Eruption on Mount Karangetang.

On 9 April 2013 the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Australia reported a 4.3 km ash plume rising from Mount Karangetang, a volcano on Siau Island, one of the Sangihe Islands roughly 130 km north of Sulawesi and 260 km south of Mindanao in the Philippines. The plume drifted about 45 km to the northwest of the island. Karangetang, which is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, has been fairly quiet since December 2012, but began a new phase of volcanic activity on 4 April this year, with lava-flows on the flanks of the volcano and ash avalanches reaching as far as 2 km from the summit.

Lava flows on Karangetang on 4 April 2013. ROMY/European Pressphoto Agency/National Geographic.

Karangatang is a 1784 m high stratovolcano (cone-shaped volcano) on the northern end of Siua Island. It has erupted 41 times since written records began on the island in 1675. The island is quite densely populated with around 22 000 permanent residents, and the volcano frequently causes problems for the islanders, having most recently caused fatalities in August 2010.

The Sangihe Island Arc is a chain of volcanic islands running between the northern tip of Sulawesi and the southern tip of Mindanao. The chain marks the boundary between the Molucca Plate to the east and the Sangihe Plate to the west, with the Molucca Plate being subducted beneath the Sangihe Plate. As the Molucca Plate sinks into the Earth it is heated by the friction and the heat of the planet's interior, causing it to partially melt. Some of the melted material then rises through the overlying Sangihe Plate as magma, fueling the volcanoes of the Sangihe Arc.

See also Eruption on Mount Lokon, Sulawesi, Eruption on Gamalama, Volcanic activity in the Halmahera Islands, Fresh eruption on Mount Karangetang, Indonesia and Volcanoes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Earthquake in Herefordshire.

On Wednesday 10 April 2013 slightly before 1.00 pm British Summertime (slightly before 2.00 pm GMT) the British Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 1.0 Earthquake at a depth of 2 km, roughly 5 km northeast of Leominster in Herefordshire. This is a small Earthquake, and is highly unlikely to have caused any damage or injuries; it is quite possible that nobody felt it at all.

The location of the 10 April Earthquake. Google Maps.

The cause of individual Earthquakes in the UK is hard to determine, with most probably being the result of more than one source of tectonic stress. Britain is being pushed to the north by the impact of Africa into Europe from the south and to the east by the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean. There are also lesser areas of spreading beneath the North Sea, Rhine Valley and Bay of Biscay, all of which exert some stress on British rocks. Finally there is glacial rebound; until about 10 000 years ago much of the north of the UK was covered by a thick layer of glacial ice. This pushed the rocks of the British lithosphere down into the underlying mantle. This ice is now gone, and the rocks are slowly springing back into their original position, causing the occasional Earthquake on the process.

Witness reports of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events and the geological structures that cause them. If you felt this quake (or were in the vicinity but did not, which is also useful information) then you can report it to the British Geological Survey here.

See also Earthquake in Staffordshire, Earthquake under the Lleyn Peninsula, Earthquake in Somerset, Earthquake in Herefordshire and Earthquakes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Chilean court suspends work at the Pascua-Lama Gold Mine over entironmental concerns.

An Appeals Court in the Chilean city of Copiapo has ordered all work to cease at the Pascua-Lama Gold Mine, citing environmental concerns raised by the Diaguita Indigenous Community and Chile's Environmental Evaluation Service, who were concerned that waste from the mine was reaching glaciers which the community depend upon for their water. The company had previously been fined for monitor glaciers in the region. The mine straddles the border between Chile and Argentina, where environmental concerns have also been raised in a campaign co-ordinated by environmental group Greenpeace. At the time of writing mine owners, Toronto-based Barrick Gold, have obtained an injunction against enforcement of a law passed by the Argentinian Congress in 2010, which aimed to curb mining close to glaciers in order to protect the countries water supplies, and excavation work continues on the Argentinian side of the border. However the Argentinian Supreme Court has demanded a national water-resource survey mapping glaciers and peri-glacial areas, and it is unclear what the mine's long term prospects are if the company becomes involved in confrontations with authorities on both sides of the border.

The position of the Pascua-Lama Gold Mine in relation to the Chile/Argentina Border and glaciers in the area. Jeanine Lee/Monteal Gazette.

The Pascua-Lama Mine is planned to be the world's highest open-pit mine, at an altitude of 4500 m, with estimated reserves of 17.9 million ounces of gold, as well as significant amounts of silver and copper. 75% of the reserves are on the Chilean side of the border, and 25% in Argentina. Barrick have predicted that it should be a low cost mine to operate, however despite work having began in 2006 the mine is yet to produce a single ounce of gold, with current operations still concentrating on removing the overburden (layers of rock on top of the desired beds in an open-pit mine). The project originally had a projected cost of US$1.5 billion, but this has now risen to over US$8 billion after a string of setbacks. This latest problem has affected Barrick's share value badly, with the company suffering an 8.4% drop in value on Wednesday.

