From “Science Times” : “Vast Reserves of Lithium Found in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Will Mining It Affect Environment?”

From “Science Times”

9.25.22
Tiffany Winfrey

Due to a surge in demand for electric vehicle batteries, Chile in South America has emerged as a global hub for lithium mining.

Since 2016, the yearly production at the Albemarle mine in the Atacama Desert has climbed from 22,000 tons to 84,000 tons, according to Ignacio Mehech, the company’s national manager in Chile, who spoke to NPR.

But what are the costs to the environment?

SALAR DE ATACAMA, CHILE – AUGUST 24: In this aerial view, visitors stand atop a large mound of salt bi-product from lithium production at a mine in the Atacama Desert on August 24, 2022, in Salar de Atacama, Chile. Albemarle Corporation, based in Charlotte, N.C., is expanding mining operations there to meet the rising global demand for lithium carbonate, the main component in the manufacture of batteries, increasingly for electric vehicles. At the Salar Plant, natural brine is pumped from vast salt flats to a series of evaporation ponds. During an 18-month process, the liquid s moved through 15 ponds, eventually turning from dark blue to bright yellow with a lithium concentration of 6 percent. It is then trucked to an Albemarle chemical plant in Antofagasta, which is processed into battery-grade lithium carbonate powder and shipped internationally. The evaporation process produces large quantities of salt byproduct, much of which is then reprocessed and sold. Chile is the second largest global producer of lithium, after Australia. (Photo: John Moore/Getty Images)

Lithium Mining in the Atacama Desert

Gizmodo explained that the Atacama is located in the middle of the so-called Lithium Triangle, a region with abundant lithium reserves that includes Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile.

An estimated 58 percent of the world’s lithium deposits are located in the area, most of which are found in the numerous salt flats and lakes. The Atacama is a goldmine in this fertile area; only one exceptionally salty basin is home to about 30 percent of the world’s lithium content.

According to The Washington Post, the Atacama Desert in Chile is regarded as the Saudi Arabia of the electric car sector. With an estimated 8 million tons, it has one of the greatest lithium deposits in the world.

As the shift to sustainable energy begins, the demand for lithium has risen dramatically in recent years. According to some projections, the demand for lithium might treble globally over the next five years, severely taxing the world’s present supply capacity.

The demand for lithium is rising as governments and businesses speed up the manufacture of electric cars, particularly lithium-intensive ones.

Lithium mining has drawn criticism in many parts of the world due to its effects on the environment, labor conditions, and indigenous groups. Locals in the Atacama have opposed the impact of mining on the region’s water resources.

Lithium Mining and Effects on the Environment

Lithium demand harms the ecosystem, damaging the region’s rare biodiversity and arousing outrage from indigenous groups. These worries were reflected in the mining-related clauses of the draft constitution that Chilean voters rejected.

Since the global demand for lithium is depleting the Atacama Desert’s water supply, the pink flamingo population there has been declining.

Researchers discovered that the reduction of at least two flamingo species in the Atacama is connected to regions where water is becoming more limited due to lithium mining, according to a study published in March in the Proceedings of the Royal Societies B [below].

Flamingos require water to survive and breed, and lithium mines in the Atacama Desert are robbing them of that water by evaporating seawater to extract the mineral. An estimated 450 gallons (1,700 liters) of saltwater are pumped out of the earth per second at the Salar de Atacama to be used for mining.

Other desert regions’ water levels have changed due to drought and climate change. However, the study examined data on flamingo numbers for 30 years and discovered that flamingo populations have remained mostly steady in other desert regions not affected by lithium mining.

Two of the three species of flamingos in the Atacama area, where lithium mining is most prevalent, have shown a recent 10-year fall in the population of 10-12 percent. Winter water levels fell by almost 40 percent throughout that time period.

Proceedings of the Royal Societies B

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From Science Times : “Solar Flare Warning-Geomagnetic Storm Could Reach Earth and Peak Sunday. Second Coronal Hole a Possibility”

From Science Times

Nov 26, 2021
Margaret Davis

A solar flare, also known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), was spotted on November 24 that is thought to have delivered a “glancing blow,” Science Times previously reported.

Solar winds-Sun’s coronal holes release solar winds towards Earth. National Geophysical Data Cantre.

Coronal mass ejections – NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center-SDO

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (US) Solar Dynamics Observatory(US)

Solar flares are common, although not all of them travel towards Earth. However, once they do, they can be disruptive to satellites and power grids.

According to NOAA / The NWS Space Weather Prediction Center (US), some solar flares can be massive and could travel at speeds between 155mi-1864mi (250km-3,000km) a second. They likened it to a 50,000-mile-long canyon with towering red hot plasma.

When Will the Solar Storm Hit Earth?

Experts warned that the CME unleashed by the Sun is expected to make a sideswipe on the planet’s magnetic field, The Mirror reported. More so, minor storms could affect some equipment on Earth and possibly make aurora visible in some places in the northern hemisphere, hence the name northern lights.

Despite the imminent danger that may cause damage to satellites and power grids, experts said that there is no reason to worry and noted that any effects are likely to be very limited and are expected to cause minor disruption.

