In 1941, the battleship USS Arizona sank during the attack on Pearl Harbor, along with approximately 5,000 tons of oil stored in its fuel tanks.
This oil has been leaking gradually for the past 84 years, with the tank still estimated to be half full.
While this represents the longest duration of human-induced oil spillage, its volume is significantly smaller compared to others globally. For instance, the Coal Oil Point seep area off the coast of California contributes a much larger output.
This location naturally leaks around 17 tons of oil into the ocean daily and has been doing so for at least 500,000 years.
This article responds to the query posed by Joshua Hughes via email: “What is the world’s longest oil spill?”
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Astronomers have amassed compelling evidence indicating that 80 percent of all matter in the universe is composed of dark matter, an invisible substance that holds galaxies together and impacts their rotation.
The large-scale structure of the universe and measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) further support the presence of an undetermined entity saturating the cosmos.
While there is substantial evidence that dark matter forms extensive halos around galaxies and star clusters, and is relatively sparse in expansive “voids”, there is no basis to dismiss the existence of dark matter in proximity to Earth.
In fact, one study indicates that approximately 24 trillion tons of dark matter exist between the Earth and the Moon. The validity of this claim is still under investigation.
This article addresses a question from Charles Adcock: “Is it possible that dark matter exists around the Earth, but remains undetectable?”
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Applying crushed silicate rocks, like basalt, in agricultural fields could potentially eliminate up to 1.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year while simultaneously enhancing crop yields, according to global assessments of this innovative method. Nevertheless, some scientists express skepticism about the feasibility of these claims.
This approach, termed enhanced rock weathering, accelerates the natural process of rock breakdown by rain. For millions of years, this mechanism has facilitated the transfer of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to oceans, helping to regulate Earth’s climate during historical greenhouse periods. Farmers, for generations, have employed crushed limestone to enrich soil nutrient uptake in crops.
“The primary benefit of this method is its ability to mitigate atmospheric CO2 through a chemical reaction,” states Chuan Liao, a researcher at Cornell University, New York. “It also offers additional advantages such as the potential introduction of magnesium and calcium, aiding in soil nutrient enhancement.”
As global emissions persist in escalating, the United Nations climate agency emphasizes the necessity for effective carbon removal solutions to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial temperatures. Countries like Brazil are advocating for enhanced rock weathering as a strategy to mitigate emissions and reduce fertilizer expenses. Mati Carbon, an Indian startup, achieved the top award of $50 million in Elon Musk’s XPRIZE competition last year, showcasing the large-scale potential for carbon removal through this technique.
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere undergoes dissolution in rain, forming carbonic acid, which reacts with silicate rocks to trap CO2 in bicarbonate ions. These ions can flow into rivers and oceans, either remaining dissolved for extensive periods or being absorbed into the calcium carbonate structures of marine life such as clams, corals, and sea urchins. Fragmenting the rock enlarges its surface area, enhancing carbon dioxide absorption.
According to the study, considering the volume of rock that farms can accommodate, accelerated rock weathering could contribute significantly, potentially saving up to 5 billion tons of CO2 annually this century. Liao and his colleagues conducted a “reality check” on these estimates by evaluating the rate at which farmers have adopted other innovations like irrigation, and how effectively weathering can occur in various regions.
The models explored limited versus extensive implementation of enhanced weathering and identified a potential removal range of 350 million to 750 million tons of CO2 annually by 2050, escalating to 700 million to 1.1 billion tons by 2100. For context, global fossil fuel CO2 emissions are projected to reach approximately 38 billion tons by 2025.
Initially, Europe and North America will lead this removal effort, but as supply chains for silicate rock are established and costs decline, regions in Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa may emerge as frontrunners. Increasing temperatures and precipitation patterns could further accelerate weathering processes in these areas, providing farmers with the opportunity to monetize carbon removal credits for each ton of rock applied.
“For future farmers in the Global South, there will be fewer obstacles to sustainable practices,” notes Liao.
However, Marcus Siedung and colleagues from the Thünen Institute for Climate and Smart Agriculture in Germany raise essential concerns in their recent paper. They highlight significant uncertainties surrounding the accelerated rock weathering estimates; for instance, drought conditions can amplify carbon release, undermining the intended benefits. Siedung suggests that the estimation of 1.1 billion tons being removed is likely overstated.
In calcium-rich soils, rainfall may weather the carbonate instead of the crushed rock, resulting in a reversal of carbon absorption back into the ocean, leading to CO2 release instead of removal. Furthermore, low pH soils can react with crushed rock, resulting in negligible carbon uptake. As acidity diminishes, CO2 emissions from soil microbes may intensify.
Moreover, the carbon released during the mining and transportation of rocks to farms may surpass the amount removed, according to Siedung.
