The 500 million years ocean history

Brachiopod Paraspirifer bownockeri from the Middle Devonian of Ohio (USA); Width: 5.6 cm. Picture: U. Jansen, Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt am Main.

GEOMAR coordinates European research and education project BASE-LiNE Earth
02.03.2015 / Kiel. As the history of the oceans can be reconstructed in the past 500 million based on calcareous shells of fossil marine life, busy to date with the research project BASE-LiNE Earth. At the same time it enables talented young scientists and scientists a doctorate in an international research environment. The European Union supports the at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel coordinated project with a total of 3.8 million euros.

Almost all life on earth would be extinct - and that at least five times in the past 500 million years. The environmental changes that have each led to the mass extinction, the oceans play an important role in almost all cases. How did it happen that was phased so hostile to life as a life-giving force sea? And why have some species still survive? These are fundamental questions that will be examined in the next three years as part of the European research project BASE-LiNE Earth with innovative technologies and methods. In addition to answering the research questions BASE LiNE Earth serves as the training of talented young scholars and scientists who are recruited by means of a demanding selection process from all over the world and doctorate within the scope of the project. 

The EU promotes the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel coordinated project under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action in Horizon2020-Pogramm with a total of 3.8 million euros. The challenge for the future BASE-LiNE Earth-doctoral students, is to provide information to gain from distant epochs of earth's history. "When historians want to know about events 100 or 200 years ago, they visit libraries or archives where there is written evidence from these times," says project coordinator Prof. Dr. Anton Eisenhauer from GEOMAR. "We also use archives. 
However, they see something different. It is, for example, the calcareous shells of fossil brachiopods in which the relevant data on the chemical history of ocean water are stored reliably, "explains the Kiel geochemist on. 

The information is in the calcite shells of course not writing before, but encrypted in the chemical and mineralogical composition. "If we precise the ratios of elements such as strontium, magnesium, boron, or measure of the isotopic to each other, we can decrypt the information," says Professor Eisenhauer.

This then the age of the shell, as well as the chemical composition of the previous ocean and prevailing environmental conditions such as water temperature and the acidity of the water can be reconstructed. We know, for example, know that during the greatest mass extinction 251 million years ago, the ocean contained no oxygen and was acidified to a large extent. 

"This is similar to some scenarios that we expect for the future of our ocean," explains Professor Eisenhauer. Model calculations are carried out within the framework of the project should show how far the former changes in the environment are transferable to the present day. The challenge is to gain this information and to make it usable. In collaboration with industry partners modern analytical methods for obtaining information in cooperation with business partners in this area in the context of BASE-LiNE Earth therefore be generated and developed. The project involves a total of 21 scientific institutions from eight European countries and partners from Canada, Israel, Palestine and Australia involved. 15 PhD positions will announce the project this spring, two of them for the GEOMAR in Kiel. 

The Integrated School of Ocean Sciences (ISOS) provides at the University of Kiel for a comprehensive training program in which the scholars not only pursue their academic goals, but also learn more professional qualifications, skills and interact with each other.  In the coming years, the parties want to do their topic also by means of exhibitions and school supplies to a wider audience. "Of course we also bind the doctoral students, which thus also learn to communicate their work understandable," says the project coordinator. For more information on the project website www.baseline-earth.eu.

Source: Geomar

The role of gravitational instabilities in deposition of volcanic ash: The example of Eyjafjallajökull

Figure 1 from Manzella et al.: Original and processed snapshot of the video of the Eyjafjallajökull (Iceland) plume as observed on 4 May 2010. White arrows indicate finger positions. This article is Open Access.

Boulder, Colo., USA – Volcanic ash poses a significant hazard for areas close to volcanoes and for aviation. For example, the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland, clearly demonstrated that even small-to-moderate explosive eruptions, in particular if long-lasting, can paralyze entire sectors of societies, with significant, global-level, economic impacts. In this open-access Geology article, Irene Manzella and colleagues present the first quantitative description of the dynamics of gravitational instabilities and particle aggregation based on the 4 May 2010 eruption.