The Met Office-Weather and climate change (UK), the UK’s national weather service, said that the CME would likely arrive late on Saturday and peak on early Sunday.

Scientists Expect a Second Coronal Hole That Will Bring Minimal Disruptions

Scientists measure the intensity of solar storms on a G-scale in which the stronger the storm, the more likely northern lights will be seen even further in the southern hemisphere. The recent solar storm from the Sun that released a canyon of hot plasma is thought to have a 30% chance of becoming a minor G1 class solar storm, according to a report by The Independent.

G1 class storms could cause minor disruptions, such as disruptions in satellite operations. The next level is the G2 class that is twice as powerful as the G1, and so on.

Some solar storms could even reach up to G5 class, the strongest geomagnetic storm classification. It could occur four times within 11 years or equivalent to one solar cycle and cause complete blackouts and degrading of satellite navigation. One event with the G5 class was recorded in 1859 that burned down telephone lines and caused aurora or Northern lights visible as far down as the Caribbean.

The Met Office warns that there could be some more geomagnetic activity than expected if there is a second coronal hole that could cause similar effects sometime in the future. Although, they said that it is still unclear how likely and when it will arrive on the planet. On the other hand, they expect its effects to be minimal, just like the current solar storm.

What If a Massive Solar Storm Hit the Earth?

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From Science Times : “Supervolcanoes May Not Always Show Signs of Next Eruption; Indonesia’s Mount Toba Building Up Magma Silently”

From Science Times

Nov 06, 2021
Ron Jefferson

Sumatra’s Mount Toba volcano is one of the biggest geological threats in Indonesia. In a new study, the natural solemnity of the towering volcano could be replaced with a devastating eruption anytime soon, and the worst part is that it could occur without any warning. The research detailed that not all supervolcanoes could give signs of their upcoming eruptions, leading to the failure of prediction and unwanted chaos.

Supervolcano Magma Accumulation Silent But Deadly

Indonesia – Lake Toba. 3 April 2016.

Sumatra’s Mount Toba volcano is one of the biggest geological threats in Indonesia. In a new study, the natural solemnity of the towering volcano could be replaced with a devastating eruption anytime soon, and the worst part is that it could occur without any warning. The research detailed that not all supervolcanoes could give signs of their upcoming eruptions, leading to the failure of prediction and unwanted chaos.

The study presented the data from previous eruptions conducted by the Toba volcano. Based on the geological information extracted from Toba’s massive spews 840,000 and 75,000 years ago, no magma influx had manifested in the volcano’s reservoir. The signs did not appear due to the silent movement and accumulations of materials.

Moreover, the study found out that the Toba volcano’s second eruption had a gradual build-up of magma. The time it took for the volcano to accumulate its chaotic load was 600,000 years, surprisingly half of the supposed 1.4 million years. The slow compilation of the volcanic materials was due to the relatively quiet and moderate escalation of temperatures at the continental crust that covered the magma reservoir.

School of Earth and Space Sciences at The Peking University [北京大学](CN), Institute of Earth Sciences at The Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics(TW), and The Institute of Geology and Geophysics at The Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院] (CN) expert Ping Ping Liu said in a University of Geneva [Université de Genève](CH) press release that the eruptions recorded from Indonesia’s Toba volcano are dangerous. The expert explained that the gradual heating of the crust allows the magma to have slower cooling of temperature. In addition, the magma from this kind of system will be accumulated faster than the build-up in a standard reservoir.

Toba Volcano Still Active; Magma Build-Up Ongoing and May Erupt Without Warnings

The examinations from the Toba volcano were made possible through the chemical compositions of the minerals called zircons, which were spewed out during the eruption. Science Alert reported that zircons contain uranium which eventually decays to lead after some time. The transition was analyzed through mass spectrometry and revealed details in between the zircons’ chemical transitions, allowing experts to specify what happened during the supervolcanic eruptions of Toba.

The readings from the volcanic minerals also provided the timelines of the eruptions and the sequence of the magma build-ups on the reservoir. Moreover, the zircons served as a key to measuring the volume of magma accumulated right in the heart of the Toba volcano.

Toba’s previous eruptions formed a wide caldera that measures about 320 square kilometers. The caldera still stands as a lake [above] in the present day, with an island sitting at its center. The island exists due to the push of the magma reservoir accumulating under the depths of the lake and into the crust. According to Liu, the volcano is active and the magma is gradually collecting magma up to this date. The build-up is evident through Toba lake’s island as its height increases over time. The study titled “Growth and thermal maturation of the Toba magma reservoir” was published in PNAS.

Supervolcanoes 101 | National Geographic

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From Science Times: “Strong 7.1 Earthquake Rocks Northeast Japan Including Fukushima”

From Science Times

Feb 13, 2021
Isabella Beltran

The fallen gate of a house is seen on a street in Koori, Fukushima Prefecture, on Feb. 14, 2021, after an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 struck northeastern Japan late on Feb. 13. Credit: Kyodo News.

