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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 Matthew Miller

From: Matthew Miller
NOAA RV Ronald H. Brown, October 31, 2008

Halloween on the Brown

Happy Halloween, everyone! We here on the Ronald Brown are getting into the Halloween spirit. The PMEL and LIDAR research groups have disappeared and pirates have taken their place. The shrill battle cry of "Arrrgh!" echoed across the mess deck during lunch. The ship's lounge has been decorated with spider webs and pumpkins and I'm even told that there will be trick-or-treat candy available if you knock on the doors of some of the research containers on weather decks of the Ronald Brown.

The cheerful Halloween spirit of the scientists and crew even managed to work into the atmospheric observations. The balloon for one of today's upper-air measurements was replaced with the Great Pumpkin to spread Halloween cheer. In the picture that goes with this post card you can see Lelia Hawkins in her pirate costume and Dan Wolfe inflating the pumpkin balloon. Lelia drew the pumpkin design on the balloon while it was uninflated, and the balloon drew a large audience. The radiosonde attached to the pumpkin balloon reached a maximum height of 23,464 meters at 31.7 millibars, which was an above average performance for the balloon soundings to date for the VOCALS campaign.

Postcards from the Field: Climate Science from the Southeast Pacific

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Lelia Hawkins

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