Eideard

Scientists say they can now explain the existence of what are perhaps Earth’s most extraordinary mountains.

The Gamburtsevs are the size of the European Alps and yet they are totally buried beneath the Antarctic ice. Their discovery in the 1950s was a major surprise. Most people had assumed the rock bed deep within the continent would be flat and featureless.

Survey data now suggests the range first formed over a billion years ago, researchers tell the journal Nature.

The Gamburtsevs are important because they are thought to be the location where the ice sheet we know today initiated its march across Antarctica. Unravelling the mountains’ history will therefore inform climate studies, helping scientists to understand not just past changes on Earth but possible future scenarios as well…

This multinational effort in 2008/2009 flew aircraft back and forth across the east of the White Continent, mapping the shape of the hidden mountain system using ice-penetrating radar. Other instruments recorded the local gravitational and magnetic fields, while seismometers were employed to probe the deep Earth.

The AGAP team believes all this data can now be meshed into a credible narrative for the Gamburtsevs’ creation and persistence through geological time…

“This research really solves the mystery of how you can have young-looking mountains in the middle of an old continent,” said US principal investigator Dr Robin Bell from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.

“In this case, the original Gamburtsevs probably completely eroded away only to come back, phoenix-like. They’ve had two lives,” she told BBC News…

The search also goes on for a suitable place in the range to drill for ancient ice.

By examining bubbles of air trapped in compacted snow, it is possible for researchers to glean details about past environmental conditions, including temperature and the concentration of gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide.

Somewhere in the Gamburtsev region there ought to be a location where ices can be retrieved that are more than a million years old. This would be at least 200,000 years older than the most ancient Antarctic ice cores currently in the possession of scientists.

RTFA. Please. Another interesting addition to paleo-climatology and geology.

Thanks, Ursarodinia

 
The major fires are something many of you have seen on television, e.g., the Wallow fire rolling in from Arizona, the Loop fire surrounding Carlsbad Caverns, the Track fire up at Raton on the Colorado border. Like most wildfires, they seem to have been started by careless, thoughtless human beings.

People have no concept of responsibility for their actions. The same fools have even less concern for what their actions visit upon other human beings. Many people have lost their homes and livelihood over recent weeks.

At the time I’m composing this – an hour-and-a-half before posting – this fire, the Pacheco Canyon fire is only several hours old. First spotted at one acre – near the Santa Fe ski area – it grew to 200 acres in a couple of hours. It was 83⁰ this afternoon and 5% humidity. Winds steady at 15mph with gusts to 40mph. The first chopper over the fire reported flames 40 feet in the air.

I imagine it’s up around 400-500 acres right now and no containment whatsoever.

We’re lucky because we’re southwest of the fire, about 25 miles away and there is a whole city in between us and the fire. The city is fortunate in that prevailing winds are blowing away from Santa Fe.

The air tankers are landing at the municipal airport for the night, right now. Winds are supposed to be gusting up to 50mph, tomorrow. Going to be a long season.

Last winter storm – of spring. I hope.

Chilean rescuers have saved two tourists who got into trouble on an Andean mountain and raised the alarm by calling an emergency number in the US.

The two – an Italian and a Czech – used a satellite device to send their location to a rescue centre in Texas.

Local teams then had to contend with heavy snow, rain and high winds to reach the pair, who were sheltering on the slopes of the Quetrupillan volcano.

After the rescue, the tourists said they were lucky to be alive. “It was very serious. At times we thought that we were going to die,” said Czech Phillip Kunk. Italian Analissa Lombardo said it was the most frightening experience of her life.

The two were taken a local hospital to be treated for symptoms of hypothermia…

They entered the national park on Monday, planning to walk along a trail that usually takes five days. But they got into trouble by the early hours of Friday, and raised the alarm with Texas rescuers.

The Americans then alerted the Chilean authorities, and a rescue team was despatched to the area, near the resort town of Pucon.

This is one of those terrific solutions that finally becomes affordable. The usual satellite phone costs way too much for most adventure trekkers; but, a few firms now maintain a communications service for small, portable – affordable – phones that are only good for [a] sending an emergency alert and [b] identifying where you are.

No long conversations with the family dog; but – as in this case – the folks providing the service contact the authorities where you are cramped and send help.

Click on the photo to see the large version – of what I watched this morning while out for my first walk of the day.