Vials holding the results of a famous chemistry experiment conducted 55 years ago have been discovered in dusty cardboard boxes, and a new analysis of their contents has revealed fresh insights into a big question: the origin of life on earth. In 1953, chemist Stanley Miller tried to duplicate the conditions present on the primordial earth in laboratory flasks, and while some of his results were published to great acclaim, other results were packed away and forgotten–until now.
Miller’s classic experiment involved putting atmospheric components thought to reflect those of the early Earth (ammonia, hydrogen, methane, and water) in a closed system and stimulating that mixture with an electric current to mimic the effects of lightning storms. He generated a small number of biochemically significant compounds, including amino acids, hydroxy acids, and urea, showing that conditions of primitive earth can create the building blocks of life [Ars Technica]. These results generated considerable excitement, but later researchers argued that Miller was wrong about the composition of the young earth’s atmosphere, and the experiment was written off as a novelty.
(more…)
Mount Vesuvius, the mighty Italian volcano that destroyed the Roman city of Pompei, has been gradually transforming into a less menacing presence, according to a new study. Researchers studied rock samples from four different eruptions, from the Pompei disaster in 79 AD to the Pollena eruption in 472 AD, and determined the pressure and temperature conditions under which the rocks were formed; the results showed that the magma chamber had gradually shifted upward throughout the centuries. This makes eruptions less dangerous, researchers say, because magma at shallower depths is under less pressure.
Researchers keep a careful eye on the towering volcano, for good reason. The blast in 79 AD was so violent that it covered Pompeii in nearly 100 feet of ash. If Vesuvius erupted today, it could kill up to 700,000 people in southern Italy, including the residents of Naples [Scientific American]. The last eruption was in 1944, when lava flowed down the volcano’s flanks and demolished several villages and military staging grounds.
(more…)
About 93 million years ago, a burst of volcanic activity on the ocean floor led to a massive extinction event that killed one-tenth of the world’s marine invertebrates, according to a new study. The Caribbean region was the likely source of the sea-floor eruptions, says [study coauthor Steven] Turgeon. He says massive amounts of lava would have burbled and blasted up from inside the earth, setting off a “chain reaction” that took thousands of years to play out [Canwest News Service].
[T]he volcanoes spewed out metal-rich fluids that seeded the upper level of the ocean with micronutrients…. Tiny life forms on the sea surface, called phytoplankton, gorged on the food, and storing up carbon as they grew. They then sank to the sea floor and decayed, stripping the ocean of oxygen [BBC News] in a large-scale example of the phenomenon that causes the annual “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. The oxygen-starved waters were a poor environment for marine life, and creatures from giant clams to tiny invertebrates went extinct.
(more…)
It’s almost as if lunar researchers got jealous of all the attention their Martian colleagues have been receiving for their discovery of water ice on Mars, and decided to compete: Lunar researchers say they’ve discovered trace amounts of water inside some moon rocks brought back by NASA’s Apollo astronauts.
A new study of volcanic glass pebbles that date from 3 billion years ago has revealed that although the planet is nearly bone dry today, it may have once harbored significant amounts of water in rocks deep below the surface. The findings challenge researchers’ understanding of how the moon formed around 4.5 billion years ago. The Moon is thought to have been created in a violent collision between Earth and another planet-sized object. Scientists thought the heat from this impact had vaporised all the water [BBC News].
(more…)