A liquor shop’s manager clears the damaged bottles following an earthquake in Fukushima, northeastern Japan. Credit: Jun Hirata/Kyodo News/AP)

February 13, 2021, Japan Meteorological Agency reports that a 7.1 earthquake rocked Northeast Japan at 10:07 pm JST. With no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

With 14 aftershocks felt and almost 850,000 households without power, authorities report that no casualties or damage to property were reported as of yet.

The jolting quake was also felt in Tokyo, Japan’s capital.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga tells a press conference, “There have been no anomalies reported from any nuclear facilities. Everything is normal.”

According to NHK TV, there are no dangers of tsunamis. The agency reports that the quake was centered 37 miles beneath the ocean bed.

The Prime Minister states that currently, checks are being carried out to determine the number of injured, urging people not to venture outdoors in the meantime and to prepare for oncoming aftershocks.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katunobu Kato tells a separate news conference that roughly 850,000 households are left with no power in the area surrounding Tokyo and northern Japan.

A spokeswoman for the Japan Meteorological Agency tells the press in Tokyo, “Where the tremor was felt the strongest, there is a higher risk of structural collapse and landslides.” Adding that residents should be cautious about tremors that result from the earlier 7.1 quakes.

Fukushima: The Devastation in 2011

Fukushima Prefecture has been synonymous with the devastating nuclear disaster in 2011, where the area was hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake–the strongest earthquake in Japan’s history. A tsunami followed soon after, leaving more than 15,000 residents dead and 2,500 others missing.

The deadly tsunami slammed through the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant walls, knocking out power and causing 3 nuclear reactors to melt, spewing radioactive particles into the air.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato says that the plant was currently being inspected with no concern of damage-causing tsunami, and no anomalies were reported on site after the 7.1 earthquakes. Investigations continue to ensure that there is no structural damage.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates the plant, tweeted that there are no detected abnormalities or adverse effects from the recent Fukushima Prefecture earthquake after checking its facilities.

As a sign of rebirth, Fukushima was due to host parts of the Summer Olympics set to take place in 2020. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the games were delayed.

Earthquakes are fairly common in Japan, as one of the world’s most seismically active areas. Japan reports roughly 20% of the world’s earthquakes with a magnitude of 6 or higher.

Earthquake Alert

Earthquake Network project Earthquake Network is a research project which aims at developing and maintaining a crowdsourced smartphone-based earthquake warning system at a global level. Smartphones made available by the population are used to detect the earthquake waves using the on-board accelerometers. When an earthquake is detected, an earthquake warning is issued in order to alert the population not yet reached by the damaging waves of the earthquake.

The project started on January 1, 2013 with the release of the homonymous Android application Earthquake Network. The author of the research project and developer of the smartphone application is Francesco Finazzi of the University of Bergamo, Italy.

Get the app in the Google Play store.

Smartphone network spatial distribution (green and red dots) on December 4, 2015

Meet the Quake-Catcher Network

The Quake-Catcher Network is a collaborative initiative for developing the world’s largest, low-cost strong-motion seismic network by utilizing sensors in and attached to internet-connected computers. With your help, the Quake-Catcher Network can provide better understanding of earthquakes, give early warning to schools, emergency response systems, and others. The Quake-Catcher Network also provides educational software designed to help teach about earthquakes and earthquake hazards.

After almost eight years at Stanford, and a year at CalTech, the QCN project is moving to the University of Southern California Dept. of Earth Sciences. QCN will be sponsored by the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) and the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC).

The Quake-Catcher Network is a distributed computing network that links volunteer hosted computers into a real-time motion sensing network. QCN is one of many scientific computing projects that runs on the world-renowned distributed computing platform Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC).

The volunteer computers monitor vibrational sensors called MEMS accelerometers, and digitally transmit “triggers” to QCN’s servers whenever strong new motions are observed. QCN’s servers sift through these signals, and determine which ones represent earthquakes, and which ones represent cultural noise (like doors slamming, or trucks driving by).

There are two categories of sensors used by QCN: 1) internal mobile device sensors, and 2) external USB sensors.

Mobile Devices: MEMS sensors are often included in laptops, games, cell phones, and other electronic devices for hardware protection, navigation, and game control. When these devices are still and connected to QCN, QCN software monitors the internal accelerometer for strong new shaking. Unfortunately, these devices are rarely secured to the floor, so they may bounce around when a large earthquake occurs. While this is less than ideal for characterizing the regional ground shaking, many such sensors can still provide useful information about earthquake locations and magnitudes.

USB Sensors: MEMS sensors can be mounted to the floor and connected to a desktop computer via a USB cable. These sensors have several advantages over mobile device sensors. 1) By mounting them to the floor, they measure more reliable shaking than mobile devices. 2) These sensors typically have lower noise and better resolution of 3D motion. 3) Desktops are often left on and do not move. 4) The USB sensor is physically removed from the game, phone, or laptop, so human interaction with the device doesn’t reduce the sensors’ performance. 5) USB sensors can be aligned to North, so we know what direction the horizontal “X” and “Y” axes correspond to.

If you are a science teacher at a K-12 school, please apply for a free USB sensor and accompanying QCN software. QCN has been able to purchase sensors to donate to schools in need. If you are interested in donating to the program or requesting a sensor, click here.

