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  • Irish Chronicles Document Links Between Volcanoes and Weather
    A study of over 40,000 written entries in Irish Annals and ice core measurements shows a strong corr...Read more

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    Irish Chronicles Document Links Between Volcanoes and Weather

    A study of over 40,000 written entries in Irish Annals and ice core measurements shows a strong correlation between the occurrence of volcanic eruptions and extreme cold weather in Ireland over a 1200 year period. Data analyzed in this study cover the period from 431 to 1649, during which time up to 48 volcanic eruptions are identified in Greenland ice core records through deposition of volcanic sulfate in annual layers of ice. You can find the study (open access), published on 6 June 2013 in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024035/article. Find out more about how volcanoes can influence climate.
  • EF-5 Tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma Widest Ever Recorded in US
    The EF-5 tornado that hit El Reno, Oklahoma on May 31st was the widest ever recorded in the US, acco...Read more

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    EF-5 Tornado in El Reno, Oklahoma Widest Ever Recorded in US

    The EF-5 tornado that hit El Reno, Oklahoma on May 31st was the widest ever recorded in the US, according to the National Weather Service in Norman Oklahoma. The tornado, which remained on the ground for 40 minutes and reached 2.6 miles across (4.2 km), took the lives of 18 people including storm chasers Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras and Carl Young. For more information on the tornado, visit http://ow.ly/i/2hfDG.
  • Atmospheric CO2 Level Tops 400 ppm
    During the week of May 13th, the CO2 level at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii topped 400 ppm rep...Read more

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    Atmospheric CO2 Level Tops 400 ppm

    During the week of May 13th, the CO2 level at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii topped 400 ppm repeatedly. Daily levels of CO2 can vary due to weather, and there are seasonal trends as well. The level of atmospheric greenhouse gases continues to increase, now over 120 ppm since the Industrial Revolution began. For more on the Keeling Curve, see http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/. Find out more about greenhouse gases and warming.

    Images courtesy of Shawn Harper

From: Sally Walker
Explorers Cove Field Camp, New Harbor, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, October 30, 2008

Creatures from Explorers Cove

I cannot believe the astounding beauty and unusual diversity of underwater creatures in Antarctica.    Some of the incredible sea animals that Shawn Harper photographed are shown in the postcard.   Giant sea spiders (upper right) were my favorite creatures.  The scallops, brittle stars (lower right), sea stars (upper left) and gastropods (lower left) also were astounding.  The most spine-tingling creature though, was the giant ribbon worm that can harpoon prey and then coil around it with its slimy python-like body.  

The sea floor looked like a freeway of animal trackways and rest stops.  I had envisioned that these creatures would be slow and sluggish because of the incredible cold, Antarctic waters, but these creatures are not so sluggish after all.   They are quite busy, crisscrossing the sediments and making a mosaic of tracks on the sea floor.  We are studying the life on this ocean floor to predict what we will see in the fossil record. We are using photoquadrats, as seen in the center above, to understand the number of species and the amounts of each sea creature in Explorers Cove.

Antarctic Field Guide

Video: Giant Sea Spiders

Adelie Penguin Postcards


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Postcards from the Field: Polar Fossil Mysteries

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