Mysteries of the AtlanticMarch 02, 2007Cardiff University scientists will shortly set sail (March 5) to investigate a startling discovery in the depths of the Atlantic. Scientists have discovered a large area thousands of square kilometres in extent in the middle of the Atlantic where the Earth's crust appears to be missing. Instead, the mantle-the deep interior of the Earth, normally covered by crust many kilometres thick-is exposed on the seafloor, 3000m below the surface. Marine geologist Dr Chris MacLeod, School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences said: "This discovery is like an open wound on the surface of the Earth. Was the crust never there? Was it once there but then torn away on huge geological faults? If so, then how and why?" To answer some of these questions Dr MacLeod with a team of scientists, led by marine geophysicist Professor Roger Searle, Durham University, will travel to the area which lies mid-way between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean. The expedition will be the inaugural research cruise of a new UK research ship RRS James Cook. The team intends to use sonars to image the seafloor and then take rock cores using a robotic seabed drill. The samples will provide a rare opportunity to gain insights into the workings of the mantle deep below the surface of the Earth. Cardiff University |
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| Related Atlantic Current Events and Atlantic News Articles Beyond sunlight: Explorers census 17,650 ocean species between edge of darkness and black abyss Census of Marine Life scientists have inventoried an astonishing abundance, diversity and distribution of deep sea species that have never known sunlight - creatures that somehow manage a living in a frigid black world down to 5,000 meters (~3 miles) below the ocean waves. Robotic clam digs in mudflats To design a lightweight anchor that can dig itself in to hold small underwater submersibles, Anette (Peko) Hosoi of MIT borrowed techniques from one of nature's best diggers -- the razor clam. Scientists Unravel Evolution of Highly Toxic Box Jellyfish With thousands of stinging cells that can emit deadly venom from tentacles that can reach ten feet in length, the 50 or so species of box jellyfish have long been of interest to scientists and to the public. Yet little has been known about the evolution of this early branch in the animal tree of life. A glimpse at the Earth's crust deep below the Atlantic Long-term variations in volcanism help explain the birth, evolution and death of striking geological features called oceanic core complexes on the ocean floor, says geologist Dr Bram Murton of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. Ida now a coastal low assaulting the Mid-Atlantic Ida is one stubborn girl. Her remnants have moved out to sea and reformed as a powerful coastal low pressure system that's been raining on the mid-Atlantic since Tuesday night, November 10. A bubbling ball of gas The Sun is a bubbling mass. Packages of gas rise and sink, lending the sun its grainy surface structure, its granulation. Dark spots appear and disappear, clouds of matter dart up - and behind the whole thing are the magnetic fields, the engines of it all. Anisakiasis hazard varies depending on the origin of the fish, according to a study A research team of the University of Granada (Spain) has confirmed a higher presence of the parasite Anisakis spp in anchovies of the Atlantic South East coast and the Mediterranean North West coast, and they insist on freezing or cooking fish before consuming it. The bizarre lives of bone-eating worms The females of the recently discovered Osedax marine worms feast on submerged bones via a complex relationship with symbiotic bacteria, and they are turning out to be far more diverse and widespread than scientists expected. Newly Discovered Fat Molecule: An Undersea Killer with an Upside A chemical culprit responsible for the rapid, mysterious death of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean has been found by collaborating scientists at Rutgers University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). This same chemical may hold unexpected promise in cancer research. U.S. and European Experts Applaud Creation of New Transatlantic Task Force on Global Antibiotic Resistance Threat Experts on both sides of the Atlantic applaud President Barack Obama and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, representing the European Union (EU) Presidency, for establishing a transatlantic task force to address antibiotic resistance, an urgent and growing problem that threatens patient safety and public health worldwide. More Atlantic Current Events and Atlantic News Articles |
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