BOINC is a leader in the field(s) of Distributed Computing, Grid Computing and Citizen Cyberscience.BOINC is more properly the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, developed at UC Berkeley.

Earthquake safety is a responsibility shared by billions worldwide. The Quake-Catcher Network (QCN) provides software so that individuals can join together to improve earthquake monitoring, earthquake awareness, and the science of earthquakes. The Quake-Catcher Network (QCN) links existing networked laptops and desktops in hopes to form the worlds largest strong-motion seismic network.

Below, the QCN Quake Catcher Network map

ShakeAlert: An Earthquake Early Warning System for the West Coast of the United States

The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) along with a coalition of State and university partners is developing and testing an earthquake early warning (EEW) system called ShakeAlert for the west coast of the United States. Long term funding must be secured before the system can begin sending general public notifications, however, some limited pilot projects are active and more are being developed. The USGS has set the goal of beginning limited public notifications in 2018.

Watch a video describing how ShakeAlert works in English or Spanish.

The primary project partners include:

United States Geological Survey
California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES)
California Geological Survey
California Institute of Technology
University of California Berkeley
University of Washington
University of Oregon
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

The Earthquake Threat

Earthquakes pose a national challenge because more than 143 million Americans live in areas of significant seismic risk across 39 states. Most of our Nation’s earthquake risk is concentrated on the West Coast of the United States. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has estimated the average annualized loss from earthquakes, nationwide, to be $5.3 billion, with 77 percent of that figure ($4.1 billion) coming from California, Washington, and Oregon, and 66 percent ($3.5 billion) from California alone. In the next 30 years, California has a 99.7 percent chance of a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake and the Pacific Northwest has a 10 percent chance of a magnitude 8 to 9 megathrust earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone.

Part of the Solution

Today, the technology exists to detect earthquakes, so quickly, that an alert can reach some areas before strong shaking arrives. The purpose of the ShakeAlert system is to identify and characterize an earthquake a few seconds after it begins, calculate the likely intensity of ground shaking that will result, and deliver warnings to people and infrastructure in harm’s way. This can be done by detecting the first energy to radiate from an earthquake, the P-wave energy, which rarely causes damage. Using P-wave information, we first estimate the location and the magnitude of the earthquake. Then, the anticipated ground shaking across the region to be affected is estimated and a warning is provided to local populations. The method can provide warning before the S-wave arrives, bringing the strong shaking that usually causes most of the damage.

Studies of earthquake early warning methods in California have shown that the warning time would range from a few seconds to a few tens of seconds. ShakeAlert can give enough time to slow trains and taxiing planes, to prevent cars from entering bridges and tunnels, to move away from dangerous machines or chemicals in work environments and to take cover under a desk, or to automatically shut down and isolate industrial systems. Taking such actions before shaking starts can reduce damage and casualties during an earthquake. It can also prevent cascading failures in the aftermath of an event. For example, isolating utilities before shaking starts can reduce the number of fire initiations.

System Goal

The USGS will issue public warnings of potentially damaging earthquakes and provide warning parameter data to government agencies and private users on a region-by-region basis, as soon as the ShakeAlert system, its products, and its parametric data meet minimum quality and reliability standards in those geographic regions. The USGS has set the goal of beginning limited public notifications in 2018. Product availability will expand geographically via ANSS regional seismic networks, such that ShakeAlert products and warnings become available for all regions with dense seismic instrumentation.

Current Status

The West Coast ShakeAlert system is being developed by expanding and upgrading the infrastructure of regional seismic networks that are part of the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS); the California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) is made up of the Southern California Seismic Network, SCSN) and the Northern California Seismic System, NCSS and the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN). This enables the USGS and ANSS to leverage their substantial investment in sensor networks, data telemetry systems, data processing centers, and software for earthquake monitoring activities residing in these network centers. The ShakeAlert system has been sending live alerts to “beta” users in California since January of 2012 and in the Pacific Northwest since February of 2015.

In February of 2016 the USGS, along with its partners, rolled-out the next-generation ShakeAlert early warning test system in California joined by Oregon and Washington in April 2017. This West Coast-wide “production prototype” has been designed for redundant, reliable operations. The system includes geographically distributed servers, and allows for automatic fail-over if connection is lost.

This next-generation system will not yet support public warnings but does allow selected early adopters to develop and deploy pilot implementations that take protective actions triggered by the ShakeAlert notifications in areas with sufficient sensor coverage.

Authorities

The USGS will develop and operate the ShakeAlert system, and issue public notifications under collaborative authorities with FEMA, as part of the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program, as enacted by the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977, 42 U.S.C. §§ 7704 SEC. 2.

For More Information

Robert de Groot, ShakeAlert National Coordinator for Communication, Education, and Outreach
rdegroot@usgs.gov
626-583-7225

Learn more about EEW Research

ShakeAlert Fact Sheet

ShakeAlert Implementation Plan

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From DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory via Science Times: “The World’s Largest Camera Has Taken the First 3,200 Megapixel Images at SLAC”

From DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

via

Science Times

Dec 28, 2020
Erika P.

