gsa newsletter

Newsletter of the Geological Society of Africa

Geological

NEWSLETTER

GSAF MATTERS GSAF IN THE WEB GSAF AFFILIATIONS WIMOU’S OF GSAF WITH ONEWS

ABOUT AFRICA WORLD SPACE / ASTRONOMY

INTERESTING SITESLITERATURE

ON AFRICA OTHER INTERESTING LLINKS TO JOURNALS, R

EVENTS IN AFRICA AND ABOUT REST OF THE WORLD

PROFESSIONAL COURSES/WORKSHOPS/SCINTERESTING PHOTOSGEOLOGY OF AFRICAN C

Edited by

Lopo Vasconcelos Editor of the GSAf Newsletter [email protected]

Africa (GSAf) – Nr. 1; January, 2014 – Annum 4.

Geological Society of Africawww.geologicalsocietyofafrica.org

NEWSLETTER - Nr. 1 of 2014 – Annum

Contents

GSAF AFFILIATIONS WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS MOU’S OF GSAF WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

INTERESTING SITES

LITERATURE REVIEWS & NEWSLETTERS

FRICA AND ABOUT AFRICA

COURSES/WORKSHOPS/SCHOLARSHIPS

INTERESTING PHOTOS GEOLOGY OF AFRICAN COUNTRIES/TERRITORIES

1

Africa www.geologicalsocietyofafrica.org

Annum 4

2 3

3 3

4 4

12 18 23

23 23

25 26

28 28

29 HOLARSHIPS 32

33 34

Newsletter of the Geological Society of Africa (GSAf) – Nr. 1; January, 2014 – Annum 4. 2

GSAf MATTERS

EDITORIAL

Dear Reader This is the 1st number of the 4th year of publication of our Newsletter, which comes out every month. Although many good comments come from many readers and GSAf members, their contribution is almost none.

The Newsletter belongs to all of us and not to the Editor or to the GSAf Council. It would be absolutely fantastic if every one of you could contribute with news from your countries and regions, or even from all over the World that might have interest to our geoscientific community. 2014 will be a year of another Colloquium of African Geology – CAG25 – that will be held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in August. I therefore urge you all to contribute to the success of CAG25 by submitting abstracts for both oral and poster presentations. Although initially the CAG meetings would alternate between Africa and Europe, since 2006 all CAG’s have been organized by African Countries: Mozambique (2006), Tunisia (2008), South Africa (2011), Ethiopia (2013) and now Tanzania (2014). Only Central and Western Africa have not yet organized a CAG. I suggest our colleagues from those regions to present bids for the CAG26. At the beginning of 2014, I wish you all a wonderful year, full of successes in your family and professional lives, healthy and wealthy! Best Regards to All Lopo Vasconcelos GSAf Newsletter Editor

Prof. Aberra Mogessie elected President of the Aust rian Mineralogical Society

Prof. Aberra Mogessie is elected President of the Austrian Mineralogical Society by the members at a General Assembly which took place at the University of Vienna on 20 January 2014. Prof. Aberra Mogessie has served a total of nine years as a member of the executive board and Vice President before his election as President of the society. The Austrian Mineralogical Society was established in 1901 and is one of the oldest mineralogical societies world-wide. Its first President was Prof. G. Tschermak (Tschermakite Amphibole) followed by Prof. F. Becke (the Becke line in

optics). It is a great honor to be elected as President of such a traditional society which has been led by prominent scientists.


Keep up-to-date on the latest happenings in geoscience, energy and environment news with EARTH Magazine. EARTH is your source for the science behind the headlines, giving readers definitive coverage on topics from natural resources, natural disasters and the environment to space exploration and paleontology. Order your subscription to EARTH online at www.earthmagazine.org.

GSAf IN THE WEB

Website of the GSAf : FaceBook of the GSAf: http://www.geologicalsocietyofafrica.org

Not a member of the Geological Society of Africa yet? What are you waiting for? You can apply online through our website (see address above)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Geological-Society-of-Africa-GSAf/187410537966092

Visit our FB page; See news about Africa and the World; You can post information related to Geology, Earth Sciences. Please do not post propaganda and marketing material.

GSAf AFFILIATIONS WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

The Geological Society of Africa is affiliated to the following organizations: AGI - American Geosciences Institute

http://www.agiweb.org/ IUGS - International Union of Geological Sciences

http://www.iugs.org/

GSA - Geological Society of America http://www.geosociety.org/

EarthScienceMatters Foundation http://earthsciencematters.org/

MoU’s OF GSAf WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

The Geological Society of Affrica is SIGNED Memoranda of Understanding with the following organizations: International Association of

Sedimentologists (IAS)

http://www.sedimentologists.org/

Elsevier

http://www.elsevier.com/

International Association of Geoethics (IAGETH)

http://www.icog.es/iageth/


NEWS About Africa Scientists Explore World's Largest Undersea Canyon

3D seafloor bathymetry map of upper Agadir Canyon, showing the rugged topography, multiple tributary canyons, and a large debris flow pathway. (Credit: University of Kiel))

Dec. 16, 2013 — A joint British-German team has returned from a five-week research expedition, mapping and sampling a giant submarine canyon off northwest Morocco. The expedition was on the German research vessel, Maria S Merian. Dr Russell Wynn of the National Oceanography Centre led the British contribution to the expedition, which was in partnership with Professor Sebastian Krastel at University of Kiel. He said, "Agadir Canyon is remarkably similar in size to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and yet until now it has barely been explored. We discovered that this huge valley is the source for the world's largest submarine sediment flow 60,000 years ago. Up

to 160 cubic kilometres of sediment was transported to the deep ocean in a single catastrophic event." Agadir Canyon is over 1,000 metres deep and 450 kilometres long, and is potentially the world's largest undersea canyon. The researchers collected seafloor images and sediment cores that provide evidence for powerful sediment flows originating from the canyon head, transporting gravel and sand derived from the onshore Atlas Mountains to deep offshore basins over three miles below the sea surface. These flows deposited sediment over an area of deep seafloor exceeding 350,000 square kilometres, roughly the size of Germany. This is the first time individual sediment flows of this scale have been tracked along their entire flow pathway. The survey team also discovered a new giant landslide south of Agadir Canyon that covers an area of seafloor in excess of 5,000 square kilometres, larger than the county of Hampshire. However, initial data suggest it is a relatively ancient feature, at least 130,000 years old. Significant biological discoveries were also made within and around the canyon, including samples of the first living deep-water corals to be recovered from the Atlantic Moroccan margin, and an amazing aggregation of hundreds of Loggerhead Turtles basking at the surface. Dr Wynn added, "To be the first people to explore and map this extensive and spectacular area of seafloor is a rare privilege, especially on the doorstep of Europe. It is hoped that our findings will inform further work on geological hazards and marine conservation in this region." At http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131216142312.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Earth+%26+Climate+News%29

Big Data Project Reveals Where Carbon-Stocking Proj ects in Africa Provide Greatest Benefits Dec. 19, 2013 — It is increasingly recognized that climate change has the potential to threaten people and nature, and that it is imperative to tackle the drivers of climate change, namely greenhouse gases. One way to slow climate change is to increase the number of trees on Earth, as they, through photosynthesis, take up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, converting it to carbon products which are stored in the vegetation (in the form of wood, roots, leaves) and oxygen. New forests continue to accumulate carbon for hundreds of years. Therefore, forestation projects are one way of generating 'carbon credits', which are tradable units on the carbon market. The more carbon is stored in the vegetation, the more profitable such projects are. Restoring forests should bring especially high carbon returns in areas where plants grow fast and to big sizes, but where past disturbances such as deforestation, fires, and degradation have resulted in much of the vegetation being destroyed, because the difference between what is there and what could potentially be there is so large. However, little information exists on where such areas are, and how big their carbon storage potential is. Researchers from Aarhus University, Denmark, the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa have now developed a method to calculate the difference between the potential carbon that could be stored in vegetation if there were no disturbances and the carbon that is currently stored in vegetation in tropical Africa. The researchers based their analysis on a satellite-derived map of current carbon being stored in vegetation. Combining it with data on environmental factors that affect plant growth, such as climate and soil, they could model the maximum amount of carbon that could be stored in vegetation across tropical Africa. By subtracting the actual amount of carbon currently stored in

vegetation from this, they could thus show where in Africa carbon-stocking projects would be particularly profitable. People and biodiversity factors are also important In reality, such a map of where most carbon could be stored is probably of limited use for deciding where to plan carbon projects, because there may be a number of constraints to setting up forestation projects to stock carbon. For example, a densely populated agricultural area with high levels of rainfall and temperatures might bring high carbon returns; however, it would be unlikely to be profitable as land value in these areas is high, and because it would be problematic to have to relocate people. Therefore, such constraints must be considered when planning carbon forests. In addition, it might be a good idea to consider whether there are wider benefits to setting up such projects. "We used our map which showed where carbon forests would bring high returns, to ask where carbon-stocking by forestation would not only be highly profitable, but where it would also minimize conflict with people, and benefit biodiversity and people," says Michelle Greve from the University of Pretoria, who led the project as part of her PhD at Aarhus University. "Therefore, we applied a method to optimally select areas which would not only have high carbon returns, but would also conserve native biodiversity and support ecosystem services, that is, services that the environment provides which benefit humans. The areas also had to have low land value and human population density, so as to reduce conflict with people, and high levels of governance, because setting up projects in areas with high levels of violence and corruption would be too risky and have too low chances of success," Michelle Greve explains. More at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131219093556.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Earth+%26+Climate+News%29


Liberia: Diamonds Smuggle Busted 20 DECEMBER 2013. In the midst of reported constrained being faced by the Government of Liberia in developing capacity to properly monitor mining activities across the country, the United Nations Panel of Experts is reporting widespread trafficking of natural minerals here, unabated, including diamond and gold, among others. Most of the gems entered Liberia from neighboring Sierra Leone to avoid that country's tax of 15 percent on special stones valued at over $500,000, while smaller, low-value diamonds are typically trafficked directly from Liberia to buyers inside Sierra Leone, the UN Panel of Experts discloses. According to the report, released to the UN Security Council in mid-November, Leone Government Gold and Diamond Office observed in 2012, a marked decrease in the export of special stones since the introduction of taxation in 2009. "A senior official at the Government Gold and Diamond Office told the Panel in Freetown in September 2013 that he believed that a significant amount of the "special stones" from Sierra Leone were being trafficked through Liberia", the report reads. Commenting on the anomaly found at the Regional Diamond Office in Ganta, Nimba County, inside Liberia which indicated a significant spike in

production, from almost no production in 2011 to 13,000 carats in 2012, the Panel says it continues to await technical analysis carried out under the Kimberley Process to determine whether those diamonds originated from Côte D'Ivoire or elsewhere. However, the UN reports that during a visit to Ganta in September, it was unable to identify any significant upsurge in mining activity and thus remains concerned as to the provenance of this production. "On 1 October 2013, diamond industry sources reported to the Panel that Monrovia-based diamond brokers had recently bought large quantities of diamonds originating from the Marange field of Zimbabwe, while others had recently purchased diamonds trafficked to Liberia from the Central African Republic", the Panel details. It says sources have revealed that they had noticed an increase in the export from Liberia of partially polished stones, noting that "Once diamonds receive only a minimal number of facets, they may be considered manufactured goods and thus fall outside the controls on rough diamonds of the Kimberley Process, which means that they do not require certification prior to export." At http://allafrica.com/stories/201312201305.html

Angola: Country Going Through Transformation - Geol ogy Minister 20 DECEMBER 2013. The minister of Geology and Mining, Francisco Queiróz, considered on Thursday, in Luanda, that Angola is in a process of deep transformation of the work system and the geologic and mining programme. Francisco Queiróz stated that with the construction of three laboratories, as part of the National Geology Plan (PLANAGEO), Angola will be in condition to respond both to the geochemistry needs in this plan and the mining operators working in the country, as well as the countries wishing to benefit from local services.

The government official stressed that with the analysis made overseas, Angola was losing time and the control of information. The source stressed that with the operation of the laboratories the number of jobs will increase, since PLANAGEO, the geophysicist and geochemistry survey, as well as the construction of infrastructures will result in creation of new working posts. At http://allafrica.com/stories/201312201286.html

Africa: Stop Lending to Resource-Rich Nations That Hide Extractives Revenue - Research Group President BY STELLA DAWSON, 17 DECEMBER 2013. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should halt their lending to poor countries that are rich in natural resources but fail to disclose how they use those revenues, Daniel Kaufmann, president of Revenue Watch Institute, said on Monday. Calling resource revenues the development challenge of our generation, Kaufmann said that 20 percent of the world's poor surviving on less than $2 a day live in countries rich in natural resources, many of them in sub-Saharan Africa. With vast new reserves of oil and gas discovered in the region, its poverty level is poised to increase to 50 percent of the world's poor by 2030, unless there are major improvements in corruption and governance, he said. "The World Bank should be audacious," said Kaufmann, a former World Bank Institute official who now heads a research group that promotes accountability over management of natural resource revenues to help countries realise their development benefits. Nigeria, for example, said last week it cannot account for $50 billion in revenue from the sale of crude oil between January 2012 and July 2013 - an amount that exceeds the total annual foreign development aid to the region. In Angola, the IMF has estimated that $32 billion in oil revenues went missing between 2007 and 2010, equivalent to one quarter of its GDP, he said. "At what point does one bite the bullet and say, 'This is absolutely crucial in getting development on the ground'? The World Bank with its unique resources, along with the IMF, should have the audacity to say, 'No, we are not lending when there is complete opacity on these issues,'" Kaufmann said. He made the remarks in presenting a detailed framework for addressing corruption and improving governance in resource-rich countries at a World Bank seminar on Monday.

While the World Bank does address corruption in its lending programmes and sanction companies for misuse of funds, Kaufmann said that is not enough. It should not address corruption merely as a fiduciary duty but also as a developmental priority. "What we are talking about is $350 to $400 billion in domestic resource mobilisation just from oil (revenues), and leveraging that and approaching it from the development standpoint would totally dwarf whether a dollar (in World Bank lending) went to its proper destination," he said. The World Bank had no immediate comment. The IMF noted that its policy is to emphasise good governance when providing policy advice, financial support and technical assistance to countries. At the global level, there are range of initiatives aimed at increasing transparency and governance of natural resource wealth. The G20 group of the world's leading economies has encouraged transparency, and 41 countries participate in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a government, corporate and civil society coalition that sets global standards for openness in the managing revenues from natural resources. The United States and the European Union, meanwhile, have passed legislation requiring publicly traded companies to disclose their payments to governments for resource extraction. But the track record of resource-rich countries on accountability remains wanting. Revenue Watch Institute's Governance Index - which measures countries in the oil, gas and mining sectors for their quality of governance, accountability and safeguards against corruption - found that 80 percent fail to achieve good governance in their extractives sector. Only 11 of the 58 countries examined in the index were deemed "satisfactory". At http://allafrica.com/stories/201312171431.html


Triton Minerals highlights graphite potential at Ba lama North and Ancuabe, Mozambique Triton Minerals is advancing its key Balama North and Ancuabe graphite projects in Mozambique.

Friday, December 27, 2013 by Proactive Investors. Triton Minerals is advancing its key Balama North and Ancuabe graphite projects in Mozambique. Balama North is located along strike to Syrah Resources ’ massive Balama East Deposit, that is acknowledged as the largest known graphite deposit in the world.

Diamond drilling and surface trenching program have been completed at the Nicanda Hill prospect, along with reconnaissance mapping and rock sampling on the Black Hills and Charmers prospects. Indications of graphite mineralisation continuity between Nicanda Hill and Cobra Plains prospects are evident with the previously reported 156 cumulative metres of graphitic mineralisation intersected in drill hole at Nicanda Hill, which remains open in all directions

The exploration and drill results at both the Nicanda Hill and Cobra Plains prospects continue to support Triton’s interpretation that the Balama North project has the potential to host multiple high grade large flake graphite deposits. Assay results from the Cobra Plains infill drill program are being received; once reviewed and verified they will be released to market. These drill results will assist in completion of a resource definition and refined scoping study by mid-2014. Analysis Earlier in the month Triton raised $1.6 million through a placement at $0.056, with the share price climbing in recent weeks to last trade at $0.065. There are share price catalysts from the expected news flow in the coming months including: - Diamond drilling results from Cobra Plains; - Initial drilling at Nicanda Hill; and - Scoping Study. At http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/51459/triton-minerals-highlights-graphite-potential-at-balama-north-and-ancuabe-mozambique-51459.html

Tenerife Geology Discovery Is Among 'World's Best

Pablo Dávila-Harris looks at part of the huge landslide deposit discovered on Tenerife, showing the chaotic and shattered rubble from the collapsed volcano. (The central dark debris-block is about 15 meters in diameter and must weigh many tons). (Credit: Pablo Dávila-Harris)

Wednesday, 5 October 2011. Volcanologists from the University of Leicester have uncovered one of the world's best-preserved accessible examples of a monstrous landslide that followed a huge volcanic eruption on the Canarian island of Tenerife. Seven hundred and thirty-three thousand years ago, the southeast slopes of Tenerife collapsed into the sea, during the volcanic eruption. The onshore remains of this landslide have just been discovered amid the canyons and ravines of Tenerife's desert landscape by volcanologists Pablo Dávila-Harris and Mike Branney of the University of Leicester's Department of Geology.

The findings have been published in this October's edition of the international journal Geology. The research was funded by CONACYT, Mexico. Dr Branney said: "It is one of the world's best-preserved accessible examples of such an awesome phenomenon, because the debris from such landslides mostly spreads far across the deep ocean floor, inaccessible for close study. "The beautifully-displayed Tenerife rubble includes blocks of rapidly chilled lava, added as the volcano erupted. Radioactive minerals within them enabled the researchers' colleague, Michael Storey at Roskilde University, Denmark, to provide such a precise date for this natural catastrophe. "Climate change is often invoked as a trigger for ocean-island landslides, but in this case it seems that a growing dome of hot lava triggered the landslide by pushing the side of the volcano outwards. "In the shattered landscape that remained, lakes formed as rivers were dammed by debris, and the change to the shape of the island altered the course of explosive volcanic eruptions for hundreds of thousands of years afterwards." The researchers state that such phenomena are common but infrequent, and understanding them is vital, for their effects go far beyond a single ocean island. Tsunamis generated from such events may travel to devastate coastlines thousands of miles away. "Understanding the Earth's more violent events will help us be prepared, should repeat performances threaten," they state. Note : The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Leicester, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. At http://www.geologypage.com/2011/10/tenerife-geology-discovery-is-among.html

Mozambique due to become oil producer in 2014 January 6th, 2014. Mozambique is due this year to become an oil producing country and significant progress is also expected to be made in natural gas and coal production, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. A small oil discovery next to the Temane gas field, in Inhambane province (south), will allow South African petrochemical company Sasol to launch oil production this year, said the EIU’s latest report on the Mozambican economy, to which Macauhub had access. “The oil field is the first to produce oil commercially in Mozambique, where so far there have only been viable natural gas discoveries,” the report said. The project will produce around 2,000 barrels of oil per day, which is a small amount commercially-speaking, but makes it possible to “diversify Mozambique’s export base,” it noted. As well as this, Sasol’s representatives have already said that oil reserve estimates may be increased, as exploration activities are already underway in the area.

