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POPSRussian Stone Idols of Komi The seven "stone idols" in the upper part of the river Pechora stand alone on a wide plateau. An interesting formation considering the surrounding landscape: The writer for englishrussia.com believes they were man-made. http://englishrussia.com/?p=1911 I think they appear to be formed by nature, but the location is odd. amgumen if you see this, any ideas?
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POPSThe Jurassic Coast The nearest coast to where I lived as a boy. It sparked my interest in geology and paleontology. I was there again yesterday. Bliss!
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POPSCurious cloud formations linked to quakes The authors say that if recognisable cloud formations precede large quakes, they could be used for prediction, but other seismologists are sceptical. "There is no physical model that explains why something would suddenly occur two months before an earthquake, and then shut off and not occur again," says Mike Blanpied of the
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POPSWildlife of Madagascar - pics 2 Avahi occidentalis A western woolly lemur. Scientists have used specially developed software to create detailed maps of how species are distributed on the island down to a per kilometre level 3 Avahi laniger An eastern woolly lemur. Data was collected on the exact locations of more than 2,300 Malagasy species from six major groups: lemurs, butterflies, frogs, geckos, ants and plants 4 Daubentonia madagascariensis An aye-aye. The world's largest nocturnal primate is found only in Madagascar and well known for its unique method of finding food: it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts its elongated middle finger to pull the grubs out 5 The Indri indri, one of the largest lemurs. The scientists say the Madagascar model could be used for other biodiversity hot spots around the world by helping scientists to predict where species might go for refuge when habitats are endangered by climate change
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POPSMassive volcano exploded under Antarctic icesheet
Evidence for this comes from a British-American airborne geophysical survey in 2004-5 that used radar to delve deep under the ice sheet to map the terrain beneath. Vaughan's team spotted anomalous radar reflections over 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 sq. miles), an area bigger than Wales. They interpret this signal as being a thick layer of ash, rock and glass, formed from fused silica, that the volcano spewed out in its fury. The amount of material -- 0.31 cubic kilometres (0.07 cubic miles) -- indicates an eruption of between three and four on a yardstick called the Volcanic Explosive Index (VEI). By comparison, the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, which was greater, rates a VEI of five, and that of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 is a VEI of six. "We believe this was the biggest eruption in Antarctica during the last 10,000 years," BAS' Hugh Corr says. "It blew a substantial hole in the icesheet and generated a plume of ash and gas that rose around 12 kms (eight miles
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POPSGlobal warming melting Arctic Ice: Manipulation of public perceptions the second was the Medieval Warm Period from 900 to 1200 AD, and most recently the warm period of the 1930s and 1940s, which we now know were warmer than the 1990s in North America despite what Al Gore says. As Marie Curie, a worthy winner of two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics said, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.” Full story in the: Canada Free Press