“I approach this with skepticism,” he asserts. “It’s crucial to ensure that CO2 is genuinely captured; otherwise, we risk miscalculating the benefits of carbon removal.” He emphasizes the complexities of the geochemical processes involved.
Others warn that weathering rocks could introduce toxins into the food chain. The olivine used in Liao’s projections entails heavy metals such as nickel and chromium.
Most residual rock from current mines is also likely polluted with metals, states David Manning from Newcastle University, UK. Countries may need to open numerous basalt quarries, which could be a lengthy and costly endeavor.
“To eliminate one gigaton of CO2 annually, approximately five gigatons of rock would be needed each year, and it remains unclear where this rock will be sourced from—this poses a significant challenge to scalability,” Manning concludes.
Logging extensive areas of boreal forests and submerging the trees in the Arctic Ocean could potentially eliminate up to 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.
Researchers suggest cutting down wildfire-prone coniferous trees and transporting them through six major Arctic rivers, including the Yukon and Mackenzie, where they can sink within a year.
“Currently, we have forests that sequester significant carbon, but the next challenge is finding ways to store it without burning,” says Wolf Bungen from Cambridge University.
To combat carbon emissions from hard-to-electrify industries, it’s essential to explore methods for atmospheric carbon reduction. While direct air capture technology is costly, tree planting can backfire if the trees end up dying or burning.
Several companies are working on wood burial techniques. For instance, a U.S. initiative, Running Tide, sunk 25,000 tonnes of wood chips off Iceland’s coast but faced shutdown due to environmental concerns.
Approximately 1 trillion tonnes of carbon are stored within the wood, soil, and peat of boreal forests across North Eurasia and North America, a figure expected to rise as climate change accelerates plant growth. However, with increasing wildfire frequency, this carbon could be released.
Bungen and his team previously discovered that wood can survive for up to 8,000 years in cold, oxygen-limited Alpine lakes without decomposing or emitting CO2. Six Arctic rivers transport substantial amounts of logs, with driftwood in deltas estimated to contain over 20 million tons of carbon. Carl Stadie from Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute was not part of the study.
If every year, 30,000 square kilometers were cleared along each river, placing the wood on river ice in winter and then replanting, it could absorb up to 1 billion tons of CO2 annually, researchers estimate.
However, some US rivers continue to experience biodiversity loss a century after timber removal, warns Ellen Wall of Colorado State University.
“Dumping a massive amount of logs into a river resembles pushing brush into a river,” she notes.
Moreover, if wood becomes lodged on beaches or in tributaries, causing flooding, it could thaw permafrost and increase methane emissions from microorganisms.
“We could see a scenario where the wood aids ocean carbon sequestration, while onshore flooding and melting snow cause carbon release at high altitudes,” warns Merritt Turetsky from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Inadequate cold or oxygen-free conditions may lead to wood decomposition rather than sinking. Driftwood frozen in sea ice is often transported to the Faroe Islands.
“In a worst-case scenario, vast forest areas could be cleared, impacting the carbon they store,” says Stadie.
Roman Dial, a professor at Alaska Pacific University, warns that this proposal may be exploited by commercial logging and could face criticism from all sides of the political spectrum.
“How extensive is the list of potential unintended consequences that could unfold in the Arctic, given our limited understanding?” he questions.
Some regions of the Arctic ocean floor might not be suitable for conservation, according to Morgan Raven at the University of California, Santa Barbara. However, others could benefit from exploration, given the substantial influx of wood into the Arctic and other oceans. The Earth once experienced a greenhouse climate era 56 million years ago.
“We can investigate sediments and rocks to understand how this experiment was conducted in the past,” Raven concludes.
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Artistic Representation of Cha 1107-7626, a rogue planet located roughly 620 light years from Earth
ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser
The voracious rogue planet consumes a staggering 6 billion tons of gas and dust every second. This peculiar behavior challenges the distinction between planets and stars, indicating that both may form via similar mechanisms.
It appears that free-floating gas bodies, not gravitationally bound to a parent star, are quite common, potentially outnumbering stars in galaxies. However, astronomers remain uncertain about whether these bodies will develop like planets orbiting stars, wander alone through galaxies, or independently emerge like stars.
Víctor Almendros-Abad from Palermo Observatory in Italy, and his team have observed remarkable growth of the rogue planet now known as CHA 1107-7626.
The planet garnered astronomers’ attention back in 2008 due to what appeared to be a disc of primitive planets around it. Almendros-Abad and his colleagues began monitoring these celestial objects in April this year using a sizable telescope in Southern Europe, but by June, the planet’s mass consumption rate surged to nearly ten times what it had been previously.
