rhamphotheca:

Russian Refuge: Wrangel Island is a haven for wildlife, frozen in space and time

by Hampton Sides

The Zodiac raft motors through the freezing drizzle, skirting large ice cakes, taking on wave after invigorating wave of Chukchi Sea as we grope our way toward a shore obscured by fog. Although our Russian guide insists that a large island lies just ahead, I’m doubtful. But then the mists dissipate, and suddenly it looms with a starkness enhanced by the refractions of the Arctic atmosphere: a formidable piece of real estate, 91 miles long, its golden mountains speckled with the bright blooms of tundra flowers.

John Muir, the first visitor to describe Wrangel Island to the world, waxed rhapsodic when he saw this vista in 1881. “This grand wilderness in its untouched freshness,” Muir called it, this “severely solitary” land in the “topmost, frost-killed end of creation.”..

(read more: National Geo)                  (Photo: Sergey Gorshkov)

mvnchies:

Rocket Over Dunes (39/365) by RickRoot

allthissalami:

college

vurtual:

Falls over Molokai (by Natural World Gallery)

rhamphotheca:

The Lunar Surface: Copernicus Crater

Copernicus is 93 km wide and is located within the Mare Imbrium Basin, northern nearside of the Moon (10 degrees N., 20 degrees W.). Image shows crater floor, floor mounds, rim, and rayed ejecta. Rays from the ejecta are superposed on all other surrounding terrains which places the crater in its namesake age group: the Copernican system, established as the youngest assemblage of rocks on the Moon (Shoemaker and Hackman, 1962, The Moon: London, Academic Press, p.289- 300).

(via: Wired Science)

Image: NASA/JPL/USGS [high-resolution]

Caption: NASA

rhamphotheca:

Evidence That Oceans Flowed on “Snowball Earth”

by Charles Q. Choi

When ice possibly swathed the entire world, the oceans underneath may have nevertheless surprisingly churned, potentially helping to provide life with vital nutrients, new research suggests.

For decades, scientists have proposed that the planet may once have been a “Snowball Earth,” with geological evidence suggesting ice reached all the way to the equator at least twice during the Neoproterozoic era (about 635 million to 750 million years ago) in stints lasting millions of years. The ice sheets blanketing Earth were not completely solid — there were likely many holes or thin patches around warm spots such as volcanoes — but in many other places, ice may have been more than a half-mile thick.

During these Snowball Earth periods, it is also thought that ancient life may have begun its drive toward explosive diversity. However, until now, little was done to model how water and nutrients might have flowed in the ice-capped oceans in which this primordial life dwelled. Past research did suggest that oceans might have flowed sluggishly due to ice shielding the waters from wind, and such relatively stagnant water would not have been as conducive to driving the developing diversity of primordial life in the oceans. But such studies failed to account for geothermal heat from the planet that could potentially drive ocean mixing, researchers said…

(read more: OurAmazingPlanet)            (image: Shutterstock)

rhamphotheca:

blackkittenclan: All you can do is try…

rhamphotheca:

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rhamphotheca:

Bioluminescence

Bioluminescence, or the ability of an organism to create light, is one of nature’s most amazing phenomena, seemingly drawn more from science fiction than science and natural history. While only a few land dwellers, like fireflies and some fungi, can make their own light, bioluminescence is very common in the deep sea. Bacteria, jellyfish, starfish, clams, worms, crustaceans, squid, fish, and sharks are just some of the groups of marine animals that have bioluminescent members.

All bioluminescent organisms use a reaction between an enzyme and a substrate to make light, but different species use different chemicals in the process. This suggests that the ability to make light evolved many times throughout the ages. In fact, it is estimated that luminescence has evolved independently at least 40 times…

(read more: NOAA Ocean Explorer)

(Image courtesy of Islands in the Sea 2002, NOAA/OER)