Monday, August 5, 2013

RevoluSun and Zippy?s Restaurants Announce Winner of ?2013 Energy Efficient Home Makeover Giveaway?

RevoluSun, Hawaii?s leading provider of residential and commercial solar systems, partnered with Zippy?s restaurants to help build a cleaner, smarter Hawaii by encouraging people to think about energy and ways to conserve it through a $15,000 prize, the ?2013 Energy Efficient Home Makeover Giveaway.?

The contest ran throughout June 2013 at all Zippy?s restaurant locations statewide. No purchase was necessary to enter, but eligible entrants must have been 18 years of age or older, and be a Hawaii resident and homeowner.

Wayne Ishida of Millani, Oahu was named the winner of the $15,000 solar system. Ishida is retiring at the end of the year and recently started looking into solar savings for his home since all of his neighbors have installed systems. He?s excited about winning the energy efficient home makeover just in time to prepare for his retirement future.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??

About RevoluSun LLC

Committed to empowering the world, RevoluSun makes solar energy affordable and attractive for every homeowner and business nationwide. Headquartered in Honolulu with offices in Hawaii and Massachusetts, RevoluSun has developed thousands of photovoltaic systems generating more than 30 MW of energy.? RevoluSun?s extensive network of trusted alternative energy partners and community-oriented philosophy make RevoluSun the leading choice for forward-thinking homeowners. The organization?s proprietary software RiSE? provides a complete management system for a photovoltaic integrator?s business ??from sales to operations and construction.?

RevoluSun offers its residential clients a free home energy analysis, which allows for personalized service and a custom system based on each home?s unique energy needs. RevoluSun also offers a variety of community education programs for homeowners who want to learn how solar works as well as the attractive tax incentives available to them. For more information about RevoluSun visit www.RevoluSun.com or call 808.748.8888.

?

About Zippy?s

Zippy?s has 24 locations statewide, many of which are open 24 hours. For more information about Zippy?s visit www.zippys.com.

?

Source: http://centraloahu.hawaiinewsnow.com/news/people/197213-revolusun-and-zippys-restaurants-announce-winner-2013-energy-efficient-home-makeover-giveaway

World Ending 2012 gossip girl Ink Master Jenni Rivera Funeral aspergers Richard Engel Daniel Inouye

Sunday, August 4, 2013

St. Jude creates $5.5 million endowment for cancer research to be held by the hospital CEO

St. Jude creates $5.5 million endowment for cancer research to be held by the hospital CEO [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 2-Aug-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Summer Freeman
summer.freeman@stjude.org
901-595-3061
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

The Donald Pinkel Endowed Chair of Pediatric Cancer Treatment honors the first director of St. Jude and is among the largest endowed chairs in the nation

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has earmarked $5.5 million for the creation of the Donald Pinkel Endowed Chair of Pediatric Cancer Treatment, which has been granted by the ALSAC and St. Jude Boards of Directors and Governors.

The endowment, among the largest of its kind in the country, honors the hospital's first director and will be held by the sitting St. Jude CEO. Dr. William E. Evans, the present St. Jude director and CEO, is its first designee. The endowment provides support for the CEO's research and academic programs.

"This endowment illustrates the importance of research being pursued from all levels at St. Jude," Evans said. "All St. Jude CEOs have remained actively engaged in research to discover, innovate and advance cure rates."

Evans' work focuses on better understanding the genomic basis of childhood cancers and developing individualized approaches to cancer treatment. This involves the translation of pharmacogenomic discoveries into personalized treatments for pediatric cancers.

Evans said that St. Jude owes its institutional focus and relentless spirit to Pinkel. A medical doctor, Pinkel challenged the standard 1960s treatment for childhood cancer with significant results.

Despite often-strident disagreement from many in the scientific and medical community, Pinkel developed an unconventional approach to treating acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common pediatric cancer. His revolutionary Total Therapy regimen, which he divided into a series of studies, combined multiple anticancer drugs with radiation treatment.

At a time when survival was estimated at 4 percent, the Total Therapy approach achieved a 50 percent survival rate and drove important improvements in treating both childhood and adult cancers. Total Therapy also served as the foundation for future St. Jude innovations and contributions to cancer research and treatment. Among them has been a steady increase in ALL survival, with St. Jude having the highest published survival rate for ALL at 94 percent.

Ensuring survival was the key for early childhood cancer research, and that meant highly aggressive therapy. Evans' research provides critical advances in the next revolution for cancer treatmentfinding the right treatment based on individual indicators, and providing only the amount of treatment necessary for success, minimizing side effects and potential later health impacts from treatment. For example, by better understanding how drugs interact with patients individually and by employing more sophisticated monitoring, clinicians have been able to discontinue the use of cranial irradiation in treatment of the disease, thus sparing children from many common side effects.

"I am deeply honored to be named the first Donald Pinkel Endowed Chair," Evans said. "When I first came to St. Jude in 1972 as a student, Dr. Pinkel was the director, and he was a person whom everyone looked up to, largely because he did not expect more out of others than he expected from himself. He led by example. I respected him because of what he had already accomplished, and because he was interested in hearing everyone's ideas, even those of a student like me."

###

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering research and treatment of children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The hospital's research has helped push overall survival rates for childhood cancer from less than 20 percent when the institution opened to almost 80 percent today. It is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children, and no family ever pays St. Jude for anything. St. Jude is supported by ALSAC, its fundraising organization. For more information, visit http://www.stjude.org. Follow us on Twitter @StJudeResearch.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


St. Jude creates $5.5 million endowment for cancer research to be held by the hospital CEO [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 2-Aug-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Summer Freeman
summer.freeman@stjude.org
901-595-3061
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

The Donald Pinkel Endowed Chair of Pediatric Cancer Treatment honors the first director of St. Jude and is among the largest endowed chairs in the nation

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has earmarked $5.5 million for the creation of the Donald Pinkel Endowed Chair of Pediatric Cancer Treatment, which has been granted by the ALSAC and St. Jude Boards of Directors and Governors.

The endowment, among the largest of its kind in the country, honors the hospital's first director and will be held by the sitting St. Jude CEO. Dr. William E. Evans, the present St. Jude director and CEO, is its first designee. The endowment provides support for the CEO's research and academic programs.

"This endowment illustrates the importance of research being pursued from all levels at St. Jude," Evans said. "All St. Jude CEOs have remained actively engaged in research to discover, innovate and advance cure rates."

Evans' work focuses on better understanding the genomic basis of childhood cancers and developing individualized approaches to cancer treatment. This involves the translation of pharmacogenomic discoveries into personalized treatments for pediatric cancers.

Evans said that St. Jude owes its institutional focus and relentless spirit to Pinkel. A medical doctor, Pinkel challenged the standard 1960s treatment for childhood cancer with significant results.

Despite often-strident disagreement from many in the scientific and medical community, Pinkel developed an unconventional approach to treating acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common pediatric cancer. His revolutionary Total Therapy regimen, which he divided into a series of studies, combined multiple anticancer drugs with radiation treatment.

At a time when survival was estimated at 4 percent, the Total Therapy approach achieved a 50 percent survival rate and drove important improvements in treating both childhood and adult cancers. Total Therapy also served as the foundation for future St. Jude innovations and contributions to cancer research and treatment. Among them has been a steady increase in ALL survival, with St. Jude having the highest published survival rate for ALL at 94 percent.

Ensuring survival was the key for early childhood cancer research, and that meant highly aggressive therapy. Evans' research provides critical advances in the next revolution for cancer treatmentfinding the right treatment based on individual indicators, and providing only the amount of treatment necessary for success, minimizing side effects and potential later health impacts from treatment. For example, by better understanding how drugs interact with patients individually and by employing more sophisticated monitoring, clinicians have been able to discontinue the use of cranial irradiation in treatment of the disease, thus sparing children from many common side effects.

"I am deeply honored to be named the first Donald Pinkel Endowed Chair," Evans said. "When I first came to St. Jude in 1972 as a student, Dr. Pinkel was the director, and he was a person whom everyone looked up to, largely because he did not expect more out of others than he expected from himself. He led by example. I respected him because of what he had already accomplished, and because he was interested in hearing everyone's ideas, even those of a student like me."

###

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering research and treatment of children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The hospital's research has helped push overall survival rates for childhood cancer from less than 20 percent when the institution opened to almost 80 percent today. It is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children, and no family ever pays St. Jude for anything. St. Jude is supported by ALSAC, its fundraising organization. For more information, visit http://www.stjude.org. Follow us on Twitter @StJudeResearch.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/sjcr-sjc080213.php

baa samoyed kenny powers kenny powers carl hagelin triple play james neal

U.S. employers add 162,000 jobs; rate falls to 7.4 percent

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. employers added 162,000 jobs in July, a modest increase and the fewest since March. Still, the unemployment rate fell to a 4?-year low of 7.4 percent, a hopeful sign in an otherwise lackluster report.

Unemployment declined from 7.6 percent in June because more Americans found jobs, and others stopped looking and were no longer counted as unemployed.