Their analysis also reveals some important shortcomings in the Volcanic Ash Transport and Dispersal Models (VATDMs) typically used to forecast the dispersal of volcanic ash. In particular, specific processes exist that challenge the view of sedimentation of fine particles from volcanic plumes and that are currently poorly understood: particle aggregation and gravitational instabilities. These appear as particle-rich "fingers" descending from the base of volcanic clouds and have commonly been observed during volcanic explosive eruptions.

Based on direct observations of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull plume, on the correlation with the associated fallout deposit, and on dedicated laboratory analogue experiments, Irene Manzella and colleagues show how fine ash in these particle-rich fingers settles faster than individual particles and that aggregation and gravitational instabilities are closely related. Both phenomena can significantly contribute to reducing fine-ash lifetime in the atmosphere and, therefore, it is crucial to include them in VATDMs in order to provide accurate forecasting of ash dispersal and sedimentation.

Source: Gsa

The Technion Researchers Find to NanoParticles may Threaten Heart

Nanoparticles, extremely tiny particles measured in billionths of a meter, are increasingly everywhere, and especially in biomedical products. Their toxicity has been researched in general terms, but now a team of Israeli scientists has for the first time found that exposure nanoparticles (NPs) of silicon dioxide (SiO2) can play a major role in the development of cardiovascular diseases when the NP cross tissue and cellular barriers and also find their way into the circulatory system. Their study is published in the December 2014 issue of Environmental Toxicology.

Prof. Michael Aviram
The research team was comprised of scientists from the Technion Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Rambam Medical Center, and the Center of Excellence in Exposure Science and Environmental Health (TCEEH).

“Environmental exposure to nanoparticles is becoming unavoidable due to the rapid expansion of nanotechnology,” says the study’s lead author, Prof. Michael Aviram, of the Technion Faculty of Medicine, “This exposure may be especially chronic for those employed in research laboratories and in high tech industry where workers handle, manufacture, use and dispose of nanoparticles. Products that use silica-based nanoparticles for biomedical uses, such as various chips, drug or gene delivery and tracking, imaging, ultrasound therapy, and diagnostics, may also pose an increased cardiovascular risk for consumers as well.”

In this study, researchers exposed cultured laboratory mouse cells resembling the arterial wall cells to NPs of silicon dioxide and investigated the effects. SiO2 NPs are toxic to and have significant adverse effects on macrophages. a type of white blood cell that take up lipids, leading to atherosclerotic lesion development and its consequent cardiovascular events, such as heart attack or stroke. Macrophages accumulation in the arterial wall under atherogenic conditions such as high cholesterol, triglycerides, oxidative stress – are converted into lipids, or laden “foam cells” which, in turn, accelerate atherosclerosis development.

“Macrophage foam cells accumulation in the arterial wall are a key cell type in the development of atherosclerosis, which is an inflammatory disease” says co-author Dr. Lauren Petrick. “The aims of our study were to gain additional insight into the cardiovascular risk associated with silicon dioxide nanoparticle exposure and discover the mechanisms behind Si02’s induced atherogenic effects on macrophages. We also wanted to use nanoparticles as a model for ultrafine particle (UFP) exposure as cardiovascular disease risk factors.”

Both NPs and UFPs can be inhaled and induce negative biological effects. However, until this study, their effect on the development of atherosclerosis has been largely unknown. Here, researchers have discovered for the first time that the toxicity of silicon dioxide nanoparticles has a “significant and substantial effect on the accumulation of triglycerides in the macrophages,” at all exposure concentrations analyzed, and that they also “increase oxidative stress and toxicity.”

A recent update from the American Heart Association also suggested that “fine particles” in air pollution leads to elevated risk for cardiovascular diseases. However, more research was needed to examine the role of “ultrafine particles” (which are much smaller than “fine particles”) on atherosclerosis development and cardiovascular risk.