According to the Oil and Gas Journal, Mozambique has around 4.5 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, but until the beginning of last year had no oil reserves at all. The country has extensive onshore and offshore sedimentary basins containing natural gas, most of which has yet to be explored, as well as significant coal reserves, which are considered to be the biggest in the world. William Telfer, an oil and gas specialist told DW Africa that the discovery “is very viable” and that 100 similar wells were the equivalent of Angola and Nigeria’s production. “It’s not small, it’s very good. And we are soon going to hear about new discoveries that will increase the amount of wells,” said the specialist. “Gross domestic product will increase. We have an excellent Finance minister and excellent deputy minister. A very strong staff. Mozambique is prepared to start exploring large quantities of oil,” he said. More at http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/2014/01/06/mozambique-due-to-become-oil-producer-in-2014/


Atlas Mountains In Morocco Are Buoyed Up By Superho t Rock, Study Finds

This is a profile depicting the height and depth of the Atlas Mountains. The blue bars indicate the boundary between the crust and the superhot rock below, about 15 km shallower than predicted by previous models. Credit: Meghan Miller and Thorsten Becker

Friday, 3 January 2014. The Atlas Mountains defy the standard model for mountain structure in which high topography must have deep roots for support, according to a new study from Earth scientists at USC. In a new model, the researchers show that the mountains are floating on a layer of hot molten rock that flows beneath the region's lithosphere, perhaps all the way from the volcanic Canary Islands, just offshore northwestern Africa. "Our findings confirm that mountain structures and their formation are far more complex than previously believed," said lead author Meghan Miller, assistant professor of Earth sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

The study, coauthored by Thorsten Becker, professor of Earth sciences at USC Dornsife, was published by Geology on Jan. 1, 2014 and highlighted by Nature Geoscience. A well-established model for the Earth's lithosphere suggests that the height of the Earth's crust must be supported by a commensurate depth, much like how a tall iceberg doesn't simply float on the surface of the water but instead rests on a large submerged mass of ice. This property is known as "istostacy." "The Atlas Mountains are at present out of balance, likely due to a confluence of existing lithospheric strength anomalies and deep mantle dynamics," Becker said. Miller and Becker used seismometers to measure the thickness of the lithosphere – that is, the Earth's rigid outermost layer – beneath the Altas Mountains in Morocco. By analyzing 67 distant seismic events with 15 seismometers, the team was able to use the Earth's vibrations to "see" into the deep subsurface. They found that the crust beneath the Atlas Mountains, which rise to an elevation of more than 4,000 meters, reaches a depth of only about 35 km – about 15 km shy of what the traditional model predicts. "This study shows that deformation can be observed through the entire lithosphere and contributes to mountain building even far away from plate boundaries" Miller said. Miller's lab is currently conducting further research into the timing and effects of the mountain building on other geological processes. Note: The above story is based on materials provided by University of Southern California. At http://www.geologypage.com/2014/01/atlas-mountains-in-morocco-are-buoyed.html

Ghana: UN-SPIDER conducts Technical Advisory Missio n From 25 to 29 November 2013, UN-SPIDER carried out a five-day Technical Advisory Mission to Ghana in order to assess the current state and the potential of using space-based informationfor disaster risk management and emergency response in the country. The Mission was conducted upon the invitation of the Government of Ghana through the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO). The mission team comprised ten experts from various institutions including UNOOSA, United Nations University (UNU), United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), National Space Research and Development Agency (NASDRA), MetOffice UK, National Disaster Risk Reduction of China (NDRCC), Secure World Foundation and the University of Free State. The mission was conducted through visits to different national and international institutions and organisations involved in disaster risk management, emergency response and the use ofsatellite data. These included various governmental departments and ministries such as the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services , Town and Country Planning Department, The Forestry Commission, Ghana Meteorological Agency, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (Ghana Space Science & Technology Institute), Hydrological Services Department, Ghana National Fire and Rescue

Service, Geological Survey Department, Environmental Protection Agency and the Ghana Statistical Service. The mission team additionally met with experts from UNDP and the Department of Geography and Resource Development of the University of Ghana.Additionally, UN-SPIDER organised a national workshop on 28 November. More than 40 stakeholders from academia, ministries, emergency services and international organisations were introduced to applications of remote sensing for disaster risk management including flood mapping. They were also informed about existing international mechanisms such as the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters" that make available satellite information for support emergency response as well as on NADMO's role in the coordination of disaster management in Ghana. Various group discussions allowed participants to exchange on the current and potential use of space-based technology and the role for disaster management in each organisation. The mission was wrapped up with a debriefing of NADMO staff and its national coordinator presenting main observations and recommendations made by the mission team. At http://www.un-spider.org/about-us/news/ghana-un-spider-conducts-technical-advisory-mission

Indian Ocean islands cooperate to establish disaste r loss databases Sediment-choked Onibe River, Madagascar, after Tropical Cyclone Giovanna in February 2012. Credits: NASA

Five islands in the Indian Ocean – the Union of the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Zanzibar (Tanzania) – are working to establish and manage disaster loss databases. The losses databases should be able to predict and estimate losses from cyclones, floods and storm surges. The models to be

used are the same as those employed in the UN’s 2013 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. The Project is supported by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the Indian Ocean Commission’s (IOC) ISLANDS Project. The First meeting was held at the IOC’s headquarters in Mauritius. The 2005-15 Hyogo Framework for Action highlights the importance of accounting for past losses that can provide a basis for better risk assessments, more appropriate disaster planning and effective measures to reduce vulnerability and exposure. The 2005-15 Hyogo Framework for Action serves as a plattform for disaster-related information. It should provide the basis for better risk assessments, more appropriate disaster planning and effective measures to reduce vulnerability and exposure.

At http://www.un-spider.org/about-us/news/indian-ocean-islands-cooperate-establish-disaster-loss-databases


'Ardi' Skull Reveals Links to Human Lineage The 4.4 million-year-old cranial base of Ardipithecus ramidus from Aramis, Middle Awash research area, Ethiopia. (Credit: Image courtesy of Tim White)

Jan. 6, 2014 — One of the most hotly debated issues in current human origins research focuses on how the 4.4 million-year-old African speciesArdipithecus ramidus is related to the human lineage. "Ardi" was an unusual primate. Though it possessed a tiny brain and a grasping big toe used for clambering in the trees, it had small, humanlike canine teeth and an upper pelvis modified for bipedal walking on the ground. Scientists disagree about where this mixture of features positionsArdipithecus ramidus on the tree of human and ape relationships. Was Ardi an ape with a few humanlike features retained from an ancestor near in time (between 6 and 8 million years ago, according to DNA evidence) to the split between the chimpanzee and human lines? Or was it a true relative of the human line that had yet to shed many signs of its remote tree-dwelling ancestry? New research led by Arizona State University paleoanthropologist William Kimbel confirms Ardi's close evolutionary relationship to humans. Kimbel and his collaborators turned to the underside (or base) of a beautifully preserved partial cranium of Ardi. Their study revealed a pattern of similarity that links Ardi toAustralopithecus and modern humans, but not to apes. The research appears in the Jan. 6-10 online edition ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Kimbel is director of the ASU Institute of

Human Origins, a research center of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. Joining ASU's Kimbel as co-authors are Gen Suwa (University of Tokyo Museum), Berhane Asfaw (Rift Valley Research Service, Addis Ababa), Yoel Rak (Tel Aviv University) and Tim White (University of California at Berkeley). White's field-research team has been recovering fossil remains ofArdipithecus ramidus in the Middle Awash research area, Ethiopia since the 1990s. The most recent study of the Ardi skull, led by Suwa, was published in Science in 2009, whose work (with the Middle Awash team) first revealed humanlike aspects of its base. Kimbel co-leads the team that recovered the earliest knownAustralopithecus skulls from the Hadar site, home of the "Lucy" skeleton, in Ethiopia. "Given the very tiny size of the Ardi skull, the similarity of its cranial base to a human's is astonishing," says Kimbel. The cranial base is a valuable resource for studying phylogenetic, or natural evolutionary relationships, because its anatomical complexity and association with the brain, posture and chewing system have provided numerous opportunities for adaptive evolution over time. The human cranial base, accordingly, differs profoundly from that of apes and other primates. In humans, the structures marking the articulation of the spine with the skull are more forwardly located than in apes, where the base is shorter from front to back and the openings on each side for passage of blood vessels and nerves are more widely separated. These shape differences affect the way the bones are arranged on the skull base, such that it is fairly easy to tell apart even isolated fragments of ape and human basicrania. More at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140106160041.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Earth+%26+Climate+News%29

Kosmos Energy announces rig share agreement with BP for exploration well offshore Morocco 05 Jan 2014. Kosmos Energy has entered into a one well rig share agreement withBP and Maersk Drilling, a unit ofA.P. Moller - Maersk Group, for the rig Maersk Discoverer. The rig is expected to commence drilling operations on the FA-1 (formally Eagle-1) exploration well in the Foum Assaka Offshore block in Morocco during the first half of 2014. Under the terms of theAgadir farm-out agreement with BP announced in October, BP will fund Kosmos’ share of the well costs, subject to an agreed maximum spend. Constructed in 2009, the Maersk Discoverer is a sixth generation, ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned semi-submersible rig capable of drilling to total depths of up to 30,000 feet, and operating in water depths of up to 10,000 feet.

Darrell McKenna, chief operating officer, said, 'We are pleased to have finalized the rig share agreement with BP and Maersk Drilling for this highly capable and efficient rig, currently working in the Mediterranean region. In conjunction with our long-term rig agreement for the Atwood Achiever, we have secured the required rig resources to execute on our exploration program beginning in 2014. Based on the current schedule, we expect to spud the FA-1 well in the first half of the year and anticipate operations will take approx. three months to complete.' More at http://www.energy-pedia.com/news/morocco/new-157473 Gambia strips firms of oil licences and warns again st 'speculation'

African Petroleum and its partner Buried Hill Energy had lost offshore Blocks A1 and A4 (Source: African Petroleum)

07 Jan 2014. Gambia has stripped three oil firms of their exploration and production licences, according to a statement by the president's office that accused them of failing to meet their contractual obligations. The statement, issued on Tuesday, said West Africa-focused African Petroleum and its partner Buried Hill Energy had lost offshore Blocks A1 and A4. Nigeria's Oranto Petroleum also lost its Lower River onshore block, it said. 'These licences have been terminated with immediate effect. The Gambia government will not allow any institution to acquire licences only to keep

them for speculation,' the statement said. 'In our bid to harness our natural resources for the benefit of Gambians, we are not going to deal with speculators,' it added. The companies were not immediately available for comment. Gambia's government believes that the country is sitting on large quantities of oil but it has not produced any yet despite decades of exploration by a number of companies. Note: African Petroleum Corp had recently been seeking a coventurer to join them in a three-well exploration programme that was to include drilling on Gambia Block A1 in 2013, and drilling on one or both of the Company's Senegal exploration blocks in early 2014. Original article link: http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/gambia-strips-firms-oil-licenses-warns-against-quot-152449939.html Source: Reuters via Yahoo! Finance. At http://www.energy-pedia.com/news/gambia/new-157520


Energy fund approves $1m grant for Mauritian coolin g project By: Natalie Greve. Development fund, the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (Sefa), has approved a $1-million project preparation grant to support construction group Sotravic in the development and installation of a sea water air conditioning system in Mauritius – the low-carbon technology lowers building cooling costs by using cold ocean water. The Deep Ocean Water Application (Dowa) project comprises the construction and operation of a system to pump cold water from the Indian Ocean for use in air conditioning systems in buildings located in the country’s capital, Port Louis, and nearby regions. Once completed, the project would replace energy-intensive traditional air conditioning systems in buildings, which consume the equivalent of 30 MW of electricity. In contrast, the ocean water-cooling system would require only 4 MW of electrical power to operate. Sefa, a $60-million facility managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and seeded by Danish development corporation Danida and the US Agency for Economic Development, said in a statement on Wednesday that the AfDB would

play a key role throughout the development phase of the project by engaging with the promoter and key partners to structure a bankable project for long-term financing. Sefa would finance offshore feasibility studies, which include marine surveys and preliminary designs, and would also undertake a preliminary assessment of the environmental and social impacts of the Dowa project. Following the approval of the grant, AfDB Energy, Environment and Climate Change director Alex Rugamba said the project would explore synergies between the ocean and Mauritius’ energy sector to identify ways in which significant cost, energy and carbon savings could be delivered, while also creating jobs and new business opportunities. “This is perfectly aligned with the bank’s new strategy [of] focusing on supporting African countries in their transition to more green and inclusive growth models,” he commented. Edited by: Chanel de Bruyn. At http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/energy-fund-approves-1m-grant-for-mauritian-cooling-project-2014-01-08/rep_id:3182

Kibo’s Tanzania project drilling results likely to boost resource estimate By: Natasha Odendaal. 14th January 2014. JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed Kibo Mining on Tuesday said new intersected mineralised zones uncovered during the Imweru project’s Phase 1 drilling programme were expected to boost its imminent updated resource estimate. The results of the Tanzania-focused company’s 21-hole, 3 265 m reverse circulation and diamond drilling programme, in November, had improved Kibo’s confidence of significantly increasing the quality and quantity of the current resource of the Imweru tenement, CEO Louis Coetzee commented. “The drill results from Imweru exceed our expectations and confirm not just the continuation of the Imweru mineralised zones between previously drilled locations, but new mineralised zones at depth,” he said. The first-phase drilling, a continuation of the previously drilled Imweru Central Mineralised Zone (ICMZ) and the first of a two-phase programme, unveiled gold mineralisation intersected in 19 of the 21 holes, with the best

intersections including 2.08 m at 11.37 g/t gold; 7 m at 1.68 g/t gold; 8.86 m at 1.70 g/t gold and 4.56 m at 1.93 g/t gold. The ICMZ region formed part of a larger mineralised corridor on the project extending over a 10 km strike for which an existing inferred gold resource of 629 000 oz of gold had been estimated from drilling by previous operators. Kibo was currently integrating the results with those from previous drilling initiatives to produce a Joint Ore Reserve Committee- (Jorc-) compliant updated resource estimate before embarking on the second phase of drilling and determining the most appropriate next phase of development for the project during the first half of 2014. “We now look forward to producing an updated Jorc-compliant resource estimate before proceeding to the next development phase of the project,” Coetzee said. Edited by: Chanel de Bruyn. At http://www.miningweekly.com/article/kibos-tanzania-project-drilling-results-likely-to-boost-resource-estimate-2014-01-14

Gold delivers increased South Africa mining product ion According to the report, gold contributed high positive increase by 35.5 percent followed by manganese ore with 33.6 percent and diamonds with 27.0 percent. The main contributors to the 5.1 percent increase were gold (contributing 4.2 percentage points), manganese ore (contributing 1.5 percentage points) and iron ore (contributing 1.3 percentage points). However, Stats SA reported a decrease in seasonally adjusted mining production by 2.9 percent in November 2013 compared with October 2013. This followed month-on-month changes of 7.4 percent in October 2013 and -4.0 percent in September 2013. Seasonally adjusted mining production decreased by 0.1 percent in the three months ended November 2013 compared with the previous three months, contributed by 0.1 percent decrease in iron ore (contributing -0.9 of a percentage point).

Mineral sales increased by 16.9 percent year-on-year in October 2013. The highest positive growth rates were recorded for chromium ore (107.4 percent), copper (61.7 percent) and iron ore (35.4 percent). The major contributors to the 16.9 percent increase were PGMs (contributing 5.4 percentage points) iron ore and coal (each contributing 5.1 percentage points). Stats SA said that seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices increased by 3.0 percent in October 2013 compared with September 2013. This followed month-on-month changes of -8.0 percent in September 2013 and 8.4 percent in August 2013. Seasonally adjusted mineral sales at current prices increased by 7.0 percent in the three months ended October 2013 compared with the previous three months. This increase was largely driven by the sales value of iron ore (contributing 4.3 percentage points) and PGMs (contributing 3.9 percentage points). At http://ambriefonline.com/news/latest/2256-gold-delivers-increased-south-africa-mining-production

Golden Deeps finds out high grade copper, lead and silver in Namibia The three commodities were identified through channel sampling and mapping and were accessed from the NO2 shaft. According to the firm, the new assay results include 8 metres at 2.86 percent copper, 3.13 percent lead, 5.56 g/t silver and 0.56 percent vanadium oxide collected from the NOUG0012 hole and 9 metres at 3.10 percent copper, 10.84 percent lead, 11.33 g/t solver and 3.12 percent vanadium oxide in hole NOUGOO20. The assays results increase and extend the previously reported mineralisation, which is open in all directions. To date, the company has identified over 1600m of strike and 3D modeling has demonstrated the continuity of high grade mineralisation from surface to over 60 metres deep. The primary focus of the Company is the exploration and development of its prospects in Namibia and in the states of Western Australia and Victoria in Australia.

The exploration and development of the Company’s newly acquired tenements in Namibia is intended to provide added impetus to the Company’s growth. The Company intends to build value for shareholders through the strategic exploitation of its tenement areas, leading to the definition of JORC resources on each of the tenements and in the expansion of the JORC resource on its Twin Hills tenement. Extensive exploration, management and corporate experience are combined in a lean corporate structure that aims to provide maximum returns to shareholders. At http://ambriefonline.com/news/latest/2258-golden-deeps-finds-out-high-grade-copper-lead-and-silver-in-namibia


SA 'ignores' vast Mozambique gasfield By: Nicky Smith | 21 Jan 2014. SA's revised 20-year energy draft plan "shockingly" ignores the vast Rovuma Basin gas find in Mozambique. It is the world's fourth-largest known natural gas deposit, that would solve Eskom's immediate energy crisis and avoid the costly construction of a third new coal power station. This is according to Johan de Vos, CEO of Pretoria-based firm Gigajoule, which manages the distribution of natural gas in Mozambique in the piped gas network it built almost 10 years ago. Gigajoule has completed technical and feasibility studies which it says have demonstrated the economic viability of a 2,450km pipeline from Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique to Richards Bay in SA. Mr de Vos says such a pipeline would cost $5bn. In terms of the study Gigajoule commissioned from consultants VGI, two anchor clients in the form of gasfired power stations would be built: one in Maputo and one in Richards Bay, with a combined generation capacity of 5,000MW for another $5bn. "We have worked for two years on this feasibility study and we know that if you build a 5,000MW power station at the end of the pipeline this project is bankable," he says. With a price of $10bn, the pipeline-power station infrastructure investment was "cheaper than Medupi and will cost less to operate once all Medupi's interest charges are added in", says Mr de Vos. "We (SA) wouldn't need to build Coal 3," he says, referring to the government plan to build a third coal-fired power station in addition to Medupi and Kusile. SA's power supply has been precarious since 2008 when Eskom's electricity grid failed due to a lack of capacity. Eskom's major investment in two new coal-fired power stations has been hit by extensive technical and financial delays. The costs have skyrocketed and power has yet to be delivered to the grid. The time and the expense associated with projects with the Gasoduto do Norte ao Sul de Mocambique (Gasnosu) show that if construction started next year, the project would be ready for gas from 2018. "The Japanese are all over this," he says, referring to the Rovuma Basin gas. "The Japanese prime minister was in Mozambique this week to sign agreements with the government on energy. We (SA) are doing nothing. "It's technically feasible and it will have a massively positive social impact. If we get everyone aligned, it can happen, it's a window of opportunity that we have now and we shouldn't let it go to waste, we shouldn't go down the road of Coal 3 when there is this opportunity right on the doorstep," Mr de Vos says. Cornelis van der Waal, head of the energy unit at Frost & Sullivan, says a pipeline is the most "exciting and sensible thing" he has heard of regarding the development of the deposit at Rovuma Basin. The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is being revised and it is not too late to take into account Mozambique's natural gas for SA's electricity planning.

"South African companies and the government are really missing an enormous opportunity in Mozambique, with their gas in the equation, the debate around the need for nuclear energy falls off the wagon. "The beauty of a pipeline is if you do it right, you can replicate another Sasol and seriously reduce our dependence on crude (imports). There are so many companies and industries that could benefit from this, take them off the grid and supply them with cheap, clean gas. It (Rovuma) should absolutely be in the IRP." JSE-listed Sasol is a world authority in using coal liquefaction to produce petroleum-like synthetic crude oil from coal. The only mention in the IRP of what may be Rovuma, which is misspelt as Romvula, is that it is not being considered in the big gas scenario because of its distance and the cost of transporting liquefied natural gas. According to a study done by Stellenbosch-based Econex the Rovuma Basin deposit has shown reserves of 170-trillion cubic feet and "it is expected that the final discovered resource will be more than double the size". In comments to the Department of Energy on its new IRP, Gigajoule describes the magnitude of the deposit as being able to supply all of SA's electricity needs, of about 40,000MW, for the next 170 years. In 2004 Sasol commissioned a 865km pipeline from the Pande and Temane gasfield in Mozambique to deliver gas to its synthetic fuels plant in Secunda. This programme was feasible, even though the deposit was a fraction of the size of Rovuma at 3-trillion cubic feet. Last year Eskom's outgoing CEO Brian Dames said gas could be the answer to avoiding building a third coal power station. Mr de Vos says Gigajoule has been in talks with Eskom about Gasnosu and the utility has shown interest in the programme. Gas power stations are faster, cheaper and easier to build than coal power stations, says Mr de Vos. They can be built in series with generators that are able to produce 600MW of electricity. Finding the money to build a third coal power station will be extremely difficult as Eskom has an existing funding gap for projects. The World Bank, which partially funded Kusile, has made it clear it can no longer fund "dirty" energy programmes. It is time "people take notice of the failures of IRP 2010", says Mr de Vos. In the latest draft, allowance is made for only about 200MW of gas power by 2019 but we already have about 700MW installed, Mr van der Waal says. At http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/645/107619.html#topstory

Endiama plans to reopen dormant mines in Angola

Endiama EP, a National Diamond Company, is planning to reopen at least four dormant mines in Angola.

According to Endiama E.P CEO António Carlos Sumbula, the company is working to reopen Shiri, Sangamina, Camafuca and Camazambo mines as Kimberlites with proved reserves. Sumbula said that due to the circumstances of the international market, the firm had failed to find the equilibrium point that could make those kimberlites feasible. The manager noted that his firm is in the phase of negotiating with financiers to make these kimberlites to start in two years time.

The CEO said that the study carried out with the Russian multinational, Alrosa, revealed that the alluvion diamonds produced in the country over ten years came from undiscovered kimberlites, whereas only 10 percent of the diamonds produced during the same period came from known kimberlites. Sumbula added that his team has the task to discover about 90 perent of the unknown kimberlites. The official stated that Endiama has managed to restart a considerable part of the mines that lied idle during the crisis period, like those of Cambange , ex-Luarica and Calonda. On the other hand, the manager said Endiama is paying attention to international activity, and has in the partnership with the Ministry of Geology and Mining managed to win the vice presidency of the Kimberly Process for this year and presidency for 2015. Angola is among the world's top diamond producers in terms of revenues and tenth in amount. Statistics show a current production estimated at 8.3 million carat and revenue of Akz 1.2 billion (US$ 12 million). At http://ambriefonline.com/news/latest/2257-endiama-plans-to-reopen-dormant-mines-in-angola


Zimbabwe discovers new diamond fields 'almost the s ize of Swaziland' Zimbabwe, the top diamond producers in Africa, has said that it has discovered new diamond fields 'almost the size of Swaziland' which will bring billions of dollars from mining activities.

According to the deputy Mines minister Fred Moyo, the diamond fields located between Manicaland and Masvingo province stretch over 10,000 square kilometres. He said the government has already begun sourcing funds to start operations Moyo noted that the area is huge adding that even though it does not contain a large concentration of diamonds; the fact is there is huge potential.