Still, Friday's report from the Commerce Department pointed to a less-than-robust job market. It suggested that the economy's subpar growth and modest consumer spending are making many businesses cautious about hiring.

Employers created a combined 26,000 fewer jobs in May and June than previously estimated. Americans worked fewer hours in July, and their average pay dipped. And many of the jobs employers added in July were for lower-paying work at stores, bars and restaurants.

For the year, job growth remains steady. The economy has created an average 200,000 jobs a month since January, though the pace has slowed in the past three months to 175,000.

Friday's jobs report "reveals a mixed labor market picture of continued improvement, but at a still frustratingly slow pace," said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West.

Reaction in financial markets was slightly negative. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 60 points in midmorning trading, and broader stock indexes also declined. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.62 percent from 2.71 percent.

The Federal Reserve will review the July employment data in deciding whether to slow its $85 billion a month in bond purchases in September, as many economists have predicted it will do.

Weaker hiring could make the Fed hold off on any pullback in bond buying, which has helped keep long-term borrowing costs down. Yet it's possible that the lower unemployment, along with the job gains the past year, will convince the Fed that the job market is strengthening consistently.

"While July itself was a bit disappointing, the Fed will be looking at the cumulative improvement," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. "On that score, the unemployment rate has fallen from 8.1 percent last August, to 7.4 percent this July, which is a significant improvement."

But Beth Ann Bovino, senior economist at Standard & Poor's, said she thinks Friday's report will make the Fed delay any slowdown in its bond purchases.

"September seems very unlikely now," she says. "I'm wondering if December is still in the cards."

The government's revised totals show that May's job growth was downgraded to 176,000, below the 195,000 previously estimated. June's was lowered to 188,000, from the 195,000 reported last month.

July's decline in unemployment to 7.4 percent was derived from a survey of households, which found that 227,000 more people said they were employed. And 37,000 people stopped looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

The job gain for the month was calculated from a separate survey of employers.

Though much of July's job growth was in lower-paying industries, manufacturing, a generally good-paying sector, added 6,000 jobs. That growth was driven by gains at auto plants. Those were the first job gains at U.S. factories since February.

Jobs in professional services such as finance, accounting and information technology also rose.

Governments added jobs for the first time since April, driven by the fifth straight month of hiring by local government.

Job gains are being slowed by the economy's tepid growth. It grew at an annual rate of just 1.7 percent in the April-June quarter, the government said this week. That was an improvement over the previous two quarters, but it's still far too weak to rapidly lower unemployment.

Recent data suggest that the economy could strengthen in the second half of the year. A survey Thursday showed that factories increased production and received a surge of new orders in July, propelling the fastest expansion in more than two years.

The survey, by the Institute for Supply Management, also showed that the housing recovery is spurring more output by lumber companies, furniture makers and appliance manufacturers.

Businesses have ordered more industrial machinery and other equipment for four straight months. Europe's troubled economies are showing signs of recovery, potentially a lift to U.S. exports.

U.S. automakers are reporting their best sales since the recession, a sign that Americans are confident enough in their finances to make large purchases. Car sales rose 14 percent in July from 12 months earlier to 1.3 million.

Healthy sales have encouraged more hiring by Ford Motor Co. The company said last week that it will hire 800 salaried professionals this year, mostly in areas such as information technology, product development and quality control.

Source: http://www.kboi2.com/news/business/US-employers-add-162000-jobs-rate-falls-to-74-percent-218103051.html

Oblivion Hemlock Grove Boston Bomber Death Photo Fox Boston Bomber cnn news foxnews

?You Turned Your Back on the Egyptians?

EGYPT-MUBARAK/TRIAL

Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is in power in Egypt?but what does he want to do with it?

Photo by Amr Dalsh/Reuters

CAIRO?The following are excerpts from Lally Weymouth?s interview with Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt?s defense minister, armed forces commander, and deputy prime minister. Excerpts:

Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi: The dilemma between the former president and the people originated from [the Muslim Brotherhood?s] concept of the state, the ideology that they adopted for building a country which is based on restoring the Islamic religious empire.

That?s what made [former President Mohammed Morsi] not a president for all Egyptians, but a president representing his followers and supporters.

Lally Weymouth: When did that become obvious to you?

Sisi: It was obvious on the first day?the day of his inauguration. He started with offending the judiciary and not giving them the appropriate treatment. The Brotherhood experience in ruling a country was very modest?if not absent.

[The army] dealt with the president with all due respect for a president chosen by the Egyptians.

Weymouth: So you were giving the president advice on Ethiopia and the Sinai, for example, and he was ignoring you?

Sisi: We were very keen and predetermined on his success. If we wanted to oppose or not allow them to come to rule Egypt, we would have done things with the elections, as elections used to be rigged in the past. Unfortunately, the former president picked fights with almost all the state institutions. When a president is having conflict with all of these state institutions, the chance of success for such a president is very meager. On the other hand, on his part, the president was trying to call in supporters from religious groups.

Sisi: They have an international presence in more than 60 countries in the world?the Muslim Brotherhood. The idea that gathers them together is not nationalism, it?s not patriotism, it is not a sense of a country?it is only an ideology that is totally related to the concept of the organization.

Weymouth: The U.S. is very concerned about the sit-ins at Rabaa and Nahdet [two squares in Cairo where the Muslim Brotherhood has staged sit-ins].

Sisi: We really wonder: Where is the role of the United States and the European Union and all of the other international forces that are interested in the security, safety, and well-being of Egypt? Are the values of freedom and democracy exclusively exercised in your countries but other countries do not have the right to exercise the same values and enjoy the same environment? Have you seen the scores of millions of Egyptians calling for change in Tahrir? What is your response to that?

You left the Egyptians, you turned your back on the Egyptians, and they won?t forget that. Now you want to continue turning your backs on Egyptians? The U.S. interest and the popular will of the Egyptians don?t have to conflict. We always asked the U.S. officials to provide advice to the former president to overcome his problems.

Weymouth: What did the U.S. do?

Sisi: The result is very obvious. Where is the economic support to Egypt from the U.S.? Even throughout the year when the former president was in office?where was the U.S. support to help the country restore its economy and overcome its dire needs?

Weymouth: Are you going to run for president?

Sisi: I want to say that the most important achievement in my life is to overcome this circumstance, [to ensure] that we live peacefully, to go on with our road map and to be able to conduct the coming elections without shedding one drop of Egyptian blood.

Weymouth: But are you going to run?

Sisi: You just can?t believe that there are people who don?t aspire for authority.

Sisi: Yes. It?s the hopes of the people that is ours. And when the people love you?this is the most important thing for me.

The pains and suffering of the people are too many. A lot of people don?t know about the suffering. I am the most aware of the size of the problems in Egypt. That is why I am asking: Where is your support?

Weymouth: Did you feel there would be civil strife if the army didn?t intervene?

Sisi: I expected if we didn?t intervene, it would have turned into a civil war. Four months before he left, I told Morsi the same thing.

What I want you to know and I want the American reader also to know is that this is a free people who rebelled against an unjust political rule, and this free people needs your support.

Weymouth: Aren?t the Americans warning the interim government against any further civil strife or bloodshed?

Sisi: The U.S. administration has a lot leverage and influence with the Muslim Brotherhood and I?d really like the U.S. administration to use this leverage with them to resolve the conflict.

Whoever will clean these squares or resolve these sit-ins will not be the military. There is a civil police and they are assigned to these duties. On the 26th of [July], more than 30 million people went out onto the streets to give me support. These people are waiting for me to do something.

Weymouth: How can you assure the U.S. that you don?t want the military to rule Egypt?that the army wants to go back to its barracks?

Sisi: Mark my words and take me very seriously: The Egyptian military is different from other militaries around the world.

Weymouth: Do you really want to have civilian rule here?

Weymouth: In a future election, would Egypt accept international observers?

Sisi: We are ready to receive monitors and international observers for the elections from everywhere in the world.

The Egyptians are looking up to you, the Americans. Don?t disappoint their hopes. Don?t give them your backs.

Weymouth: Were you upset by the hold up of the [F-16s]?

Sisi: Yes. This is not the way to deal with a patriotic military.

Weymouth: Did President Obama call you after July 3?

Weymouth: Did anybody call you? Secretary of State Kerry? Defense Secretary Hagel?

Sisi: Hagel. Almost every day.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2013/08/abdel_fattah_al_sisi_interview_egypt_s_top_general_calls_for_u_s_and_international.html

Valentines Day Quotes nerlens noel Mark Balelo Anne Stringfield paczki lent la times

Katy Perry Will 'Roar' Back Fiery New Track: Watch Her Tease!

Perry has confirmed her lead Prism single is out August 12 in dark video teaser.
By Jocelyn Vena

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1711741/katy-perry-roar-new-single.jhtml

manson bubba watson recent earthquakes fbi most wanted list stuttering james van der beek dyngus day

Saturday, August 3, 2013

U.S.-South Africa Relations in the Obama-Zuma Era: Part I

This is the first in a two-part series on the U.S.-South Africa bilateral relationship. Part I examines the state of economic ties. Part II will examine the state of political ties.

