Posted on 10/20/2020 9:33:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A team of geologists at the University of Houston College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics believes they have found the lost plate in northern Canada by using existing mantle tomography images—similar to a CT scan of the earth's interior. The findings, published in Geological Society of America Bulletin, could help geologists better predict volcanic hazards as well as mineral and hydrocarbon deposits.
"Volcanoes form at plate boundaries, and the more plates you have, the more volcanoes you have," said Jonny Wu, assistant professor of geology in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "Volcanoes also affect climate change. So, when you are trying to model the earth and understand how climate has changed since time, you really want to know how many volcanoes there have been on earth."
Wu and Spencer Fuston, a third-year geology doctoral student, applied a technique developed by the UH Center for Tectonics and Tomography called slab unfolding to reconstruct what tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean looked like during the early Cenozoic Era. The rigid outermost shell of Earth, or lithosphere, is broken into tectonic plates and geologists have always known there were two plates in the Pacific Ocean at that time called Kula and Farallon. But there has been discussion about a potential third plate, Resurrection, having formed a special type of volcanic belt along Alaska and Washington State.
Using 3-D mapping technology, Fuston applied the slab unfolding technique to the mantle tomography images to pull out the subducted plates before unfolding and stretching them to their original shapes.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
That’s easy for you to say.
We’re supposed to return to cold and rain today. When I’m finished breakfast, I’ll go upstairs and put on more layers.
I would lean toward simple economics. Organics are harder to keep and transport.
I remember a scene in an old Burt Reynolds movie called "Paternity" (and this is all I remember) when the woman who was carrying his child was about to eat a Snickers bar. He yanked it out of her hand and said, "Don't eat that." Then he put it on the rail of a ship they were on and said, "If you come back here in 100 years this ship will be rusted away but that candy bar will still be here."
Whether true or not, it makes chemically-enhanced foods much easier to take care of.
We haz Friday! Happy Friday!
I would like to sleep through it, too, kitteh, but I can’t.
w00t!
Well. Looks like I lied.
Is this Monday?
It would be nice to go back to sleep like the morning floof.
Favorite Daughter let me sleep, but she’s making up for it this morning. And of course, I had to take a shower and then write to Charlie and also write a note and an email. And then I listened to an uplifting talk, and — and — I still have to make my bed.
I want to run away from home.
I had to re-boot the laptop three times this morning. Or maybe it was only two. Besides the initial boot, of course. So that took a lot of time, because one of those times, I couldn’t get any pages to load.
*whine, whine, whine*
Thanks. Happy Friday!
Today’s special animal friend is the Black-footed Cat, Felis nigripes. Also called the small-spotted cat, it is the smallest wild cat in Africa, where it shares the habitat of the armadillo banded lizard in the southern deserts and savannahs. The smallest wild cat in the world – I know you were wondering – is the rusty-spotted cat, Prionailurus rubiginosus, found in deciduous forest of India and Sri Lanka. A male Black-footed Cat is around 20 inches long and weighs around 5-1/2 lbs. Females are smaller.
Only the soles of the cat’s feet are actually dark brown or black, unlike the actual black-furred feet of the black-footed ferret. The cat’s fur is a pretty gold or light brown shade which is nearly invisible in its habitat. It has both black spots or rosettes like a leopard and stripes like Jake, the brown tabby who sleeps with me.
The black-footed cat is an extremely diligent and successful hunter. After spending the day in a hollow log or earth burrow, these cats range large areas during the night, traveling over five miles on average and over 20 miles in a night when prey is scarce. They employ a variety of hunting techniques, including chasing, stalking, and ambush. They kill and eat animals larger than themselves, such as the Cape hare, Lepus capensis. They kill shrews and small rodents with a bite to the neck or head and eat them whole. Although they rarely climb trees, they catch birds on the ground or snatch them out of the air with a leap up to 4-1/2 feet.
A male and female studied in South Africa killed an average of 14 small animals each night. They also scavenge other predators’ kills or naturally deceased larger animals and eat insects and other invertebrates. Fifty-four (!) prey species were identified in this study, with the gerbil mouse, Malacothrix typica, being the most common. Black-footed cats drink water when available, but they are able to survive on the moisture from their prey.
The black-footed cat is a solitary species. Females maintain smaller territories than males, with both sexes marking their territories with musk, urine, and feces. Males detect a fertile female by her scent and call, and they fight for access to breeding opportunities. Females typically have one or two kittens, although four may be born in situations of outstandingly good nutrition. The kittens are independent at three or four months and usually remain near the mother’s home range.
The black-footed cat is classed as “vulnerable” by IUCN. It is protected from the fur (or pet) trade under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), and hunting is prohibited in Botswana and South Africa. Threats include habitat loss and prey population declines, general predator control (poison, traps), and disease.
Cats are not friends. One simply does NOT become friends with the help.
I’m a social leveller.
That is so cool! Another cat!! <3
They’re really cute, like a Scottish fold tabby. Not for household residence, though!
I love the Scottish folds! Of course, any cat would do, but with me moving to AR, I’ve been told that DiL is very allergic to cats so I’m not to get one if I want to see her. The temptation is very real...
LOL!
Yes, well, I should be more tolerant, I guess... *ahem*
I understand perfectly.
Maybe I’ll think about another pet, but maybe I won’t. If I rescue a parakeet, it won’t be with the idea of getting it back to health and passing it on. It will be with the idea of keeping it. Or maybe a larger bird...I still have the flight cage...
Is that a balloon?
Just axin’...
:o]
I think it’s an actual cruise missile in flight.
With a little Photo Shop.
Raining again ...
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