He said that all what is required for now is to mobolise funds to carry out extensive exploration that will determine the areas profitable to mine. Moyo also disclosed that the government is going to use part of its national budget allocation to send experts to carry out exploration activities in the area. All the companies that were granted mining licenses at the Chiadzwa diamond fields formed joint ventures with the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation. The companies in Marange have been mainly concentrating on alluvial mining, which is easier and less-costly compared to underground mining. Zimbabwe's first-ever diamond auction in Belgium got off to a slow start last December with the majority of the 279 723 ct gems being of low quality and not properly cleaned. Zimbabwe is believed to hold 25 percent of the world's alluvial diamonds. At http://ambriefonline.com/news/latest/2250-zimbabwe-discovers-new-diamond-fields-almost-the-size-of-swaziland

Phase I exploration at Ethiopia potash project acco mplished

AgriMinco Corp through its joint venture partner and operator Danakil Potash Corporation has completed the Phase I exploration program at Ethiopia potash project, which included a resource drilling program on the Danakil potash license.

According to Premier African Minerals Limited, the Phase I drilling program consisted of 24 holes, totalling 7,893 metres, of which 1,074 metres were twinned data holes from AgriMinco’s previous drilling program. AgriMinco’s CEO George Roach said that he is pleased with the quality and progress that Danakil Corp. has made during the Phase I work program, adding that the licensed area has real potential to develop into a mine. He noted that he is confident that the planned mineral resource estimate scheduled for completion in early 2014, will support the project potential.

In addition to the NI 43-101-compliant report, desktop studies on the local environmental conditions and hydrogeology were also in progress, with the final reports expected before the end of January. The studies would make recommendations on actions required for the next phase of exploration, while the hydrogeological study would also include the detailed planning of the water exploration project envisioned for the early part of 2014. AgriMinco said that geophysical surveys are progressing well with a 90 percent success rate achieved on survey attempts so far. Premier holds a 42 percent interest in AgriMinco Corp., which has a 30 percent stake in the Danakil Potash Project, Ethiopia. Danakil encompasses an established large-tonnage, high grade, shallow potash deposit, with sylvinite horizons as shallow as 45m deep (in a competitor's ground it is reported that two drill holes intersected 45m of potash mineralization at a depth of 680m) and is amenable to cost effective open pit and solution mining. AgriMinco's JV partner at Danakil, Circum Minerals Ltd, has a 70 percent interest in the project. At http://ambriefonline.com/news/latest/2249-phase-i-exploration-at-ethiopia-potash-project-accomplished

US oil explorer to start oil drilling in Kenya The company which operates two blocks in Mandera and another one in offshore Lamu has plans to fast track its exploration activities in the four blocks it is prospecting for oil. According to the firm, it is currently preparing to undertake a survey on two of its blocks in offshore Lamu, which will take place in the course of this year. Kase Lawal, Camac president and chief executive, said that Camac successfully carried out Aero-magnetic and Gravity survey of onshore blocks L1B and L16 in Kenya last year, adding that there is plan to carry out 2D seismic surveys on two offshore deep water L27 and L28 blocks this year. Camac also said it intends to quicken the initial tests in an effort to start test exploration following successful discovery of commercial oil deposits by UK-based Tullow Oil. Tullow Oil, a Canadian wildcat explorer, which had earlier announced five oil discoveries, made two more discoveries last week and

pushed up its estimates in Turkana basin from 300 million barrels of oil to 600 million. Camac Energy’s four oil blocks cover a total surface area of about 37,000 square kilometres. Two of the four blocks – L27 and L28 — are located in more than 3,000 metres of ultra-deep waters of the Indian Ocean in Lamu Basin. The onshore blocks are located in the Mandera Basin. With more drilling being undertaken, Kenya is poised to be a major oil exporting country. Estimates indicate that Kenya may have over 3.5 billion barrels of yet-to-find (YTF) volumes. Kenya has 46 oil exploration blocks divided into four exploration basins. These are Lamu Basin, Anza Basin, Tertiary Rift Basin and Mandera Basin. Camac Energy operates as an independent oil and gas exploration and production company focused on energy resources in Africa. At http://ambriefonline.com/news/latest/2259-us-oil-explorer-to-start-oil-drilling-in-kenya

Other stories!!!! - Zim Diamonds Plundered in Illicit International Deals. BY ALEX BELL, 17

DECEMBER 2013. http://allafrica.com/stories/201312181086.html - Rising Star Expedition Finds over 1,000 Hominid Fossils. December 6,

2013. http://cavingnews.com/20131206-rising-star-expedition-finds-1000-hominid-fossils - Mozambique plans to grant licenses for heavy sands surveys in Nampula. January 6th, 2014. http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/2014/01/06/mozambique-plans-to-grant-licenses-for-heavy-sands-surveys-in-nampula/

- Botswana Diamonds starts Orapa fieldwork, By: Leandi Kolver, 14th January 2014. http://www.miningweekly.com/article/botswana-diamonds-starts-orapa-fieldwork-2014-01-14

- Australia’s Republic Gold finds gold in Mozambique. January 16th, 2014. http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/2014/01/16/australia%E2%80%99s-republic-gold-finds-gold-in-mozambique/


World Rock points to potential diamond haul in Antarctica

View looking southeast from the locality of the kimberlite samples on the slopes of Mt Meredith, across the Lambert Glacier, towards the Fisher Massif, northern Prince Charles Mountains, Antarctica. Credit: Dr Geoff Nichols Dec 17, 2013. Australian geologists on Tuesday opened up the tantalising but controversial prospect that Antarctica could be rich in diamonds. In a scientific paper published in the journal

Nature Communications, a team said they had found a telltale rock called kimberlite in the Prince Charles Mountains in East Antarctica. No diamonds were found in the samples, taken from Mount Meredith, and the study - focusing only on the region's geology, not on mining possibilities - was not designed to quantify how many could be there. But, it said, the mineral's signature is identical to that in other locations in the world where diamonds have been found. "The samples are texturally, mineralogically and geochemically typical of Group 1 kimberlites from more classical localities," said the probe, led by Greg Yaxley at the Australian National University in Canberra. Kimberlite, a rock that is rarely found near Earth's surface, is believed to be formed at great depths in the mantle, where conditions are right for forming diamonds—carbon atoms that are squeezed into lattice shapes under extreme pressure and temperature. The study suggested kimberlite was thrust towards the surface around 120 million years ago, when present-day Africa, the Arabian peninsula, South America, the Indian sub-continent, Australia and Antarctica were glommed together in a super-continent called Gondwana. Outcrops of kimberlite studded the centre of Gondwana at this time. The component continents then drifted apart, which explains why diamonds have been found in such diverse and distant locations, from Brazil to southern Africa and India, according to this theory.

Mining banned - for now Independent experts were divided as to whether the discovery could unleash a diamond rush that would ravage the world's last pristine continent. A treaty protecting Antarctica was signed in 1961 and was updated with an environmental protocol in 1991 whose Article 7 expressly prohibits "any activity relating to mineral resources." The 1991 pact comes up for review in 2048, 50 years after it came into effect following ratification. It has been ratified by 35 nations. Robert Larter, a geophysicist with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), said "the default assumption" was that the protocol will continue. "Any change would require agreement of the majority of parties at a review conference, including three-quarters of the states which were Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties at the time of adoption of the protocol," he said in comments to Britain's Science Media Centre. Teal Riley, a BAS survey geologist, said the discovery of kimberlite was "not unsurprising" given that the local geology in East Antarctica has a feature called cratons, a telltale of this rock. "However, even amongst the Group 1 kimberlites, only 10 percent or so are economically viable, so it's still a big step to extrapolate this latest finding with any diamond mining activity in Antarctica," where extraction would be tougher and costlier. But Kevin Hughes, a senior officer at an international panel called the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), was more cautious. More than three decades from now, "we do not know what the treaty parties' views will be on mining... or what technologies might exist that could make extraction of Antarctic minerals economically viable," he said. "An additional issue is that nations outside the protocol are not bound by its provisions, including the ban on mineral resource activities." Kimberlite takes its name from the town of Kimberley, in South Africa, which was created by a diamond rush. In 1871, a cook found a huge stone while digging on a farm, and within a year 50,000 prospectors were there, digging feverishly and living in a makeshift tented city. At http://phys.org/news/2013-12-potential-diamond-haul-antarctica.html

Salty surprise: Ordinary table salt turns into 'for bidden' forms When sodium chloride (NaCl) is squeezed by diamond anvils at high temperatures and under Cl- or Na-rich conditions, exotic compounds such as NaCl3 can be formed. Credit: Artem R. Oganov & Weiwei Zhang Dec 19, 2013. High-pressure experiments with ordinary table salt have produced new chemical compounds that should not exist according to the textbook rules of chemistry. The study at DESY's X-ray source PETRA III and at other research centres could pave the way to a more universal understanding of chemistry and to novel applications, as the international research team, led by Prof. Artem Oganov of Stony Brook University (State University of New York) and Prof. Alexander Goncharov of Carnegie Institution, report in the scientific journal Science. Table salt, also known as sodium chloride or NaCl, is one of the best-known and most studied chemical compounds. It crystalises in a cubic unit cell and is very stable. Its chemical composition is simple - one sodium atom (Na) and one chlorine atom (Cl). Or at least that's true under ambient conditions. Other compounds of the two elements are forbidden by the classical rules of chemistry. For instance, according to the octet rule all chemical elements strive to fill their outermost shell with eight electrons, which is the most stable configuration, found in noble gases. Sodium has one extra electron and chlorine is missing one, so sodium donates one electron to chlorine, leaving

both atoms with an outer shell containing eight electrons and forming a strong ionic bond. But when the scientists put table salt under high pressure of 200,000 atmospheres and more at PETRA III and added an extra dash of either sodium or chlorine, "forbidden" compounds like Na3Cl and NaCl3 turned up. "Following the theoretical prediction, we heated the samples under pressure with lasers for a while," explains co-author Dr. Zuzana Konôpková of DESY, who supported the experiments at DESY's Extreme Conditions Beamline P02 (ECB). "We found other stable compounds of Na and Cl which came as a surprise." This is not supposed to happen, as these compounds require a completely different form of chemical bonding with higher energy, and nature always favours the lowest state of energy. But Oganov's team had calculated before that exotic compounds might form under extreme conditions and remain stable under these conditions. "We have predicted and made crazy compounds that violate textbook rules: NaCl3, NaCl7, Na3Cl2, Na2Cl, and Na3Cl," says Dr. Weiwei Zhang, the lead author of the paper and a visiting scholar at Oganov's lab at Stony Brook. At PETRA III and at Carnegie Institution the scientists tested the predictions in what they call "cook and look" experiments, targeting Na3Cl and NaCl3, the two compounds that were predicted to be more easily made than others, and indeed found them. "These compounds are thermodynamically stable and once made, remain so indefinitely," says Zhang. "Classical chemistry forbids their very existence. Classical chemistry also says atoms try to fulfil the octet rule - elements gain or lose electrons to attain an electron configuration of the nearest noble gas, with complete outer electron shells that make them very stable. Well, here that rule is not satisfied." More at http://phys.org/news/2013-12-salty-ordinary-table-salt-forbidden.html


Greenland ice stores liquid water year-round 22.12.2013. Researchers at the University of Utah have discovered a new aquifer in the Greenland Ice Sheet that holds liquid water all year long in the otherwise perpetually frozen winter landscape. The aquifer is extensive, covering 27,000 square miles. The reservoir is known as a "perennial firn aquifer" because water persists within the firn – layers of snow and ice that don't melt for at least one season. Researchers believe it figures significantly in understanding the contribution of snowmelt and ice melt to rising sea levels. The study was published online Sunday, Dec. 22, in the journal Nature Geoscience. "Of the current sea level rise, the Greenland Ice Sheet is the largest contributor – and it is melting at record levels," says Rick Forster, lead author and professor of geography at the University of Utah. "So understanding the aquifer's capacity to store water from year to year is important because it fills a major gap in the overall equation of meltwater runoff and sea levels." Forster's team has been doing research in southeast Greenland since 2010 to measure snowfall accumulation and how it varies from year to year. The area they study covers 14 percent of southeast Greenland yet receives 32 percent of the entire ice sheet's snowfall, but there has been little data gathered.

In 2010, the team drilled core samples in three locations on the ice for analysis. Team members returned in 2011 to approximately the same area, but at lower elevation. Of the four core samples taken then, two came to the surface with liquid water pouring off the drill while the air temperatures were minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit. The water was found at about 33 feet below the surface at the first hole and at 82 feet in the second hole. "This discovery was a surprise," Forster says. "Although water discharge from streams in winter had been previously reported, and snow temperature data implied small amounts of water, no one had yet reported observing water in the firn that had persisted through the winter." The aquifer is extensive, covering 27,000 square miles—larger than the state of West Virginia. It is similar in form to a groundwater aquifer on land that can be used for drinking water. "Here instead of the water being stored in the air space between subsurface rock particles, the water is stored in the air space between the ice particles, like the juice in a snow cone," Forster adds. "The surprising fact is the juice in this snow cone never freezes, even during the dark Greenland winter. Large amounts of snow fall on the surface late in the summer and quickly insulates the water from the subfreezing air temperatures above, allowing the water to persist all year long." More at http://phys.org/news/2013-12-greenland-ice-liquid-year-round.html

New Kind of Metal in the Deep Earth Wednesday, 21 December 2011. The crushing pressures and intense temperatures in Earth's deep interior squeeze atoms and electrons so closely together that they interact very differently. With depth materials change. New experiments and supercomputer computations have revealed that iron oxide undergoes a new kind of transition under deep Earth conditions. Iron oxide, FeO, is a component of the second most abundant mineral at Earth's lower mantle, ferropericlase. The finding, published in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters, could alter our understanding of deep Earth dynamics and the behavior of the protective magnetic field, which shields our planet from harmful cosmic rays. Ferropericlase contains both magnesium and iron oxide. To imitate the extreme conditions in the lab, the team including coauthor Ronald Cohen of Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory, studied the electrical conductivity of iron oxide to pressures and temperatures up to 1.4 million times atmospheric pressure and 4000°F -- on par with conditions at the core-mantle boundary. They also used a new computational method that uses only fundamental physics to model the complex many-body interactions among electrons. The theory and experiments both predict a new kind of metallization in FeO. Compounds typically undergo structural, chemical, electronic, and other changes under these extremes. Contrary to previous thought, the iron oxide went from an insulating (non-electrical conducting) state to become a highly conducting metal at 690,000 atmospheres and 3000°F, but without a change to its structure. Previous studies had assumed that metallization in FeO was associated with a change in its crystal structure. This result means that iron

oxide can be both an insulator and a metal depending on temperature and pressure conditions. "At high temperatures, the atoms in iron oxide crystals are arranged with the same structure as common table salt, NaCl," explained Cohen. "Just like table salt, FeO at ambient conditions is a good insulator -- it does not conduct electricity. Older measurements showed metallization in FeO at high pressures and temperatures, but it was thought that a new crystal structure formed. Our new results show, instead, that FeO metallizes without any change in structure and that combined temperature and pressure are required. Furthermore, our theory shows that the way the electrons behave to make it metallic is different from other materials that become metallic." "The results imply that iron oxide is conducting in the whole range of its stability in Earth's lower mantle." Cohen continues, "The metallic phase will enhance the electromagnetic interaction between the liquid core and lower mantle. This has implications for Earth's magnetic field, which is generated in the outer core. It will change the way the magnetic field is propagated to Earth's surface, because it provides magnetomechanical coupling between the Earth's mantle and core." "The fact that one mineral has properties that differ so completely -- depending on its composition and where it is within the Earth -- is a major discovery," concluded Geophysical Laboratory director Russell Hemley. Note: The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Carnegie Institution. More at http://www.geologypage.com/2011/12/new-kind-of-metal-in-deep-earth-iron.html

Ancient Earth Crust Stored In Deep Mantle Thursday, 25 April 2013. Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth's crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie's Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago. Their work is published in Nature. Oceanic crust sinks into Earth's mantle at so-called subduction zones, where two plates come together. Much of what happens to the crust during this journey is unknown. Model-dependent studies for how long subducted material can exist in the mantle are uncertain and evidence of very old crust returning to Earth's surface via upwellings of magma has not been found until now. The research team studied volcanic rocks from the island of Mangaia in Polynesia's Cook Islands that contain iron sulfide inclusions within crystals. In-depth analysis of the chemical makeup of these samples yielded interesting results. The research focused on isotopes of the element sulfur. (Isotopes are atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons.) The measurements, conducted by graduate student Rita Cabral, looked at three

of the four naturally occurring isotopes of sulfur--isotopic masses 32, 33, and 34. The sulfur-33 isotopes showed evidence of a chemical interaction with UV radiation that stopped occurring in Earth's atmosphere about 2.45 billion years ago. It stopped after the Great Oxidation Event, a point in time when Earth's atmospheric oxygen levels skyrocketed as a consequence of oxygen-producing photosynthetic microbes. Prior to the Great Oxidation Event, the atmosphere lacked ozone. But once ozone was introduced, it started to absorb UV and shut down the process. This indicates that the sulfur comes from a deep mantle reservoir containing crustal material subducted before the Great Oxidation Event and preserved for over half the age of Earth. "These measurements place the first firm age estimates of recycled material in oceanic hotspots," Hauri said. "They confirm the cycling of sulfur from the atmosphere and oceans into mantle and ultimately back to the surface," Hauri said. Note: The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Carnegie Institution. At http://www.geologypage.com/2013/04/ancient-earth-crust-stored-in-deep.html


Greenland ice is melting -- even from below: heat f low from the mantle contributes to the ice melt

Modeled basal ice temperatures of the present-day Greenland Ice Shield across the Summit region, GRIP and GISP2 indicate borehole locations. (Credit: Image courtesy of Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences)

Monday, 12 August 2013. The Greenland ice sheet is melting from below, caused by a high heat flow from the mantle into the lithosphere. This influence is very variable spatially and has its origin in an exceptionally thin lithosphere. Consequently, there is an increased heat flow from the mantle and a complex interplay between this geothermal heating and the Greenland ice sheet. The international research initiative IceGeoHeat led by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences establishes in the current online issue of Nature Geoscience that this effect cannot be neglected when modeling the ice sheet as part of a climate study. The continental ice sheets play a central role in climate. Interactions and feedback processes between ice and temperature rise are complex and still a current research topic. The Greenland ice sheet loses about 227 gigatonnes of ice per year and contributes about 0.7 millimeters to the currently observed mean sea level change of about 3 mm per year. Existing model calculations, however, were based on a consideration of the ice cap and considered the effect of the lithosphere, i.e. Earth's crust and upper mantle, too simplistic and primarily mechanical: the ice presses the crust down due to its weight. GFZ scientists Alexey Petrunin and Irina Rogozhina have now coupled an ice/climate model with a thermo-mechanical model for

the Greenland lithosphere. "We have run the model over a simulated period of three million years, and taken into account measurements from ice cores and independent magnetic and seismic data," says Petrunin. "Our model calculations are in good agreement with the measurements. Both the thickness of the ice sheet as well as the temperature at its base are depicted very accurately. " The model can even explain the difference in temperature measured at two adjacent drill holes: the thickness of the Greenland lithosphere and thus the geothermal heat flow varies greatly in narrow confines. What does this mean for climate modeling? "The temperature at the base of the ice, and therefore the current dynamics of the Greenland ice sheet is the result of the interaction between the heat flow from Earth's interior and the temperature changes associated with glacial cycles," explains corresponding author Irina Rogozhina (GFZ) who initiated IceGeoHeat. "We found areas where the ice melts at the base next to other areas where the base is extremely cold." The current climate is influenced by processes that go far back into the history of Earth: the Greenland lithosphere is 2.8 to 1.7 billion years old and is only about 70 to 80 kilometers thick under Central Greenland. It remains to be explored why it is so exceptionally thin. It turns out, however, that the coupling of models of ice dynamics with thermo-mechanical models of the solid earth allows a more accurate view of the processes that are melting the Greenland ice. Note : The above story is based on materials provided by Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. At http://www.geologypage.com/2013/08/greenland-ice-is-melting-even-from.html

Titanoboa once slithered the planet

An artist's perception of how the largest snake the world has ever known would have looked in its natural setting 60 million years ago. Jason Bourque, University of Florida.

Updated 3/30/2012. By Monika Joshi, USA TODAY. A snake stretching longer than a school bus and too thick to fit through a doorway may sound like a creature in a Hollywood bio-horror flick, but this one actually ruled the roost on part of the planet millions of years ago.