Although it was inevitably overshadowed by the serious decline in Nelson Mandela?s health, U.S. President Barack Obama?s visit to South Africa at the end of June provided the opportunity for a comprehensive re-evaluation of the bilateral relationship. Though both sides talked about expanding cooperation and strengthening ties, the backdrop to the visit was a checkered and uneven relationship since the birth of the new South Africa in 1994. ...

Source: http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/13136/u-s-south-africa-relations-in-the-obama-zuma-era-part-i

venus williams Freeh Report direct tv Savages Home Run Derby 2012 San Diego fireworks steve nash

Friday, August 2, 2013

Kerry: Egypt?s military restored democracy

kerry defU.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Egypt?s army had not seized power after toppling President Mohamed Mursi, as Islamists summoned their followers to resume protests and defy orders to disperse.

The Egyptian army ?was asked to intervene by millions and millions of people,? Kerry told Pakistan?s Geo TV yesterday, according to a State Department transcript. The military ?did not take over,? he said, and ?in effect they were restoring democracy.? Kerry also criticized the shooting of pro-Mursi demonstrators by security forces, saying the U.S. was ?very, very concerned.?

He later said in London that ?all of the parties involved have a responsibility to be inclusive, to work toward a peaceful resolution? and the ?last thing we want is more violence.? Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns will begin a visit to Cairo today, the State Department said in statement.

Brotherhood supporters massed in Cairo and other cities after Friday prayers again today to demand Mursi?s reinstatement following his removal by the army on July 3, television pictures showed. ?Down with the commander of the armed forces, Mursi is our president,? they chanted as they waved national flags.

Calls by Mursi?s Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters to join rallies today have fueled fears of further violence, after dozens of Islamists were killed last weekend. The Interior Ministry yesterday signaled a police crackdown against pro-Mursi sit-ins in two of the capital?s main squares, promising safe conduct to those who left now.

Media Protest

Security forces fired tear gas at protesters in Cairo?s media city, where several pro-Mursi television channels have been shut down, Al Jazeera TV reported. The demonstrators had been trying to break through gates, Al Jazeera said, citing the Interior Ministry.

The overthrow of Mursi, Egypt?s first freely elected civilian leader, has escalated the tensions between Islamists and their opponents that built up during his one-year rule, and extended the political turmoil that has persisted since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Since July 3, authorities have been rounding up Islamist leaders and freezing their assets. The Brotherhood?s top official, Mohammed Badie, was charged with incitement to murder this week. The group?s supporters have remained on the streets and scores have been killed in clashes with police.

?Brothers? Blood

Mohamed Hassan, an influential preacher in Islam?s Salafi movement, urged Egyptians to take part in today?s rallies, dubbed by their organizers ?Egypt Against the Coup.?

?Don?t leave your brothers in the squares to be slaughtered,? he said in a broadcast on Al Jazeera yesterday. ?The blood of our sons will become a curse on those who spill it.?

Thousands of Mursi supporters gathered in squares in Nahda and Rabaa Al-Adawiya in Cairo, where the Brotherhood released birds into the air, saying it wanted to illustrate the protests were peaceful.

The Interior Ministry appealed to demonstrators to ?resort to reason, prioritize the interests of the homeland, heed the public interest and swiftly leave for everyone?s safety.?

Egypt?s army-backed government accuses the Brotherhood of inciting violence to portray itself as a victim.

The U.S. has had close ties to Egypt?s army for three decades, and gives it about $1.3 billion in aid each year. The administration has declined to label Mursi?s ouster a coup, which by U.S. law would require the aid to be cut.

Bloomberg

Source: http://www.yalibnan.com/2013/08/02/kerry-egypts-military-restored-democracy/

jeff who lives at home 49ers news saint louis university night at the museum pope shenouda bolton muamba crystal cathedral

Lohan makes fun of herself on 'Chelsea Lately'

TV

2 hours ago

Lindsay Lohan

Michael Buckner / Getty Images file

Actress Lindsay Lohan will guest host the Aug. 5 episode of "Chelsea Lately."

Look out, Chelsea Handler! Lindsay Lohan might be coming for your job.

A vibrant-looking Lohan, fresh off a 90-day court-ordered stint in rehab, filled in for Handler as host of "Chelsea Lately" on Thursday. Although the episode isn't scheduled to air until Aug. 5, from the sneak peek clips provided, it looks like LiLo took the opportunity to poke fun at herself ? and fellow actress Kristen Stewart ? during her guest spot.

During the episode's round-table discussion, Lohan garnered laughs from the crowd and other hosts when, while?reporting on a story?that One Direction member Harry Styles is possibly bisexual and dating a DJ named Nick, she deadpanned, "I've been there!" (Lohan dated DJ Samantha Ronson in 2008.)?

Lohan also used the opportunity to take a jab at Stewart, who recently made headlines for cursing out a group of paparazzi photographers.?

"I'm just excited that Kristen Stewart, you know, finally showed some emotion,"?Lohan said?of the famously indifferent "Twilight" actress.

Her joke garnered a roar of laughter from the audience, and even prompted comedian Fortune Feimster, who was part of the round table, to suggest that her comment may start an alley fight between the troubled actress and the "Twilight" star.

"No, I love her. I'm a Kristen Stewart fan," Lohan insisted before continuing to poke fun at the actress' 2012 cheating scandal with "Snow White" director Rupert Sanders.

Lohan hosts Chelsea Lately on Aug. 5 at 11 p.m. on E!

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/lindsay-lohan-makes-fun-herself-chelsea-lately-6C10831619

alec baldwin alec baldwin Victor Oladipo nba draft Brazil vs Spain paul pierce Trey Burke

Pregnancy in horses: Helping horses come to term

[unable to retrieve full-text content]It is not only humans that sometimes experience difficulty having children. Horses too have a low birth rate, with many pregnancies failing within the first few weeks after conception. The reason is currently unknown but recent research suggests that a particular class of blood cells may be involved.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/bkHwyzZl4AA/130802080235.htm

Star Trek: The Original Series Carlton Morgan Freeman Dead Stand Up to Cancer Azarenka NFL fantasy football Chris Kluwe

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Obama draws contrasts between House, Senate GOP

(AP) ? There's a new cadence to President Barack Obama's musings about Congress: Why can't House Republicans be more like their mates in the Senate?

As Obama presses his economic agenda across the country, he's playing one chamber against the other, hoping Americans will hear his calls for compromise and conclude it's not his fault almost nothing is getting done in Washington.

Call it a congressional two-step: Praise Senate Republicans for modest displays of cooperation, then contrast them with House Republicans, whom Obama has started describing as stubborn saboteurs. It's a theme Obama has used repeatedly to bolster his argument that he's the one acting reasonably as he prepares for clashes this fall with Congress, whose relations with Obama have always been notoriously strained.

"A growing number of Republican senators are trying to get things done," Obama said Tuesday as he unveiled a new fiscal proposal in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Days earlier, Obama accused the House GOP of risking another financial crisis by issuing ultimatums over the debt ceiling and government funding.

"We've seen a group of Republicans in the House, in particular, who suggest they wouldn't vote to pay the very bills that Congress has already racked up," Obama said. "That's not an economic plan. That's just being a deadbeat."

Obama has reason to be cautiously optimistic about the Senate, which passed a far-reaching immigration overhaul Obama sorely sought with bipartisan support and struck a deal over Obama's nominees that has led to a flurry of confirmations after months of logjam. A number of prominent GOP senators have also criticized a Republican plan to threaten a government shutdown unless funding is cut off for Obama's health care law.

But even in the Senate, there's skepticism about Obama's intentions. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said Obama's contrasting tone about the House and Senate amounts to a divide-and-conquer strategy that calls into question the White House's outreach.

"These discussions have been going on for five years and no agreements have been reached yet," Sessions said. "It could be the president is playing the Senate like a fiddle."

On most issues ? including pressing tax and spending matters ? Senate and House Republicans are unified in their opposition. There was no telling Republicans apart Tuesday, for instance, as they panned a corporate tax cut and jobs spending package the White House had portrayed as a concession to Republicans ? who oppose using tax revenue to support more spending. That proposal will be among the topics Obama discusses Wednesday when he meets separately with House and Senate Democrats.

For a president who vowed to change Washington and bust through gridlock, peeling off a handful of votes on immigration and nominees is hardly a case study in government by consensus. In fact, when Obama persistently knocks House Republicans, it only seems to reinforce that he's unlikely to get any major legislation through the House in his final years.

Senators, who represent statewide constituencies, may have fewer misgivings about working with Obama, and in recent weeks Obama's top aides, including his chief of staff and budget director, have held regular meetings with some Senate Republicans that both sides describe as productive and affable.

In the House, where most members come from lopsided districts that overwhelmingly favor or oppose the president, there's even less middle ground to navigate. In fact, White House aides say it would be counterproductive to cozy up to House Republicans, who need to prove they're actively fighting Obama's agenda lest they face a primary challenge from someone more conservative.