The world’s largest digital camera is capable of taking 3.2 billion pixel photographs, which is the largest single-shot photos ever taken. This camera is scheduled to be transferred to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, designed to survey the southern sky for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

SLAC 3200 megapixel camera for Vera C Rubin Observatory

NOIRLab Vera C. Rubin Observatory Telescope currently under construction on the El Peñón peak at Cerro Pachón Chile, a 2,682-meter-high mountain in Coquimbo Region, in northern Chile, alongside the existing Gemini South and Southern Astrophysical Research Telescopes, altitude 2,715 m (8,907 ft).

This camera will help astronomers peer back into the universe and understand how galaxies evolve, and answer questions about how dark matter mesh with reality. This camera will also help scientists observe some of the dimmest light of the universe that hopefully could help them see far back of the universe’s history.

But before using this to observing space, the scientists used the camera first on vegetables, which they first took a snap of the first 3,200 megapixel photos. Scientists at Stanford University’s SLAC Laboratory had to construct a bigger camera than the typical smartphone camera to produce ultra high definition photos.

Taking the first 3,200-megapixel images was an important first test for the focal plane. To do so without a fully assembled camera, the SLAC team used a 150-micron pinhole to project images onto the focal plane. Left: Schematic of a pinhole projector that projects images of a Romanesco’s detailed texture onto the focal plane. Right: SLAC’s Yousuke Utsumi and Aaron Roodman remove the pinhole projector from the cryostat assembly after projecting the first images onto the focal plane. Explore the test images in full resolution using the links at the bottom of this press release. Credit: Greg Stewart/Jacqueline Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

How Does the World’s Largest Camera Work?

The camera is as big as the SUV and has 189 individual light sensors that bring 16 megapixels of data or a total of 3,200 megapixels, according to an article in Inverse. The 189 light sensors are grouped in nine sets, and their supporting electronics were constructed into square units called “science rafts.”

The camera team inserted 21 of these science rafts and four additional non-imaging rafts to form the final camera. According to SLAC mechanical engineer Hannah Pollek, who worked on this project, this process was extremely delicate.

“The combination of high stakes and tight tolerances made this project very challenging. But with a versatile team, we pretty much nailed it,” Pollek said.

Moreover, the focal plan does not only contain 3.2 billion pixels, but its pixels are also very small, and the focal plane itself is extremely flat, measuring about ten microns wide and less than one-tenth of a human hair, respectively.

These properties make it possible for the camera to take sharp images of a full-frame consumer camera and large enough to take photos of a portion of the sky with 40 full moons, SLAC’s press release stated.

Lastly, the whole camera is designed in a way that imaging sensors could detect objects that are over 10 million times dimmer than objects that are visible to the naked eye. In other words, it can spot an object or let a person see a lit candle from thousands of miles away.

What’s Next With the World’s Largest Digital Camera?

The SLAC team captured a few photos using items found in the lab before taking the camera from Northern California to its final destination in Chile. They took a photo of the fractal-like romanesco broccoli and Vera Rubin’s photo, the namesake of the observatory conducting the LSST.

These 3,200-megapixel photos are by far the largest, single-shot images ever taken that it would at least 378 4K ultra-high-definition TV screens to view its full size.

The success of taking these initial photos plays a significant role in capturing and understanding the universe. It is a milestone that brings the scientists to s big step closer in exploring fundamental questions about the cosmos in ways that were not yet explored before, said SLAC’s chief research officer and associate lab director for fundamental physics, JoAnne Hewett.

The camera is scheduled to be transferred in 2021 to the Rubin Observatory.

Vera C. Rubin Observatory LSST Camera.

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We provide credible news & info., in-depth reference material about diverse subjects that matter to everyone. We are a source for original and timely science and research information as well as breaking news in the various fields we represent.

SLAC is a multi-program laboratory exploring frontier questions in photon science, astrophysics, particle physics and accelerator research. Located in Menlo Park, California, SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the DOE’s Office of Science.

SLAC National Accelerator Lab

SLAC/LCLS

SLAC/LCLS II projected view

SLAC LCLS-II Undulators The Linac Coherent Light Source’s new undulators each use an intricately tuned series of magnets to convert electron energy into intense bursts of X-rays. The “soft” X-ray undulator stretches for 100 meters on the left side of this hall, with the “hard” x-ray undulator on the right. Credit: Alberto Gamazo/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

SSRL and LCLS are DOE Office of Science user facilities.

From Science Times: “Optical Clocks Narrow Down the Search for Dark Matter”

From Science Times

Oct 25, 2020
Mark B.

Ye group and Baxley/ Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics via Wikimedia Commons) JILA’s experimental atomic clock based on strontium atoms held in a lattice of laser light is the world’s most precise and stable atomic clock. The image is a composite of many photos taken with long exposure times and other techniques to make the lasers more visible.

Researchers have used the accuracy of optical clocks to close in on the mysterious components of Dark Matter*, as well as the coupling between parts – particles and fields – postulated by the standard model of physics.