Weighing 2,500 pounds and stretching 48 feet long, Titanoboa — whose name combines "titanic" for its size and "boa" for its close relation to modern-day boa constrictors — roamed the Earth 65 million years ago and was the largest snake that has ever lived.Titanoboa: Monster Snake, premiering Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on the Smithsonian Channel, gives viewers an insight into the life of a species that was once the largest predator on Earth. The special will also air Monday at 6 p.m. ET and be available for viewing on the channel's website. A life-size replica of the ancient snake appears in the film and was put on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, as of Friday. It will remain in Washington until Jan. 6, 2013, after which it will begin a nationwide tour through the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. "There's no question that facts can be far stranger than fiction," says David Royle, executive vice president of programming and production at the Smithsonian Channel. "You might say it sounds like Hollywood, but it's not fantasy. It's real-life discovery." The first fossils of Titanoboa were discovered in a coal mine in northeastern Colombia during an expedition led by the Smithsonian Tropical Research

Institute and the Florida Museum of Natural History in 2004. Fragments of the ancient snake's skull — a rare find since snake skull bones typically break into shards because of their fragile structure — revealed that it could open its jaw nearly 180 degrees, allowing it to swallow a crocodile. Moreover, the snake could squeeze its prey at 400 pounds per square inch, equivalent to the weight of three Eiffel Towers on top of one another. According to Jason Head of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the era's warm climate allowed the snake to grow this large and cooling temperatures may be a possible explanation for the disappearance of the snakes. "The bigger an animal is, the higher temperature it needs to survive," says Head, a vertebrate paleontologist who helped conduct field work at the Colombian coal mine. So is it possible for a snake of such enormity to come back into existence? Many scientists, including Head, say they would not rule out the possibility. "I think if we saw global temperatures rise, we would see the living species of snakes potentially become larger," says Jack Conrad, research associate at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. "But it would take a period of a couple million years to evolve a species that was anywhere near the size of Titanoboa." The coal mine site in Colombia has unveiled more than just one fascinating species. Scientists have also unearthed fossils of early bean, banana and chocolate plants as well as giant turtles and crocodiles, on which Titanoboa most likely preyed. "We know so little about the tropical ecosystems of that time period that having any information is very valuable," says Catherine Badgley, a researcher at the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology. "The tropics were very unusual in ways that we would never be able to predict from modern ecosystems." For paleontologists, the discovery of Titanoboa is a reminder that the fossil record is full of surprises. "Every year, you see some new mind-blowing example of paleontology shattering our previous boundaries and greatly expanding our understanding of the world," Conrad says. "Titanoboa is a perfect example of that." At http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/story/2012-03-31/titanoboa-prehistoric-snake/53903042/1


Amber Fossil Reveals Ancient Reproduction in Flower ing Plants Ancient flower. (Credit: Image courtesy of Oregon State University)

Jan. 3, 2014 — A 100-million-year old piece of amber has been discovered which reveals the oldest evidence of sexual reproduction in a flowering plant -- a cluster of 18 tiny flowers from the Cretaceous Period -- with one of them in the process of making some new seeds for the next generation. The perfectly-preserved scene, in a plant now extinct, is part of a portrait created in the mid-Cretaceous when flowering plants were changing the face of the Earth forever, adding beauty, biodiversity and food. It appears identical to the reproduction process that "angiosperms," or flowering plants still use today. Researchers from Oregon State University and Germany published their findings on the fossils in the Journal of the Botanical Institute of Texas. The flowers themselves are in remarkable condition, as are many such plants and insects preserved for all time in amber. The flowing tree sap covered the specimens and then began the long process of turning into a fossilized, semi-precious gem. The flower cluster is one of the most complete ever found in amber and appeared at a time when many of the flowering plants were still quite small. Even more remarkable is the microscopic image of pollen tubes growing out of two grains of pollen and penetrating the flower's stigma, the receptive part of the female reproductive system. This sets the stage for fertilization of the

egg and would begin the process of seed formation -- had the reproductive act been completed. "In Cretaceous flowers we've never before seen a fossil that shows the pollen tube actually entering the stigma," said George Poinar, Jr., a professor emeritus in the Department of Integrative Biology at the OSU College of Science. "This is the beauty of amber fossils. They are preserved so rapidly after entering the resin that structures such as pollen grains and tubes can be detected with a microscope." The pollen of these flowers appeared to be sticky, Poinar said, suggesting it was carried by a pollinating insect, and adding further insights into the biodiversity and biology of life in this distant era. At that time much of the plant life was composed of conifers, ferns, mosses, and cycads. During the Cretaceous, new lineages of mammals and birds were beginning to appear, along with the flowering plants. But dinosaurs still dominated the Earth. "The evolution of flowering plants caused an enormous change in the biodiversity of life on Earth, especially in the tropics and subtropics," Poinar said. "New associations between these small flowering plants and various types of insects and other animal life resulted in the successful distribution and evolution of these plants through most of the world today," he said. "It's interesting that the mechanisms for reproduction that are still with us today had already been established some 100 million years ago." The fossils were discovered from amber mines in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar, previously known as Burma. The newly-described genus and species of flower was named Micropetasos burmensis. At http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140103204510.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Earth+%26+Climate+News%29

The Biggest Mass Extinction And Pangea Integration

Relationships between geosphere disturbances and mass extinction during the Late Permian and Early Triassic are shown. Credit: Science China Pr Sunday, 3 November 2013. The mysterious relationship between Pangea integration and the biggest mass extinction happened 250 million years ago was tackled by Professor YIN Hongfu and Dr. SONG Haijun from State Key Laboratory of Geobiology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan). Their study shows that Pangea integration resulted in environmental deterioration which further caused that extinction. Their work, entitled "Mass extinction and Pangea integration during the Paleozoic-Mesozoic transition", was published in Science Сhina Earth Sciences.2013, Vol 56(7). The Pangea was integrated at about the beginning of Permian, and reached its acme during Late Permian to Early Triassic. Formation of the Pangea means that the scattered continents of the world gathered into one integrated continent with an area of nearly 200 million km2. Average thickness of such a giant continental lithosphere should be remarkably greater than that of each scattered continent. Equilibrium principle implies that the thicker the lithosphere, the higher its portion over the equilibrium level, hence the average altitude of the Pangea should be much higher than the separated modern continents. Correspondingly, all oceans gathered to form the Panthalassa, which should be much deeper than modern oceans. The acme

of Pangea and Panthalassa was thus a period of high continent and deep ocean, which should inevitably induce great regression and influence the earth's surface system, especially climate. The Tunguss Trap of Siberia, the Emeishan Basalt erupted during the Pangea integration. Such global-scale volcanism should be evoked by mantle plume and related with integration of the Pangea. Volcanic activities would result in a series of extinction effects, including emission of large volume of CO2, CH4, NO2 and cyanides which would have caused green house effects, pollution by poisonous gases, damage of the ozone layer in the stratosphere, and enhancement the ultra-violet radiation. Increase of CO2 concentration and other green house gases would have led to global warming, oxygen depletion and carbon cycle anomaly; physical and chemical anomalies in ocean (acidification, euxinia, low sulfate concentration, isotopic anomaly of organic nitrogen) and great regression would have caused marine extinction due to unadaptable environments, selective death and hypercapnia; continental aridity, disappearance of monsoon system and wild fire would have devastated the land vegetation, esp. the tropical rain forest. The great global changes and mass extinction were the results of interaction among earth's spheres. Deteriorated relations among lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere (including internal factors of organism evolution itself) accumulated until they exceeded the threshold, and exploded at the Permian-Triassic transition time. Interaction among bio- and geospheres is an important theme. However, the processes from inner geospheres to earth's surface system and further to organism evolution necessitate retardation in time and yields many uncertainties in causation. Most of the processes are now at a hypothetic stage and need more scientific examinations. Note: The above story is based on materials provided by Science China Press At http://www.geologypage.com/2013/11/the-biggest-mass-extinction-and-pangea.html


Supervolcano Triggers Recreated in X-Ray Laboratory This artist’s impression depicts the magma chamber of a supervolcano with partially molten magma at the top. The pressure from the buoyancy is sufficient to initiate cracks in the Earth’s crust in which the magma can penetrate. (Credit: ESRF/Nigel Hawtin)

Jan. 6, 2014 — Scientists have reproduced the conditions inside the magma chamber of a supervolcano to understand what it takes to trigger its explosion. These rare events represent the biggest natural catastrophes on Earth except for the impact of giant meteorites. Using synchrotron X-rays, the scientists established that supervolcano eruptions may occur spontaneously, driven only by magma pressure without the need for an external trigger. The results are published in Nature Geosciences. The team was led by Wim Malfait and Carmen Sanchez-Valle of ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and comprised scientists from the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen (Switzerland), Okayama University (Japan), the Laboratory of Geology of CNRS, Université Lyon 1 and ENS Lyon (France) and the European Synchrotron (ESRF) in Grenoble (France). A well-known supervolcano eruption occurred 600,000 years ago in Wyoming in the United States, creating a huge crater called a caldera, in the centre of what today is Yellowstone National Park. When the volcano exploded, it ejected more than 1000 km3 of ash and lava into the atmosphere, 100 times more than Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines did in 1992. Big volcanic eruptions have a major impact on the global climate. The Mt Pinatubo eruption decreased the global temperature by 0.4 degrees Celsius for a few months. The predictions for a super volcano are a fall in temperatures by 10 degrees Celsius for 10 years. According to a 2005 report by the Geological Society of London, "Even science fiction cannot produce a credible mechanism for averting a super-eruption. We can, however, work to better understand the mechanisms involved in super-eruptions, with the goal of being able to predict them ahead of time and provide a warning for society. Preparedness is the key to mitigation of the disastrous effects of a super-eruption." The mechanisms that trigger supervolcano eruptions have remained elusive to date. The main reason is that the processes inside a supervolcano are different from those in conventional volcanoes like Mt. Pinatubo which are better understood. A supervolcano possesses a much larger magma chamber and it is always located in an area where the heat flow from the interior of Earth to the surface is very high. As a consequence, the magma chamber is very large and hot but also plastic: its shape changes as a

function of the pressure when it gradually fills with hot magma. This plasticity allows the pressure to dissipate more efficiently than in a normal volcano whose magma chamber is more rigid. Supervolcanoes therefore do not erupt very often. So what changes in the lead up to an eruption? Wim Malfait explains: "The driving force is an additional pressure which is caused by the different densities of solid rock and liquid magma. It is comparable to a football filled with air under water, which is forced upwards by the denser water around it." Whether this additional pressure alone could eventually become sufficiently high to crack Earth's crust, leading to a violent eruption, or whether an external energy source like an Earthquake is required has only now been answered. Whilst it is virtually impossible to drill a hole into the magma chamber of a supervolcano given the depth at which these chambers are buried, one can simulate these extreme conditions in the laboratory. "The synchrotron X-rays at the ESRF can then be used to probe the state -- liquid or solid -- and the change in density when magma crystallises into rock" says Mohamed Mezouar, scientist at the ESRF and member of the team. Jean-Philippe Perrillat from the Laboratory of Geology of CNRS, Université Lyon 1 and ENS Lyon adds: "Temperatures of up to 1700 degrees and pressures of up to 36,000 atmospheres can be reached inside the so-called Paris-Edinburgh press, where speck-sized rock samples are placed between the tips of two tungsten carbide anvils and then heated with a resistive furnace. This special set-up was used to accurately determine the density of the liquid magma over a wide range of pressures and temperatures." Magma often includes water, which as vapour adds additional pressure. The scientists also determined magma densities as a function of water content. The results of their measurements showed that the pressure resulting from the differences in density between solid and liquid magma rock is sufficient in itself to crack more than ten kilometres of Earth's crust above the magma chamber. Carmen Sanchez-Valle concludes: "Our research has shown that the pressure is actually large enough for Earth's crust to break. The magma penetrating into the cracks will eventually reach Earth's surface, even in the absence of water or carbon dioxide bubbles in the magma. As it rises to the surface, the magma will expand violently, which is the well known origin of a volcanic explosion." At http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140106094428.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Earth+%26+Climate+News%29

When Will Earth Lose Its Oceans?

Numerical simulations of the Earth's surface temperatures at the spring equinox, with an increasingly luminous Sun in the future. The first two diagrams are obtained with the global climate model. The second one shows the situation just before the complete evaporation of the oceans. The last one (380 W/m2) is an extrapolation showing temperatures after the complete evaporation of the oceans. The

dates, expressed in Myr (millions of years), indicate the Sun's evolution: in reality, the continents and topography will be totally different in this distant future. (Credit: © Jérémy Leconte)

Wednesday, 18 December 2013. The natural increase in solar luminosity-a very slow process unrelated to current climate warming-will cause the Earth's temperatures to rise over the next few hundred million years. This will result in the complete evaporation of the oceans. Devised by a team from the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique[1] (CNRS / UPMC / ENS / École polytechnique), the first three-dimensional climate model able to simulate the phenomenon predicts that liquid water will disappear on Earth in approximately one billion years, extending previous estimates by several hundred million years. Published on December 12, 2013 in the journal Nature, the work not only improves our understanding of the evolution of our

planet but also makes it possible to determine the necessary conditions for the presence of liquid water on other Earth-like planets. Like most stars, the Sun's luminosity very slowly increases during the course of its existence[2]. It is therefore expected that, due to higher solar radiation, the Earth's climate will become warmer over geological timescales (of the order of hundreds of millions of years), independently of human-induced climate warming, which takes place over decades. This is because the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere rises as the oceans become warmer (the water evaporates faster). However, water vapor is a greenhouse gas that contributes to the warming of the Earth's surface. Scientists therefore predict that runaway climate warming will occur on Earth, causing the oceans to boil and liquid water to disappear from the surface. Another consequence is that the greenhouse effect will enter a runaway state and become unstable, making it impossible to maintain a mild mean temperature of 15 °C on Earth. This phenomenon may explain why Venus, which is a little nearer to the Sun than the Earth, turned into a furnace in the distant past. It also sheds light on the climate of exoplanets. When might this runaway state occur on Earth? Until now, this was difficult to estimate as the phenomenon had only been investigated using highly simplified astrophysical (one-dimensional) models, which considered the Earth to be uniform and failed to take into account key factors such as the seasons or clouds. Yet the climate models used to predict the climate over the coming decades are not suited to such high temperatures. According to


some of these one-dimensional models, the Earth would start to lose all its water to space and turn into a new Venus within a mere 150 million years. A team from the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (CNRS / UPMC / ENS / École polytechnique) has now designed a three-dimensional model able to predict how the terrestrial environment would change under the effect of a significant increase in solar flux causing evaporation of liquid water into the atmosphere. According to this sophisticated model, the tipping point should occur when mean solar flux reaches approximately 375 W/m2, with a surface temperature of around 70 °C (present-day flux is 341 W/m2), i.e. in approximately one billion years. The oceans will then start to boil and the greenhouse effect will increase until it enters a runaway state. This result pushes back earlier predictions for the complete evaporation of the oceans by several hundred million years. This difference is due to atmospheric circulation: while transporting heat from the equator to the mid-latitudes, it dries these warm regions and reduces the greenhouse effect in the areas where it is most likely to enter a runaway state. Increased solar flux appears to intensify this atmospheric circulation, drying sub-tropical regions even more and stabilizing the climate for several hundred million years before it reaches the point of no return. In addition, this work shows that the parasol effect of clouds, in other words their ability to

reflect solar radiation-which helps to cool the present-day climate-tends to decrease over millions of years compared to their greenhouse effect. The parasol effect is therefore likely to contribute to climate warming and destabilization. These findings can also be used to determine the extent of the habitable zone around the Sun. They show that a planet can be as close as 0.95 astronomical units[3] to a star similar to our Sun (i.e. 5% less than the distance from the Earth to the Sun) before losing all its liquid water. In addition, they demonstrate yet again that a planet does not need to be exactly like the Earth to have oceans. The researchers are now planning to apply this model to extrasolar planets in order to determine which environments could help them retain liquid water. [1] The Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique is part of the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL). The project was granted an Ile-de-France Region post-doctoral research allowance. 2 It is estimated that at the origin of the Solar System 4.5 billion years ago, the Sun's luminosity was 70% of today's value, which implies an increase of around 7% every billion years. 3 1 astronomical unit (AU) = 150 million kilometers. Note : The above story is based on materials provided by CNRS. At http://www.geologypage.com/2013/12/when-will-earth-lose-its-oceans.html

Evidence Of 3.5-Billion-Year-Old Bacterial Ecosyste ms Found In Australia

A rock surface is displaying "polygonal oscillation cracks" in the 3.48 billion years old Dresser Formation, Pilbara region, Western Australia. Such and similar sedimentary structures are of biological origin. They document ancient microorganisms that formed carpet-like microbial mats on the former sediment surface. The Dresser Formation records an ancient playa-like setting

-- similar environments are occurring on Mars as well. The MISS constitute a novel approach to detect and to understand Earth's earliest life. (Credit: Nora Noffke)

Wednesday, 13 November 2013. Reconstructing the rise of life during the period of Earth's history when it first evolved is challenging. Earth's oldest sedimentary rocks are not only rare, but also almost always altered by hydrothermal and tectonic activity. A new study from a team including Carnegie's Nora Noffke, a visiting investigator, and Robert Hazen revealed the well-preserved remnants of a complex ecosystem in a nearly 3.5 billion-year-old sedimentary rock sequence in Australia. Their work is published in Astrobiology. The Pilbara district of Western Australia constitutes one of the famous geological regions that allow insight into the early evolution of life. Mound-like deposits created by ancient photosynthetic bacteria, called stromatolites, and microfossils of bacteria have been described by scientists in detail.

However, a phenomenon called microbially induced sedimentary structures, or MISS, had not previously been seen in this region. These structures are formed from mats of microbial material, much like mats seen today on stagnant waters or in coastal flats. The team included Noffke, Hazen, Daniel Christian of Old Dominion University, and David Wacey of the University of Western Australia. They described various MISS preserved in the region's Dresser Formation. Advanced chemical analyses point toward a biological origin of the material. The Dresser MISS fossils resemble strongly in form and preservation the MISS from several other younger rock samples, such as a 2.9 billion-year-old ecosystem Noffke and her colleagues found in South Africa. "This work extends the geological record of MISS by almost 300 million years," said Noffke, who is also a professor at ODU. "Complex mat-forming microbial communities likely existed almost 3.5 billion years ago." The team proposes that the sedimentary structures arose from the interactions of bacterial films with shoreline sediments from the region. "The structures give a very clear signal on what the ancient conditions were, and what the bacteria composing the biofilms were able to do," Noffke said. MISS are among the targets of Mars rovers, which search for similar formations on that planet's surface. Thus, the team's findings could have relevance for studies of our larger Solar System as well. Note: The above story is based on materials provided by Carnegie Institution. At http://www.geologypage.com/2013/11/evidence-of-35-billion-year-old.html

Other stories!!!! - New global agreement on disaster risk expected in 2015. http://www.un-

spider.org/about-us/news/new-global-agreement-disaster-risk-expected-2015 - Mine Landslide Triggered Earthquakes: Record-Breaking Slide Would Bury Central Park 66 Feet Deep. Jan. 6, 2014. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140106094206.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Earth+%26+Climate+News%29

- How do snowflakes get their shape? By Deanna Conners. Jan 07, 2014. http://earthsky.org/earth/how-do-snowflakes-get-their-shape?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=83d12cb55e-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-83d12cb55e-393647361

- What Lies Beneath: Giant Trench Under Antarctic Ice, Deeper Than Grand Canyon. Jan. 14, 2014. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140114090831.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Earth+%26+Climate+News%29

- Soil Production Breaks Geologic Speed Record. Jan. 16, 2014. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140116150802.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate+%28Earth+%26+Climate+News+--+ScienceDaily%29


Space / Astronomy Companion's comets the key to curious exoplanet sys tem?

Artist’s impression of the Fomalhaut system. The newly discovered comet belt around Fomalhaut C is shown to the left. The comet belt around Fomalhaut A is in the distance to the right. The belt around Fomalhaut A is offset slightly, a signature of the elliptical orbits in the belt, which may have been caused by past interactions with the star Fomalhaut C. Credit: Amanda Smith.

Dec 18, 2013. (Phys.org) —The nearby star Fomalhaut A hosts the most famous planetary system outside our own Solar System, containing both an exoplanet and a spectacular ring of comets. Today, an international team of astronomers announced a new discovery with the Herschel Space Observatory that has made this system even more intriguing; the least massive star of the three in the Fomalhaut system, Fomalhaut C, has now been found to host its own comet belt. The researchers published their results today in a letter to the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Fomalhaut A is one of the brightest stars in the sky. Located 25 light years away in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus, it shines with a blue-white

colour and is prominent from the southern hemisphere. From northern latitudes it appears low down in the south during autumn evenings. In contrast, Fomalhaut C, also named LP 876-10, is a dim red dwarf star invisible without a telescope, and was only found to be part of the Fomalhaut system in October this year. Fomalhaut A's prominence made it a key target for the Hubble Space Telescope, which astronomers used to find the ring of comets, hints of and then a direct image of the planet, Fomalhaut b, in 2008 (astronomers use uppercase letters for stars, and lowercase letters are used for planets, so 'Fomalhaut b' is a planet, and 'Fomalhaut B' is the second star in the system). The new discovery might hold the key to some of the mysteries of the Fomalhaut system. The lead author Grant Kennedy, an astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, said, "It's very rare to find two comet belts in one system, and with the two stars 2.5 light years apart this is one of the most widely separated star systems we know of. It made us wonder why both Fomalhaut A and C have comet belts, and whether the belts are related in some way." To get a feeling for how far 2.5 light years is, light from the Sun takes only 8 minutes to get to the Earth, and 5.5 hours to get to Pluto, and the nearest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, is only 4 light years away. More at http://phys.org/news/2013-12-companion-comets-key-curious-exoplanet.html

New technique measures mass of exoplanets

Artistic rendering of a planet's transmission spectrum. Credit: CHRISTINE DANILOFF/MIT, JULIEN DE WIT Dec 19, 2013. To date, scientists have confirmed the existence of more than 900 exoplanets circulating outside our solar system. To determine if any of these far-off worlds are habitable requires knowing an exoplanet's mass—which can help tell scientists whether the planet is made of gas or rock and other life-supporting materials.

But current techniques for estimating exoplanetary mass are limited. Radial velocity is the main method scientists use: tiny wobbles in a star's orbit as it is tugged around by the planet's gravitational force, from which scientists can derive the planet-to-star mass ratio. For very large, Neptune-sized planets, or smaller Earth-sized planets orbiting very close to bright stars, radial velocity works relatively well. But the technique is less successful with smaller planets that orbit much farther from their stars, as Earth does.

Now scientists at MIT have developed a new technique for determining the mass of exoplanets, using only their transit signal—dips in light as a planet passes in front of its star. This data has traditionally been used to determine a planet's size and atmospheric properties, but the MIT team has found a way to interpret it such that it also reveals the planet's mass. "With this method, we realized the planetary mass—a key parameter that, if missing, could have prevented us from assessing the habitability of the first potentially habitable Earth-sized planet in the next decade—will actually be accessible, together with its atmospheric properties," says Julien de Wit, a graduate student in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. De Wit is lead author on a paper published today in the journal Science, with co-author Sara Seager, the Class of 1941 Professor of Physics and Planetary Science. More at http://phys.org/news/2013-12-technique-mass-exoplanets.html

Two Alien Water-World Planets --"Unlike Anything in Our Solar System"

These two "Water World" planets orbit the star Kepler-62. This five-planet system has two worlds in the habitable zone — the distance from their star at which they receive enough light and warmth that liquid water could theoretically exist on their surfaces. Modeling by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) suggested this past July that both planets are water worlds, their surfaces completely covered by a global ocean with no land in sight.

