

"The deaths were the result of poisonings from cyanobacteria growing in ponds or water pits," Maddy Robin, chief veterinarian of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, told reporters on Monday.

The first report of unusual elephant deaths was identified on April 25 near the village of Seronga, and numbers started to rise the following month. Robin said the dead "stopped at the end of June 2020 as the pools dried up."

According to wildlife authorities, around 330 animals died and blood tests were consistent with the discovery that a type of neurotoxin-producing cyanobacteria was the cause. The tests were carried out in specialized laboratories in South Africa, Canada, Zimbabwe, and the United States.

Cyril Taullo, deputy director of Botswana's wildlife and national parks department, said officials ruled out anthrax infection and also ruled out human involvement in poaching. The government said it was continuing studies on the emergence of the bacteria.