Tag Archives: beach

Evidence of Alien Life on Mars: Ancient Beach Discoveries Remain Compelling

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New research suggests that Mars once was the perfect holiday destination (if they were willing to overlook radiation exposure or lack of food sources), but also had the right conditions for alien life. why? The discovery of ancient sandy beaches on the red planet suggests that once a large liquid ocean spread across the north of the planet.

The research team behind the research from China and the US is This ancient coastline is the clearest evidence yet The Red Planet was previously habitable.

“Looking back at the places where the earliest life on Earth developed, it was in the interaction between the ocean and the land, which paints a picture of an ancient habitable environment that can embrace the conditions for microbial life,” he said. Benjamin Cardenasassistant professor of geology at Penn State University in the United States and co-author of the study.

Four billion years ago, these beaches would have been the best variety. The waves are softly wrapped sandy and immersed in the sun.

“We found evidence of a lack of wind, waves and sand. It’s a proper vacation style beach,” says Cardenas, whose research was published. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (pnas).

To find this, researchers used a probe up to 80m (260 feet) below the Mars surface in a region of North Mars called the Utopian Plain, using radar imaging, using a probe up to 80m (260 feet) below the Mars surface.

We discovered 76 hidden structures at depths of 10-35m (33-115ft). Sadly, this turned out to be not a mysterious alien infrastructure (we can dream of it), but rather a sedimentary deposit similar to what is found around the Earth’s coastline.

3.6 billion years ago, the ocean may have covered almost half of the red planet. The Orange Star shows where China’s Roberzouron began its exploration. Meanwhile, the Yellow Star is where NASA’s patient rover landed. Both arrived on Mars in 2021. -Image credit: Robert Citron

The structure, thickness and length of Martian sediments showed that they were not formed by the melting of rivers, winds, lava or ice, but rather by stable ancient seas. In fact, they were roughly the same as 21 people on Earth, including the Bay of Bengal.

Specifically, a formation called “foreshore sediments” is formed by the tide and wind that descends the slope towards the ocean at a 15° angle and carries sediments like sand and gravel.

“This quickly stood out to us because it suggested there were waves, meaning there was a dynamic interface between air and water,” Cardenas said. This interaction, which also took place in the early history of the Earth, is important for the beginning of life.

The discovery suggests that Mars had a warm, humid climate for tens of millions of years.

“We tend to think of Mars as a static snapshot of the planet, but it was evolving. The rivers were flowing, the sediment was moving, the land was built and eroding,” Cardenas said.

“This type of sedimentary geology tells us how the landscape looks, how they evolved, and, importantly, helps us identify where we want to look for our past life.”

read more:

  • The strange “squeak” in space is baffling scientists
  • We finally know how life on Earth began, the incredible new asteroid discovery suggests
  • Here’s how aliens actually get in touch with humanity

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Archaeologists say beach and underwater ruins in Sicily offer insights into early immigration

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Sicily is thought to be one of the first islands inhabited by humans during the European Upper Paleolithic period. Research to understand the early occupation of the island has focused primarily on the north coast. An international team of archaeologists led by Washington University in St. Louis is currently searching for signs of human habitation in 25 caves and trenches in southeastern Sicily, Italy.

Coastal and underwater cave sites in southern Sicily contain important new clues about the routes and fate of early human migrants to the island. Image credit: Ilaria Patania.

Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean, is considered by many scholars to be the oldest permanently inhabited island of human ancestors in the region, but it is unclear when and how these early settlers arrived. It remains unclear whether he accomplished this feat.

Although the island is less than three miles from mainland Italy, it would have been extremely difficult for early humans to cross the ocean.

In the ancient Greek poem The Odyssey, Homer describes Odysseus sailing past the mythical sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis as they crossed the Strait of Sicily.

This strait was well known to ancient sailors. They attributed the terrifying power of its waves and whirlpools to powerful monsters.

In modern times, thousands of migrants from North Africa attempt to cross the Channel each year. Many never make it, and some capsize just a few hundred meters from landing.

“We're not just looking for the first arrivals, we're looking for the first communities,” says Dr. Ilaria Patania, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Understanding the timing of Sicily's early colonization provides important data on the patterns and modes of Sicily's early expansion. homo sapiens To the Mediterranean. ”

“This study shows that new ways of thinking and seeing can reveal previously invisible patterns,” added TR Kidder, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Previous scholars believed that the ruins on Sicily's southern coast were eroded or too damaged to yield useful information.”

“But discovering underwater ruins opens up a whole new area of ​​research.”

“This allows us to reconsider the migration routes of these earliest modern human ancestors.”

Scholars agree that humans reached Sicily by 16,000 years after the Last Glacial Maximum.

But that date is puzzlingly late, given that humans are known to have dispersed from land to Siberia about 30,000 years ago.

This discrepancy has led some to wonder whether humans actually reached Sicily long before the currently accepted date.

Also, no one yet knows whether humans arrived in Sicily by sea or by foot over a land bridge, or even from what direction.

“The challenge in understanding the spread of early modern human ancestors is that we don't fully understand how they spread and colonized the world so early on,” Professor Kidder said. said.

“Did people come across the Strait of Messina from Italy or from the south along the coast of Africa?”

“Or could they have been island hopping in the Mediterranean? Locating a location on the southern coast helps us consider their route, and therefore their mode of movement.”

“In southeastern Sicily, very few Upper Paleolithic sites have been excavated and analyzed using scientific methods,” Dr. Patania said.

“Although our project is still in its early stages, we have already identified and assessed more than 40 locations of interest, of which around 17 locations have been more accurately relocated based on older identification information. .”