Standard Model of Particle Physics via http://www.plus.maths.org

The existence of dark matter remains to be proven. Its presence is indirectly observed through its effects on visible objects such as galaxies and stars. One of the effects supposedly caused by dark matter is an oscillation of fundamental physics constants.

On the other hand, optical clocks are extremely precise and accurate timekeeping equipment. They are so accurate in fact, that scientists estimate 20 billion years – longer than the known age of the Universe – before it leads or lags by a second.

A team of researchers, led by Jun Ye from the University of Colorado and the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), worked on a new attempt to detect dark matter, submitted in the online repository arXiv [Precision Metrology Meets Cosmology: Improved Constraints on Ultralight Dark Matter from Atom-Cavity Frequency Comparisons]. Through this precision of optical clocks, researchers propose that if the optical clocks still won’t detect the dark matter oscillations, it would suggest that the interaction of dark matter with observable particles in the standard model is lower than the constraints available.

What is Dark Matter and Dark Energy?

Determining Values for Fundamental Constants

Previous works aimed at detecting dark matter have involved large-scale studies, such as those conducted at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) (CH). Most recently, members of the ATLAS collaboration at the LHC inquired into dark matter using the Higgs boson – using the elementary particles, transforming it into particles that are “invisible.”

Other related efforts include detecting interactions with weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), particles whose masses are close to that of a silver atom around 100 gigaelectronvolts (GeV).

Ye’s team, however, used a state-of-the-art strontium optical lattice clock, a hydrogen maser, and its own cryogenic crystalline silicon cavity to try and capture possible interactions between dark matter and particles at the lower end of the mass spectrum, in the range below eV. In comparison, the mass of an electron at rest is close to 500,000 times larger than the limit used in the study.

Setting New Constraints For Future Studies

The optical clock allows researchers to observe variations in alpha (α), known as the fine structure constant and is used to characterize the strength of interactions between photons and charged particles. Researchers compared the frequency of the strontium atoms in the optical clock to those in the silicon cavity, which allows electromagnetic waves to bounce inside its chambers. This phenomenon creates a standing wave whose characteristic frequency can be controlled based on its cavity length. The frequency of the optical clock and the cavity is defined in terms of α and me, or the mass of an electron. Furthermore, data from these two pieces of equipment were also compared to the frequency of a hydrogen maser, a frequency standard using a hydrogen atom as reference.

Researchers were not able to observe the oscillations in fundamental constants caused by dark matter interactions. This result, however, establishes a new set of constraints – narrowing down the possible values for these interactions. Dark matter particles having masses from 4.5 × 10-16 down to 1 × 10-19 electronvolts, the strength of dark matter interactions – in terms of α – is theorized to be up by a factor of five. On the other hand, interactions in terms of me could have constraints by as much as 100 times, for masses 2 × 10-19 and 2 × 10-21 eV.

*Dark Matter Background
Fritz Zwicky discovered Dark Matter in the 1930s when observing the movement of the Coma Cluster., Vera Rubin a Woman in STEM denied the Nobel, did most of the work on Dark Matter.

Fritz Zwicky from http:// palomarskies.blogspot.com.

Coma cluster via NASA/ESA Hubble.

In modern times, it was astronomer Fritz Zwicky, in the 1930s, who made the first observations of what we now call dark matter. His 1933 observations of the Coma Cluster of galaxies seemed to indicated it has a mass 500 times more than that previously calculated by Edwin Hubble. Furthermore, this extra mass seemed to be completely invisible. Although Zwicky’s observations were initially met with much skepticism, they were later confirmed by other groups of astronomers.

Thirty years later, astronomer Vera Rubin provided a huge piece of evidence for the existence of dark matter. She discovered that the centers of galaxies rotate at the same speed as their extremities, whereas, of course, they should rotate faster. Think of a vinyl LP on a record deck: its center rotates faster than its edge. That’s what logic dictates we should see in galaxies too. But we do not. The only way to explain this is if the whole galaxy is only the center of some much larger structure, as if it is only the label on the LP so to speak, causing the galaxy to have a consistent rotation speed from center to edge.

Vera Rubin, following Zwicky, postulated that the missing structure in galaxies is dark matter. Her ideas were met with much resistance from the astronomical community, but her observations have been confirmed and are seen today as pivotal proof of the existence of dark matter.

Astronomer Vera Rubin at the Lowell Observatory in 1965, worked on Dark Matter (The Carnegie Institution for Science).

Vera Rubin measuring spectra, worked on Dark Matter (Emilio Segre Visual Archives AIP SPL).

Vera Rubin, with Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (DTM) image tube spectrograph attached to the Kitt Peak 84-inch telescope, 1970. https://home.dtm.ciw.edu.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory currently under construction on the El Peñón peak at Cerro Pachón Chile, a 2,682-meter-high mountain in Coquimbo Region, in northern Chile, alongside the existing Gemini South and Southern Astrophysical Research Telescopes.

LSST Data Journey, Illustration by Sandbox Studio, Chicago with Ana Kova.

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From Science Times: “Biggest Landslide in Norway Caught in Camera Shows Eight Buildings Sent Into the Sea”

From Science Times

Jun 05, 2020
Erika P.

