March 2005

According to new research being published in the current issue of Science, even if current levels of greenhouse emissions were to stabilize, Earth’s climate will still change. Even if no more greenhouse gases were added to the atmosphere, globally averaged surface air temperatures would rise about a half degree Celsius (one degree Fahrenheit) and global sea levels would rise another 11 centimeters (4 inches) from thermal expansion alone by 2100. [...] “Many people don’t realize we are committed right now to a significant amount of global warming and sea level rise because of the greenhouse gases we have already put into the atmosphere,” says lead author Gerald Meehl.

New images from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter show that geologic activity on Mars may have occurred more recent than thought. Three new studies appearing in the current issue of Nature reveal that flowing water, large glaciers and active volcanoes have scoured the planet in recent geologic times. Scientists say Mars has been geologically active in the past few million years — an eyeblink in the planet’s 4.5-billion-year history. There is also this press release from the European Space Agency.

The Los Angeles Times (subscription required to read) is reporting that research data for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository was falsified. Two federal agencies launched investigations Wednesday into evidence that government scientists had submitted phony data to help prove that a proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada would be safe. [...] Department lawyers discovered a series of e-mail exchanges between scientists that discussed fabricating documentation for a key scientific study about ground water penetration into Yucca Mountain. This Wikipedia article also helps to give some background on the project.

According to this article in the New Scientist, the great earthquake that happened in Asia this past December, spawning the tremendously devastating tsunamis, has primed the Indian Ocean for another large earthquake. When an earthquake occurs in such a subduction zone, where one plate slips under another, it is often followed by another, in addition to the aftershocks. For example, on the Nankai subduction zone to the south-east of Japan, five of the last seven major quakes were followed within five years by major earthquakes along an adjoining segment of the fault, and three of those occurred within a year.

A new study released in The Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America suggests a correlation between mining operations and earthquakes. This article from PhysOrg talks about the results of the study. “We’ve studied how fairly shallow underground coal mining causes earthquakes that, depending on their size, might pose a ground-shaking hazard to nearby surface structures,” said Dr. Walter Arabasz, director of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations and one of the principal researchers for the papers. This comes on the heels of a magnitude 5.0 earthquake that struck South Africa on Wednesday, with some experts claiming it was a mining-induced event.