Two of the new sites identified by the research team may contain evidence of Upper Paleolithic human occupation, including fossilized animals.

Coruzzi is located at the southernmost tip of Sicily. This site was originally identified by other researchers in the 1940s.

“This is the location where a second land bridge would have connected this island to Malta,” Dr Patania said.

“When we investigated this site, we found European wild donkey teeth and stone tools.”

“Analysis of the ruins at this site may provide insight into the final leg of the human journey south down Sicily's southernmost coast and towards Malta.”

In the summer of 2024, archaeologists began excavating the second site, a cave called Camporato.

“Here we found evidence of sea level changes caused by the last ice age and local earthquakes. We are still investigating,” Dr. Patania said.

“We reconstruct not only the period of human habitation, but also the environments in which these people lived and how they coped with natural phenomena such as earthquakes, climate and environmental changes, and even volcanic eruptions. I am thinking of doing so.”

of findings appear in the diary PLoS ONE.

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I. Patania others. 2024. Between land and sea: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the early occupation of Sicily (EOS). PLoS ONE 19 (10): e0299118;doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299118

This article is a version of a press release provided by Washington University in St. Louis.

Source: www.sci.news

Unexpected surprise: Giant fish thought to be sunbathing on Oregon beach turns out to be a curiosity

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The name “sunfish” is of Latin origin and means “milestone,” referring to the flat, circular body of this fish, which is known to drift along the ocean’s surface, a move some scientists lightly refer to as “sunbathing.”

But Nygard said the activity serves an important purpose: capturing jellyfish and other gelatinous creatures for prey.

When hunting, sunfish dive deep into cooler waters. Their bodies cannot regulate their body temperature efficiently, so they use the sun to warm themselves. While the fish lie on the surface, birds clean them by eating parasites from their skin.

Nyegaard said there are a few features that distinguish the giant sunfish from the giant sunfish: The giant sunfish’s skin becomes wrinkly as it grows, while the sunfish’s skin is always perfectly smooth.

Unlike normal fish, which have tails, sunfish have wings that are wavy and have a bony structure. The sunfish’s wings are divided into two parts, each of which can move independently.

“We don’t yet know why the two species need different rear structures,” Nygard says, adding that one theory is that the two-part flap could be for maneuvering or agility purposes.

Nygard said sunfish in general remain a mystery to scientists: There are five sunfish species in total, including the hoodwinker, and it’s unclear whether they can or will coexist in the same place.

It’s also unclear whether the hoodwinkers of Australia and New Zealand are related to those in the Pacific Northwest and have somehow migrated across the equator, Nygard said.

Since its discovery, people have been flocking to Gearhart Beach to see the lone hooded winker on the sand.

“This isn’t the first time this has been washed ashore, but it is the largest one to have been washed ashore,” said Tierney Thys, a marine biologist at the California Academy of Sciences.

“Strandings like this remind us that humans live on just 1 percent of the available habitable space on this vast ocean planet,” she said. “Encountering these amazing creatures is humbling and inspiring, and a powerful reminder that we still have much to learn.”

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Preventing Sharks from entering the beach through Catch and Release methods.

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Scarred great white shark sails through Australian waters

Philip Thurston/Getty Images

Great white sharks avoid areas where they are captured, so this could be a way to deter them from hunting near swimmers.

They say it's a flight response. paul butcher In the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Australia. “It's the same with almost any animal, and it's the same with sharks.” The animals then “resume normal locomotor behavior as if nothing happened,” he says.

Butcher and his colleagues use smart (Real Time Shark Management Alerts) Drumlines: Baited hooks attached to buoys 500 meters off the coast in approximately 20 popular areas of New South Wales. Each of the 305 drumlines in total is equipped with a system to notify local response teams, which she aims to reach by boat within 30 minutes of a hooked shark feeding. Lines are set up fresh each morning and collected the same day, so they are never left overnight.

The team records the shark's size and health and tags it. Sharks considered to be more of a threat to swimmers, such as great whites, tiger sharks and bull sharks, are then moved 500 meters offshore and released. Other species, such as hammerhead sharks and gray nurse sharks, are released where they are captured.

Butcher and his colleagues monitored 36 great white sharks (carcharodon carcharius) had a satellite-linked radio-transmitting tag attached to its dorsal fin after being captured in five locations in 2016. During the first 3 days after release, all sharks moved away from the shoreline where they were captured and mostly stayed there. offshore.

“Ten days after release, sharks gradually moved closer to shore, but 77% of sharks remained more than 1.9 kilometers from shore, with an average of 5 kilometers from their tagged location,” the study said. they wrote in their paper.

Additionally, sharks are still being detected by tracking devices an average of nearly 600 days after release, indicating that the program is not increasing the risk of shark mortality.

Since 2015, more than 1,100 great white sharks, with an average length of about 7 feet, have been captured on SMART drumlines and more than 400 capture events have taken place, Butcher said.

The drumline is part of a larger effort in New South Wales to find non-lethal ways to keep great white, tiger and bull sharks away from people in the water. Drones are currently flying over up to 50 beaches to monitor for sharks and other potential threats during the school holidays, with the department using tagged sharks to detect when they pass nearby. It operates 37 listening station buoys. This information is transmitted to the public via: SharkSmart app.

This suite of tools could mean one day the controversial beach nets that captured 228 animals in New South Wales alone during the 2022/23 reporting period can be removed. Of these 228 animals, only 85 were released alive, and more than 200 were non-target species such as turtles, dolphins and seals.

david booth Researchers at the University of Technology Sydney say the findings are very good news. “And being able to see the captured and released animals again after so many years is very moving and certainly better than slaughtering them,” he says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com