Gold (and other heavy metal) mines can have significant environmental impacts as the deposits are never very concentrated, requiring the removal and processing of large amounts of rock. This is typically achieved by pulverising the rock and treating it with chemicals in settling pools, which require stringent controls to prevent pollution of the local environment. Historically this has led to a temptation for companies to try to circumnavigate (or ignore) environmental regulations in less developed nations, thereby maximizing profits. That Barrick have managed to run into problems with environmental regulators in both Chile ans Argentina while still at the overburden-removal stage of the Pascua-Lama project suggests that environmental remediation costs may not have been factored into the original projections for the project, which bodes poorly for the long-term prospects of the mine.

 

Overburden-removal operations at the Pascua-Lama Mine. Reuters/Barrick Gold.

Chile is one of South America's most prosperous nations, but there is still widespread poverty and the economy is heavily dependent on the export of raw materials, i.e. mining, fishing, farming and forestry. This has led successive Chilean governments to welcome investment in these sectors, sometimes to the detriment of environmental and human-rights concerns. This has led to a rising awareness of these issues in the country, with rising public demands for better protection of the environment and better pay and protection for the workforce.

See also Chilean miners strike after landslip kills worker, 83 feared dead after Tibetan landslip, Operations ceased at Padcal Mine following flooding, Acid spill from gold mine adds to Edith River's woes and Copper spill causes pollution alert on the Edith River in the Northern Territory, Australia.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Four new species of parasitic Copepods from Japan.

Splanchnotrophid Copepods are small parasitic Crustacean that live with their bodies almost entirely burried within the bodies of Gastropod hosts, with only the egg sacks and the tip of the abdomen visible from the exterior. Like many parastites their bodies have become much reduced, and do not obviously resemble those of other Copepods, or even other Crustaceans.The males do not resemble the females, often being smaller and simpler.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 30 November 2013, Daisuke Uyeno of the Faculty of Science at the University of the Ryukyus and Kazuya Nagasawa of the Graduate School of Biosphere Science at Hiroshima University descibe four new species of Splanchnotrophid Copepod from Japan.

The first new species described is placed within the genus Ceratosomicola, and given the specific name japonica meaning 'from Japan'. It was discovered living within the body cavities of the widespread Sea Slug Hypselodoris festiva, off Nohmi-jima Island in Hiroshima Bay.

 

 (Top) Female Ceratosomicola japonica, line drawing. (Bottom) Male Ceratosomicola japonica. Scale bars are 1 mm.  Uyeno and Nagasawa (2012).

 

 

(Top) Hypselodoris festiva infected with Ceratosomicola japonica, egg sacks showing red below the gills. Scale bar is 5 mm. (Bottom) Detail of the gills. Scale bar is 1 mm. Uyeno and Nagasawa (2012).

The second new species described is placed in the genus Splanchnotrophus and given the specific name helianthus, meaning 'sunflower', a reference to its colour. It was found living on the Sea Slug Trapania miltabrancha off Matoba Beach in Hiroshima Bay and off Yashiro Island, roughly 100 km to the south.

Splanchnotrophus helianthus (top) female with egg mass. Scale bar is 1 mm. (Bottom) male. Scale bar 100 μm. Uyeno and Nagasawa (2012).

 

A specimen of Thecacera pennigera infected by Splanchnotrophus helianthus.

Uyeno and Nagasawa (2012).


The third new species described is also placed in the genus Splanchnotrophus, and given the specific name imagawai, after Kaoru Imagawa, a professional diver who obtained the Sea Slugs from which the specimens were recovered. It was found living on the Sea Slug Trapania miltabrancha off Red Beach on Okinawa Island. Only the female of the species was discovered.

Splanchnotrophus imagawai, female specimen. Scale bar is 1 mm. Uyeno and Nagasawa (2012).

  

(Top) Specimen of Trapania miltabrancha infected with Splanchnotrophus imagawai. (Bottom) Detail of the gill ring of an infected specimen, showing the egg masses of the Copepod.

Uyeno and Nagasawa (2012).

The final new species is placed in a new genus, Majimun, which means 'demon' in Okinawa dialect, and given the specific name shirakawai, after Naoki Shirakawa, the diver who recovered the Sea Slugs in which the specimens were found living. The specimens were recovered from off Miyagi Beach on the East China Sea coast of Okinawa, living on the Sea Slug Roboastra lutiolineata.

Majimun shirakawai, (top) female. Scale bar 1 mm. (Bottom) male. Abbreviations: p1, leg 1, p2, leg 2. Scale bar 100 μm. Uyeno and Nagasawa (2012).

(Top) Specimen of Roboastra lutiolineata infected with Majimun shirakawai. (Bottom) Female specimen of Majimun shirakawai. Uyeno and Nagasawa (2012).

See also A new Isopod Crustacean from a limestone cave in Brazil, Nauplius Larvae frim the Windyfield Chert in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Two new species of Cave Crab from Christmas Island, The Christmas Island Blue Crab recognized as a distinct species and Two new species of freshwater Isopod Crustaceans from Lake Pedder in Tasmania.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

A new species of Flea from the Philippines.