"They worry they'll face swift political retaliation for cooperating with me," Obama said last week in Galesburg, Ill.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said leaders want Obama more engaged with the GOP rank and file. He said Republicans perceive Obama's recent speeches as an attempt to get his head in the game for upcoming fights rather than a genuine attempt to move forward on policy.

So with prospects dim for striking deals with the House on his second-term priorities, Obama has settled for what he can accomplish: encouraging deal-making in the Senate in hopes it pressures the House and making the argument that if progress fails to materialize, it's Republicans' fault.

"Don't underestimate the deep ideological difference of opinion between the president and most of my colleagues on the Republican side," said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., one of the immigration bill's chief supporters. On other issues, "I don't think there's going to be a lot of progress as long as he insists that government spending is the source of prosperity."

___

Reach Josh Lederman at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-07-31-Obama-Congress/id-919d417f675a469a8f5a7d73bf2022cc

Marshall Henderson derek jeter Yasiel Puig The Bridge Fx Grown Ups 2 Taste Of Chicago Terry Smith

Facebook Introduces Embeddable Posts ? Mashable

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://theglobalvillageweb.com/news/facebook-introduces-embeddable-posts-mashable/

first day of spring Club Penguin Espn Bracket First Day Of Spring 2013 Bates Motel Michelle Shocked ncaa bracket

Exclusive: Ed Asner joins Joseph Fiennes and Tom Cavanagh 'The Games Maker'

By Brent Lang

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Ed Asner, the Emmy-winning star of "Lou Grant" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," has officially joined the cast of "The Games Maker," his publicist told TheWrap.

"The Games Maker" centers on a young boy whose love of board games catapults him into a fantastical world and pits him against an evil inventor. Asner will play the grandfather of the film's young protagonist (David Mazouz).

The cast also includes Joseph Fiennes ("Shakespeare in Love") and Tom Cavanagh (TV's "Ed"). Disney has the rights to distribute the film in the United States and most foreign territories.

Directed by Juan Pablo Buscarini and written by Buscarini and Pablo De Santis, the film is scheduled to start shooting the end of July in Buenos Aires.

In addition to his roles as the tough-talking, but gentle-hearted Lou Grant, Asner provided a memorable vocal performance in "Up" and has recently guest starred on such programs as "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Betty White's Off Their Rockers," which reunited him with his "Mary Tyler Moore Show" co-star.

The deal for Asner was brokered by Greene & Associates and his manager Perry Zimel.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-ed-asner-joins-joseph-fiennes-tom-cavanagh-231546226.html

steven tyler tropic thunder carnie wilson missing reese witherspoon pregnant billy joel bent

Chinese pandas to have TV reality show

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Source: news.in.msn.com --- Tuesday, July 30, 2013
The Giant Panda Channel, which currently is available only via the Internet at ipanda.com will use video taken by 28 cameras that have been set up in the animals' main preserve ...

Source: http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=253460331

March Madness Live Google Keep ncaa scores Splash Ncaa Basketball Tournament NCAA Bracket 2013 Robert Morris

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Amazon's Updated Kindle App Is a Tiny F U to Apple's App Store

Amazon's Updated Kindle App Is a Tiny F U to Apple's App Store

Amazon just released a new update to its Kindle app for iOS, and it basically just told Apple to go f*** itself in the process. The Apple App Store bible absolutely forbids in-app purchases unless the company is willing to give Apple a 30 percent cut, but Amazon has finally found a way around this little speed bump: likely-soon-to-be-banned free samples.

Read more...

    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ni4AEKN3iIQ/amazons-updated-kindle-app-is-a-tiny-f-u-to-apples-ap-966633304

chevy volt christina hendricks camp david hawaii weather the jerk lake havasu halo 4

Ancient whale coprolites, fault slickensides, shergottites, Ediacara, and Cascadia

Ancient whale coprolites, fault slickensides, shergottites, Ediacara, and Cascadia [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 31-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Kea Giles
kgiles@geosociety.org
Geological Society of America

New Geology articles posted online ahead of print July 22 and 31, 2013

Boulder, Colo., USA - Two new Geology articles this month are open access: "Steady rotation of the Cascade arc" and "Silica gel formation during fault slip: Evidence from the rock record." Other new articles cover everything from the discovery of fossilized whale "intestinal products" in central Italy to flooding as a result of the 2010 Eyjafjallajkull volcano eruption to new findings via the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) to using microfossils to reconstruct massive earthquakes in Cascadia.

Highlights are provided below. Geology articles published ahead of print can be accessed online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/recent. All abstracts are open-access at http://geology.gsapubs.org/; representatives of the media may obtain complimentary Geology articles by contacting Kea Giles at the address above.

Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to Geology in articles published. Contact Kea Giles for additional information or assistance.

Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.


Steady rotation of the Cascade arc
Ray E. Wells and Robert McCaffrey, U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, MS 973, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. Published online 22 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34514.1.

This article by Ray E. Wells and Robert McCaffrey is open-access. Wells and McCaffrey write that the clockwise geologic displacement of the 16 million-year-old (m.y.) ancestral Cascade volcanic arc from the presently active volcanic chain in the northwestern U.S. and Canada is in the same sense and at nearly the same rate as the motions calculated from Global Positioning System (GPS) over the past 15 years. Motion of the ancestral arc can be explained by clockwise rotation of the leading edge of North America at 1.0 degree/m.y. over the magma source generated by the subducting plate, which is itself moving westward 1 to 4.5 km/m.y. as it slowly sinks into the mantle. The remarkable similarities between post-16 m.y. arc migration, paleomagnetic rotation, and modern GPS block motions indicate that the block motions from decadal GPS can be used to calculate meaningful long-term crustal strain rates and earthquake hazards.


Silica gel formation during fault slip: Evidence from the rock record
J.D. Kirkpatrick et al., Dept. of Geosciences, Colorado State University, 1482 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA. Published online 22 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34483.1.

This open-access article by J.D. Kirkpatrick and colleagues discusses the dynamic reduction of fault strength as a key process during earthquake rupture. Many mechanisms for causing coseismic weakening have been proposed based on theory and laboratory experiments, including silica gel lubrication. However, few have been observed in nature. Here, Kirkpatrick and colleagues report on the first documented occurrence of a natural silica gel coating a fault surface at the Corona Heights fault slickenside in San Francisco, California, USA.


Comparison of microstructures in superplastically deformed synthetic materials and natural mylonites: Mineral aggregation via grain boundary sliding
Takehiko Hiraga et al., Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan. Published online 22 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34407.1

Very similar microstructure, that is, the same phase aggregation is found in both experimentally deformed synthetic materials and natural ultramylonite. The stress-strain-rate relationship, grain-size dependent flow strength, and the achievement of large tensile stain on the synthetic samples indicate that the samples creeped due to grain boundary sliding (GBS). As a result of GBS, grain-switching events allow dispersed phases to contact grains of the same phase oriented in the direction of compression. Mineral phase mixing through GBS, which helps to retain fine grain size in rocks due to grain boundary pinning, has been speculated to occur during formation of mylonites. However, the results presented here by Takehiko Hiraga and colleagues contradict this hypothesis because mineral aggregation through GBS promotes demixing rather than mixing of the mineral phases. GBS processes alone will not promote a transformation of well-developed monomineralic bands to polymineralic bands during mylonitization.


Sea-level-induced seismicity and submarine landslide occurrence
Daniel S. Brothers et al., U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Science Center, 384 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA. Published online 22 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34410.1.

The relationships between global climate change and marine geohazards remains poorly understood. This study by Daniel S. Brothers and colleagues investigates compelling linkages between rapid sea-level rise, bending of the lithosphere, and stress loading of crustal faults. Rupture of such faults may induce slope failure and generate submarine landslides, thus offering a new explanation for the temporal coincidence between many submarine landslides and rapid sea level rise between 16,000 and 8,000 years ago.


Reconciling disparate estimates of total offset on the southern San Andreas fault
Michael H. Darin and Rebecca J. Dorsey, Dept. of Geological Sciences, 1272 University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1272, USA. Published online 22 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34276.1.

The total amount of motion along a fault can be estimated by offset geologic markers that were once continuous across the fault. There are various pairs of cross-fault markers along the San Andreas fault in southern California that suggest different amounts of offset ranging from 160-240 km. These estimates assume that the markers were offset solely by sliding along the fault. In this paper, Michael H. Darin and Rebecca J. Dorsey reinterpret one pair of offset markers and use a simple geometric model to show that fault block rotation adjacent to the fault can account for a small but significant amount of the apparent offset, thus reducing the amount of sliding required to displace the formerly continuous markers. Their model provides a new estimate of ~200 km of total offset on the San Andreas fault within the Salton Trough region, which is consistent with all other geologic data from various offset markers. This new lower estimate of total slip on the southern San Andreas fault implies that more slip is required on other faults in California and Arizona, in order to satisfy estimates of the total amount of motion between the Pacific and North American plates.


Erosion of the Tsangpo Gorge by megafloods, Eastern Himalaya
Karl A. Lang et al., Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences, and Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington, Box 351310, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. Published online 22 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34693.1.