Kepler-62 is a type K star slightly smaller and cooler than our sun. The two water worlds, designated Kepler-62e and -62f, orbit the star every 122 and 267 days, respectively. They were found by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, which detects planets that transit, or cross the face of, their host star. Measuring a transit tells astronomers the size of the planet relative to its star. “These planets are unlike anything in our solar system. They have endless oceans,” said lead author Lisa Kaltenegger of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the CfA. “There may be life there, but could it be technology-based like ours? Life on these worlds would be under water with no easy access to metals, to electricity, or fire for metallurgy. Nonetheless, these worlds will still be beautiful, blue planets circling an orange star — and maybe life’s inventiveness to get to a technology stage will surprise us.”... Read More: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/12/two-alien-water-world-planets-unlike-anything-in-our-solar-system.html#more At Planetary Landscapes FB Page (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=597886753611239&set=a.322690544464196.74729.322676901132227&type=1&theater)


Mars curiosity rover provides strong evidence for f lowing water Multiple outcroppings of rocks like this one (termed a pebble conglomerate) were observed along the first 275 meters traversed by the rover with the high-resolution Mastcam. Credit: NASA

Monday, 3 June 2013.Rocks analyzed by NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover team, including Linda Kah, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, provide solid evidence that Mars had rivers or streams. Despite satellite images that show vast networks of channels, past Mars rover missions have shown limited evidence for flowing water on Mars. Now, rocks analyzed by NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover team, including Linda Kah, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, provide solid evidence that Mars had rivers or streams. This suggests that the environment was drastically different than today's cold and dry conditions, with the potential to support life. A paper on the team's findings is published in this week's edition of Science. Since its landing last August, the Curiosity Rover has been looking for clues to whether the Martian surface has ever had environments capable of sustaining, or potentially evolving, life. Critical evidence may include hydrated minerals or water-bearing minerals, organic compounds or other chemical ingredients related to life. Scientists of the Mars Science Laboratory mission used images collected

from the rover's MastCam, which includes two high-resolution cameras mounted onto its mast. The cameras take full-color images and have filters that can isolate wavelengths of light that provide information about minerals present on the planet's surface. As the rover moved from its landing site to its current location in "Yellowknife Bay," the cameras captured images of large rock formations composed of many rounded pebbles cemented into beds several centimeters thick. While such deposits are very common on Earth, the presence of these types of rocks on Mars has great significance for the Red Planet. "These (rock formations) point to a past on Mars that was warmer, and wet enough to allow water to flow for many kilometers across the surface of Mars," said Kah, who helped work the cameras. The clasts, or pebbles within the rock formation, appear to have been rounded by erosion while carried through water, such as in a stream or river. The size and orientation of the pebbles suggest they may have been carried by one or more shallow, fast-moving streams. Using published abrasion rates and taking into consideration reduced gravity, the scientists estimate the pebbles were moved at least a few kilometers. Analyzing the grain size distribution and similar rock formations, the scientists believe the river was less than a meter deep and the water's average velocity was 0.2 to 0.75 meters per second. "These rocks provide a record of past conditions at the site that contrasts with the modern Martian environment, whose atmospheric conditions make liquid water unstable," said Kah. "Finding ancient river deposits indicates sustained liquid water flows across the landscape, and raises prospects of once habitable conditions." Note : The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Tennessee at Knoxville At http://www.geologypage.com/2013/06/mars-curiosity-rover-provides-strong.html

Earth's Crust Was Unstable in Archean Eon; Dripped Down Into Mantle Computer simulation of the processes in the Earth's mantle. (Credit: Ill./©: Institute of Geosciences) Dec. 30, 2013 — Earth's mantle temperatures during the Archean eon, which commenced some 4 billion years ago, were significantly higher than they are today. According to recent model calculations, the Archean crust that formed under these conditions was so dense that large portions of it were recycled back into the mantle. This is the conclusion reached by Dr. Tim Johnson who is currently studying the evolution of Earth's crust as a member of the research team led by Professor Richard White of the Institute of Geosciences at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU).

According to the calculations, this dense primary crust would have descended vertically in drip form. In contrast, the movements of today's tectonic plates involve largely lateral movements with oceanic lithosphere recycled in subduction zones. The findings add to our understanding of how cratons and plate tectonics, and thus also Earth's current continents, came into being. Because mantle temperatures were higher during the Archean eon, Earth's primary crust that formed at the time must have been very thick and also very rich in magnesium. However, as Johnson and his co-authors explain in their article recently published in Nature Geoscience, very little of this original crust is preserved, indicating that most must have been recycled into Earth's

mantle. Moreover, the Archean crust that has survived in some areas such as, for example, Northwest Scotland and Greenland, is largely made of tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite complexes and these are likely to have originated from a hydrated, low-magnesium basalt source. The conclusion is that these pieces of crust cannot be the direct products of an originally magnesium-rich primary crust. These TTG complexes are among the oldest features of our Earth's crust. They are most commonly present in cratons, the oldest and most stable cores of the current continents. With the help of thermodynamic calculations, Dr. Tim Johnson and his collaborators at the US-American universities of Maryland, Southern California, and Yale have established that the mineral assemblages that formed at the base of a 45-kilometer-thick magnesium-rich crust were denser than the underlying mantle layer. In order to better explore the physics of this process, Professor Boris Kaus of the Geophysics work group at Mainz University developed new computer models that simulate the conditions when Earth was still relatively young and take into account Johnson's calculations. These geodynamic computer models show that the base of a magmatically over-thickened and magnesium-rich crust would have been gravitationally unstable at mantle temperatures greater than 1,500 to 1,550 degrees Celsius and this would have caused it to sink in a process called 'delamination'. The dense crust would have dripped down into the mantle, triggering a return flow of mantle material from the asthenosphere that would have melted to form new primary crust. Continued melting of over-thickened and dripping magnesium-rich crust, combined with fractionation of primary magmas, may have produced the hydrated magnesium-poor basalts necessary to provide a source of the tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite complexes. The dense residues of these processes, which would have a high content of mafic minerals, must now reside in the mantle. At http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131230101446.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Earth+%26+Climate+News%29


China to search for rare earths in the Moon Cecilia Jamasmie December 2, 2013. China has launched its first lunar rover to explore the surface of the moon, hoping —among other objectives— to discover significant deposits of rare earth minerals said to lay under the celestial body’s crust. With the “Jade Rabbit” take-off, the Asian country could become the third nation to achieve a soft landing on the moon, after the United States and Russia. The last soft landing on the moon was the unmanned Soviet Luna 24 rover, which collected soil samples in 1976. “We will strive for our space dream as part of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation,” said Zhang Zhenshong, director of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, according to the Xinhua state news agency. The rover’s name – chosen in an online poll of 3.4 million voters – comes

from an ancient Chinese myth about a rabbit living on the moon as the pet of the lunar goddess Chang'e. Interviewed by BBC News Professor Ouyang, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said China is after the potential environment and natural resources the Moon holds, as the spacecraft is equipped with a round-penetrating radar to measure the lunar soil and crust. "The Moon is full of resources – mainly rare earth elements, titanium, and uranium, which the Earth is really short of, and these resources can be used without limitation," he was quoted as saying. If this mission is successful, China will send another mission to gather lunar samples by 2020. At http://www.mining.com/china-to-search-for-rare-earths-in-the-moon-10476/

Hubble unveils a deep sea of small and faint early Galaxies! Scientists have long suspected there must be a hidden population of small, faint galaxies that were responsible during the universe's early years for producing a majority of stars now present in the cosmos. At last Hubble has found them in the deepest ultraviolet-light exposures made of the early universe. This underlying population is 100 times more abundant in the universe than their more massive cousins that were detected previously... Astronomers used the sharp eye of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the magnification power of the giant cluster of galaxies Abell 1689 to find 58 remote galaxies. They are the smallest, faintest, and most numerous galaxies ever seen in the remote universe. Abell 1689 is 2.5 billion light-years from Earth. The white circles sprinkled throughout the image of the galaxy cluster on the left pinpoint the location of the magnified images of most of the faraway galaxies. The image is a blend of exposures taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. Seeing the tiny galaxies mixed in with the cluster galaxies is an illusion. They are actually far away

from Abell 1689. Hubble photographed the distant galaxies as they appeared more than 10 billion years ago, during the heyday of star birth. The galaxies would normally be too faint for Hubble to see. To detect them, astronomers teamed Hubble with Abell 1689, which magnified the light from the galaxies behind it due to a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. Gravity warps space, acting like a giant funhouse mirror to stretch and brighten distant objects, allowing Hubble to resolve them. The postage-stamp-sized images on the right show 36 of the distant galaxies. Their bright blue color reveals that they are ablaze with star birth. Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 captured these images of the galaxies in ultraviolet light, a reliable tracer of star birth. The Hubble analysis shows that they are irregularly shaped and measure just a few thousand light-years across. These galaxies are about one-tenth the mass of the typical progenitors of galaxies like our Milky Way. At FB page of Planetary Landscapes: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=605379716195276&set=a.322690544464196.74729.322676901132227&type=1&theater

Carbon Dioxide ice cap around South Pole of Mars

Image showing the carbon-dioxide ice cap around the South Pole of planet Mars, as it was beginning to melt towards the end of the Martian summer. Pits begin to appear and expand where the carbon dioxide dry ice sublimates directly into gas. These ice sheet pits may appear to be lined with gold, but the precise composition of the dust that highlights the pit walls is unknown. The circular depressions toward the image centre measure about 60 metres across. Image details: The HiRISE camera aboard the Mars-orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the above image in late July, 2011. Thank you, USA taxpayers, and to the scientists at HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), and NASA At FB Page of Geomorphology Rules https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=651111731612758&set=a.282028891854379.66968.279746762082592&type=1

Life on other planets could be far more widespread, study finds 2014.01.08. (Phys.org) - Earth-sized planets can support life at least ten times further away from stars than previously thought, according to academics at the University of Aberdeen. A new paper published in Planetary and Space Science claims cold rocky planets previously considered uninhabitable may actually be able to support life beneath the surface. The team, which included academics from the University of St Andrews, challenge the traditional 'habitable zone' – i.e. the area of space around a star, or sun, which can support life – by taking into consideration life living deep below the ground. "The traditional habitable zone is also known as the Goldilocks zone," explains PhD student Sean McMahon. "A planet needs to be not too close to its sun but also not too far away for liquid water to persist, rather than boiling or freezing, on the surface. "But that theory fails to take into account life that can exist beneath a planet's surface. As you get deeper below a planet's surface, the temperature increases, and once you get down to a temperature where liquid water can exist – life can exist there too."

The team created a computer model that estimates the temperature below the surface of a planet of a given size, at a given distance from its star. "The deepest known life on Earth is 5.3 km below the surface, but there may well be life even 10 km deep in places on Earth that haven't yet been drilled. "Using our computer model we discovered that the habitable zone for an Earth-like planet orbiting a sun-like star is about three times bigger if we include the top five kilometres below the planet surface. "The model shows that liquid water, and as such life, could survive 5km below the Earth's surface even if the Earth was three times further away from the sun than it is just now. "If we go deeper, and consider the top 10 km below the Earth's surface, then the habitable zone for an Earth-like planet is 14 times wider." The current habitable zone for our solar system extends out as far as Mars, but this re-drawn habitable zone would see the zone extend out further than Jupiter and Saturn. The findings also suggest that many of the so-called "rogue" planets drifting around in complete darkness could actually be habitable. More at: http://phys.org/news/2014-01-life-planets-widespread.html


Newly Discovered Celestial Object Defies Categories : Is It a New Kind of Planet or a Rare Kind of Failed Star?

This is an image of the ROXs 42B system obtained with the Keck telescope. The star is located in the center of the masked region. ROXs 42Bb orbits at about 150 astronomical units (AU). (1 AU=the distance from Earth to the Sun.) The other object ("c") is a likely unrelated background star. (Credit: Courtesy of Thayne Currie) Jan. 8, 2014 — An object discovered by astrophysicists at the University of Toronto (U of T) nearly 500 light years away from the Sun may challenge traditional understandings about how planets and stars form. The object is located near and likely orbiting a very young star about 440 light years away from the Sun, and is leading astrophysicists to believe that there is not an easy-to-define line between what is and is not a planet. "We have very detailed measurements of this object spanning seven years, even a spectrum revealing its gravity, temperature, and molecular composition. Still, we can't yet determine whether it is a planet or a failed star -- what we call a 'brown dwarf'. Depending on what measurement you consider, the answer could be either," said Thayne Currie, a post-doctoral fellow in U of T's Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics and lead author of a report on the discovery published this week in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Named ROXs 42Bb for it's proximity to the star ROXs 42B, the object is approximately nine times the mass of Jupiter, below the limit most astronomers use to separate planets from brown dwarfs, which are more massive. However, it is located 30 times further away from the star than Jupiter is from the Sun.

"This situation is a little bit different than deciding if Pluto is a planet. For Pluto, it is whether an object of such low mass amongst a group of similar objects is a planet," said Currie. "Here, it is whether an object so massive yet so far from its host star is a planet. If so, how did it form?" Most astronomers believe that gas giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn formed by core accretion, whereby the planets form from a solid core that then accretes a massive gaseous envelope. Core accretion operates most efficiently closer to the parent star due to the length of time required to first form the core. An alternate theory proposed for forming gas giant planets is disk instability -- a process by which a fragment of a disk gas surrounding a young star directly collapses under its own gravity into a planet. This mechanism works best farther away from the parent star. Of the dozen or so other young objects with masses of planets observed by Currie and other astronomers, some have planet-to-star mass ratios less than about 10 times that Jupiter and are located within about 15 times Jupiter's separation from the Sun. Others have much higher mass ratios and/or are located more than 50 times Jupiter's orbital separation, properties that are similar to much more massive objects widely accepted to not be planets. The first group would be planets formed by core accretion, and the second group probably formed just like stars and brown dwarfs. In between these two populations is a big gap separating true planets from other objects. Currie says that the new object starts to blur this distinction between planets and brown dwarfs, and may lie within and begin to fill the gap. "It's very hard to understand how this object formed like Jupiter did. However, it's also too low mass to be a typical brown dwarf; disk instability might just work at its distance from the star. It may represent a new class of planets or it may just be a very rare, very low-mass brown dwarf formed like other stars and brown dwarfs: a 'planet mass' brown dwarf." "Regardless, it should spur new research in planet and star formation theories, and serve as a crucial reference point with which to understand the properties of young planets at similar temperatures, masses and ages," Currie said. At http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140108112704.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_science+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+News+--+Top+Science%29

Clay-like minerals found on icy crust of Europa

This image, using data from NASA's Galileo mission, shows the first detection of clay-like minerals on the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI By Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, December 12, 2013. The organic materials may have been delivered by a spectacular collision with an asteroid or comet..

A new analysis of data from NASA’s Galileo mission has revealed clay-type minerals at the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa that appear to have been delivered by a spectacular collision with an asteroid or comet. This is the first time such minerals have been detected on Europa’s surface. The types of space rocks that deliver such minerals typically also often carry organic materials. “Organic materials, which are important building blocks for life, are often found in comets and primitive asteroids,” said Jim Shirley from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. “Finding the rocky residues of this comet crash on Europa’s surface may open up a new chapter in the story of the search for life on Europa.” Many scientists believe Europa is the best location in our solar system to find existing life. It has a subsurface ocean in contact with rock, an icy surface

that mixes with the ocean below, salts on the surface that create an energy gradient, and a source of heat — the flexing that occurs as it gets stretched and squeezed by Jupiter’s gravity. Those conditions were likely in place shortly after Europa first coalesced in our solar system. Scientists also have long thought there must be organic materials at Europa, though they have yet to detect them directly. One theory is that organic material could have arrived by comet or asteroid impacts, and this new finding supports that idea. Shirley and colleagues were able to see the clay-type minerals called phyllosilicates in near-infrared images from Galileo taken in 1998. Those images are low resolution by today’s standards, and Shirley’s group is applying a new technique for pulling a stronger signal for these materials out of the noisy picture. The phyllosilicates appear in a broken ring about 25 miles (40 kilometers) wide that lies about 75 miles (120km) away from the center of a 20-mile-diameter (30km) central crater site. The leading explanation for this pattern is the splash back of material ejected when a comet or asteroid hits the surface at an angle of 45° or more from the vertical direction. A shallow angle would allow some of the space rock’s original material to fall back to the surface. A more head-on collision likely would have vaporized it or driven that space rock’s materials below the surface. It is hard to see how phyllosilicates from Europa’s interior could make it to the surface due to Europa’s icy crust, which scientists think may be up to 60 miles (100km) thick in some areas. More at http://www.astronomy.com/news/2013/12/clay-like-minerals-found-on-icy-crust-of-europa


"The Unexplored Planet" --NASA's Fastest Spaceship on Approach to Pluto One of the fastest spacecraft ever built -- NASA's New Horizons -- is hurtling through the void at nearly one million miles per day. Launched in 2006, it has been in flight longer than some missions last, and it is nearing its destination: Pluto. “There is a real possibility that New Horizons will discover new moons and rings as well,” says Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute and the mission’s principal investigator. Already, Pluto has five known moons: Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. Numerical simulations show that meteoroids striking those satellites could send debris into orbit, forming a ring system that waxes and wanes over time in response to changes in bombardment. “We’re flying into the unknown,” says Stern, “and there is no telling what we might find. The encounter begins next January,” adds Stern. “We’re less than a year away.” Other than a few indistinct markings seen from afar by Hubble, Pluto’s landscape is totally unexplored. Although some astronomers call Pluto a “dwarf” planet, Stern says there’s nothing small about it. “If you drove a car around the equator of Pluto, the odometer would rack up almost 5,000 miles—as far as from Manhattan to Moscow.” Such a traveler might encounter icy geysers, craters, clouds, mountain ranges, rilles and valleys, alongside alien landforms no one has ever imagined. Closest approach is scheduled for July 2015 when New Horizons flies only 10,000 km from Pluto, but the spacecraft will be busy long before that date. The first step, in January 2015, is an intensive campaign of photography by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager or “LORRI.” This will help mission controllers pinpoint Pluto's location, which is uncertain by a few thousand kilometers. "LORRI will photograph the planet against known background star fields," explains Stern. "We’ll use the images to refine Pluto’s distance from the spacecraft, and then fire the engines to make any necessary corrections.” At first, Pluto and its large moon Charon will be little more than distant pinpricks—“a couple of fat pixels,” says Stern--but soon they will swell into full-fledged worlds.

By late April 2015, the approaching spacecraft will be taking pictures of Pluto that surpass the best images from Hubble. By closest approach in July 2015, a whole new world will open up to the spacecraft’s cameras. If New Horizons flew over Earth at the same altitude, it could see individual buildings and their shapes. “Humankind hasn't had an experience like this--an encounter with a new planet--in a long time,” he says. “Everything we see on Pluto will be a revelation.” He likens New Horizons to Mariner 4, which flew past Mars in July 1965. At the time, many people on Earth, even some scientists, thought the Red Planet was a relatively gentle world, with water and vegetation friendly to life. Instead, Mariner 4 revealed a desiccated wasteland of haunting beauty. New Horizons’ flyby of Pluto will occur almost exactly 50 years after Mariner 4’s flyby of Mars—and it could shock observers just as much. Although temperatures on Pluto's surface hover around -230 °C, but researchers have long wondered whether the dwarf planet might boast enough internal heat to sustain a liquid ocean under its icy exterior. Guillaume Robuchon and Francis Nimmo at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have calculated that the presence of an ocean depends on two things: the amount of radioactive potassium in Pluto's rocky core, and the temperature of the ice that covers it. Density measurements suggest a rocky core fills 40 per cent of the dwarf planet's volume. If the core contains potassium at a concentration of 75 parts per billion, its decay could produce enough heat to melt some of the overlying ice, which is made of a mixture of nitrogen and water. It should have at least that much potassium and probably more, says William McKinnon at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, who points out that Earth, which probably formed with less of the volatile element due to its closer distance to the sun, has 10 times that concentration in its core. Heat from Pluto's core will trigger convection in the surrounding ice, and if the ice churns too quickly, the heat will simply escape into space before it can do much melting. If it flows substantially more slowly than Antarctic glaciers on Earth, however, then the top 165 kilometres of ice could provide enough insulation for a liquid ocean of the same depth to exist below, the team concluded. The Daily Galaxy via Science@NASA. More at http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2014/01/the-unexplored-planet-nasas-fastest-spaceship-on-approach-to-pluto-1.html#more

ALMA Discovers Formation Site of Giant Planetary Sy stem Keith Cowing - Source: ALMA, January 17, 2014. A team of Japanese astronomers has obtained a firm evidence of formation of a giant planetary system around a young star by the observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). This result has a transformative impact on the theories of planet formation and gives us a clue to the origin of a wide variety of planetary systems. The research team, led by astronomers at Osaka University and Ibaraki University, observed a young star named HD 142527 in the constellation Lupus (the Wolf) with ALMA. The ALMA image shows that cosmic dust, which is component material of planets, is circling around the star in a form of asymmetric ring. By measuring the density of dust in the densest part of the ring, the astronomers found that it is highly possible that planets are now being formed in that region. This region is far from the central star, about 5 times larger than the distance between the Sun and the Neptune. This is the first firm evidence of planet formation found so far from the central star in a protoplanetary disk. The research team plans further observations of HD 142527 with ALMA for closer investigation, as well as other protoplanetary disks to have a comprehensive understanding of the planet formation in general. More at http://spaceref.com/astronomy/alma-discovers-formation-site-of-giant-planetary-system.html

Figure 1. Dust and gas disk around HD142527. The dust and gas distributions observed by ALMA are shown in red and green, respectively. Near-infrared image taken by the NAOJ Subaru Telescope is shown in blue. The image clearly shows that the dust is concentrated in the northern (upper) part of the disk. The circle in the image shows the position of the dust concentration, in which planets are thought to be formed. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NAOJ, Fukagawa et al.

