Discovery News: Earth Impacts News

Universe Tugged by Mysterious 'Dark Flow'

Here's something mind-blowing I just reported for Discovery News. It's from way, way, way beyond Earth. But it's so totally strange that I had to share it so you can comment on it.  The original story with videos, etc., is posted here.

Sept. 25, 2008 -- Astronomers have stumbled upon an unexplained two-million-mile-per-hour sideways shift in the universe toward a colossal, unseen, unknown gravity source beyond the horizon of the observable universe.

What's being called a dark flow appears to be pulling vast clusters of galaxies toward a 20-degree-wide patch of sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela.

"It does fly in the face of everything we know," said astronomer Dale Kocevski of the University of California at Davis. He's one of the authors of a paper in the Sept. 24 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters which introduced the discovery. "I'm sure it's going to be controversial."

The dark flow was detected by studying 700 very distant clusters of galaxies which are lit up by hot, X-ray-emitting gases.

First the team of researchers led by NASA's Alexander Kashlinsky carefully located the X-ray clusters -- each containing thousands of galaxies.

Next, they looked at the same spots on a map of what's called the cosmic microwave background -- the attenuated glow from the first light that was free to travel through space just 380,000 years after the universe was born. This glow was mapped in detail by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).

According to theory, when the ancient microwaves pass through galaxy clusters they should change temperature in predictable ways, depending on whether the galaxy is moving relative to the background glow. So this work started as an experiment to test that effect -- what's called the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SV) effect -- and to see if any movement could be detected.

"We were hoping to measure something there, but probably not much," said Kashlinsky. "To our great surprise what we found instead is that the velocity was quite higher than expected."

Not only were the galaxy clusters moving, but over a span of five billion light-years -- more than a third of the age of the universe -- they were all heading for the same place. It was a truly bizarre and unexpected result.

The measurements suggest far more than the distant clusters are moving, said Kashlinsky. Rather, the entire universe -- including our own galaxy -- is feeling the tug of the unseen mega-mass beyond the edge of the universe.

As for what could be exerting such a powerful, pervasive tug, it can't be anything within our universe, since there just isn't anything with remotely enough mass, said Kocevski. No way. That means it's something we can't see -- beyond the observable universe.

The sole possible explanation Kashlinsky offers is that there might be a large, very bulky neighboring part of the universe which is so far away we cannot see it. It could be, if inflationary theories are correct, a twin universe that inflated less evenly than our own did soon after the Big Bang.

The inflationary theory suggests that our universe went through a brief period of hyper expansion soon after the Big Bang. It explains how matter managed to spread out so evenly in space, rather than get stuck clumped in just one corner of space, as would happen in a more gradually expanding universe. Inflation moves everything apart faster than gravity could clump it.

It could be, then, that there was another, less effective inflation next door to our observable universe and that other blob from the Big Bang remained clumpier. If so it could be out there, loaded with matter, and it is exerting a powerful gravitational pull on every observable thing in our universe.

Maybe.

"We are kind of still puzzled by the result," said Kashlinsky. "We kept checking and checking (the observations and calculations) and nothing else can explain this."

War on Science & McCain's Nuclear Option

One thing is clear from the Republican National Convention: The Republican's have every intention of continuing their ruinous war on science & reason in the U.S.A. When John McCain picked the anti-science, anti-education Sarah Palin as a running mate, he was doing nothing less than employing a desperate nuclear option to dam the current which appeared to be carrying  Barack Obama ever closer to the White House.

Palin sends a loud signal to the extreme right wing -- who long ago hijacked the Republican Party -- that there is no danger of change under John McCain. That's why she's making such a splash. These same extremists don't trust McCain and were pretty unhappy about his nomination. He has, after all, this nasty habit of thinking for himself sometimes, which really pisses off the American Taliban (by whom I mean those religious fundamentalists who arrogantly believe they know God's mind and that He has given them the right to ignore the U.S. Constitution and dictate life to the rest of us poor slobs).

With Palin, the fundamentalists are hoping for continued political tampering with science so it does not contradict their dogma, and more undermining of education and basic research. It all makes perfect sense, after all: Theocracies don't function very well when the people are literate and well educated.

But that's not really why this is McCain's nuclear option. The anti-science part is merely the nuclear fallout -- just collateral damage. The real ka-boom and mushroom cloud was triggered by picking a running mate who would instantly deploy the dirty old strategy of the igniting a bogus "culture war" to divide and conquer the middle class. Every election now the Republicans conjure up this non-existent conflict between the members of the working/middle class with college educations and those without college educations. The goal is to scare those lesser educated people into voting against the so called "elites" (who in reality are no better off then they are and live right next door). The folks who fall for this mean, hateful trick then actually vote for the party which protects the rich at the expense of every program that would help working folks get their children through college. Clever, eh? The British used such "divide & conquer" tactics for decades to control rebellious colonies. Rove merely stole the technique.