Karl Lang and colleagues present new detrital zircon U-Pb provenance data from large magnitude "megaflood" deposits immediately downstream of the Yarlung-Tsangpo River Gorge in the easternmost Himalaya. These data support the previous hypothesis that Tibetan lakes restrained by glacial ice and debris within the Yarlung-Tsangpo drainage episodically evacuated through this steep, narrow gorge. These extreme flood events were capable of transporting a considerable amount of material from steep channel-adjacent hillslopes, focusing erosion within the gorge. Although megaflood frequency remains unconstrained, these data support a mechanism to substantially contribute to the Quaternary erosion of the Yarlung-Tsangpo Gorge.


The role of multiple glacier outburst floods in proglacial landscape evolution: The 2010 Eyjafjallajkull eruption, Iceland
Stuart A. Dunning et al., Geography, Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34665.1.

In 2010, Eyjafjallajkull volcano in Iceland erupted, causing global disruption due to the dispersing ash cloud. Less well known are the series of floods (known by the Icelandic term "jkulhlaup") generated by the melting of parts of the volcano ice-cap. Stuart A. Dunning and colleagues had a unique opportunity to survey the flood routing prior to the flooding as monitoring indicated an imminent eruption, and to then return after the eruption ended. They used laser scanning and time-lapse camera imagery to create detailed 3D models of the landscape to quantify change. The jkulhlaups completely in-filled a lake at the foot of Gigjkull glacier with sediment totaling more than 17 million cubic meters -- enough to cover nearly 315 NFL pitches 10 m deep in a mix of ash, rock, and ice. Contrary to prior models assuming that the largest events dominate the proglacial landscape, much change occurred during a series of comparatively small jkulhlaup events. It is erosion and deposition from these events that dominate the current surface landscape.


Globally synchronous Marinoan deglaciation indicated by U-Pb geochronology of the Cottons Breccia, Tasmania, Australia
C.R. Calver et al., Mineral Resources Tasmania, PO Box 56, Rosny Park, Tasmania 7018, Australia. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34568.1.

The apparently global distribution of Marinoan glacial deposits inspired the "snowball Earth" hypothesis, and prompted designation of the top of the type Marinoan glacials in South Australia as the Global Stratotype Section and Point ("golden spike") for the base of the terminal Proterozoic, Ediacaran System. However, horizons suitable for radioisotopic dating are lacking in the stratotype section and correlated sequences on mainland Australia. Ash beds suitably placed to directly and precisely date the Cryogenian-Ediacaran transition have so far been found only in Namibia (635.5 plus or minus 0.8 million years ago) and south China (635.2 plus or minus 0.8 million years ago). In this paper, C.R. Calver and colleagues show that a probable reworked volcaniclastic horizon at the very top of the Cottons Breccia, a Marinoan glacial correlative on King Island, Tasmania, has yielded an abundant population of juvenile zircons dated (by U-Pb on zircon, using chemical abrasion-thermal ionization mass spectroscopy) at 636.4 plus or minus 0.5 million years ago. Equivalence to the ash bed dates from Namibia and China supports correlation of those strata to the Australian type sections, and globally synchronous deglaciation at the beginning of the Ediacaran Period, and is consistent with the "snowball Earth" hypothesis.


A hematite-bearing layer in Gale Crater, Mars: Mapping and implications for past aqueous conditions
A.A. Fraeman et al., Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34613.1.

The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter collected data in a spatially overlapping mode that show hematite, an iron oxide mineral, is present on the top of a layered ridge located about 3 km away from the Curiosity rover's proposed arrival point at Mount Sharp's base. The hematite formed either through leaching of local material in neutral to acidic waters or through mixing of anoxic groundwaters with a more oxidizing water body or atmosphere. These formation hypotheses can be tested using Curiosity's payload, and both scenarios indicate that the ridge was a site of past active iron oxidation. In similar environments on Earth, iron oxidation is almost exclusively mediated by microorganisms. This hematite ridge therefore represents a specific site where concentrated and localized iron oxidation occurred, and is a prime location to search for signs of past habitability.


Dynamic pore-pressure variations induce substrate erosion by pyroclastic flows
O. Roche et al., Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Universit Blaise Pascal, CNRS UMR6524, IRD R163, 5 rue Kessler, F-63038 Clermont-Ferrand, France. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34668.1.

Pyroclastic flows are ground-hugging dense mixtures of gas and particles generated during volcanic eruptions. Field evidence shows that they can entrain blocks from underlying substrates formed by earlier geological events, yet, counter-intuitively, they are less likely to erode unconsolidated layers of fine particles. O. Roche and colleagues report laboratory experiments that reproduce these seemingly contradictory observations and also offer a means to infer pyroclastic flow velocity. Experiments demonstrate that the sliding head of a granular flow generates a dynamic upward pore pressure gradient at the flow-substrate interface. Associated upward air flux is enough to fluidize a smooth substrate of fines, so that particles are not entrained individually but the substrate instead results in small shear instabilities. In contrast, coarse particles forming a non-fluidized rough substrate are lifted at a critical upward force due to the pore pressure gradient, according to their individual masses, which provides a basis for a model to calculate the flow velocity. Application to the 18 May 1980 pyroclastic flow deposits at Mount St. Helens gives velocities of about 9 to 13 meters per second at about 6 to 7 km from the vent on gentle slopes (less than 4 to 6 degrees), in agreement with field observations at this volcano and others.


A stable and hot Turonian without glacial {delta}18O excursions is indicated by exquisitely preserved Tanzanian foraminifera
Kenneth G. MacLeod et al., Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34510.1.

A shift over a few centuries from the icehouse climate state in which humans evolved to a greenhouse climate similar to that of Late Cretaceous (~100 to 65 million years ago) is an often repeated, cautionary prediction of the likely consequence of continued burning of fossil fuels and other anthropogenic additions to atmospheric CO2. The corollary, that understanding previous greenhouse times might help predict future conditions, has justified many Late Cretaceous studies. The resolution of these studies has increased to the point where temporal variability in greenhouse climates can be examined. Widespread warmth is generally accepted to have existed during the Late Cretaceous, but times of growth of continental ice sheets have also been proposed. To test this "greenhouse glacial" hypothesis, Kenneth G. MacLeod and colleagues measured the oxygen isotopic composition of more than 1,000 samples of exceptionally well-preserved shells of single celled organisms (foraminifera) from Tanzania to estimate temperatures spanning a proposed Late Cretaceous glacial interval. Results indicate that hot and remarkably stable conditions prevailed along coastal east Africa during the entire interval examined. There are no indications for growth of glacial ice at this time, and these results support an interpretation that the Earth is effectively ice-free during greenhouse times.


Implications for late Grenvillian (Rigolet phase) construction of Rodinia using new U-Pb data from the Mars Hill terrane, Tennessee and North Carolina, United States
John N. Aleinikoff et al., U.S. Geological Survey, MS 963, Denver, Colorado 80225, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34779.1.

New ion microprobe U-Pb geochronology of zircon and monazite from high grade gneisses of the Mars Hill terrane in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, USA, indicate that these rocks, previously considered to be 1.8 billion-year-old meta-igneous rocks, are really 1.0 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks. Thus, they do not represent a fragment of ancient Amazonian crust and were not accreted to Laurentia during the Ottawan phase of the Grenvillian orogeny 1.05 billion years ago. Instead, according to John N. Aleinikoff and colleagues, these rocks probably are composed of detritus eroded from Amazonian crust; the sediments were deposited late in the development of the Rodinia supercontinent, no earlier than about 1.02 Ga, and were metamorphosed at about 0.98 Ga. As such, they are part of a long belt of recently discovered and described late Grenvillian metasedimentary rocks that extends from at least the Smoky Mountains to northern Virginia.


Magma chamber-scale liquid immiscibility in the Siberian Traps represented by melt pools in native iron
Vadim S. Kamenetsky et al., ARC Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits and School of Earth Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34638.1.

Exceptional preservation of glass inclusions in intrusive rocks of the Siberian Large Igneous Province evidences evolutionary processes of tholeiitic basalts, the most common terrestrial magmas. Silicate liquid immiscibility between aluminosilicate and iron-rich paired melts is recorded by melt pools in native iron. These unique snapshots of magma evolution prove that cooling and crystallizing basaltic magma reaches a two-liquid stability field, and two contrasting silicate melts split at large-scale. The recognition of this mechanism in the Earth's largest magmatic province is critical for understanding common compositional bimodality in other continental magmas and origin of orthomagmatic iron-titanium-phosphorus ore deposits.


Affirming life aquatic for the Ediacara biota in China and Australia
Shuhai Xiao et al., Dept. of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34691.1.

The Ediacara biota (579-541 million years old) has been long championed as a snapshot of the marine ecosystem on the eve of the Cambrian explosion and provides important insights into the early evolution of animals. A recent reinterpretation of the eponymous Ediacara Member of South Australia as paleosols and Ediacara fossils as lichens or microbial colonies that lived on terrestrial soils, if correct, questions the relevance of the Ediacara biota to our understanding of early marine ecosystems. This reinterpretation, however, is not supported by comparative paleobiological and functional morphological analysis. The Ediacara Member shares a number of fossil forms with Ediacaran-age assemblages preserved in unequivocally marine sediments elsewhere in the world, including marine black shales in South China. In addition, Ediacara fossils show no morphological adaptions to address the most fundamental challenges for terrestrial life, for example, mechanical support and desiccation. Thus, comparative paleobiological and functional morphological data support the conventional interpretation that the Ediacara biota records the marine ecosystems just prior to the Cambrian explosion of animals.


