The Permian extinction, which wiped out almost all complex life, may have been caused by the undersides of continents slipping off into Earth’s interior Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2239086-rock-peeling-off-continents-may-have-triggered-biggest-mass-extinction/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Tag: continents
Happy birthday, Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin was a Russian pilot who became the first human to travel to space, in 1961. His story … plus links to a Yuri’s Night celebration near you. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/this-date-in-science-yuri-gagarins-birthday…
Earth May Have Been a ‘Water World’ 3 Billion Years Ago, Scientists Find
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Scientists have found evidence that Earth was covered by a global ocean that turned the planet into a “water world” more than 3 billion years ago. Telltale chemical signatures were spotted in an ancient chunk of ocean crust which point to a planet once devoid of continents, the largest landmasses on Earth….
Earth was a ‘water world’ 3 billion years ago
Scientists now believe that the entire planet was covered in water and devoid of continents in the distant past. It might sound like the plot of the 1… Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/335116/earth-was-a-water-world-3-billion-years-ago…
Marsquakes: InSight lander shows active faults in planet’s crust
The results from its NASA’s Mars InSight lander’s first 10 months on the martian surface have been published in a series of papers. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-quakes-insight-lander-shows-active-faults…
This Australian meteor crater is oldest known, says study
“We found the world’s oldest asteroid strike in Western Australia. It might have triggered a global thaw.” Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/australian-yarrabubba-meteor-crater-oldest-known…
New NBC show ‘Debris’ to dramatize UFO crash
A new TV series will follow two agents from two different continents as they investigate a destroyed alien ship. There seems to have been something of… Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/333783/new-nbc-show-debris-to-dramatize-ufo-crash…
Polio Eradication Program Faces Hard Choices as Endgame Strategy Falters
The “endgame” in the decadeslong campaign to eradicate polio suffered major setbacks in 2019. From a report: While the effort lost ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which recorded 116 cases of wild polio — four times the number in 2018 — an especially alarming situation developed in Africa. In 12 countries, 196 children were paralyzed not by the wild virus, but…
Researchers describe 71 new species in 2019
New species from 5 continents and 3 oceans include geckos, goblin spiders, flowering plants, and Mediterranean ants. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/new-species-discovered-in-2019…
Algal blooms are getting worse in lakes worldwide
In a global study that analyzed almost 30 years of satellite images of freshwater lakes, most of the lakes showed signs of worsening algal blooms. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/satellite-algal-blooms-lakes…