An incredibly powerful landslide in Norway has swept at least eight buildings into the sea, leaving substantial damage, prompting a dog rescue. One person was evacuated from a nearby property, but there are no injuries reported.

The buildings were mostly cabins for holiday homes, swept into the sea on Wednesday in Alta municipality in northern Norway. The landslide ran 2,133 feet along the shore and went nearly 500 feet inland, The New York Times reported.

According to Anders Bjordal, a Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate senior engineer who was part of the rescue mission, the landslide was the largest that the area has ever seen as a landslide has not happened in 50 or 60 years especially not one this size.

Powerful Landslide Caught on Camera

According to Forbes, the police got a report of the incident at 3:45 pm, and the rescue mission was immediately deployed by air and sea.

Jan Egil Bakkeby, a local who owns one of the cabins, managed to capture some of the events on camera. He scrambled out of the building upon hearing the landslide begin. He told Norwegian newspaper Altaposten that he had just made slices of bread when he heard a crack in the cabin.

“At first, I thought there was someone in the loft, but then I saw out of the window that the power cord was smoking,” Bakkeby said.

He was able to film the landslide under his, and others’ properties inched into the water and were soon submerged as he moved to higher ground. The video shows the power of the land movement, which made him ran for his life.

It is not immediately clear what caused the landslide, but Mr. Bjordal said that it is unlikely caused by human activity.

Rescue Operation

Involved in the rescue mission were the local police force, the fire and ambulance services, helicopter rescue, the Red Cross, and the Coast Guard immediately conducted rescue operations. Bakkeby and one other person who was in the area emerged safely from the disaster.

According to officials, they used a dog to do the rescue mission, but it was swept away when the land began to slip and was carried to the sea. Luckily, the dog was able to swim to the shore and was rescued by the helicopter while it was checking for people in the area.

Rescue operations were called off by 7 pm with everyone accounted for, and the police are now verifying the information that no one is left in the area.

Closed to the Public

Several smaller landslides have occurred hours before the main incident, according to local media reports. Currently, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) is monitoring the risk of possible landslides.

Bjordal warned that there is likely to be an ongoing movement for a couple of days. But the area will remain closed to the public until authorities deem it safe. The buildings will stay stuck in the area until officials make plans to excavate them.

See the full article here .

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From Science Times: “Kilauea Caldera Collapse Caused by a Tiny Leak in Volcano”

From Science Times

Dec 07, 2019
Staff Reporter

USGS

In 2018, the state of Hawaii was shaken (literally and figuratively) by the eruption of Mt. Kilauea resulting in the Kilauea caldera collapse. The explosion created a hole more or less 386.5 meters deep or the same length of the One World Trade Center in New York. What is more surprising is that all these drastic changes are caused by one tiny leak of magma from a reservoir just below the peak.

Lava erupts from a fissure in the Leilani Estates neighborhood near Pahoa on the island of Hawaii. Grace Simoneau/FEMA via AP

HOW DID THE KILAUEA CALDERA COLLAPSE?

According to the geologists who monitored the Kilauea caldera collapse, these explosive collapses are a common phenomenon. However, the researchers were also able to observe and hypothesize that events like the Kilauea caldera collapse, which happened relatively slower than the common phenomenon, could be happening to volcanoes all over the planet. In an article written by Scientific American, geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson who studies a similar collapse to Kilauea caldera collapse in Bardarbunga, explains, “what we have learned from the two events is that there may not be much warning.” Gudmundsson was not a part of the three new studies about the Kilauea, but his experience with the Bardarbunga proves the theory of the researchers. He also explains that collapses such as the Kilauea caldera collapse are similar to the usual volcanic eruption. However, when the magma chamber underneath the volcano can split apart, and magma can now flow freely, the caldera may collapse.

Mt. Kilauea has been actively erupting for as long as 2,800 years ago but was first documented in 1823 when Westerners colonized the island. One of the biggest impacts Kilauea’s long history of volcanic eruption happened during its start in 1983 when it began spewing lava out from its Eastern Rift Zone, an area already fractured by fissures.

To say that the series of eruptions ended with a bang in 2018 is an understatement. Upon the culmination of the eruptions in 2018, the lava lake inside the caldera began to drain, and the lower part of the Eastern Rift Zone suddenly became active, spewing out lava and producing new fissures which, unfortunately, flowed towards habited lands where it destroyed 700 homes and other buildings.

Scientists observed the whole Kilauea caldera collapse through drones, GPS sensors, thermal cameras, and satellite-based radar, and they are quite surprised by the findings. It’s definitely something that they had not seen before.

KILAUEA CALDERA COLLAPSE BEFORE AND AFTER

In a study published by Kyle Anderson [Science], a geophysicist at the United States Geological Survey, and his team described how the eruption caused the Kilauea caldera collapse and not the other way around, ending a chicken-or-egg argument on the origin of caldera collapses. The team found out that the same thing happened with Bardarbunga and that the primary reason for the Kilauea caldera collapse is the rifting of the islands because gravity pulls the slope of the volcano towards the sea. This gravitational pull resulted in the opening up of fissures which made magma to leave the reservoir and the lava lake inside the crater. According to the study, when the magma below the caldera disappeared, the rock on its floor crumbled down, and while the caldera floor buckled, it pressurized the underground pathways of magma — this is the cause of the prolonged eruption in the Eastern Rift Zone.