Other stories − Hubble sees cloudy super-worlds with a chance for more clouds

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1401a/ − Abundant 'Mini-Neptunes' Form New Class of Alien Planets. by Tanya Lewis, January 06, 2014, http://www.space.com/24166-mini-neptune-alien-planets-kepler-aas223.html − Potato-Shaped Mars Moon Phobos May Be a Captured Asteroid, by Nola

Taylor Redd, January 15, 2014. http://www.space.com/24285-mars-moon-phobos-captured-asteroid.html


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International Year of Crystallography - http://www.iycr2014.org/ Deadly Volcanoes By Susan K. Lewis http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/deadly-volcanoes.html LITERATURE

On Africa

• Michal Jakubowicz, Blazej Berkowski, and Zdzislaw Belka. Cryptic coral-crinoid "hanging gardens" from the Middle Devonian of southern Morocco. Geology published 13 December 2013, 10.1130/G35217.1 http://geology.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/G35217.1v1?source=gsw • S. Merkouriev and C. DeMets. High-resolution estimates of Nubia-North America plate motion: 20 Ma to present. Geophys. J. Int. published 13 December 2013, 10.1093/gji/ggt463 http://gji.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/ggt463v1?ct=ct • Carol V. Ward, Matthew W. Tocheri, J. Michael Plavcan, Francis H. Brown, and Fredrick Kyalo Manthi. Early Pleistocene third metacarpal from Kenya and the evolution of modern human-like hand morphology. PNAS. published 16 December 2013, 10.1073/pnas.1316014110 http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/1316014110v1?ct=ct • Graeme Eagles and Ha H. Hoang. Cretaceous to present kinematics of the Indian, African and Seychelles plates. Geophys. J. Int. 2014; 196(1): p. 1-14 http://gji.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/196/1/1?ct=ct • Germán D. Padilla; Pedro A. Hernández; Eleazar Padrón; José Barrancos; Nemesio M. Pérez; Gladys Melián; Dácil Nolasco; Samara Dionis; Fátima Rodríguez; David Calvo & Iñigo Hernández. Soil gas radon emissions and volcanic activity at El Hierro (Canary Islands): The 2011-2012 submarine eruption. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 14 (2):432–447, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2012GC004375/abstract • A.O. Akala, L.L.N. Amaeshi, P.H. Doherty, K.M. Groves, C.S. Carrano, C.T. Bridgwood, G.K. Seemala, E.O. Somoye. Characterization of GNSS scintillations over Lagos, Nigeria during the minimum and ascending phases (2009–2011) of solar cycle 24. Advances in Space Research, Volume 53, Issue 1, Pages 37-47 (1 January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02731177/53/1 • Zama T. Katamzi, John Bosco Habarulema. Traveling ionospheric disturbances observed at South African midlatitudes during the 29–31 October 2003 geomagnetically disturbed period. Advances in Space Research, Volume 53, Issue 1, Pages 48-62 (1 January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02731177/53/1 • Regassa E. Namara, Lesley Hope, Eric Owusu Sarpong, Charlotte De Fraiture, Diana Owusu. Adoption patterns and constraints pertaining to small-scale water lifting technologies in Ghana. Agricultural Water Management, Volume 131, Pages 194-203 (1 January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03783774/131 • Hua Xie, Liangzhi You, Benjamin Wielgosz, Claudia Ringler. Estimating the potential for expanding smallholder irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural Water Management, Volume 131, Pages 183-193 (1 January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03783774/131 • Charlotte de Fraiture, Gael Ndanga Kouali, Hilmy Sally, Priva Kabre. Pirates or pioneers? Unplanned irrigation around small reservoirs in Burkina Faso. Agricultural Water Management, Volume 131, Pages 212-220 (1 January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03783774/131 • T. Erkossa, A. Haileslassie, C. MacAlister. Enhancing farming system water productivity through alternative land use and water management in vertisol areas of Ethiopian Blue Nile Basin (Abay). Agricultural Water Management, Volume 132, Pages 120-128 (31 January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03783774/132 • A. Kumar, W. Abouchami, S.J.G. Galer, V.H. Garrison, E. Williams, M.O. Andreae. A radiogenic isotope tracer study of transatlantic dust transport from Africa to the Caribbean. Atmospheric Environment, Volume 82, Pages 130-143 (January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13522310/82 • Lamia ZILI. Biostratigraphic Study of the Paleocene–Eocene Boundary in Northern Tunisia, North Africa. Acta Geologica Sinica - English Edition, Volume 87, Issue 6, pages 1533–1539, December 2013 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1755-6724.12157/abstract • Michael Zech, Claudia Hörold, Katharina Leiber-Sauheitl, Anna Kühnel, Andreas Hemp, Wolfgang Zech. Buried black soils on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro as a regional carbon storage hotspot. CATENA, Volume 112, Pages 125-130 (January 2014). Landscapes and Soils through Time (Edited by Daniela Sauer, Reinhold Jahn and Karl Stahr). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03418162/112 • J.-T. Cornelis, M. Dumon, A.R. Tolossa, B. Delvaux, J. Deckers, E. Van Ranst. The effect of pedological conditions on the sources and sinks of silicon in the Vertic Planosols in south-western Ethiopia. CATENA, Volume 112, Pages 131-138 (January 2014). Landscapes and Soils through Time (Edited by Daniela Sauer, Reinhold Jahn and Karl Stahr). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03418162/112 • Ramzi Gharsalli, Taher Zouaghi, Mohamed Soussi, Riadh Chebbi, Sami Khomsi, Mourad Bédir. Seismic sequence stratigraphy of Miocene deposits related to eustatic, tectonic and climatic events, Cap Bon Peninsula, northeastern Tunisia. Comptes Rendus Geoscience, Volume 345, Issues 9–10, Pages 401-417 (September–October 2013). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/16310713 • Christian A. Sidor. The vertebrate fauna of the Upper Permian of Niger – VIII. Nigerpeton ricqlesi (Temnospondyli: Cochleosauridae) and tetrapod biogeographic provinces. Comptes Rendus Palevol, Volume 12, Issues 7–8, Pages 463-472 (November–December 2013). A tribute to Robert R. Reisz / Un hommage à Robert R. Reisz (Edited by Michel Laurin, Hans-Dieter Sues, Sean P. Modesto and David C. Evans). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/16310683 • Linda Akiko Tsuji, Gabriela Sobral, Johannes Müller. Ruhuhuaria reiszi, a new procolophonoid reptile from the Triassic Ruhuhu Basin of Tanzania. Comptes Rendus Palevol, Volume 12, Issues 7–8, Pages 487-494 (November–December 2013). A tribute to Robert R. Reisz / Un hommage à Robert R. Reisz (Edited by Michel Laurin, Hans-Dieter Sues, Sean P. Modesto and David C. Evans). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/16310683 • E. Guerrero-Feijóo, M. Nieto-Cid, M. Álvarez, X.A. Álvarez-Salgado. Dissolved organic matter cycling in the confluence of the Atlantic and Indian oceans south of Africa. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. Volume 83, Pages 12-23 (January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09670637/83 • J. Tyler Faith. Late Pleistocene and Holocene mammal extinctions on continental Africa. Earth-Science Reviews, Volume 128, Pages 105-121


(January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00128252/128 • Alfredo Arche, José López-Gómez. The Carnian Pluvial Event in Western Europe: New data from Iberia and correlation with the Western Neotethys and Eastern North America–NW Africa regions. Earth-Science Reviews, Volume 128, Pages 196-231 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00128252/128 • Soraya Hadj Zobir and Roland Oberhänsli. The Sidi Mohamed peridotites (Edough Massif, NE Algeria): Evidence for an upper mantle origin. Journal of Earth System Science, Vol. 122, No. 6, 1455–1465, December 2013, http://www.ias.ac.in/jess/current.html • Leonard Nkunzimana, Michel Huart and Edwin Zaccai Towards Policies for Climate Change Mitigation: “Barriers for Biogas family-sized in the District of Gihanga, Burundi”. Earth Future, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2328-4277 • Andrey Jakovlev, Georg Rümpker, Harro Schmeling, Ivan Koulakov, Michael Lindenfeld and Herbert Wallner. Seismic images of magmatic rifting beneath the western branch of the East African rift. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, November 2013, A.H. Cambule, D.G. Rossiter, J.J. Stoorvogel, E.M.A. Smaling. Soil organic carbon stocks in the Limpopo National Park, Mozambique: Amount, spatial distribution and uncertainty. Geoderma, Volume 213, Pages 46-56 (January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00167061/213 • Alfons Berger, Robert Frei. The fate of chromium during tropical weathering: A laterite profile from Central Madagascar. Geoderma, Volume 213, Pages 521-532 (January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00167061/213 • Jasper Knight, Stefan W. Grab. Lightning as a geomorphic agent on mountain summits: Evidence from southern Africa. Geomorphology, Volume 204, Pages 61-70 (1 January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0169555X/204 • W.C. Mahaney, T.S. Hamilton, R.W. Barendregt, R.G.V. Hancock, P. Costa. Mineralogy and chemistry of Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene paleosols on Mount Kenya: Weathering indices of relative age and paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Geomorphology, Volume 204, Pages 217-228 (1 January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0169555X/204 • M.H.T. Hipondoka, B. Mauz, J. Kempf, S. Packman, R.C. Chiverrell, J. Bloemendal. Chronology of sand ridges and the Late Quaternary evolution of the Etosha Pan, Namibia. Geomorphology, Volume 204, Pages 553-563 (1 January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0169555X/204 • F. Schmidt, H. Oberhänsli, H. Wilkes. Biocoenosis response to hydrological variability in Southern Africa during the last 84 ka BP: A study of lipid biomarkers and compound-specific stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes from the hypersaline Lake Tswaing. Global and Planetary Change, Volume 112, Pages 92-104 (January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09218181/112 • Johan Yans, M'Barek Amaghzaz, Baadi Bouya, Henri Cappetta, Paola Iacumin, László Kocsis, Mustapha Mouflih, Omar Selloum, Sevket Sen, Jean-Yves Storme, Emmanuel Gheerbrant. First carbon isotope chemostratigraphy of the Ouled Abdoun phosphate Basin, Morocco; implications for dating and evolution of earliest African placental mammals. Gondwana Research, Volume 25, Issue 1, 257-269 (January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1342937X/25/1 • Moshe Eyal, Yaron Be'eri-Shlevin, Yehuda Eyal, Martin J. Whitehouse, Boris Litvinovsky. Three successive Proterozoic island arcs in the Northern Arabian–Nubian Shield: Evidence from SIMS U–Pb dating of zircon. Gondwana Research, Volume 25, Issue 1, Pages 338-357 (January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1342937X/25/1 • Adel Zghibi, Amira Merzougui, Lahcen Zouhri, Jamila Tarhouni. Understanding groundwater chemistry using multivariate statistics techniques to the study of contamination in the Korba unconfined aquifer system of Cap-Bon (North-east of Tunisia) . Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 89, Pages 1-15 (January 2014), -http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1464343X/89 • Solomon Ojo Olabode. • Soft sediment deformation structures in the Maastrichtian Ajali Formation Western Flank of Anambra Basin, Southern Nigeria. Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 89, Pages 16-30 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1464343X/89 • Gülcan Sarp, Şule Gürboğa, Vedat Toprak, Şebnem Düzgün. Tectonic history of basins sited along the western section of the North Anatolian Fault System, Turkey. Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 89, Pages 31-41 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1464343X/89 • Moftah H. El-Shawaihdi, Ahmed M. Muftah, Peter S. Mozley, Noel T. Boaz. New age constraints for Neogene sediments of the Sahabi area, Libya (Sirt Basin) using strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) geochronology and calcareous nannofossils. Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 89, Pages 42-49 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1464343X/89 • Margarita M. Marinova, A. Nele Meckler, Christopher P. McKay. Holocene freshwater carbonate structures in the hyper-arid Gebel Uweinat region of the Sahara Desert (Southwestern Egypt) . Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 89, Pages 50-55 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1464343X/89 • Mahdi Jafarzadeh, Reza Moussavi Harami, Henrik Friis, Abdolhossein Amini, Asadollah Mahboubi, Davide Lenaz. Provenance of the Oligocene–Miocene Zivah Formation, NW Iran, assessed using heavy mineral assemblage and detrital clinopyroxene and detrital apatite analyses. Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 89, Pages 26-71 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1464343X/89 • J.K. Mulwa, F. Kimata, S. Suzuki, Z.N. Kuria. The seismicity in Kenya (East Africa) for the period 1906–2010: A review. Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 89, Pages 72-78 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1464343X/89 • Ireneusz Walaszczyk, William James Kennedy, Krzysztof Dembicz, Andrew S. Gale, Tomasz Praszkier, Armand H. Rasoamiaramanana, Hasina Randrianaly. Ammonite and inoceramid biostratigraphy and biogeography of the Cenomanian through basal Middle Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) of the Morondava Basin, western Madagascar. Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 89, Pages 79-132 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1464343X/89 • M.A. Khalifa, Mohamed S. Abu El-Ghar, S.A. Helal, A.W. Hussein. Sequence stratigraphy of the Cenomanian Galala Formation, north Eastern Desert, Egypt. Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 89, Pages 133-148 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1464343X/89 • Adel A. Surour, Hesham M. Harbi, Ahmed H. Ahmed. The Bi’r Tawilah deposit, central western Saudi Arabia: Supergene enrichment of a Pan-African epithermal gold mineralization. Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 89, Pages 149-163 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1464343X/89 • M. Loum, V. Viaud, Y. Fouad, H. Nicolas, C. Walter. Retrospective and prospective dynamics of soil carbon sequestration in Sahelian agrosystems in Senegal. Journal of Arid Environments, Volumes 100–101, Pages 100-105 (January–February 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01401963/100 • Dirk Lohmann, Thomas Falk, Katja Geissler, Niels Blaum, Florian Jeltsch. Determinants of semi-arid rangeland management in a land reform setting in Namibia. Journal of Arid Environments, Volumes 100–101, Pages 23-30 (January–February 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01401963/100 • Antje Burke. Natural recovery of dwarf shrubs following topsoil and vegetation clearing on gravel and sand plains in the southern Namib Desert. Journal of Arid Environments, Volumes 100–101, Pages 18-22 (January–February 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01401963/100 • M.O. Heidak, U.A. Glasmacher, H.F. Schöler. A comparison of micronutrients (Mn, Zn, Cu, Mo, Ni, Na) within rocks, soils, and leaves, from fallow agricultural lands and natural laurel forest areas (Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain). Journal of Geochemical Exploration, Volume 136, 55-64 (January


2014). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03756742/136 • Belayneh, J. Adamowski, B. Khalil, B. Ozga-Zielinski. Long-term SPI drought forecasting in the Awash River Basin in Ethiopia using wavelet neural network and wavelet support vector regression models. Journal of Hydrology, Volume 508, Pages 418-429 (16 January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00221694/508 • Åke Fagereng, Zach Smith, Christie D. Rowe, Bandile Makhubu, Fernando Y.G. Sylvester. Stress, strain, and fault behavior at a thrust ramp: Insights from the Naukluft thrust, Namibia. Journal of Structural Geology, Volume 58, Pages 95-107 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01918141/58 • S. Aulbach, T. Luchs, G.P. Brey. Distribution and behaviour during metasomatism of PGE–Re and Os isotopes in off-craton mantle xenoliths from Namibia. Lithos, Volumes 184–187, Pages 478-490 (January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00244937/184 • Pascal Le Roy, Mohamed Sahabi, Nissrine Maad, Marina Rabineau, Marc-André Gutscher, Nathalie Babonneau, Brigitte Van Vliet Lanoe, Lahcen Ait Brahim, Nadia M'hammdi, Alain Trentesaux, Mohamed Dakki, Mohamed Hssain. 3D architecture of Quaternary sediment along the NW Atlantic Moroccan Rharb continental shelf: A stratal pattern under the dual control of tectonics and climatic variations. Marine and Petroleum Geology, Volume 49, Pages 129-142 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02648172/49 • Cora C. Wohlgemuth-Ueberwasser, Fanus Viljoen, Craig R. McClung. Metamorphic alteration of the massive sulfide horizon from the Salt River VMS deposit (South Africa). Ore Geology Reviews, Volume 56, Pages 45-52 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01691368/56 • Andrea Agangi, Axel Hofmann, Wojciech Przybyłowicz. Trace element zoning of sulfides and quartz at Sheba and Fairview gold mines: Clues to Mesoarchean mineralisation in the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. Ore Geology Reviews, Volume 56, Pages 94-144 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01691368/56 • Flavien Choulet, Nicolas Charles, Luc Barbanson, Yannick Branquet, Stanislas Sizaret, Aomar Ennaciri, Lakhlifi Badra, Yan Chen. Non-sulfide zinc deposits of the Moroccan High Atlas: Multi-scale characterization and origin. Ore Geology Reviews, Volume 56, Pages 115-140 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01691368/56 • Alireza Malehmir, Emilia Koivisto, Musa Manzi, Saeid Cheraghi, Raymond J. Durrheim, Gilles Bellefleur, Chris Wijns, Kim A.A. Hein, Nick King. A review of reflection seismic investigations in three major metallogenic regions: The Kevitsa Ni–Cu–PGE district (Finland), Witwatersrand goldfields (South Africa), and the Bathurst Mining Camp (Canada). Ore Geology Reviews, Volume 56, Pages 423-441 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01691368/56 • Shannon E. Loomis, James M. Russell, Hilde Eggermont, Dirk Verschuren, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté. Effects of temperature, pH and nutrient concentration on branched GDGT distributions in East African lakes: Implications for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Organic Geochemistry, Volume 66, Pages 25-37 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01466380/66 • David Evuk, Gerhard Franz, Dirk Frei, Friedrich Lucassen. The Neoproterozoic evolution of the central-eastern Bayuda Desert (Sudan). Precambrian Research, Volume 240, Pages 108-125 (January 2014), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03019268/240 • Amal Enniouar, Abdelouahed Lagnaoui, Adnane Habib. A Middle Jurassic sauropod tracksite in the Argana Basin, Western High Atlas, Morocco: an example of paleoichnological heritage for sustainable geotourism. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, Volume 125, Issue 1, Pages 114-149 (January 2014). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00167878 • V. Anabalón, J. Arístegui, C.E. Morales, I. Andrade, M. Benavides, M.A. Correa-Ramírez, M. Espino, O. Ettahiri, S. Hormazabal, A. Makaoui, M.F. Montero, A. Orbi. The structure of planktonic communities under variable coastal upwelling conditions off Cape Ghir (31°N) in the Canary Current System (NW Africa). Progress in Oceanography, Volume 120, Pages 320-339 (January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00796611 • Abdou Abouelmagd, Mohamed Sultan, Neil C. Sturchio, Farouk Soliman, Mohamed Rashed, Mohamed Ahmed, Alan E. Kehew, Adam Milewski, Kyle Chouinard. Paleoclimate record in the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. Quaternary Research, Volume 81, Issue 1, Pages 158-167 (January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00335894 • Charlotte S. Miller, William D. Gosling. Quaternary forest associations in lowland tropical West Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews, Volume 84, Pages 7-25 (15 January 2014) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02773791/84

Other interesting Literature • Sebastian Viehmann, J. Elis Hoffmann, Carsten Munker, and Michael Bau. Decoupled Hf-Nd isotopes in Neoarchean seawater reveal weathering of emerged continents. Geology published 13 December 2013, 10.1130/G35014.1 http://geology.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/G35014.1v1?source=gsw • M. Gabriela Mangano, Luis A. Buatois, Ricardo Astini, and Andrew K. Rindsberg. Trilobites in early Cambrian tidal flats and the landward expansion of the Cambrian explosion. Geology published 13 December 2013, 10.1130/G34980.1 http://geology.gsapubs.org/cgi/content/abstract/G34980.1v1?source=gsw • Alan D. Rooney, Francis A. Macdonald, Justin V. Strauss, Francis O. Dudas, Christian Hallmann, and David Selby. Re-Os geochronology and coupled Os-Sr isotope constraints on the Sturtian snowball Earth. PNAS. published 16 December 2013, 10.1073/pnas.1317266110 http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/1317266110v1?ct=ct • Brian Frehner. Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History. Environmental History. 2014; 19(1): p. 124-127 http://envhis.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/extract/19/1/124?ct=ct • Yuri N. Palyanov, Yuliya V. Bataleva, Alexander G. Sokol, Yuri M. Borzdov, Igor N. Kupriyanov, Vadim N. Reutsky, and Nikolai V. Sobolev. Mantle-slab interaction and redox mechanism of diamond formation. PNAS. 2013; 110(51): p. 20408-20413 http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/110/51/20408?ct=ct • Charles Aubourg, Isabelle Techer, Laurent Geoffroy, Norbert Clauer, and Francois Baudin. Detecting the thermal aureole of a magmatic intrusion in immature to mature sediments: a case study in the East Greenland Basin (73°N). Geophys. J. Int. 2014; 196(1): p. 160-174 http://gji.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/196/1/160?ct=ct • Jan Zalasiewicz, Ryszard Kryza, and Mark Williams. The mineral signature of the Anthropocene in its deep-time context. Geological Society, London, Special Publications. published 19 December 2013, 10.1144/SP395.2 http://sp.lyellcollection.org/cgi/content/abstract/SP395.2v1?ct=ct • Richard A. Kerr. Mega-Eruptions Drove the Mother of Mass Extinctions. Science. 2013; 342(6165): p. 1424 http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/342/6165/1424?ct=ct