Water and the composition of Martian magmas
J. Brian Balta (corresponding) and Harry Y. McSween, Jr., Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, 1412 Circle Drive, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34714.1.

Shergottites are the most common type of martian meteorite. Their composition is basaltic, similar to igneous rocks from Iceland and Hawaii, but with some important differences. When the shergottites are dated using common isotope-decay techniques, they generally are found to be only a few hundred-million years old. On Mars, the only sources of igneous rocks of that age are the large volcanoes, such as Olympus Mons, which are also made of basalt. But, when J. Brian Balta and Harry Y McSween Jr. compare the shergottites to measurements of the composition of those volcanoes by orbiting spacecraft, they find that they do not match, particularly in their silica contents. Despite the shergottites matching the volcanoes in age, the volcanoes appear to be made of a different type of basalt from most of the meteorites in our collection. Magmas can dissolve small amounts of water in them, and that water can change the silica contents of magmas in a way that could explain both the volcanoes and the shergottites. Balta and McSween propose that the shergottites represent magmas generated with water and the volcanoes represent drier magmas. Magmas similar to the shergottites could therefore have been a major source of the water present on the martian surface early in its history.


Syn-tectonic, meteoric waterderived carbonation of the New Caledonia peridotite nappe
Benot Quesnel et al., Gosciences Rennes, Universit Rennes 1, UMR 6118 CNRS, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34531.1.

Ultramafic rocks, originated in the mantle, are sometimes carried upon continents through the process of obduction. The weathering of such rocks under warm and wet climates results in the formation of laterites associated with nickel ore deposits. A typical example is provided by the peridotite nappe of New Caledonia, SW Pacific. Carbonation of the ultramafic rocks is also indicated by abundant veins of magnesite (MgCO3) found along the serpentine sole of the nappe. In this study, exceptional outcrops recently exposed in the Koniambo Massif allow Benoit Quesnel and colleagues to document (1) the synkinematic character of many magnesite veins with respect to pervasive shear deformation of the sole, providing the first known example of syntectonic carbonation of an ultramafic nappe; and (2) the meteoric origin of the fluids from which the veins have been formed, by means of stable isotopic analyses, which indicates that carbonation and laterization represent complementary records of meteoric water infiltration. Taken together, these results suggest a scenario in which synlaterization tectonic activity has enhanced water infiltration through the nappe, leading to widespread carbonation of the serpentine sole. This calls for renewed examination of other magnesite-bearing ultramafic nappes worldwide in order to establish whether active tectonics is commonly a major agent for carbonation.


Testing the use of microfossils to reconstruct great earthquakes at Cascadia
S.E. Engelhart et al. -- B.P. Horton, corresponding: Sea Level Research, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34544.1.

In 1700, a massive earthquake struck the west coast of North America. Though it was powerful enough to cause a tsunami as far as Japan, a lack of local documentation has made studying this historic event challenging. In a study lead by S.E. Engelhart, Benjamin Horton, Professor in the Institute of Marine and Coastal Science at Rutgers University, and colleagues have helped unlock this geological mystery using a fossil-based technique. Their work provides a finer-grained portrait of this earthquake and the changes in coastal land level it produced, enabling modelers to better prepare for future events. The Cascadia Subduction Zone runs along the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States and up to Vancouver Island in Canada. This major fault line is capable of producing megathrust earthquakes 9.0 or higher, though this trait was only discovered within the last several decades from geology records due to a dearth of observations or historical records. The Lewis and Clark expedition would not make the first extensive surveys of the region for another 100 years, and contemporaneous aboriginal accounts were scarce and incomplete. To provide a clearer picture of how the earthquake occurred, Horton and his colleagues applied a technique they have used in assessing historic sea level rise. They traveled to various sites along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, taking core samples from up and down the coast and working with local researchers who donated preexisting data sets. The researchers' targets were microscopic fossils known as foraminifera. Through radiocarbon dating and an analysis of different species' positions within the cores over time, Horton and colleagues were able to piece together a historical picture of the changes in land and sea level along the coastline. This research revealed how much the coast suddenly subsided during the earthquake. This subsidence was used to infer how much the tectonic plates moved during the earthquake.


Synchronous Oligocene-Miocene metamorphism of the Pamir and the north Himalaya driven by plate-scale dynamics
Michael A. Stearns et al., Earth Science Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34451.1.

The Pamir and Himalaya are both parts of the India-Asia continent collision, and both have exposed deep crustal rocks ideal for investigating processes operating deep within continent collisions. Mineral dates and chemistry provide both a time record and a petrologic record of the collision at both localities. Both locations experienced metamorphism from 28 to 15 million years ago. Mineral compositions indicate a transition from crustal thickening to thinning 20 million years ago at both places. These events coincide with two tearing events of the subducting Indian plate inferred from tomography.


Enigmatic, biogenically induced structures in Pleistocene marine deposits: A first record of fossil ambergris
Angela Baldanza et al., Department of Earth Sciences, University of Perugia, Piazza Universit, 06123 Perugia, Italy. Published 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34731.1.

This article deals to the discovery of unknown, enigmatic trace fossils in marine clay deposits about 1.75 million years ago in central Italy (Umbria Region). Some hypotheses about their origin are considered, but the most convincing explanation stands in the close similarity with large masses of present-day ambergris (known as "floating gold"), a solid, waxy, dull grey or blackish flammable substance usually associated with sperm whales. Preliminary chemical data reveal the presence of organic molecules compatible with mammalian gastric or intestinal activity. Squid beaks are also found. Most of the geological, paleontological, and chemical results allow the identification of these structures as intestinal products of sperm whales living about 1.75 million years ago. At this time, they represent the only known example worldwide of Pleistocene sperm whale "coprolites," and enhance the knowledge about the cetacean frequentation of the ancient Mediterranean Sea.

###

http://www.geosociety.org


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Ancient whale coprolites, fault slickensides, shergottites, Ediacara, and Cascadia [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 31-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Kea Giles
kgiles@geosociety.org
Geological Society of America

New Geology articles posted online ahead of print July 22 and 31, 2013

Boulder, Colo., USA - Two new Geology articles this month are open access: "Steady rotation of the Cascade arc" and "Silica gel formation during fault slip: Evidence from the rock record." Other new articles cover everything from the discovery of fossilized whale "intestinal products" in central Italy to flooding as a result of the 2010 Eyjafjallajkull volcano eruption to new findings via the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) to using microfossils to reconstruct massive earthquakes in Cascadia.

Highlights are provided below. Geology articles published ahead of print can be accessed online at http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/early/recent. All abstracts are open-access at http://geology.gsapubs.org/; representatives of the media may obtain complimentary Geology articles by contacting Kea Giles at the address above.

Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to Geology in articles published. Contact Kea Giles for additional information or assistance.

Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.


Steady rotation of the Cascade arc
Ray E. Wells and Robert McCaffrey, U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, MS 973, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. Published online 22 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34514.1.

This article by Ray E. Wells and Robert McCaffrey is open-access. Wells and McCaffrey write that the clockwise geologic displacement of the 16 million-year-old (m.y.) ancestral Cascade volcanic arc from the presently active volcanic chain in the northwestern U.S. and Canada is in the same sense and at nearly the same rate as the motions calculated from Global Positioning System (GPS) over the past 15 years. Motion of the ancestral arc can be explained by clockwise rotation of the leading edge of North America at 1.0 degree/m.y. over the magma source generated by the subducting plate, which is itself moving westward 1 to 4.5 km/m.y. as it slowly sinks into the mantle. The remarkable similarities between post-16 m.y. arc migration, paleomagnetic rotation, and modern GPS block motions indicate that the block motions from decadal GPS can be used to calculate meaningful long-term crustal strain rates and earthquake hazards.


Silica gel formation during fault slip: Evidence from the rock record
J.D. Kirkpatrick et al., Dept. of Geosciences, Colorado State University, 1482 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA. Published online 22 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34483.1.

This open-access article by J.D. Kirkpatrick and colleagues discusses the dynamic reduction of fault strength as a key process during earthquake rupture. Many mechanisms for causing coseismic weakening have been proposed based on theory and laboratory experiments, including silica gel lubrication. However, few have been observed in nature. Here, Kirkpatrick and colleagues report on the first documented occurrence of a natural silica gel coating a fault surface at the Corona Heights fault slickenside in San Francisco, California, USA.