“The number of nano-based consumer products has risen a thousand fold in recent years, with an estimated world market of $3 trillion by the year 2020,” conclude the researchers. “This reality leads to increased human exposure and interaction of silica-based nanoparticles with biological systems. Because our research demonstrates a clear cardiovascular health risk associated with this trend, steps need to be taken to help ensure that potential health and environmental hazards are being addressed at the same time as the nanotechnology is being developed.

The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is a major source of the innovation and brainpower that drives the Israeli economy, and a key to Israel’s renown as the world’s “Start-Up Nation.” Its three Nobel Prize winners exemplify academic excellence. Technion people, ideas and inventions make immeasurable contributions to the world including life-saving medicine, sustainable energy, computer science, water conservation and nanotechnology. The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute is a vital component of Cornell NYC Tech, and a model for graduate applied science education that is expected to transform New York City’s economy.

American Technion Society (ATS) donors provide critical support for the Technion—more than $1.95 billion since its inception in 1940. Based in New York City, the ATS and its network of chapters across the U.S. provide funds for scholarships, fellowships, faculty recruitment and chairs, research, buildings, laboratories, classrooms and dormitories, and more.

Source: ATS

From Pig to Fuel - Anaerobic digester generates energy, reduces odors

 Teng Lim is operating a small-scale anaerobic digester at the MU swine farm in Columbia. The system generates energy and can mitigate hog odor. Courtesy Jon Lamb.

The University of Missouri has unveiled a prototype small-scale anaerobic digestion system that produces biogas from pig manure. The biogas can be used to heat a farm and create electricity. The device also reduces odor from swine operations.

“What we want to do is improve and fully utilize all the biogas for energy production,” said Teng Lim, Extension Ag Systems Management associate professor.

Funded by the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, the anaerobic digester consists of three tanks. Manure from the hog barn pit is pumped into one tank where the manure is stored and mixed. The anaerobic digestion takes place in the other two tanks, where bacteria break down the manure in these warm and oxygen-free tanks.

The biogas from the manure can be used for electricity and hot water production. With some further treatment it can also be stored as a compressed natural gas, for heating or even vehicle fuel.

PigsLim says a larger scale digester could supply a farm’s energy needs and also be sold to the grid to provide electricity to the community.

There are other benefits to anaerobic digestion in addition to energy generation. The digested manure retains the nutrients to be good fertilizer while becoming a more consistent product. Also, the digester can reduce odor emissions.

“When the manure is treated by the digester process the odor concentration is significantly reduced,” Lim said. “There is still going to be odor, but it’s going to be much lower and less fluctuation than the raw manure.”

A Lot of Pork

The swine industry is big in the United States – there are 73,150 pork farms in America with 120 million pigs marketed each year.

Before the 1960s, most pork in the U.S. was raised in outside lots or on pasture systems. With the development of slotted floors and liquid manure handling equipment, it became possible for producers to more easily care for larger numbers of animals. Enclosed buildings overcame most weather problems and predators, and minimized the potential pollution from outside lot runoff.

Typically, pig odor is a localized air quality problem, with low concentrations of odorous gases such as p-cresol. Odor problems are often a starting point for litigation. Many farmers can go out of business just fighting a lawsuit.

An Important Part of Future Farms?

There are challenges to anaerobic digestion, the biggest being cost and management. In a commercial setting the digester would be 100 times larger than the one at MU’s swine research facility.

Lim pointed out that industry leaders and scientists believe anaerobic digesters will be an important piece of future farms, both to mitigate odor and for generating renewable energy.  The cost is a major obstacle now. The team is working closely with industry experts from Martin Machinery, a Missouri company who specializes in biogas generators and control systems.

MU researchers are using the scaled down digester to find ways to make digesters more affordable and easier to manage. They are also using it as an education tool to show producers the potentials, what it takes to process the manure, and to train people how to properly run a system like this.

Source: Cafnr

Deep Sea Mining: What are the risks?