Such a growth rate aligns with what has only been previously observed in stars, including our own Sun.
“This indicates that the formation processes of stars and these objects are likely very similar,” says Almendros-Abad. “Thus, when considering star formation, we must also account for these rogue planets.”
To elucidate this unprecedented growth rate, Almendros-Abad and his team speculate that a mechanism akin to that observed in stars is likely at work; however, the reason and timing of the planet’s sudden surge in mass consumption remain unclear.
The similarities in their growth mechanisms imply that the line between stars and planets may be even hazier than previously believed, suggests Almendros-Abad. “Every time I observe these rogue planets, I see that the boundary between a star and a planet is not as defined as we thought. There must be chemical signatures, yet we have yet to discover the ‘Rosetta Stone’ that differentiates the formation processes.”
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Matalvira stones from Valencina, Spain, transported over 5,300 years ago
L. Garcia Sanjuan
A two-ton megalith located in southern Spain was moved by an unknown group of ancient seafarers over 5,300 years ago.
The Matalvira stones are sturdy plaster slabs, measuring approximately 1.7 meters in length and 1.2 meters in width, situated within a structure reminiscent of the Copper Age of Valencina, near Seville.
This megalith is housed in a circular chamber known as a tross, offering ample space for individuals to stand around it. Due to its distinctive composition and dimensions, this stone is believed to have been used for rituals, though its origin remains puzzling.
Lewis Caceres Paro from the University of Fuelva, along with his team, conducted chemical analyses alongside optically stimulated luminescence dating to estimate the age of the slabs.
The findings indicate that the megalith was transported to its present location between 4544 and 3277 BC. This new timeline suggests the stones were moved to Valencina well before the tunnel structure surrounding it was constructed.
The composition of the stone closely resembles that of a quarry located 55 km away, across the Guadalquivir River. At that time, a wide estuary separated the two sites, implying that the stone was likely transported by boat.
This marks the first evidence of megalithic stones being moved by boats on the Iberian Peninsula. It is theorized that larger stones from other megalithic sites in Europe, such as Stonehenge in the UK and Kerenca in France, were also transported similarly.
“In 4,000 BC, we observed rapid advancements in coastal navigation,” notes Leonardo Garcia Sanjuan from the University of Seville. “The stone basin at Matalvira is a significant piece of indirect evidence, suggesting that these people had developed advanced raft, canoeing, or sailing techniques.”
Excavations at other sites indicate that Mediterranean communities had already begun constructing sophisticated and seaworthy vessels.
“The transportation of these enormous stones further underscores the technical expertise of the Matalvira Builder,” remarks Ramon Fabregas Valkerse, who was not involved in this research at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Valencina is recognized as one of Europe’s most extensive prehistoric sites, covering over 460 hectares. Unique artifacts at this location include items sourced from distant areas, such as amber, flint, cinnabar, ivory, and ostrich eggs.
“[Valencina] features megaliths, extensive ditches, large burial sites, and complex material cultures, hinting at interactions between Iberia, North Africa, and the Mediterranean,” explains Cacerespolo.
Prior research in this area has unveiled numerous details demonstrating the historical importance of the site, including the era from 2900 to 2650, during which it was predominantly led by women.
“The current analysis enriches the understanding of one of Valencina’s principal monuments,” asserts Alasdair Whittle from Cardiff University, UK.
Cutting, biting, slashing, and cannibalism are not words that we naturally associate with love. But there is beauty and splendor in the dark side of animal mating, too.
This article takes a closer look at eight of the strangest courtship behaviors in the animal kingdom.
Some male anglerfish often attach themselves to passing females, reducing them to little more than brainless sperm sacs. This is called “parabiosis,” where two organisms combine to develop a shared physiological system. Monkfish are the only known example of symbiotic symbiosis in nature.
Anglerfish develop symbiotic relationships in response to the vastness of the deep sea, where encounters between the sexes are rare and rare. A male bites the first female he encounters because it’s a safer choice than gambling with another female who may never arrive.
Biologists to investigate how anglerfish achieve symbiosis Dr. Thomas Boehm Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Germany tested the DNA of 31 specimens from 10 species of monkfish.
They discovered that the monkfish species, which are fused male and female, lack important immune system genes. Somehow they are compromising the immune system to allow parabiosis without suffering any negative effects.
Understanding how anglerfish manage this trick could facilitate future blood transfusions and organ transplants and have important implications for medicine.
Snakes have two penises instead of just one. These organs, known as hemipenes, allow male snakes to mate with snakes from various directions. This is especially useful for red-sided garter snakes, which form chaotic “mating balls” during mating season in which males outnumber females 100 to 1.
This situation occurs because male snakes wake up from hibernation before females, causing a temporary imbalance in the sex ratio.