Comparison of microstructures in superplastically deformed synthetic materials and natural mylonites: Mineral aggregation via grain boundary sliding
Takehiko Hiraga et al., Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan. Published online 22 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34407.1

Very similar microstructure, that is, the same phase aggregation is found in both experimentally deformed synthetic materials and natural ultramylonite. The stress-strain-rate relationship, grain-size dependent flow strength, and the achievement of large tensile stain on the synthetic samples indicate that the samples creeped due to grain boundary sliding (GBS). As a result of GBS, grain-switching events allow dispersed phases to contact grains of the same phase oriented in the direction of compression. Mineral phase mixing through GBS, which helps to retain fine grain size in rocks due to grain boundary pinning, has been speculated to occur during formation of mylonites. However, the results presented here by Takehiko Hiraga and colleagues contradict this hypothesis because mineral aggregation through GBS promotes demixing rather than mixing of the mineral phases. GBS processes alone will not promote a transformation of well-developed monomineralic bands to polymineralic bands during mylonitization.


Sea-level-induced seismicity and submarine landslide occurrence
Daniel S. Brothers et al., U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Science Center, 384 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA. Published online 22 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34410.1.

The relationships between global climate change and marine geohazards remains poorly understood. This study by Daniel S. Brothers and colleagues investigates compelling linkages between rapid sea-level rise, bending of the lithosphere, and stress loading of crustal faults. Rupture of such faults may induce slope failure and generate submarine landslides, thus offering a new explanation for the temporal coincidence between many submarine landslides and rapid sea level rise between 16,000 and 8,000 years ago.


Reconciling disparate estimates of total offset on the southern San Andreas fault
Michael H. Darin and Rebecca J. Dorsey, Dept. of Geological Sciences, 1272 University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1272, USA. Published online 22 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34276.1.

The total amount of motion along a fault can be estimated by offset geologic markers that were once continuous across the fault. There are various pairs of cross-fault markers along the San Andreas fault in southern California that suggest different amounts of offset ranging from 160-240 km. These estimates assume that the markers were offset solely by sliding along the fault. In this paper, Michael H. Darin and Rebecca J. Dorsey reinterpret one pair of offset markers and use a simple geometric model to show that fault block rotation adjacent to the fault can account for a small but significant amount of the apparent offset, thus reducing the amount of sliding required to displace the formerly continuous markers. Their model provides a new estimate of ~200 km of total offset on the San Andreas fault within the Salton Trough region, which is consistent with all other geologic data from various offset markers. This new lower estimate of total slip on the southern San Andreas fault implies that more slip is required on other faults in California and Arizona, in order to satisfy estimates of the total amount of motion between the Pacific and North American plates.


Erosion of the Tsangpo Gorge by megafloods, Eastern Himalaya
Karl A. Lang et al., Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences, and Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington, Box 351310, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. Published online 22 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34693.1.

Karl Lang and colleagues present new detrital zircon U-Pb provenance data from large magnitude "megaflood" deposits immediately downstream of the Yarlung-Tsangpo River Gorge in the easternmost Himalaya. These data support the previous hypothesis that Tibetan lakes restrained by glacial ice and debris within the Yarlung-Tsangpo drainage episodically evacuated through this steep, narrow gorge. These extreme flood events were capable of transporting a considerable amount of material from steep channel-adjacent hillslopes, focusing erosion within the gorge. Although megaflood frequency remains unconstrained, these data support a mechanism to substantially contribute to the Quaternary erosion of the Yarlung-Tsangpo Gorge.


The role of multiple glacier outburst floods in proglacial landscape evolution: The 2010 Eyjafjallajkull eruption, Iceland
Stuart A. Dunning et al., Geography, Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34665.1.

In 2010, Eyjafjallajkull volcano in Iceland erupted, causing global disruption due to the dispersing ash cloud. Less well known are the series of floods (known by the Icelandic term "jkulhlaup") generated by the melting of parts of the volcano ice-cap. Stuart A. Dunning and colleagues had a unique opportunity to survey the flood routing prior to the flooding as monitoring indicated an imminent eruption, and to then return after the eruption ended. They used laser scanning and time-lapse camera imagery to create detailed 3D models of the landscape to quantify change. The jkulhlaups completely in-filled a lake at the foot of Gigjkull glacier with sediment totaling more than 17 million cubic meters -- enough to cover nearly 315 NFL pitches 10 m deep in a mix of ash, rock, and ice. Contrary to prior models assuming that the largest events dominate the proglacial landscape, much change occurred during a series of comparatively small jkulhlaup events. It is erosion and deposition from these events that dominate the current surface landscape.


Globally synchronous Marinoan deglaciation indicated by U-Pb geochronology of the Cottons Breccia, Tasmania, Australia
C.R. Calver et al., Mineral Resources Tasmania, PO Box 56, Rosny Park, Tasmania 7018, Australia. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34568.1.

The apparently global distribution of Marinoan glacial deposits inspired the "snowball Earth" hypothesis, and prompted designation of the top of the type Marinoan glacials in South Australia as the Global Stratotype Section and Point ("golden spike") for the base of the terminal Proterozoic, Ediacaran System. However, horizons suitable for radioisotopic dating are lacking in the stratotype section and correlated sequences on mainland Australia. Ash beds suitably placed to directly and precisely date the Cryogenian-Ediacaran transition have so far been found only in Namibia (635.5 plus or minus 0.8 million years ago) and south China (635.2 plus or minus 0.8 million years ago). In this paper, C.R. Calver and colleagues show that a probable reworked volcaniclastic horizon at the very top of the Cottons Breccia, a Marinoan glacial correlative on King Island, Tasmania, has yielded an abundant population of juvenile zircons dated (by U-Pb on zircon, using chemical abrasion-thermal ionization mass spectroscopy) at 636.4 plus or minus 0.5 million years ago. Equivalence to the ash bed dates from Namibia and China supports correlation of those strata to the Australian type sections, and globally synchronous deglaciation at the beginning of the Ediacaran Period, and is consistent with the "snowball Earth" hypothesis.


A hematite-bearing layer in Gale Crater, Mars: Mapping and implications for past aqueous conditions
A.A. Fraeman et al., Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34613.1.

The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter collected data in a spatially overlapping mode that show hematite, an iron oxide mineral, is present on the top of a layered ridge located about 3 km away from the Curiosity rover's proposed arrival point at Mount Sharp's base. The hematite formed either through leaching of local material in neutral to acidic waters or through mixing of anoxic groundwaters with a more oxidizing water body or atmosphere. These formation hypotheses can be tested using Curiosity's payload, and both scenarios indicate that the ridge was a site of past active iron oxidation. In similar environments on Earth, iron oxidation is almost exclusively mediated by microorganisms. This hematite ridge therefore represents a specific site where concentrated and localized iron oxidation occurred, and is a prime location to search for signs of past habitability.


Dynamic pore-pressure variations induce substrate erosion by pyroclastic flows
O. Roche et al., Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Universit Blaise Pascal, CNRS UMR6524, IRD R163, 5 rue Kessler, F-63038 Clermont-Ferrand, France. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34668.1.

Pyroclastic flows are ground-hugging dense mixtures of gas and particles generated during volcanic eruptions. Field evidence shows that they can entrain blocks from underlying substrates formed by earlier geological events, yet, counter-intuitively, they are less likely to erode unconsolidated layers of fine particles. O. Roche and colleagues report laboratory experiments that reproduce these seemingly contradictory observations and also offer a means to infer pyroclastic flow velocity. Experiments demonstrate that the sliding head of a granular flow generates a dynamic upward pore pressure gradient at the flow-substrate interface. Associated upward air flux is enough to fluidize a smooth substrate of fines, so that particles are not entrained individually but the substrate instead results in small shear instabilities. In contrast, coarse particles forming a non-fluidized rough substrate are lifted at a critical upward force due to the pore pressure gradient, according to their individual masses, which provides a basis for a model to calculate the flow velocity. Application to the 18 May 1980 pyroclastic flow deposits at Mount St. Helens gives velocities of about 9 to 13 meters per second at about 6 to 7 km from the vent on gentle slopes (less than 4 to 6 degrees), in agreement with field observations at this volcano and others.


A stable and hot Turonian without glacial {delta}18O excursions is indicated by exquisitely preserved Tanzanian foraminifera
Kenneth G. MacLeod et al., Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34510.1.

A shift over a few centuries from the icehouse climate state in which humans evolved to a greenhouse climate similar to that of Late Cretaceous (~100 to 65 million years ago) is an often repeated, cautionary prediction of the likely consequence of continued burning of fossil fuels and other anthropogenic additions to atmospheric CO2. The corollary, that understanding previous greenhouse times might help predict future conditions, has justified many Late Cretaceous studies. The resolution of these studies has increased to the point where temporal variability in greenhouse climates can be examined. Widespread warmth is generally accepted to have existed during the Late Cretaceous, but times of growth of continental ice sheets have also been proposed. To test this "greenhouse glacial" hypothesis, Kenneth G. MacLeod and colleagues measured the oxygen isotopic composition of more than 1,000 samples of exceptionally well-preserved shells of single celled organisms (foraminifera) from Tanzania to estimate temperatures spanning a proposed Late Cretaceous glacial interval. Results indicate that hot and remarkably stable conditions prevailed along coastal east Africa during the entire interval examined. There are no indications for growth of glacial ice at this time, and these results support an interpretation that the Earth is effectively ice-free during greenhouse times.