During the launch event in Kiel, the project partners plan investigations to ecosystems around the manganese nodules. Photo: J. Steffen, GEOMAR

GEOMAR coordinates European cooperation for the risk assessment
01.29.2015 / Kiel. 50 specialists in deep-sea ecology, marine mining and deep-sea observation of 25 European research institutions meeting this week at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. This will free the start of a three-year research project to investigate the risks of potential ore mining on the seabed. The project called "JPI Oceans Ecological aspects of deep-sea mining" is coordinated at GEOMAR.

The world population is growing. This also means that more and more people need a home, want to work with computers and other electronic devices and consume energy. For the construction of houses for the manufacture of electronic goods, but also for the production of wind turbines will require significant amounts of various metals. Currently, all metal ores are promoted on almost a third of the earth's surface - on the continents. 

In some regions of the ocean manganese nodules are recorded in the Atlantic as here, close together on the ocean floors. Photo: Nils Brenke, CeNak

However, in recent decades engaged again, the other two thirds, the oceans, the focus of governments and resource companies. "Many questions about a potential ore mining in the deep sea, however, are still open," says Dr. Matthias Haeckel from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. He is the scientific coordinator of the "Ecological aspects of deep-sea mining" project to investigate the potential environmental risks in the next three years. A consortium of research ministries in eleven European countries promotes it as part of the Joint Programme Healthy and Productive Seas (JPI Oceans) initiative with a total of 9.5 million euros. 

 In the Clarion-Clipperton Zone are the largest known manganese nodule deposits. Here, the ISA has been awarded 13 research licenses. Image Reproduced from the GEBCO world map 2014

This week, the project starts with a kick-off meeting at GEOMAR. A total of 25 partner institutions from these eleven countries involved in the project. The focus is primarily known as manganese nodules. It is spherical or cauliflower-shaped Erzknollen, which are usually at depths below 4000 meters on the large abyssal plains. They consist not only from the eponymous manganese, but also contain iron and coveted metals such as copper, cobalt or nickel. Already in the 1970s, there were initial plans to reduce manganese nodules from the deep sea, but never came out on trials. The largest reserves are currently known from the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone in the central Pacific. As a result of these activities in international waters on the basis of the International Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the International Seabed Authority (International Seabed Authority, ISA) was founded in 1994. 

It manages the entire seabed beyond the exclusive economic zone (200 nautical miles) of individual states. To date, the ISA has awarded 13 research licenses for exploration of manganese nodule fields in the Pacific, including in Germany and other European countries. 

                     Sample of the seabed in DISCOL area with top resting manganese nodules. 
                                                    Photo: M. Haeckel, GEOMAR

"But there is no mining licenses, which would only be a next step," said Dr. Haeckel. Since the ISA also aims to ensure effective protection of the marine environment from the potential consequences of ocean mining, relevant research for the licensees are required. "Of course industrial activities on the ocean floor will have an impact, because they disturb the soil and the water column about it," says Dr. Haeckel. Therefore, it is important to know the ecosystems on the sea floor and its local, regional and national connections and interactions accurately. Already this year, several expeditions of the new German research vessel SONNE in the Pacific are planned. 

The first trips in March and April perform the participating scientists to the German, Belgian and French license areas and in a defined by the ISA reserve in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. Further trips from July to October have the so-called DISCOL area in Peru Basin to the destination. There, in 1989, a very limited area of the seabed was plowed for research purposes. "The goal of this experiment is to recognize the long-term consequences of large-area device used for deep-sea sediments," explains Professor Jens Greinert from GEOMAR, who will lead one of the exits to DISCOL area. Now, a quarter century after the disturbance experiment, the scientists will examine the then machined seabed areas exactly compare with adjacent undisturbed areas to determine, can recover disturbed communities in the deep sea as fast. "We should get to know each other better before we start, a large area to intervene in the deep sea it easy," says project coordinator Dr. Haeckel. 