Links to Journals, Reviews & Newsletters • Acta Geologica Sinica: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1755-6724 • Advances in Space Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02731177 • Advances in Water Resources: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03091708 • Aeolian Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18759637 • Agricultural Meteorology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00021571 • Agricultural Water Management: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03783774 • Annales de Paléontologie: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/07533969 • Anthropocene: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22133054 • Applied Clay Science: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01691317 • Applied Geochemistry: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/08832927 • ASLO: Limnology and Oceanography: http://www.aslo.org/lo/ • Atmospheric Environment: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13522310 • Atmospheric Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01698095 • Bulletin of Geosciences Czech Geological survey: http://www.geology.cz/bulletin/ • CATENA: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03418162 • Chemical Geology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00092541 • Chemie der Erde: Geochemistry: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00092819 • Cold Regions Science and Technology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0165232X • Comptes Rendus Geoscience: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/16310713 • Comptes Rendus Palevol: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/16310683 • Computers & Geosciences: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00983004 • Computers and Geotechnics: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0266352X • Continental Shelf Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02784343 • Cretaceous Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01956671 • Crystals: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/crystals • Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18773435 • Current Science on-line: http://www.currentscience.ac.in/ • Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09670637 • Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09670645 • Dendrochronologia: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/11257865 • Directory of open access journals: http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=abstract&id=171996&toc=y • Doklady Earth Sciences: http://www.maik.rssi.ru/cgi-bin/journal.pl?name=earthsci&page=main • Dynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03770265 • Earth and Planetary Science Letters: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0012821X • Earth Science Frontiers: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18725791 • Earth Science Reviews: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00128252 • Earth System Science: India: http://www.ias.ac.in/jess/index_body.html • Earth’s Future: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2328-4277 • Ecohydrology: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1936-0592 • Elements: http://www.elementsmagazine.org/ • Energies: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies • Engineering Geology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00137952 • Environmental and Engineering Geoscience: http://eeg.geoscienceworld.org/ • Environmental Health Perspectives: http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/ • ENVOLVERDE: Revista Digital de Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento (Portuguese): http://envolverde.com.br/ • Episodes: http://www.episodes.co.in/ • Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02727714 • Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02727714 • Estudos Geologicos (Spanish): http://estudiosgeol.revistas.csic.es/index.php/estudiosgeol/issue/archive • Estudos Geologicos (Spanish): http://estudiosgeol.revistas.csic.es/index.php/estudiosgeol/issue/archive

• European Journal of Mineralogy: http://eurjmin.geoscienceworld.org/ • Fuel: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00162361 • Fuel Processing Technology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03783820 • Geobios: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00166995 • GEOBRASIL (Portuguese): http://www.geobrasil.net/geobrasil.htm • Geochemistry, Geophysics, Gedosystems: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1525-2027 • Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00167037 • Geoderma: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00167061 • Geologica Acta: http://www.geologica-acta.com/ContentsAC.do • Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin: http://www.geus.dk/publications/bull/index-uk.htm • Geomorphology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0169555X • Geoscience Australia AusGeo: http://www.ga.gov.au/ausgeonews/ausgeonews201309/ • Geoscience Data Journal: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2049-6060 • Geoscience e-Journals At-A-Glance: http://www.univ-brest.fr/geosciences/e-journals/iconography.html • Geoscience Frontiers: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/16749871 • Geosciences: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/geosciences • Geotextiles and Geomembranes: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02661144 • Geothermics: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03756505 • Global and Planetary Change: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09218181 • Global Biogeochemical Cycles: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1944-9224 • Gondwana Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1342937X • GSA-Field Guides Book Reviews: http://fieldguides.gsapubs.org/ • GSA-Geological Society of America Bulletin: http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/ • GSA-Geology: http://geology.gsapubs.org/ • GSA-Geosphere: http://geosphere.gsapubs.org/ • GSA-Lithosphere: http://lithosphere.gsapubs.org/ • GSA-Memoirs: http://memoirs.gsapubs.org/ • GSA-Reviews in Engineering Geology: http://reg.gsapubs.org/ • GSA-Special Papers: http://specialpapers.gsapubs.org/ • Hydrometallurgy: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0304386X • Icarus: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00191035 • International Council for Science (ICSU) Newsletter: http://www.icsu.org/news-centre/insight • International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) E-bulletin: http://www.igbp.net/ • International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03032434 • International Journal of Coal Geology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01665162 • International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22124209 • International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/17505836 • International Journal of Mineral Processing: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03017516 • International Journal of Mining Science and Technology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/20952686 • International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13651609 • International Journal of Sediment Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10016279 • International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) E-Journals: http://www.iugg.org/publications/ejournals/ • Island Arc: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1440-1738 • ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09242716 • ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijgi • Journal for Nature Conservation: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/16171381 • Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1942-2466 • Journal of Aerosol Science: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00218502


• Journal of African Earth Sciences: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1464343X • Journal of Applied Geophysics: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09269851 • Journal of Arid Environments: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01401963 • Journal of Asian Earth Sciences: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13679120 • Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13646826 • Journal of Contaminant Hydrology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01697722 • Journal of Environmental Quality: https://www.agronomy.org/publications/jeq • Journal of Flood Risk Management http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1753-318X • Journal of Geochemical Exploration: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03756742 • Journal of Geodynamics: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02643707 • Journal of Geography and Regional Planning: http://www.academicjournals.org/JGRP/Archive.htm • Journal of Great Lakes Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03801330 • Journal of Hydrology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00221694 • Journal of Marine Systems: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09247963 • Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18755100 • Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09204105 • Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/16747755 • Journal of Sedimentary Research: http://jsedres.geoscienceworld.org/ • Journal of South American Earth Sciences: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/08959811 • Journal of Structural Geology- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01918141 • Journal of Terramechanics: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00224898 • Journal of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22133976 • Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03770273 • Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia e Geologia (Portuguese) http://www.lneg.pt/iedt/unidades/16/paginas/26/30/38 • Lithology and Mineral Resources: http://www.springerlink.com/content/106290/ • Lithos: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00244937 • Marine and Petroleum Geology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02648172 • Marine Chemistry: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03044203 • Marine Environmental Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01411136 • Marine Geology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00253227 • Marine Micropaleontology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03778398 • Marine Pollution Bulletin: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0025326X • Mineral Research & Exploration Bulletin (Turkey): http://www.mta.gov.tr/v2.0/eng/all-bulletins.php?id=145#down • Minerals: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/minerals • Minerals Engineering: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/08926875 • Mining Science and Technology (China): http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/16745264 • Mining Weekly: http://www.miningweekly.com/ • Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa: http://www.mnassa.org.za/ • NERC Open Research Archive: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/ • New Scientist: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02624079 • New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics: http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/publications/journals/nzjg • Ocean & Coastal Management: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09645691 • Ocean Modelling: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/14635003 • Oil Geology in Geology & Geophysics: Africa- Offshore Magazine: http://www.offshore-mag.com/geology-geophysics/africa.html • Ore Geology Reviews: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01691368 • Organic Geochemistry: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01466380

• Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00310182 • Palaeoworld: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/1871174X • Petroleum Exploration and Development: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18763804 • Petroleum Geoscience: http://pg.eage.org/publication/latestissue?p=3 • Photogrammetria: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00318663 • Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/14747065 • Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00319201 • Planetary and Space Science: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00320633 • PLOS ONE: http://www.plosone.org/ • Polar Science: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18739652 • Precambrian Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03019268 • Procedia Earth and Planetary Science: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18785220 • Proceedings of the Geologists' Association: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00167878 • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA:

http://www.pnas.org/content/current • ProGEO – The European Association for the Conservation of the Geological Heritage: http://www.progeo.se/ • Progress in Oceanography: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00796611 • Quaternary Geochronology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18711014 • Quaternary International: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10406182 • Quaternary Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00335894 • Quaternary Science Reviews: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02773791 • Remote Sensing: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing • Remote Sensing of Environment: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00344257 • Resources Policy: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03014207 • Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00346667 • Revista de Geociencias (Portuguese): http://www.revistageociencias.com.br/ • Revista geologica de Chile (Spanish): http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_issuetoc&pid=0716-020820050002&lng=es&nrm=iso • Revue de Micropaléontologie (French): http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00351598 • Royal Society Publishing: Earth Sciences: http://royalsocietypublishing.org/site/authors/earthscience.xhtml • Russian Geology and Geophysics: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10687971 • Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies: http://www.science-frontiers.com/index.htm • Science Magazine Online: http://www.sciencemag.org/contents-by-date.0.shtml • Sedimentary Geology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00370738 • Société Algérienne de Géophysique (SAGA) Newsletter: http://www.sag.dz/ • Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02677261 • Soils and Foundations: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00380806 • South African Journal of Geology: http://sajg.geoscienceworld.org/archive/ • Space Research Today: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/17529298 • Spatial Statistics: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22116753 • Tectonophysics: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401951 • The Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Science: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/11109823 • The Open Geology Journal: http://bentham.org/open/togeoj/index.htm • Trends in Ecology & Evolution: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01695347 • Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/08867798 • Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences: http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/earth/index.php • UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portal: http://www.un-spider.org/about/updates/ • Urban Climate: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22120955 • Waste Management: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0956053X • Water Research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00431354 • Wave Motion: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01652125 • Weather and Climate Extremes: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22120947


EVENTS

The events not announced in former Bulletins are highlighted with dates in yellow

In Africa and about Africa Next Month: 2014.02.19-2 Global Gender & Water Conference, East London, South Africa,

http://www.bwa.co.za/Events/GLOBAL%20GENDER%20and%20WATER%20CONFERENCE%2019%20to%2021.pdf 2014.03.04-05 21st Century Challenges To The Southern African Coal Sector 2014, Johannesburg, South Africa, http://www.saimm.co.za/saimm-

events/upcoming-events?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_events.tpl&product_id=58&category_id=2 2014.03.11-13 SAIMM Young Professionals Conference http://www.saimm.co.za 2014.03.12-13 Mining Projects, Law and Regulation in West Africa, London, UK. http://www.c5-online.com/2014/636/mining-projects-law-and-regulation-in-west-

africa 2014.03.16-22 Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society – 50th Annual International Conference & Exhibitions, Benin, Nigeria. Contact

[email protected] or [email protected] 2014.03.17-19 Power Gen Africa 2014, Cape Town, South Africa. http://www.events-africa.com/power-gen-africa-2014-events-africa.html 2014.03.24-26 1st International Symposium on Medical Geology in Africa (ISMGAf), Johannesburg, South Africa.

http://iugs.org/uploads/1stSYMPOSIUM_MedicalGeologyInAfrica.pdf 2014.03.24-27 SIEE Pollutec Algeria 2014: The 10th edition of International exhibition of water equipment, technologies and services, Oran, Algeria.

http://www.semide.dz/EN/Events/news_item.asp?NewsID=14032410 2014.03.27-28 MMEC2014 – Mozambique Mining & Energy Confereccne, Maputo, Mozambique. http://www.mozmec.com/ 2014.04.01-04 3rd International Conference on the Use of Space Technology for Water Management, Rabat, Morocco,

http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/SAP/act2014/Morocco/index.html 2014.04.05-10 THE 11th International Conference On The Geology Of The Arab World (GAW 11), Cairo, Egypt. http://gaw.cu.edu.eg/ 2014.05.12-14 6th South African Rock Engineering Symposium - SARES 2014: "Creating value through innovative rock engineering ", Muldersdrift, South Africa,

http://www.saimm.co.za/saimm-events/upcoming-events?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_events.tpl&product_id=57&category_id=2 2014.04.14-16 Republic of Congo International Hydrocarbons Conference & Exhibition 2014, Brazzaville, Congo. http://ciehc.com/englishhome/ 2014.04.14-16 20th Western Africa Oil, Gas/LNG & Energy 2014, Windhoek, Namibia, http://www.petro21.com/events/?id=858 2014.04.28-30 5th Eastern Africa Oil, Gas/LNG & Energy 2014, Naitobi, Kenya. http://www.petro21.com/events/?id=851 2014.05.04-14 6th International Orogenic Lherzolite Conference Marrakech, Morocco, http://yes-morocco.blogspot.com.es/2013/07/sixth-international-orogenic-

lherzolite.html 2014.05.06-08 Esri Africa User Conference, Cape Town, South Africa. http://www.esri-southafrica.com 2014.05.06-15 Sixth International Orogenic Lherzolite Conference Marrakech, Morocco. http://yes-morocco.blogspot.com/2013/07/sixth-international-orogenic-

lherzolite.html 2014.05.12-14 SARES 6th South African Rock Engineering Symposium, Johannesburg, South Africa http://www.saimm.co.za 2014.05.22-23 Uganda Mining & Energy Conference and Exhibition, Kampala, Uganda, http://www.umec-uganda.com/the-event/an-overview/ 2014.05.20-30 WAMPEX 2014 - 11th West African Mining & Power Exhibition, Accra, Ghana, http://www.exhibitionsafrica.com/ems/wampex-2014.html 2014.05.26-27 Closing Workshop of the IGCP/SIDA Projects 594 and 606: “Addressing Environmental and Health Impacts of Active and Abandoned Mines in

Sub-Saharan Africa”. Prague, Czech Republic http://www.geology.cz/igcp594 2014.06.10-12 The Premier East Africa Oil & Gas Summit, London, UK. http://eastafrica-oil-

gas.com/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The+CWC+Group&utm_campaign=3335130_JK+-+EAOG+2014+EM1&dm_i=S3A,1ZHEI,6U8J7E,750YT,1 2014.06.18-20 Water Africa and West Africa Building & Construction, Accra, Ghana,

http://www.bwa.co.za/Events/Water%20and%20Building%20event%20set%20for%20Ghana%20in%20June%202014.pdf 2014.06.22-26 2014 Conference, of the Southern African Society of Aquatic Scientists, Black Mountain Leisure Hotel, FS, South Africa,

http://www.riv.co.za/sasaqs/pdf/SASAQS2014_first_announcement20131016.pdf 2014.06.24-25 4th Zambia International Mining and Energy Conference. Lusaka, Zambia, http://www.zimeczambia.com/ 2014.06.26-30 25th Society of Mining Professors Conference, Sandton, J’burg, South Africa, http://www.saimm.co.za/saimm-events/upcoming-

events?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_events.tpl&product_id=68&category_id=2 2014.07.02-03 Geomatique et cartographie, une vision prospective, Orleans, France http://www.univ-orleans.fr/cedete/geomatique-et-cartographie-une-vision-

prospective 2014.07.02-04 Oil and Gas Africa 2014, Cape Town, http://www.exhibitionsafrica.com/ems/oil-and-gas-africa-2014.html 2014.07.07-11 Changing Climates, Ecosystems and Environments of Arid Southern Africa. A Tribute to Louis Scott. Bloemfontein, South Africa. http://lscott-

tribute.co.za/ 2014.07.14-19 Earth Sciences and Climate Change: Challenges to Development in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya. http://www.aawg.org 2014.07.27-2014.08.02

Inaugural Workshop On West African Sedimentology And Sedimentary Basins, Ibadan, Nigeria.http://www.sedimentologists.org/docs/meetings/index/102.pdf

2014.08.11-14

3rd Young Earth Scientists-YES Congress, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. http://www.yescongress.org/2014/


2014.08.14-16

25th Colloquium of African Geology and 15th Congress of the Geological Society ofAfrica: Earth Science for Improving Livelihood in Africa, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.http://www.cag25.or.tz

2014.08.18-20 The Roy Miller Symposium - A conference to recognise a lifetime of service to the geological sciences in Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia. For more information http://www.geolsocnamibia.org/symp Please reply to: [email protected] (new website)

2014.09.01-0 The 21st General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA). Johannesburg, SA. http://www.ima2014.co.za/ 2014.09.06-12 2nd Geologic al Congress of Mozambique and 12nd Geochemical Congress of the Portuguese Speaking Countries, Maputo, Mozambique

http://www.agmm.org.mz/ 2014.09.07-09 ICDP Workshop “Drilling the Bushveld Complex- the world’s largest layered intrusion”, Johannesburg, South Africa.

http://tracker1.co.za/weblink/4ccb37fe-c8bc-4331-b377-b26af4a69ad3.htm 2014.09.07-14 Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, Casablanca, Morocco, http://www.meteoritical-society.org 2014.09.09-11 2nd Geological Congress of Mozambique and 12th Geochemocal Congress of the Portuguese Speaking Countries, Maputo, Mozambique. 2014.09.11-13 Kimberley Diamond Symposium and Trade Show. Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa. Contact: http://www.gssa.org.za/event/kimberley-

diamond-symposium-trade-show/ 2014.09.16-17 Surface Mining 2014 Conference, Nasrec Expo Centre, South Africa, http://www.saimm.co.za/saimm-events/upcoming-

events?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_events.tpl&product_id=65&category_id=2 2014.09.23-25 Africa Petroleum Storage and Transport Conference and Exhibition (APESTRANS 2014), Yaounde, Cameroon. http://apestrans.com/ 2014.10.01-04 2nd Conference on African and Arabian Geoparks, Dakar, Senegal http://www.igu-online.org/site/?wpfb_dl=126 2014.10.04-14 6th Orogenic Lherzolite Conference, Marrakesh, Morocco, http://www.gm.univ-montp2.fr/lherzolite/ 2014.10.15-16 IYCr Pan African and South African Summit meeting on Crystallography as vehicle to promote Science in Africa and beyond, Bloemfontein, South

Africa, http://conferences.ufs.ac.za/default.aspx?DCode=723 2014.10.20-22 6th International Platinum Conference, Sun City, South Africa, http://www.saimm.co.za/saimm-events/upcoming-

events?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_events.tpl&product_id=71&category_id=2 2014.11.03-09 Earth Sciences and Climate Change: Challenges to Development in Africa, Windhoek, Namibia, http://www.aawg.org 2014.11.04-06 3rd Senegal International Mining Conference & Exhibitions 2014, Dakar, Senegal, http://www.events-africa.com/senegal-international-mining-

conference-&-exhibitions-events-africa-2014.html# 2015 67th Annual Meeting of the ICCP (International Committee for Coal & Organic Petrology), Maputo, Mozambique. 2016.08.27-2016.09.04

35th International Geological Congress (35IGC), Cape Town, South Africa. http://www.35igc.org/ Announcement: IMA 2014, Johannesburg, 1-5 September, 2014 (http://www.ima2014.co.za) Abstract Submission to the Special Session on: Medical Mineralogy - With Particular Focus on Developing Countries Convenors: Prof. Theophilus Davies; Prof. Benjamin Mapani; Prof. Hassina Mouri: (IMGA South Africa Chapter) Description: The causal links between geomaterials and specific diseases in humans have long been recognised, but to date, there are still aspects of these links that remain unclear. The minimum exposure levels needed to trigger disease, the influence of genetic factors, and the exact mechanisms of toxicity, have all been the focus of considerable research over the last decade or so. This research, thankfully, is buoyed by recent developments in analytical techniques (such as spectroscopy, molecular modelling and high resolution imaging); and new avenues are being opened for investigating the interaction between minerals and the human body at scales that are well beyond those accessible to geomedical researchers just 20 years ago. However, while new techniques may enable advancement in Medical Mineralogy research to be made, real progress would only be truly realised when scientists in the fields of biomineralogy, biomedicine, geochemistry and public health collaborate and harness the expertise in these clearly related disciplines. Many of the examples in Medical Mineralogy research presented in similar meetings in the past have been from study populations in developed regions of the world, where, ironically, human interactions with geomaterials are far less common than in Africa and other developing regions. However, over the last few years, much more of this research has been directed towards populations in developing countries, with particular reference to silica-induced diseases in mining and agriculture. This "Session" intends to display these areas of active and fruitful research as keenly as possible through oral and poster presentations. ‘Abstract Submission’ at this Special Session of IMA 2014 at: (http://www.ima2014.co.za/images/documents/instructions-for-abstract-submission.pdf) before 17:00 on 28 February, 2014.

