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POPSMass extinctions? Blame it on the ocean In the course of hundreds of millions of years the world's oceans have expanded and contracted in response to the shifting of the Earth's tectonic plates and to changes in climate. There were periods of the planet's history when vast areas of the continents were flooded by shallow seas such as the shark and mosasaur infested seaway that neatly split North America during the age of the dinosaurs. As those epicontinental seas drained, animals like mosasaurs and giant sharks went extinct, and conditions on the marine shelves where life exhibited its greatest diversity in the form of things like clams and snails changed as well.
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POPSThe Legacy of Charles Fort Many people over the space of 5000 yrs of human civilization have claimed to be prophets, messiahs, holy men or the Illuminated as compared to the rest of us "mere" normals. Some have claimed to be masters of the Black Arts (Aleister Crowley, et al) and some have claimed to be immortal or possessing long lives (Comte de Saint-Germain, Cagliostro, John Dee) or incredible psychic awareness (Edgar Cayce, Uri Gellar, Madame Blavatsky) but as far as I know only one man made his life out of collecting facts that were witnessed by many and researched diligently by him that still astound us. You have seen the kinds of things I am talking about on the X-Files or read of it in the Tabloids, but this man never took it as more than a wonderful reach that man's scientific knowledge was far from complete. Charles Fort only collected curiosities as I do. He was my inspiration. This is his legacy.
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POPSSea's Ebb And Flow Drive World's Big Extinction Events Arnold I. Miller, a paleobiologist and professor of geology at the University of Cincinnati, says the new study is striking because it establishes a clear relationship between the tempo of mass extinction events and changes in sea level and sediment: "Over the years, researchers have become fairly dismissive of the idea that marine mass extinctions like the great extinction of the Late Permian might be linked to sea-level declines, even though these declines are known to have occurred many times throughout the history of life. The clear relationship this study documents will motivate many to rethink their previous views."
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POPSIn Indonesia, life plays out in the shadow of fiery peaks "Death by volcano takes many forms: searing lava, suffocating mud, or the tsunamis that often follow an eruption. In 1883, Mount Krakatau (often misspelled as Krakatoa), located off Java's coast, triggered a tsunami that claimed more than 36,000 lives. The name became a metaphor for a catastrophic natural disaster."
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POPSHere Come the Asteroids "The odds that a potentially devastating space rock will hit Earth this century may be as high as one in 10. So why isn’t NASA trying harder to prevent catastrophe?" Guess it sort of puts this whole credit crisis thing in perspective, huh?
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POPSChile fears effects of volcanic ash What once was green is now gray. The ash from the Volcano has dramatically changed environmental conditions, choking an ecosystem. Despite any delusions Mankind has regarding the management of the environment, we are still, and always will be at the mercy of the elements.
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POPSFive of the World's Hottest Volcanoes check out amgumen's clip: Volcanic Eruptions seen during an Eclipse: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/12DC35AD-3184-4606-BB4D-9F6F8E41D4F6/ and The hottest spot in Antarctica: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/12A8EA54-BCBC-436F-AD06-E4D8E563FD78/ and The Largest Lake of Acid on Earth: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/5A251CDD-80F4-4E55-9633-C25907244C44/ hitchhiker08's clip: Top 33 volcanoes on Earth: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/CF65A97D-EFE1-499D-9B04-4D0F5D5C2071/ BobbyDelay's clip: Ancient Chaiten Volcano Erupts after 10,000 years: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/5034DD8B-BE84-400F-B662-5EBC28B3EC4C/
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POPSTornado Fury Tornado season is upon us and I found it interesting looking at the photos on the site. Builds respect for mother nature.
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POPSMantle Helium-3 in Geothermal Power The geochemists examined the ratio of helium-4 (the garden-variety helium that lifts birthday balloons) and its rarefied cousin, helium-3. The earth's crust contain just one helium-3 atom for every 100 million atoms of helium-4. But helium-3 is a thousand times more common in the earth's mantle.