Source: GEOMAR

Drilling Reveals Fault Rock Architecture in New Zealand’s Central Alpine Fault

            Figure 1: Location map of study by Virginia Toy et al. Image Credit: GSA
Boulder, Colo., USA - Rocks within plate boundary scale fault zones become fragmented and altered over the earthquake cycle. They both record and influence the earthquake process. In this new open-access study published in Lithosphere on 4 Feb., Virginia Toy and colleagues document fault rocks surrounding New Zealand's active Alpine Fault, which has very high probability of generating a magnitude 8 or greater earthquake in the near future.

Descriptions already suggest that the complex fault rock sequence results from slip at varying rates during multiple past earthquakes, and even sometimes during aseismic slip. They also characterize this fault before rupture; Toy and colleagues anticipate that repeat observations after the next event will provide a previously undescribed link between changes in fault rocks and the ground shaking response. They write that in the future this sort of data might allow realistic ground shaking predictions based on observations of other "dormant" faults.

The first phase of the Deep Fault Drilling Project (DFDP-1) yielded a continuous lithological transect through fault rock surrounding the Alpine fault (South Island, New Zealand). This allowed micrometer- to decimeter-scale variations in fault rock lithology and structure to be delineated on either side of two principal slip zones intersected by DFDP-1A and DFDP-1B. Here, we provide a comprehensive analysis of fault rock lithologies within 70 m of the Alpine fault based on analysis of hand specimens and detailed petrographic and petrologic analysis. The sequence of fault rock lithologies is consistent with that inferred previously from outcrop observations, but the continuous section afforded by DFDP-1 permits new insight into the spatial and genetic relationships between different lithologies and structures. We identify principal slip zone gouge, and cataclasite-series rocks, formed by multiple increments of shear deformation at up to coseismic slip rates. A 20−30-m-thick package of these rocks (including the principal slip zone) forms the fault core, which has accommodated most of the brittle shear displacement. 

This deformation has overprinted ultramylonites deformed mostly by grain-size-insensitive dislocation creep. Outside the fault core, ultramylonites contain low-displacement brittle fractures that are part of the fault damage zone. Fault rocks presently found in the hanging wall of the Alpine fault are inferred to have been derived from protoliths on both sides of the present-day principal slip zone, specifically the hanging-wall Alpine Schist and footwall Greenland Group. This implies that, at seismogenic depths, the Alpine fault is either a single zone of focused brittle shear that moves laterally over time, or it consists of multiple strands. Ultramylonites, cataclasites, and fault gouge represent distinct zones into which deformation has localized, but within the brittle regime, particularly, it is not clear whether this localization accompanies reductions in pressure and temperature during exhumation or whether it occurs throughout the seismogenic regime. These two contrasting possibilities should be a focus of future studies of fault zone architecture.

Source:GSA

What is the Benefits of ISS Research - A interview Video

Earth framing the International Space Station

Earth framing the International Space Station in May 2010 following undocking of Atlantis during the STS-132 mission. (NASA)

Almost as soon as the International Space Station was habitable, researchers began using it to study the impact of microgravity and other space effects on several aspects of our daily lives. This unique scientific platform continues to enable researchers from all over the world to put their talents to work on innovative experiments that could not be done anywhere else. 

Although each space station partner has distinct agency goals for station research, each partner shares a unified goal to extend the resulting knowledge for the betterment of humanity. We may not know yet what will be the most important discovery gained from the space station, but we already have some amazing breakthroughs! In the areas of human health, telemedicine, education and observations of Earth from space, there are already demonstrated benefits to human life. Vaccine development research, station-generated images that assist with disaster relief and farming, and education programs that inspire future scientists, engineers and space explorers are just some examples of research benefits. 

The stories featured here summarize the scientific, technological and educational accomplishments of research on the space station that has and will continue to have an impact on life on Earth.

The benefits outlined here serve as examples of the space station's potential as a groundbreaking scientific research facility. Through advancing the state of scientific knowledge of our planet, looking after our health, and providing a space platform that inspires and educates the science and technology leaders of tomorrow, these benefits will drive the legacy of the space station as its research strengthens economies and enhances the quality of life here on Earth for all people.

WATCH VIDEO HERE


Source: Nasa