Rest of the World Next Month: 2014.02.03-06 7th Workshop on Remote Sensing of Land Ice and Snow: Remote Sensing of the Earth's Cryosphere. Bern, Switzerland.

http://www.earsel.org/SIG/Snow-Ice/workshop/call.php 2014.02.06-07 Vertical geology conference 2014, Lausanne, Switzerland, http://www3.unil.ch/wpmu/vgc14/ 2014.02.17-18 EAGE/FESM Joint Regional Conference Petrophysics Meets Geoscience"From Nano Pores to Mega Structures", Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=1058&Opendivs=s3


2014.02.23-28 2014 Ocean Sciences Meeting, Honolulu, Hawai, USA. http://www.sgmeet.com/osm2014/default.asp 2014.02.23-26 SME Annual Meeting and Exhibit, Salt Lake City, USA. http://www.smenet.org/calendar/detail.cfm?eventKey=1052 2014.02.24-27 Nitrogen and Syngas 2014, Paris, France, http://www.crugroup.com/events/nitrogenandsyngas/ 2014.02.25-27 SPE/EAGE European Unconventional Resources Conference and Exhibition Unlocking European Potential, Vienna, Austria.

http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=948&Opendivs=s3 2014.02.27 Shell London Lectures 2013, Landslides and Subsidence: Expecting the Unexpected - Engineering Geology in an Age of Austerity, London, UK,

http://www.beanstalk-ti.com/APGNews/www.geolsoc.org.uk/en/Events/Landslides%20and%20subsidence%20expecting%20the%20unexpected %20engineering%20geology%20in%20an%20age%20of%20austerity.aspx?ec_trk=followlist&ec_trk_data=Events

2014.03.04-05 Shale UK, London, UK, http://www.shaleuk.com/ 2014.03.09-12 Geo2014, Bahrein, http://www.geo2014.com/ 2014.03.10-14 International Symposium on Sea Ice in a Changing Climate, Hobart, Australia, http://seaice.acecrc.org.au/igs2014/ 2014.03.17.18 5th Land Use & Land Cover Workshop. Berlin, Germany. http://www.geographie.hu-berlin.de/labs/geomatics/events/earsel-en/workshop/ 2014.03.17.18 The Deep Sea Mining Summit 2014, London, UK. http://www.deepsea-mining-summit.com/ 2014.03.17-20 Asia Mining Congress, Singapore. http://www.terrapinn.com/2014/asia-mining-congress/ 2014.03.17-21 45th Lunar and Planetary Science, The Woodlands, Texas, USA. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2014/ 2014.03.18-20 Intersol 2014, Lille, France, http://www.intersol.fr/ 2014.03.19-20 Coaltrans Poland, Sopot, Poland. http://www.coaltrans.com/EventDetails/0/6746/2nd-Coaltrans-Poland.html 2014.03.19-21 North Atlantic Craton Conference 2014, Fife, Scotland, UK, http://www.nac-conference2014.org.uk 2014.03.20-21 North Atlantic Craton Conference 2014, University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK http://www.nac-conference2014.org.uk/ 2014.03.20-21 ICMME 2014 International Conference on Mining and Mineral Engineering, Cardiff, UK. http://www.nac-conference2014.org.uk/ 2014.03.22-23 Gordon Research Seminar: Natural Gas Hydrate Systems, Galveston, USA www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2014&programs.grs.netgas 2014.03.23-25 Phosphates 2014, Paris, France. http://www.crugroup.com/events/phosphates/ 2014.03.24-28 9th EGU Alexander von Humboldt International Conference on High Impact Natural Hazards Related to the Euro-Mediterranean Region, Istanbul,

Turkey, http://static2.egu.eu/media/filer_public/2013/10/01/avhistanbul_first_circular_1oct2013.pdf 2014.03.25-28 World CTX 2014 Conference, Beijing, China. http://www.worldctx.com/ 2014.03.26-28 Tools in Quaternary research: environmental indicators and geochronology, Lyon, France http://www.afeq.cnrs-

bellevue.fr/Documents/colloques/Q9%20Lyon%202014_09092013.pdf 2014.04.06-09 9th South American Symposium on Isotope Geology (9th SSAGI). SãoPaulo, Brazil. http://www.acquacon.com.br/9ssagi/ 2014.04.06-09 AAPG Annual Convention & Exhibition (ACE), Houston, Tx, USA, http://www.aapg.org 2014.04.07-10 Saint Petersburg 2014 - Geosciences – Investing in the Future, Saint Petersburg, Russia

http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=1010&Opendivs=s3 2014.04.07-12 Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) 2014 , Helsinki, Finland, http://www.assw2014.fi/ 2014.04.08-10 5th Rio Gas Forum, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. http://www.cwcriogas.com New date 2014.04.08-11 IAIA14 Impac t Assessment for Social and Economic Development. Viña del Mar, Chile,

http://www.iaia.org/conferences/iaia14/?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 2014.04.21-25 Engineering Geophysics 2014 Conference and Exhibition Gelendzhik, Russia,

http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=1096&Opendivs=s3http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=1096&Opendivs=s3 2014.04.23-25 Energy Production and Management in the 21st Century – The Quest for Sustainable Energy, Ekaterinburg, Russia, http://www.wessex.ac.uk/14-

conferences/energy-quest-2014.html 2014.04.23-25 Energy Quest 2014 - Energy Production and Management in the 21st Century – The Quest for Sustainable Energy, Ekaterinburg, Russia.

http://www.wessex.ac.uk/14-conferences/energy-quest-2014.html 2014.04.27-30 The Geosciences Information For Teachers workshop, Vienna, Austria, http://www.egu.eu/news/75/educators-apply-now-to-take-part-in-the-2014-

gift-workshop/ 2014.04.27-2014.05.02

European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2014. Vienna, Austria http://www.egu2014.eu/abstract_management/how_to_submit_an_abstract.html Session GM1.9 on “Landforms and Geodiversity” http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2014/abstractsubmission/15427/46

2014.04.28-30 South Asian Summit meetings on "Vistas in Structural Chemistry" Celebrating International year of Crystallography 2014, Karachi, Pakistan, http://www.iycr2014.org/summits

2014.05.05-09 Geospatial World Forum, 2104, Geneve, Switzerland, http://www.geospatialworldforum.org/ 2014.05.11-16 5th International Congress on Arsenic in the Environment, Buenos Aires, Argentina, http://www.as2014.com.ar/home.html 2014.05.13-15 Air Pollution: From Local to Global - Scientific Understanding, Management, Computer Modelling and Forecasting, Ashurst, Southampton, UK,

http://www.wessex.ac.uk/courses/air-pollution-course.html 2014.05.14-16 Environmental Impact 2014 - 2nd International Conference on Environmental and Economic Impact on Sustainable Development, Ancona, Italy.

http://www.wessex.ac.uk/14-conferences/environmental-impact-2014.html 2014.05.21-23 2014 Geological Association of Canada–Mineralogical Association of Canada Joint Annual Meeting, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada,

http://www.unb.ca/conferences/gacmac2014/ 2014.05.20-22 11th International Symposium on Mining with Backfill, Perth, Australia http://www.minefill2014.com 2014.05.22.25 XVI Serbian Geological Congress Donji Milanovac, Serbia http://www.sgd.rs/eng/index.php/xvi-serbian-geological-congress 2014.05.25-28 4th International Symposium On Sialons And Non-Oxides (ISSNOX4), Shiga, Japan, http://ceramics.ynu.ac.jp/issnox4/index.html 2014.05.26-28 Water Pollution 2014 - 12th International conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Water Pollution, The Algarve, Portugal.

http://www.wessex.ac.uk/14-conferences/water-pollution-2014.html 2014.05.26-28 EUROCK 2014 - ISRM European Regional Symposium - Rock Engineering and Rock Mechanics: Structures in and on Rock Masses, Vigo, Spain,

http://www.isrm.net/conferencias/detalhes.php?id=3119&show=conf 2014.05.26-30 E-MRS 2014 SPRING MEETING (European Materials Research Society), Lille, France, http://www.emrs-

strasbourg.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=691&Itemid=1619 2014.05.27-29 Urban Water 2014 - 2nd International Conference on the Design, Construction, Maintenance, Monitoring and Control of Urban Water Systems, The

Algarve, Portugal. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/13dd7831e9db6b64 2014.05.27-29 2014 LIPE Forum and Northern Arabian Geoscience Conference – New Frontiers, New Challenges, Beirut, Lebanon, http://www.middleeast.aapg.org 2014.05.28-29 GEO Business 2014, London, UK, http://www.geobusinessshow.com/ 2014.06.01-06 International Conference on Atmospheric Dust – DUST 2014, Castellaneta Marina, Italy http://www.dust2014.org/index.html 2014.06.02-06 World Landslide Forum III. Beijing, China http://icl.iplhq.org/HomePage.aspx?TabID=4945&Site=Portal&Lang=en-US 2014.06.02-06 XIX Congreso Geológico Argentino (19th Argenitinain Geological Congress) Córdoba, Argentina. http://www.congresogeologico.org.ar/ 2014.06.03-05 13th International Conference on Structures Under Shock and Impact, New Forest, UK http://www.wessex.ac.uk/14-conferences/susi-2014.html


2014.06.04-06 9th International Conference on Risk Analysis and Hazard Mitigation, New Forest, UK. http://www.wessex.ac.uk/14-conferences/risk-analysis-2014.html

2014.06.08-09 20th World Congress of Soil Science (WCSS) in Korea. http://www.20wcss.org/ 2014.06.08-13 ZEOLITE 2014, Belgrade, Serbia, http://www.inza.unina.it/upcoming-events/111-zeolite-2014-full 2014.06.08-13 Goldschmidt Conference 2014, Sacramento, USA. http://goldschmidt.info/ 2014.06.09-13 IC EST2014 - The Seventh International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology. Houston, Texas, USA.

http://www.aasci.org/conference/env/2014/index.html 2014.06.09-13 20th World Congress of Soil Science (WCSS), Jeju, South Korea, http://www.20wcss.org 2014.06.11-12 3rd Tight & Shale Gas Summit, Edinburgh, UK, http://www.wplgroup.com/aci/conferences/eu-eug3.asp 2014.06.15-19 3rd World Petroleum Congress, Moscow, Russia, http://www.21wpc.com/ 2014.06.16-19 76th EAGE Conference & Exhibition 2014 - Experience the Energy, Amsterdam, Netherlands,

http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=1000&Opendivs=s3 2014.06.16-20 34th EARSeL Symposium. Warsaw, Poland. http://www.earsel.org/symposia/2014-symposium-Warsaw/ 2014.06.17-19 Sustainable Irrigation 2014 - 5th International Conference on Sustainable Irrigation and Drainage: Management, Technologies and Policies, Poznan,

Poland. http://www.wessex.ac.uk/14-conferences/sustainable-irrigation-2014.html 2014.06.17-26 14th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference & EXPO SGEM2014, Albena, Bulgaria, http://sgem.org/ 2014.06.18-20 4th International Conference on Flood Recovery, Innovation and Response, Poznan, Poland. http://www.wessex.ac.uk/14-conferences/friar-2014.html 2014.06.18-21 EUCOP4 - 4th European Conference on Permafrost, Évora, Portugal, http://www.eucop4.org/ 2014.06.23-27 Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) Open Science Conference, Bergen, Norway.

http://www.imber.info/index.php/Meetings/IMBER-OSC-2014 2014.06.26-31 9th European Palaeobotanical Palynological Conference (EPPC), Padua, Italia. http://www.geoscienze.unipd.it/9th-european-palaeobotany-

palynology-conference 2014.06.29-2014.07.04

Shechtman International Symposium on Sustainable Mining, Minerals, Metal and Materials Processing, Cancun, Mexico, http://www.flogen.org/conferences.php?spage=1

2014.06.30 – 2014.07.03

17th Joint Geomorphological Meeting, Liege, Belgium. http://www.17th-jgm-liege2014.org/ 2014.06.30 – 2014.07.04

30th International Conference of the Society of Environmental Geochemistry and Health - European Section, will be held at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/ee/news/2832658

2014.06.30 – 2014.07.04

Asteroids, Comets, Meteors, Helsinki, Finland, http://www.helsinki.fi/acm2014 2014.07.01-03 The 2014 Norwich Conference on "Access and Allocation in the Anthropocene". University of East Anglia, UK.

http://www.earthsystemgovernance.org/news/2013-09-21-norwich-conference-earth-system-governance-call-papers 2014.06.29-2014.07.04

Australasia Quaternary Association. Mildura/Mungo, Australia, http://aqua.org.au/?page_id=301 2014.07.05-11 CIMP General Meeting 2014 - "What’s trending in palynology?!" Liège, Belgium

http://cimp.weebly.com/uploads/6/4/0/5/6405206/lettre_annonce_congrs.pdf 2014.07.06-10 39th INHIGEO Symposium – International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences Symposium, Pacific Grove, USA,

http://www.geosocieity.org/meetings/INHIGEO2014 2014.07.07-09 Air Pollution 2014 - 22nd International Conference on Modelling, Monitoring and Management of Air Pollution, Opatija, Croatia.

http://www.wessex.ac.uk/14-conferences/air-pollution-2014.html 2014.07.07-10 Australian Earth Sciences Convention (AESC) 2014, Newcastle, NSW, Australia, http://www.aesc2014.gsa.org.au 2014.07.13-18 Gondwana 15 international conference, Madrid, Spain. http://www.gondwana15.org/ 2014.07.12-15 2014 Esri Education GIS Conference, San Diego, Ca., USA. http://www.esri.com/events/educ/call-for-papers?WT.mc_id=EmailCampaignb2801 2014.07.13-17 BIOGEOMON, Bayreuth, Germany, http://www.bayceer.uni-bayreuth.de/biogeomon2014/ 2014.07.14-18 Esri International User Conference, San Diego, Ca., USA, http://www.esri.com/events/user-conference?WT.mc_id=EmailCampaigni5704 2014 August 24th Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography, Montreal, Canada. http://www.iucr2014.org/ 2014.08.02-10 40th COSPAR (Committee on Space Research) Scientific Assembly; Moscow, Russia. http://cosparhq.cnes.fr/Meetings/sciass.htm 2014.08.03-07 Microscopy and Microanalysis 2014, Hartford, Connecticut, USA, http://www.microprobe.org/events/microscopy-microanalysis-2014 2014.08.05-12 Congress of the International Union of Crystallography, Montreal, Canada. http://www.iucr2014.org/welcome_e.shtml 2014.08.11-14 XII International Platinum Symposium, Yekaterinburg, Russia. http://12ips.uran.ru 2014.08.11-15 22nd IAHR International Symposium on Ice, Singapore, http://www.iahr-ice2014.org/ 2014.08.13-16 XXVIII Nordic Hydrological Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, http://nhf-hydrology.squarespace.com/nhc-2014-2/ 2014.08.16-21 World Weather Open Science Conference 2014, Montréal, Canada. http://www.ecmwf.int/publications/cms/get/ecmwfnews/327 2014.08.18-20 Ninth International Mining Geology Conference Adelaide, Australia, http://www.ausimm.com.au/imgc2014/ 2014.08.18-22 GeoBaikal 2014 - Exploration and Field Development in East Siberia, Irkutsk, Russia,

http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=1131&Opendivs=s3 2014.08.18-22 IGU Regional Conference, Kraków, Poland http://www.igu2014.org/ 2014.08.19-22 14th Quadrennial IAGOD Symposium, Urumqi, China. http://www.iagod.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=13 2014.08.24-29 Second European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology; 15th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering; 34th General

Assembly of European Seismological Commission, Istanbul, Turkey. http://www.2eceesistanbul.org/ 2014.08.26-31 9th European Paleobotany and Palynology Conference, Padova, Italy, http://www.geoscienze.unipd.it/eppc2014/index.html 2014.09.01-05 GEOMOD 2014 – Modeling in Geoscience, Berlin, Germany, http://www.geo-x.net/geomod2014 2014.09.07-12 The International Microscopy Congress 2014, Prague, Czech Republic, http://www.imc2014.com/ 2014.09.08-11 ECMOR XIV - 14th European Conference on the Mathematics of Oil Recovery, Catania, Sicily, Italy.

http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=1093&Opendivs=s3 2014.09.09-13 Cities on Volcanoes 8, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, http://citiesonvolcanoes8.com/ 2014.09.10-12 Planet Formation and Evolution 2014, Kiel, Germany, http://www1.astrophysik.uni-kiel.de/ 2014.09.14-18 Near Surface Geoscience 2014, Athens, Greece. http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=1013&Opendivs=s3 2014.09.14-18 Fifteenth Australian Coal Preparation Society, Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia, https://www.acps.com.au/conference-2014/home/ 2014.09.15-17 First Applied Shallow Marine Geophysics Conference, Athens, Greece, http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=1120&Opendivs=s3 2014.09.15-19 IAEG XII Congress – Engineering Geology for Society & Territory, Torino, Italy. http://www.iaeg2014.com 2014.09.16-18 Seventh International Conference on Deep and High Stress Mining , Sudbury, Canada, http://www.deepmining2014.com 2014.09.17-22 5th International Maar Conference, Querétaro, Mexico, http://maar2014.geociencias.unam.mx/


2014.09.19-22 6th International Unesco Conference on Global Geoparks, Saint John New Brunswick, Canada http://www.geoparks2014.com/main.html 2014.09.21-25 UMH VII 2014 – Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology 2014, Freiburg, Germany http://tu-freiburg.de/umh-vii-2014 2014.09.21-26 47º Congresso Brasileiro de Geologia (47th Brazilian Congress of Geology) Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. http://www.47cbg.com.br/ 2014.09.23-25 Sustainable City 2014 - 9th International Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability, Siena, Italy. http://www.wessex.ac.uk/city2014?e=1-

225297 2014.09.24-26 XX Congress of Carpathian Balkan Geological Association, Tirana, Albania, http://www.cbga2014.org/ 2014.09.27-30 SEG 2014, Keystone, CO, USA, http://www.seg2014.org 2014.09.27-2104.10.03

31st Annual Meeting of the Society for Organic Petrology (TSOP), Sydney, Australia http://wp.csiro.au/tsop2014 2014.09.28-2014.10.05

4th International Paleontological Congress, The history of life: a view from the Southern Hemisphere. Mendoza, Argentina, http://ipa.geo.ku.edu/pdf/IPC4.pdf

2014.10.17-20 16th Annual Conference Of The International Association For Mathematical Geosciences, New Delhi, India, http://www.jnu.ac.in/conference/iamg2014/default.htm

2014.10.19-22 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada, http://www.geosociety.org/meetings 2014.10.21-23 Petroleum 2014. 2nd International Conference on Petroleum and Mineral Resources. Koya, Kurdistan, Irak, http://www.wessex.ac.uk/14-

conferences/petroleum-2014.html 2014.10.27-29 KazGeo 2014 - From Challenges to Opportunities, Almaty, Kazakhstan. http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=1108&Opendivs=s3 2014.11.02-05 XIV ALAGO (Latin-American Association of Organic Geochemistry) Congres Armação dos Búzios (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil). http://alago.co/blog/xiv-

congresso-da-alago 2014.11.06-08 2nd International Conference – Urban Transitions and Transformations: Science, Synthesis and Policy, Taipei, Taiwan. http://ugec.org/2nd-

international-ugec-conference/ 2014.11.16-19 Second EAGE Integrated Reservoir Modelling Conference - Uncertainty Quantification: Are we Doing it Right? Dubai, United Arab Emirates,

http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=1147&Opendivs=s3 2014.12.07-09 Second EAGE Forum for Students & Young Professionals - Mentoring, Empowering & Valuing Young Talents, Muscat, Oman.

http://www.eage.org/events/index.php?eventid=1123&Opendivs=s3 2014.12.16-18 Energy and Sustainability 2014 - 5th International Conference on Energy and Sustainability, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, http://www.wessex.ac.uk/14-

conferences/energy-and-sustainability-2014.html 2015 27th International Cartographic Conference and 16th General Assembly of ICA. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. http://icaci.org/calendar 2015.02.22-25 SME Annual Meeting and Exhibit, Denver, USA. http://www.smenet.org/calendar/detail.cfm?eventKey=1052 2015.04.29-2015.05.06

ISRM 13th International Congress on Rock Mechanics, Montreal, Canada, http://www.isrm.net/conferencias/detalhes.php?id=3024&show=conf 2015.06.01-04 77th EAGE Conference & Exhibition 2015, Madrid, Spain. http://www.eage.org/index.php?evp=4021 2015.06.22-2014.07.02

IAVCEI General Assembly, Prague, Czech Republic, http://www.iugg2015prague.com/ 2015.08.07-15 18th International Congress on the Carboniferous and Permian, Kazan, Russia. http://www.iccp2015.ksu.ru 2015.08.16-21 Goldschmidt Conference 2015, Prague, Czech Republic, http://goldschmidt.info/2015/ 2015.08.23-28 European Crystallographic Meeting – ECM 29, Rovinj (Croatia). http://ecm29.ecanews.org/ 2015.11.01-04 GSA 2015, Baltimore, USA, http://www.globaleventslist.elsevier.com/events/2015/11/the-geological-society-of-america-gsa-2015-annual-meeting/ 2016.06.26-2016.07.01

Goldschmidt Conference 2015, Yokohama, Japan, http://goldschmidt.info/2016/ PROFESSIONAL COURSES/WORKSHOPS/SCHOLARSHIPS

The International School on Foraminifera Urbino, It aly 3 June – 21 June 2014

Since its inception in 2006, the International School on Foraminifera in Urbino has been the world’s leading training school devoted to the study of foraminifera. The three-week training course is held at the newly-refurbished Collegio Internazionale at the University of Urbino. The school boasts an international teaching faculty who are among the world’s leading experts in their respective research fields. The full course consists of approximately 50 hours of lectures and 50 hours of practical work. The course consists of four modules: Introduction to the Foraminifera, smaller benthic foraminifera, larger benthic foraminifera, and planktonic foraminifera. Course participants have the option of registering for one or more modules, or participating in the entire course. The course includes a one-day field trip to visit the classic micropaleontological localities near Gubbio, Italy. The course is primarily intended for young researchers at the PhD or MSc stages of their careers and industrial staff working with Foraminifera, Meiofauna, Micropalaeontology, Paleoceanography, Paleoecology, and Climate History. For industrial staff, additional training modules or individual tutorials may be arranged upon request after the course. Contact Details: Email: [email protected] Tel: (+39) 0722 304309 Fax: (+39) 0722 304220


INTERESTING PHOTOS

Aorounga Craters, Chad

1. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Tro9ttEE-4M/TeVUw7SXlSI/AAAAAAAADKE/Fn4B133fko4/s640/10+it+Fell+From+the+Sky+-+Concentric+Rings.jpg

2. http://www.thelivingmoon.com/43ancients/04images/Earth/Craters/Aorounga_Crater_003.jpg 3. http://spaceinimages.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2013/11/aorounga_crater_chad/13426542-1-eng-

GB/Aorounga_Crater_Chad.jpg 4. http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/39000/39727/ISS020-E-26195_lrg.jpg 5. http://winarticles.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Aorounga-Crater-CHAD.jpg 6. http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~bottke/crater_chain/chad.gif

LOCATION: 19° 6'6.08"N / 19°14'43.37"E


GEOLOGY OF AFRICAN COUNTRIES/TERRITORIES

TCHAD

Adapted from: Schlüter, T., 2006. Geological Atlas of Africa. Ed. S pringer. 272 pp: CD-ROM

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