And just for the record, I'm one of those independents this election is supposed to hinge on. Guess who I'm voting for?

Chilean Volcano Tamers

There's now one less volcano on Earth that is going to catch humanity off guard. The US Geological Survey (USGS) has just announced that it has partnered up with the Chilean government put together a nationwide volcano early warning system. Why now? Like most of us humans, Chileans needed a wake up call like an eruption on an unmonitored, sleeping volcano to see the need. On May 2 they got that call when Chaitén Volcano got giddy for the first time in 9,000 years. In the wake of that eruption the USGS has helped Chile's  Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería to install a network of real-time monitoring instruments at Chaitén. The data feeds a volcano early warning system that will get the word out to folks that trouble is brewing. More on this at http://www.usgs.gov/corecast/details.asp?ep=51.

More Bad Geology

Here are some more geology brain ticklers, brought to you by the scads of geoscience folks working on the Earth Science Literacy Initiative, which is now underway online. Unlike my last set of questions, these are not all false, so look sharp.

TRUE or FALSE?
1) Erosion is bad and should be stopped.
2) The ozone layer is being destroyed by global warming.
3) Before the supercontinent Pangea existed, there were other supercontinents.
4) Water witching or dowsing have never been proven to work.
5) Small earthquakes relieve stress in the Earth and lessen the chances of large quakes.
6) Humans are now move more earth than nature does.
7) California west of the San Andreas Fault is essentially a shelf of rock extending over the Pacific Ocean. It will eventually break off.
8) New Orleans was built on land that was bound to sink into the sea eventually.
9) Drilling for oil in ANWR will reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.
10) Geology and most other sciences are too complex for a layperson to understand.

ANSWERS:
1) False. Erosion is natural, although sometimes causes troubles for humans.
2) False. Ozone loss is caused primarily by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
3) True. Rodinia, for instance.
4) True. Groundwater is fairly easy to find in most places by just dumb luck.
5) False. Small shocks can just as easily lead to a larger quake, or nothing at all.
6) True. Amazing, isn't it? See my related article.
7) False. It's all rock under there. No risk of falling into the ocean.
8) True. Other cities in history have been lost to the sinking of river deltas -- including on the Nile Delta.
9) False. Not enough oil there to make much difference.
10) False. Anyone with common sense and an interest in the Earth can understand geology.

Image courtesy of NASA

Bad Geology?

Are you a bad geologist? You might be and not even know it. First of all, let's make it clear that almost everyone is a geologist at some point in their life. All it takes is an interest in rocks and soil or even the Moon to trigger a few questions and viola -- you're waxing geological. This can happen as early as the age of two, based on my experience with my resident preschooler. But being a geologist doesn't preclude bad geological thinking. What I mean is, how screwed up is your knowledge of the planet? Do you suffer from malageologitis? Here are some questions to test yourself. Answer true or false:

1) God created the Earth about 6,000 years ago.
2) Humans used flint-tipped spears to hunt dinosaurs.
3) Beneath all of Earth's crust there is hot, molten, liquid rock called magma.
4) Fossils disprove the theory of evolution.
5) Humans, animals and plants are way too small to have any effect on Earth's climate or habitability.
6) Groundwater is underground lakes and rivers.
7) The powerful, violent forces that created mountains, oceans and other dramatic features have subsided.
8) The Grand Canyon is irrefutable evidence of Noah's Flood.
9) Volcanoes were more common in caveman days.
10) Global warming can be stopped.

HOW DID YOU DO?
If you answered TRUE to all 10 of these, you may have recently undergone a lobotomy.
If you answered TRUE to 5 of these, you are probably a product of the U.S. public schools. In other words, you have some mixed-up ideas -- some correct and some incorrect -- about how the planet works.
If you answered FALSE to all 10, congratulations! You have a good grasp of many geological concepts. For more fun with bad geology, check out badgeology.com

Dust in the Neighborhood

Earth is not alone in its orbit around the Sun. As this picture shows, there is also a lot of dust in our neighborhood that can be seen if you are in a very dark place. This image of "gegenschein" was just released by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope facility in Paranal, Chile. Far from cities and at an elevation of 8,600 feet (2,635 meters) above sea level, it's possible to see not only the wedge of dust that fills interplanetary space (called zodiacal light), but to even catch the extra glimmering highlight of the dust which is just opposite the Sun as it reflects sunlight back at Earth. I've seen Zodiacal light, but hadn't even heard of gegenshein before this.

Another Ring...

Okay. Here's another Earthly ring. This one is in Africa. Any guesses? (See comments section for the answer)

Deeper Hawaii, Shallow Heat & Undersea Rivers

Sometimes I pitch more stories than my editors want. Here are three pitches they passed on from the April issue of Geology, published by the Geological Society of America. As always, you can see the abstracts of these articles at www.gsajournals.org. 
 

