Google brings Mount Etna and its craters to Street View

Google took its 360-degree Trekker camera to Mount Etna and the surrounding region in Sicily, Italy

Separate locations can be explored using their popular Street View service

The locations reveal the snowy peaks of Mount Etna and two craters, Silvestri and Silvani

Mount Etna stands almost 11,000ft (3.4km) above sea level, looming over the island of Sicily

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3131628/Climb-VOLCANO-comfort-home-Google-brings-Mount-Etna-craters-Street-

David Attenborough: First Life

Having watched the first episode of 'First Life' in class this week, there is a new exhibit at the NHM exploring the ancient seas.

Further information can be found at the Daily Mail or the Natural History Museum websites.

David Attenborough’s First Life exhibit at London's Natural History Museum uses virtual reality headsets to let visitors 'swim' in ancient seas

Fossils from the museum’s collection come to life with the help of a pair of headphones and a headset containing a Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone 

The exhibit, comprising an immersive 15 minute session has just opened. 

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/06/19/18/29C9A88F00000578-0-image-a-37_1434735331631.jpg

The Earth stands on the brink of its sixth mass extinction

Life on Earth is in trouble. That much we know. But how bad have things become – and how fast are events moving? How soon, indeed, before the Earth’s biological treasures are trashed, in what will be the sixth great mass extinction event?

Rather than the nine extinctions among vertebrates that would be expected to have occurred in normal geological circumstances since 1900, their conservative estimate adds in another 468 extinctions, spread among mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish.


NOT THE FIRST TIME: Previous mass extinctions

Geological history includes many periods when species have died in large numbers. In each of the following, more than half the Earth’s species disappeared:

1 End-Ordovician, 443 million years ago.

This coincides with very rapid glaciation; sea level fell by more than 100 metres, devastating shallow marine ecosystems; less than a million years later, there was a second wave of extinctions as ice melted, sea level rose rapidly, and oceans became oxygen-depleted.

2 Late Devonian, c 360 million years ago.

A messy prolonged event, again hitting life in shallow seas very hard, and an extinction that was probably due to climate change.

3 Permian-Triassic mass extinction, c 250 million years ago.

The greatest of all, ‘The Great Dying’ of more than 95% of species, is strongly linked with massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia that caused, among other effects, a brief savage episode of global warming.

4 Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction, c 200 million years ago.

This has been linked with another huge outburst of volcanism.

5 Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction 65 million years ago.

This killed off the dinosaurs and much else; an asteroid impact on Mexico probably did the damage, but the world’s ecosystem may have been weakened by volcanic outbursts in what is now India.

Prof Mark Williams, Leicester University
For more information:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/21/mass-extinction-science-warning

Old Wellie Visit

Old Wellensian Dr Sally Morgan came to visit us over Old Wellies weekend and told Y12 Geologists about her career so far. 

She is currently the 'International Ocean Discovery Programme Knowledge Exchange fellow' at Leicester University and has worked on a number of projects since graduating in geology from Leeds University.

She has worked for Schlumberger (a leading supplier of technology to the oil and gas industry) and on various projects as part of the International Ocean Discovery Programme (in the Pacific Ocean, Baltic sea, Irish Sea, Beaufort Sea (Canada) as a petrophysicist.

Volcano erupts in dramatic fashion as people stand nearby

Video shows the moment a powerful explosion rocked Nicaragua's Telica volcano, as onlookers stood just metres away from the crater

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/nicaragua/11601413/Volcano-erupts-in-dramatic-fashion-as-people-stand-nearby.html

Inge Lehmann: the woman who discovered the Earth's inner core

While comparing data on the event Lehmann noticed that some seismic waves were bouncing off a boundary within the earth's core and being detected in the shadow zone.

Her work put forward that this seismic discontinuity was due to an inner core made of different material. Her findings were quickly accepted by the scientific community.

Previously scientists thought that the Earth was comprised of a single molten sphere rather than both inner and outer cores.

Town evacuated in Chile as volcano erupts

Around 1,500 people have been evacuated after the Calbuco volcano in southern Chile erupted for the first time in 43 years.

The evacuation of the town of Ensenada was a precaution, authorities in Chile said.

People living within a 12.5 mile radius were told to leave their homes and flights over the volcano were suspended as an additional safety measure.

Short video of eruption click here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/11556923/Town-evacuated-in-Chile-as-volcano-erupts.html