Anderson explains that before the first Kilauea caldera collapse, only a tiny fraction of the magma was removed, certainly less than 3.5 – 4 percent. Prior to this study [Science], there was no accurate estimation of how much magma drainage is needed to cause a caldera collapse. Through their observations, the team found out that it does not take a lot of magma drainage to cause such collapse as seen with Kilauea caldera collapse. Anderson also explained that another factor that may have contributed to the Kilauea caldera collapse is that the caldera is already weak.

See the full article here .

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From Science Times: “New Study Reveals some Black Holes did not Start with Imploding Stars”

From Science Times

Jul 12, 2019
Richelle H. Concio

(Photo : XMM-Newton, ESA, NASA)

ESA/XMM Newton

NASA/ESA Hubble Telescope

One of the many scientific wonders that baffles many people, including many experts, is the occurrence of black holes. As black holes have been studied by many experts throughout the years, certain facts have been established to define blackholes.

A new study, [The Astrophysical Journal ] however, posits that not all black holes began as stars, as opposed to the previous assumption known to the scientific community. A team of astrophysicists has found evidence linking to the formation of black holes. This new information is yet to be confirmed. Still, if the astrophysicists would be able to confirm their data, it could change the current understanding of black holes.

Shantanu Basu and Arpan Das from the University of Western Ontario has provided a study showing evidence that it is possible for supermassive black holes to form even if a massive star did not implode. Rather, the duo’s research proposes that some supermassive black holes can grow out on a very fast rate over a very short period of time, and could suddenly stop growing. According to the astrophysicists, this new model can provide scientists with an explanation of how the stellar phenomena have formed during the very early stages of the universe.

Basu stated that their indirect observational evidence reveals that some black holes originate from direct collapses and not from stellar remnants.

It is a well-known fact in the scientific community that most black holes that have been charted to this day were created in the heart of massive stars, commonly with masses larger than the sun. However, the existence of supermassive black holes which measure beyond 10 or even beyond 20 times the mass of the sun has posed a problem for many astronomers. The question on how the supermassive black holes have formed, if not from a single collapsing star, could be answered by the theory presented by Basu and Das.

Basu explains the direct-collapse scenario by citing that supermassive black holes only had a short time period where the said stellar phenomenon was able to grow fast and at some point, because of all the radiation in the universe created by other black holes and stars, the production of the said supermassive black holes would come to a halt.

A number of various studies revolving around black holes in general, which includes origin, state, and discovery, has been presented over the past few years. In March 2019, astronomers have announced the discovery of over 80 supermassive black holes. In turn, the first-ever image of a black hole was captured in April of this year, as well.

See the full article here .

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From Science Times: “Curious Hubble Discovers A Galaxy Moving Closer To Earth”

From Science Times

May 25, 2019
Lysette Maurice N. Sandoval

NASA/ESA Hubble Telescope

Messier 90. by Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

The Hubble continues to spy on the Earth’s neighbors. Most of the data that it sends back is used by scientist to find out what else human could expect from life in the outer space. The Hubble recently sent an image of the Messier 90, an amazing spiral galaxy. The images seem to show that it is close to Earth but it is in fact 60 million light years away from the Milky Way. It is located near the Virgo constellation. The galaxy is, in fact, a part of the Virgo Cluster which is made up of about different types of galaxies that is 1,200 strong ones.

Ultraviolet, infrared and visible light all make up the image that was sent back to Earth. It was taken using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on the NASA Hubble Space Telescope. The camera used is made up of four light detectors that overlap each other in their field views. One of the cameras gave a rather higher magnification compared to what the other three gave. When all the images were put into one photo, the image with the higher magnification needed to resized in order for all the images to align properly. This gave the image that looks like the steps in a staircase.

Messier 90 is considered as one of the more remarkable galaxies in existence in space. It is also seen as a galaxy that is traveling near the Earth and not away from it. The light from the galaxy shows an incoming motion that has been known as the blueshift phenomenon. Simply put, the light wavelength moves towards us. This movement pushes the light makes it all compressed and turned blue at the end of the spectrum.

As the universe is seen to expand, most of the galaxies that surround the Milky Way seem to be moving farther. This is the reason why most of these galaxies are seen as red lights because they are moving towards the redshift of the spectrum. This new image of the Messier 90 send by the Hubble appears to be a rare exception.

There is still much to be learned about the galaxies around us. And although the cluster itself is moving away from our galaxy, some of its constituent galaxies, like the Messier 90, is moving faster than the rest, making it seem as if it is moving towards us. Some of the galaxies in the cluster may be moving in the other direction making it seem as if it is moving far away from us in a faster velocity.

See the full article here .

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We provide credible news & info., in-depth reference material about diverse subjects that matter to everyone. We are a source for original and timely science and research information as well as breaking news in the various fields we represent.