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  • Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education
    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of ...Read more

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    Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education

    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of sustainability. Here is a link to the one-page bill: http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/measures/documents/hb2366_00_0000.pdf. See report on Bloomberg News.
  • Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows
    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 ...Read more

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    Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows

    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 degrees hotter than in a previous experiment run 20 years ago. These measurements confirm geophysical models that the temperature difference between the solid core and the mantle above, must be at least 1500 degrees to explain why the Earth has a magnetic field. For more information about this study, see the press release from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
  • Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust
    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials fr...Read more

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    Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust

    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth’s crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago. Their work is published in Nature. Oceanic crust sinks into the Earth’s mantle at so-called subduction zones, where two plates come together. Much of what happens to the crust during this journey is unknown. Model-dependent studies for how long subducted material can exist in the mantle are uncertain and evidence of very old crust returning to Earth’s surface via upwellings of magma has not been found until now. For more information about these results, see the press release from the Carnegie Institution.

    Image courtesy of S.E. Walker

From: Sally Walker
Explorers Cove to Commonwealth Glacier Delta, December 3, 2008

Ending the Field Season: Mapping the Distribution of Fossil Scallops

After spending almost three months in nature’s most silent and frozen landscape, nothing was more startling that the sound of gurgling water.  At first I did not recognize the sound, so used to the Antarctic silence I had forgotten sounds that we take for granted back in our busy lives at warmer latitudes. But right in front of me was a river of water, flowing down from the Commonwealth Glacier and forming braided stream deposits along its way.  The Sun is now higher up in the sky and it is warmer than when I first arrived.  The Dry Valleys were not so dry anymore!

To make a map of where fossil scallops are found, I walked for eight hours from our camp to the delta of the Commonwealth Glacier, noting the locations of scallops in the terraces along the way.  I saw more than just the scallops out there. I saw a mummified Weddell seal pup, freeze-dried and eyeless.  And here and there, the spindly legs of sea spiders emerged from the sediments, as if stretching their long, dead limbs in celebration of the warm summer that has finally arrived.  

I was starting to miss the smell of the rich soil I was so used to back home. Here, no smells existed.  What will a flower smell like when I get back home? I wondered.  While I worked, hunched over the fossils, my intuition told me I was not alone.  Turning around, I spied a Skua eyeing my bright yellow field notebook!  I managed to shoo him or her away. Undeterred, the Skua returned with friends, several of which tried to take my fossil-preparing paintbrush and my metric ruler.  

I enjoyed my last field day in Antarctica that bright evening and said farewell to the beautiful Taylor Valley that had been my Antarctic home for several months. The next day, Shawn, Steve, Cecil, and I packed up the camp and lab supplies for our return to McMurdo.  I must sign off for now, and until next year, take care!

Glaciers and the Simple Life in Antarctica’s Dry Valleys, Exploratorium Ice Stories

Landforms in the Dry Valleys

Postcards from the Field: Polar Fossil Mysteries

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