Fleas of the Family Stivaliidae are found across Africa, Australasia and Southeast Asia. They are specialist parasites of Rodents and Shrews (and occasionally Birds), spending much of their life-cycle living in the host's nest, rather than on the animal itself. Their closest relatives, Pygiopsylid and Lycopsyllid Fleas, are mainly parasites of Marsupials and Monotremes.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 18 January 2013, Michael Hastriter of the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum at Brigham Young University and Sarah Bush of the Department of Biology at the University of Utah describe a new species of Stivaliid Flea found living on Luzon Shrews (Crocidura grayi) on Luzon Island in the Philippines.

The new species is placed in the genus Lentistivalius, which is found on Mice and Shrews (and in one case Birds) across Southeast Asia, and given the specific name philippinensis, meaning from the Philippines. It is a 2.5 mm spiny flea with a prominent spur on its hind limb, named from two male specimens, the female being unknown.

Lentistivalius philippinensis. Scale bar is 500 μm. Hastriter & Bush (2013).

The location where Lentistivalius philippinensis was discovered.

See also Giant Fleas from the Jurassic of China.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

A new species of Bryozoan from the Atlantic coast of Iberia.

Bryozoans of the genus Pseudoflustra are found around the Arctic Circle, having apparently colonized the shores of the Arctic Ocean from the North Pacific 3-3.5 million years ago. They form colonies of connected zooids, typically less than 50 mm in height, attached to rocks or other solid substrates in coastal regions, feeding by capturing food particles suspended in the water with a crown of tentacles called a lophophore.

In a paper published in the journal PLoS One on 25 March 2013, a team of scientists led by Piotr Kuklinski of the Institute of Oceanology at the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum in London describe a new species of Bryozoan in the genus Pseudoflustra, discovered living on the Atlantic coast of Iberia during a review of the distribution of species in the genus.

The new species is named Pseudoflustra radeki, after Radek Szczeçh, a friend of the authors who died suddenly in 2010. The species forms threadlike branching colonies, with the zooids arranged facing in alternate directions on the threads. The colonies were found living at depths of 450-630 m.

Pseudoflustra radeki (top) detail of colony showing alternating zooids; (bottom) individual zooid. Scake bars are 500 μm. Kuklinski et al. (2013).

The study revealed a greater diversity of deepwater Atlantic Psuedoflustra than had previously been appreciated, suggesting that there may be more, as yet undiscovered, species living in the poorly sampled Atlantic deeps. This in turn raises the possibility that the genus may have spread into the Arctic Ocean not from the North Pacific, as generally assumed, but from the cold, deep, waters of the Atlantic.

See also Soft tissue preservation in Linguloid Brachiopods from the Early Ordovician Fenxiang Formation of Hubei Province, China, New species of Bryozoans from Brazil and Marine Invertebrates on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Magnitude 6.3 Earthquake in southern Iran kills at least 32.

A Magnitude 6.3 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km hit southern Iran slightly after 3.20 pm local time (slightly after 11. 50 am GMT) on Tueday 9 April 2013 according to the United States Geological Survey. A quake of this magnitude at this depth is likely to cause widespread destrution and loss of life, and this quake does not appear to be an exception, with reports of significant destrution in the city of Kaki, close to the epicenter, and 32 reported deaths at the time of writing. The USGS estimates that there is a 62% chance of the number of deaths exceding 100 and a 28% chance of exceding 1000. Iran's single nuclear reactor, the Russian-operated Bushehr Plant, which lies 160 km to the northwest, was not harmed, though the quake was felt there. It was also felt in neighboring Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The area has been hit by several aftershocks.

The location of the 9 April 2013 Earthquake, and the areas likely to have felt the worst effects. Damage to buildings is likely within the green circle and likely to be more severe within the green circle. USGS.

The Arabian Plate is being pushed into the Eurasian Plate by the northward movement of the African Plate. The area where they meet is dominated by a zone of compressional folding called the Zagros Fold Belt, which is made up of a series of folds and faults and coincides with the southern coast of Iran. This is a typical feature when two continental plates collide, with more developed examples in the Alps and Himalayas. This is not a smooth process; the folding and breaking of continental plate under the pressure of a shifting continent involves the build up and then release of vast amounts of energy, and leads to frequent strong Earthquakes.

Simple map of the Zagros Fold Belt. Wikimedia Commons.

Section through the Zagros Fold Belt. Sarkarinejad & Azizi (2007).

Earthquakes in Iran can be particularly dangerous as, unlike many other quake-prone nations, the country has invested little in preparation for such events, with very few buildings, particularly residential buildings, being quake-proofed. This is made worse by the widespread use of mud-bricks, which can liquify during Earthquakes, causing buildings to collapse and drowning people inside in fine-powdered clay.

A residential area in Kaki after the 9 April quake. Mehr News Agency/Reuters.

See also Two major Earthquakes in northeast Iran, leading to heavy death toll, Earthquake in Mojen, northern Iran. 12 August 2011 and Earthquakes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.