Discovery News

Unmanned Planes Converted to Climate Scouts

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Nov. 5, 2009 -- In a modern-day rendition of beating swords into plowshares, a pair of unmanned military aircraft have been turned over to NASA for research on Earth's environment.

Test flights on a Northrop Grumman Global Hawk aircraft are under way at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California in preparation for a new mission called Global Hawk Pacific, or GloPac.

NASA has staged environmental research flights from aircraft previously, but none have the reach and duration of Global Hawk, a high-altitude, unmanned aircraft with a range of more 3,400 miles and which can stay aloft for more than a day.

Pollution from Underground Coal Fires Tallied

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Nov. 4, 2009 -- Right now, thousands of coal fires are burning out of control around the world. The fires are heaving untold amounts of mercury, the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) and other pollutants into the air.

The fires are notoriously hard to monitor; they tend to start at the surface but quickly scurry underground, only to ooze gases through soil and cracks in the ground. But an ambitious new study is now taking the first steps toward tallying their contribution to air pollution around the world.

Earlier this year, Allan Kolker of the United States Geological Survey in Reston, Va. and a team of scientists traveled to the Powder River Basin, a coal-rich region straddling the Wyoming-Montana border where dozens of fires are burning.

Remote Albatrosses Feed on Ocean Garbage Patch

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Nov. 3, 2009 -- Laysan albatross chicks living on one of the world's most remote islands, Kure Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, ingest 10 times more plastic than chicks living on Oahu, according to a new study published in the journal PLoS One.

The study illustrates how human activity can impact even the most isolated animal species.

Adult Kure birds spend time foraging over the "Western Garbage Patch," an enormous zone of floating plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean. The albatrosses eat a lot of flying fish eggs, which are often attached to scraps of wood, plastic or other materials.

Air Pressure Changes Trigger Landslides

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Nov. 2, 2009 -- A river of rock and soil nearly 2.5 miles long and 1,000 feet wide, the Slumgullion landslide winds like an earthy freight train down the hills of southwestern Colorado. But this incredible force of nature is swayed by the tiniest push.

According to a new study, the daily ups and downs in air pressure -- equivalent to the weight of about half a glass of water -- are enough to get the behemoth rolling.

Just like the ocean, the atmosphere has tides of air that swish over the planet, controlled by the sun's heat. Around the hottest part of the day, air pressure is diminished -- 'low tide' -- and it gradually goes up as things cool off.

Economic Crisis Could Spread Invasive Species

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Oct. 29, 2009 -- The global economic crisis could worsen the spread of invasive species in the oceans, according to a new study.

In the first quarter of 2009 cargo passing through Singapore, the world's largest port, was down 13.7 percent compared to the same period last year, and major shipping hubs around the world showed similar declines.

In total, some 10 percent of the global fleet of container ships and nearly a quarter of all refrigerated cargo ships sat idle, many of them waiting months for work.

Swimming Pools Kept Clean by Going Green

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Oct. 28, 2009 -- An unmistakable chlorine "pool smell" used to greet swimmers when they arrived the Oxford Community Center in St. Paul, Minn. "Now you don't smell it anymore," said Lynn Waldorf, aquatics director for the City of Saint Paul.

Meanwhile, at the city's outdoor pool, asthma sufferers reported less need for their inhalers last summer due to the reduction of the use of chlorine.

The secret to the pools' new reputation is the same thing that makes the state's northern lakes so clear: The pools now rely on sphagnum moss to clean the water.

Volcanic Air Pollution Chokes Locals

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Oct. 28, 2009 -- Between fiery destruction, mudslides, and ash clouds that blot out the sun, volcanoes aren't short on spectacular threats to human life.

But on the island of Hawaii, residents living downwind of the actively erupting Kilauea volcano are at risk of a range of more subtle health problems, including bronchitis, asthma attacks, lung infections, and sore throats thanks to volcanic air pollution, according to a new study.

Kilauea has been erupting since 1983, oozing streams of lava in a relatively peaceful volcanic display. Gas from the eruption is rich in sulfur dioxide (SO2), though, and trade winds regularly waft it toward small communities on the southern part of the island.

Megaquake Looms Over Seattle

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Oct. 27, 2009 -- The Cascadia thrust fault, one of the most dangerous and powerful faults on Earth, will hit even closer to home than anyone thought possible, according to a new study.

If the new findings are accurate, the fault will rupture within 110 kilometers (68 miles) of downtown Seattle, pouring seismic energy into a densely populated urban area, threatening to knock down buildings both large and small, and endangering the lives of the city's nearly 10 million residents.

The threat of earthquakes is just a part of life for those living in Seattle , Vancouver and throughout the Puget Sound region. Scientists know it is just a matter of time before Cascadia lets loose a devastating quake on the order of magnitude 9.0.

Drinking Water Wells Contaminated with Zinc

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Oct. 27, 2009 -- Zinc might be seeping into people's drinking water, getting into their brains, and causing problems with learning, memory, stress and more.

The danger, according to new research, is greatest for people who drink water from private wells that use galvanized pipes or tanks, especially in parts of the country where rocks or groundwater are naturally rich in zinc, such as the northern Rocky Mountains and central Florida, as well as in developing countries.

That's a rare set of conditions, and for the vast majority of Americans who drink from the tap, water is safe -- at least as far as zinc is concerned. The Environmental Protection Agency sets standards for levels of the mineral.

'Coral Bank' Created to Preserve Threatened Reefs

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Oct. 26, 2009 -- An international meeting on climate change in Copenhagen has heard the prospects of saving the world's coral reefs now appear so bleak there are plans to freeze samples to preserve them for the future.

Describing it as a last-ditch attempt, a team of scientists from the U.K. is collecting reef samples that will be frozen and cultivated in what they are describing as an ark.

The scientists say if humans do not do something soon to reduce the damage, the reefs will be reduced to rubble by the middle of the century.