HAWAII FROM EARTH'S CORE
Mid-ocean island chains like Hawaii are born near the Earth's core, according to new evidence from 28 ocean islands. Unlike islands created at the tumultuous edges of plates in the Earth's crust, "hot spot" islands in the middle of tectonic plates like Hawaii have long been puzzling and controversial. New seismic evidence presented in the April issue of the journal Geology suggests hotter rocks in the mantle, the zone between the Earth's crust and core, under 27 of 28 "mid-plate" islands systems worldwide. The higher temperatures means there is heat welling up from the core-mantle boundary to create the hot spot that is melting through the crust to make the islands.

DEEP-SEA RIVERS REVEALED
Submarine channels have never worked like rivers on land -- much to the dismay of Earth scientists. But now a new study reveals how and why deep sea "rivers" are far more stable than their terrestrial counterparts. It turns out that down under the waves, the heavy flows of materials that follow the channels can deposit material on both the inner and outer sides of their meanders. In contrast, rivers eat away at their downstream edges of meanders and pile up material on the upstream sides -- allowing for changes in the route and such things as cut-off meanders, a.k.a. oxbow lakes, to form. Things just work differently underwater.

FRICTION HEATING EARTH
Not all of the heat seen coming out of the Earth comes from the depths, says a Norwegian geophysicist. A good deal of crust-weakening heat seen on mountains and other geologically active places around the globe is caused by nothing more than the friction of rocks getting smashed and contorted. If this is so, it could simplify the understanding of some otherwise troublesome hot zones on Earth -- like mountain ranges, some kinds of volcanoes and some deep earthquakes.

 

Picks of April Picks

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) media folks have released their April news picks. Some of them are stories that have come up elsewhere, some were unfortunately ignored by most of the media. Here are three of my picks from their picks. More will follow. Like always, they are good fodder for water cooler talk.

BASEBALL GEOLOGY: The Clay Field
Yes, that is clay underfoot on baseball and softball fields in the base paths, batter’s boxes, bullpens, pitcher’s mounds, and practice areas. This is despite the fact that in the early days of baseball clay proved to be as hard as concrete in the summer and slick as snot when wet. That's why today most fields have calcined clay, has been heated in a furnace to about 2,000º F. The heated clay is then ground up into a powder that absorbs water, eases soil compaction, and doesn't glob onto cleats. Wanna get more clay info? Visit http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals or http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/general_interest/sport_mins/clay_surfaces.pdf.

APRIL FLOODING IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD?
Perhaps you want to know exactly how many feet under water you'll be tonight. Now you can! The USGS operates a network of more than 7000 streamgages that measure the flow and height of streams and rivers throughout the US. The gages gather data 24/7 which is processed automatically and posted online for all to see. For more on USGS flood-related work visit http://water.usgs.gov/osw/. For state-by-state info visit http://water.usgs.gov/district_chief.html.

VOLCANOES TO SPARE
Indonesia may lacking some things, like good hockey and polar bears, but it's blessed with a wealth of volcanoes. That's why the US just signed an agreement with Indonesia to create a volcano observatory in the North Sulawesi-Sangihe Islands -- a region with no less than 11 active volcanoes. The goal is to establish a regional volcano observatory that can monitor volcanic activity and give early warning of eruptions. More information at http://jakarta.usembassy.gov/

Pennies Aplenty, Poisonous Ground, etc.

Here are three more jewels from the March issue of the Geological Soc’y of America’s journal Geology. For more info on these, check out the abstracts.

PENNY SUPPLY SAFE
The Earth’s total estimated extractable copper has now been calculated. According to the University of Michigan’s Stephen Kesler and Syracuse University’s Bruce Wilkinson, there is enough copper to keep humanity rolling in pennies for another 5,500 years, at the current rate of copper consumption.

DESERT ‘PAVEMENT’ HIDES POISON
Some of the oldest ground in the world is what’s called desert pavement – flat areas of desert ground where erosion has pieced together a remarkably flat (and fragile) layer of small stones. The University of California at Riverside’s Robert Graham and his colleagues have discovered that beneath these pavements the deserts are hiding a remarkable amount of nitrate – something that’s used as fertilizer in other places. The discovery could mean there is up to five times the nitrate in desert soils than previously believed – a huge up-tick in the global nitrate inventory. Unfortunately, off-road vehicles are ripping up desert pavements in places like the Mojave Desert and reactivating erosion – getting that nitrate back into circulation again. That’s bad news for local water supplies, since nitrate is not good for human health.

SCRAPED UP MOUNTAINS
Ever have to clean up the edge of a spatula? You know that crusty edge of dried up food? Well that’s sort of what Alaska is in a plate tectonics sense. The state is bounded to the south by a collision is plates, with the North American side to the north sometimes scraping mountains, volcanoes and other geological flotsam, off the subducting oceanic plates smashing it all onto the mainland. In the process of all that smashing, the mainland itself has felt the pressure of the collisions. All of this and more is explained in a paper by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Gary Fuis.