To increase the probability of mating success, the hemipenes of many reptile species have evolved complex spines that lock into place during copulation. In red-sided garter snakes, the hemipenis has a large spine that is inserted into the female during copulation.
This finding suggests that by contracting the genital opening and vagina, females may be able to forcefully reject male advances and thwart an unworthy partner’s chances of success.
Earlier this year, scientists discovered a type of nudibranch (Siphopterone Maxig) It stabs the partner directly in the center of the head with poisonous spurs, in the throes of love.
This spur (attached to the penis), called a penile stylet, injects a complex cocktail of hormones directly into the lover’s brain, increasing the odds of a successful copulation.
This is just one of the many reproductive oddities that nudibranchs have evolved. Some nudibranchs even “kiss” their bodies mouth-to-mouth before transferring their sperm. After mating, sea slugs can also “cuddle” by wrapping their colorful bodies around each other.
“Maybe ‘hugging’ is akin to protecting your spouse,” he says. Cheyenne Tatean experienced sea slug observer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“The threat to their reproductive success is that their sperm gets digested by their partner before it can be used for fertilization. And ‘hugging’ gives sperm a chance to travel deeper within their partner’s reproductive tract. You can get it. ”
Most people think that sea slugs, like many invertebrates, are primitive lower orders of bony animals with large brains. Their rich and duplicitous sex lives suggest otherwise.
The case of male spiders is complicated. To prepare for sex, they must first ejaculate onto a small web and then collect the semen in a pair of syringe-like appendages near their mouth known as palps.
Locked and loaded, the male spider must approach the female and insert its antennae into the female’s reproductive passageway, being careful not to activate the predatory kill reflex. The female’s reproductive tract happens to be just a few millimeters from the venomous fangs.
To limit the chance of being eaten, male spiders have evolved complex dances to clearly communicate their sexual intentions.
Some offer gifts to the female to keep her entertained while the sperm transfer takes place. But male redback spiders go one step further: During mating, the male somersaults balletically into the female’s jaw, encouraging her to bite.
During courtship, some species of snails periodically fire chemical-tipped arrows at each other, like the garden snail pictured here.
And since snails have both female and male reproductive organs, these arrows (or “love darts”) often fly in both directions.
“The purpose of the love dart is not to kill the mate, but to introduce bioactive substances that affect the mate’s reproductive process,” states Dr. Joris M. Corne of the Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environmental Research.
The substances contained in love darts contain a rich cocktail of special compounds (known as allomones) that prevent sperm from being lost within the reproductive tract of a potential mate if mating takes place.
Each species of snail has its own unique shape. Some love darts are curved like a harpoon. Some have thorns. Some have diamond-shaped tips, like decorated spears.
Can misfires cause fatalities? “I’ve occasionally seen darts go straight into the recipient’s head, and the recipient survived.” says Joris M. Corne.
“Cannibalism has its advantages,” says Nathan Burke, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg, who studies the mating strategies of praying mantises.
“It can lead to improved growth, condition and reproduction in cannibals. What makes many praying mantises and spiders different from other cannibals is that they also cannibalize in mating situations, usually eating the male. That means it’s only female.”
Burke is particularly interested in the wrestling matches that some praying mantis species engage in before mating. Wrestling matches involve violent grappling and violent contests between males and females who scrape their paws together.
If the female wins these struggles, the male will almost certainly be eaten. However, if the male wins, there is a good chance of mating.
Why sexual cannibalism is so rare among insects remains a subject of debate.
“The thing about praying mantises is that they are mostly sit-and-wait predators. They don’t move around looking for food, they patiently wait for food to come to them,” says Burke.
“This sit-and-wait lifestyle may be a pre-adaptation for sexual cannibalism.”
This may explain why cannibalism occurs in other sit-and-wait predators such as spiders.
A seed beetle’s penis, which has hundreds of sharp spines whose purpose is to scratch and tear the female’s reproductive organs, makes no sense at all.
After all, how does a penis gene that damages a woman’s reproductive tract spread throughout a population?
A female stag beetle that mated with a male with long spines produced sons with the same long spines. However, their daughters also appeared to have inherited some valuable traits.
On average, they were larger and produced more eggs during their lifetime.
About our experts
Dr. Joris M. CorneAssociate Professor at the Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environmental Research. His research focuses on simultaneous reproduction in hermaphrodites. His research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including PLoS ONE and Current Biology.
Dr. Nathan BurkeHe is an evolutionary ecologist and Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hamburg, Germany. His research investigates sexual antagonism in the springbok mantis (Myomantis cafra).
Dr. Cheyenne TateI am a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She received her PhD from the University of Notre Dame in 2019.
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