Implications for late Grenvillian (Rigolet phase) construction of Rodinia using new U-Pb data from the Mars Hill terrane, Tennessee and North Carolina, United States
John N. Aleinikoff et al., U.S. Geological Survey, MS 963, Denver, Colorado 80225, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34779.1.

New ion microprobe U-Pb geochronology of zircon and monazite from high grade gneisses of the Mars Hill terrane in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, USA, indicate that these rocks, previously considered to be 1.8 billion-year-old meta-igneous rocks, are really 1.0 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks. Thus, they do not represent a fragment of ancient Amazonian crust and were not accreted to Laurentia during the Ottawan phase of the Grenvillian orogeny 1.05 billion years ago. Instead, according to John N. Aleinikoff and colleagues, these rocks probably are composed of detritus eroded from Amazonian crust; the sediments were deposited late in the development of the Rodinia supercontinent, no earlier than about 1.02 Ga, and were metamorphosed at about 0.98 Ga. As such, they are part of a long belt of recently discovered and described late Grenvillian metasedimentary rocks that extends from at least the Smoky Mountains to northern Virginia.


Magma chamber-scale liquid immiscibility in the Siberian Traps represented by melt pools in native iron
Vadim S. Kamenetsky et al., ARC Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits and School of Earth Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34638.1.

Exceptional preservation of glass inclusions in intrusive rocks of the Siberian Large Igneous Province evidences evolutionary processes of tholeiitic basalts, the most common terrestrial magmas. Silicate liquid immiscibility between aluminosilicate and iron-rich paired melts is recorded by melt pools in native iron. These unique snapshots of magma evolution prove that cooling and crystallizing basaltic magma reaches a two-liquid stability field, and two contrasting silicate melts split at large-scale. The recognition of this mechanism in the Earth's largest magmatic province is critical for understanding common compositional bimodality in other continental magmas and origin of orthomagmatic iron-titanium-phosphorus ore deposits.


Affirming life aquatic for the Ediacara biota in China and Australia
Shuhai Xiao et al., Dept. of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34691.1.

The Ediacara biota (579-541 million years old) has been long championed as a snapshot of the marine ecosystem on the eve of the Cambrian explosion and provides important insights into the early evolution of animals. A recent reinterpretation of the eponymous Ediacara Member of South Australia as paleosols and Ediacara fossils as lichens or microbial colonies that lived on terrestrial soils, if correct, questions the relevance of the Ediacara biota to our understanding of early marine ecosystems. This reinterpretation, however, is not supported by comparative paleobiological and functional morphological analysis. The Ediacara Member shares a number of fossil forms with Ediacaran-age assemblages preserved in unequivocally marine sediments elsewhere in the world, including marine black shales in South China. In addition, Ediacara fossils show no morphological adaptions to address the most fundamental challenges for terrestrial life, for example, mechanical support and desiccation. Thus, comparative paleobiological and functional morphological data support the conventional interpretation that the Ediacara biota records the marine ecosystems just prior to the Cambrian explosion of animals.


Water and the composition of Martian magmas
J. Brian Balta (corresponding) and Harry Y. McSween, Jr., Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, 1412 Circle Drive, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34714.1.

Shergottites are the most common type of martian meteorite. Their composition is basaltic, similar to igneous rocks from Iceland and Hawaii, but with some important differences. When the shergottites are dated using common isotope-decay techniques, they generally are found to be only a few hundred-million years old. On Mars, the only sources of igneous rocks of that age are the large volcanoes, such as Olympus Mons, which are also made of basalt. But, when J. Brian Balta and Harry Y McSween Jr. compare the shergottites to measurements of the composition of those volcanoes by orbiting spacecraft, they find that they do not match, particularly in their silica contents. Despite the shergottites matching the volcanoes in age, the volcanoes appear to be made of a different type of basalt from most of the meteorites in our collection. Magmas can dissolve small amounts of water in them, and that water can change the silica contents of magmas in a way that could explain both the volcanoes and the shergottites. Balta and McSween propose that the shergottites represent magmas generated with water and the volcanoes represent drier magmas. Magmas similar to the shergottites could therefore have been a major source of the water present on the martian surface early in its history.


Syn-tectonic, meteoric waterderived carbonation of the New Caledonia peridotite nappe
Benot Quesnel et al., Gosciences Rennes, Universit Rennes 1, UMR 6118 CNRS, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34531.1.

Ultramafic rocks, originated in the mantle, are sometimes carried upon continents through the process of obduction. The weathering of such rocks under warm and wet climates results in the formation of laterites associated with nickel ore deposits. A typical example is provided by the peridotite nappe of New Caledonia, SW Pacific. Carbonation of the ultramafic rocks is also indicated by abundant veins of magnesite (MgCO3) found along the serpentine sole of the nappe. In this study, exceptional outcrops recently exposed in the Koniambo Massif allow Benoit Quesnel and colleagues to document (1) the synkinematic character of many magnesite veins with respect to pervasive shear deformation of the sole, providing the first known example of syntectonic carbonation of an ultramafic nappe; and (2) the meteoric origin of the fluids from which the veins have been formed, by means of stable isotopic analyses, which indicates that carbonation and laterization represent complementary records of meteoric water infiltration. Taken together, these results suggest a scenario in which synlaterization tectonic activity has enhanced water infiltration through the nappe, leading to widespread carbonation of the serpentine sole. This calls for renewed examination of other magnesite-bearing ultramafic nappes worldwide in order to establish whether active tectonics is commonly a major agent for carbonation.


Testing the use of microfossils to reconstruct great earthquakes at Cascadia
S.E. Engelhart et al. -- B.P. Horton, corresponding: Sea Level Research, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34544.1.

In 1700, a massive earthquake struck the west coast of North America. Though it was powerful enough to cause a tsunami as far as Japan, a lack of local documentation has made studying this historic event challenging. In a study lead by S.E. Engelhart, Benjamin Horton, Professor in the Institute of Marine and Coastal Science at Rutgers University, and colleagues have helped unlock this geological mystery using a fossil-based technique. Their work provides a finer-grained portrait of this earthquake and the changes in coastal land level it produced, enabling modelers to better prepare for future events. The Cascadia Subduction Zone runs along the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States and up to Vancouver Island in Canada. This major fault line is capable of producing megathrust earthquakes 9.0 or higher, though this trait was only discovered within the last several decades from geology records due to a dearth of observations or historical records. The Lewis and Clark expedition would not make the first extensive surveys of the region for another 100 years, and contemporaneous aboriginal accounts were scarce and incomplete. To provide a clearer picture of how the earthquake occurred, Horton and his colleagues applied a technique they have used in assessing historic sea level rise. They traveled to various sites along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, taking core samples from up and down the coast and working with local researchers who donated preexisting data sets. The researchers' targets were microscopic fossils known as foraminifera. Through radiocarbon dating and an analysis of different species' positions within the cores over time, Horton and colleagues were able to piece together a historical picture of the changes in land and sea level along the coastline. This research revealed how much the coast suddenly subsided during the earthquake. This subsidence was used to infer how much the tectonic plates moved during the earthquake.


Synchronous Oligocene-Miocene metamorphism of the Pamir and the north Himalaya driven by plate-scale dynamics
Michael A. Stearns et al., Earth Science Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA. Published online ahead of print 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34451.1.

The Pamir and Himalaya are both parts of the India-Asia continent collision, and both have exposed deep crustal rocks ideal for investigating processes operating deep within continent collisions. Mineral dates and chemistry provide both a time record and a petrologic record of the collision at both localities. Both locations experienced metamorphism from 28 to 15 million years ago. Mineral compositions indicate a transition from crustal thickening to thinning 20 million years ago at both places. These events coincide with two tearing events of the subducting Indian plate inferred from tomography.


Enigmatic, biogenically induced structures in Pleistocene marine deposits: A first record of fossil ambergris
Angela Baldanza et al., Department of Earth Sciences, University of Perugia, Piazza Universit, 06123 Perugia, Italy. Published 30 July 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G34731.1.

This article deals to the discovery of unknown, enigmatic trace fossils in marine clay deposits about 1.75 million years ago in central Italy (Umbria Region). Some hypotheses about their origin are considered, but the most convincing explanation stands in the close similarity with large masses of present-day ambergris (known as "floating gold"), a solid, waxy, dull grey or blackish flammable substance usually associated with sperm whales. Preliminary chemical data reveal the presence of organic molecules compatible with mammalian gastric or intestinal activity. Squid beaks are also found. Most of the geological, paleontological, and chemical results allow the identification of these structures as intestinal products of sperm whales living about 1.75 million years ago. At this time, they represent the only known example worldwide of Pleistocene sperm whale "coprolites," and enhance the knowledge about the cetacean frequentation of the ancient Mediterranean Sea.

###

http://www.geosociety.org


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/gsoa-awc073113.php

Sylvia Kristel st louis cardinals Steelers Schedule tory burch Al Smith Dinner Herman Melville Books Kyna Treacy