Ocean-drilling expedition cites new evidence related to origin and evolution of quakes

October 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new book written by University of Alabama at Birmingham researcher claims to offer a novel way to teach evolution without offending students who have strong religious convictions against the theory. According to Professor Lee Meadows, Ph.D., author of a new book titled The Missing Link: An Inquiry Approach for Teaching All Students About Evolution, School districts, politicians and church leaders have debated for decades as to whether Charles Darwin's theory of evolution should be taught in schools.

October 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - US seismologists have found evidence that the massive 2004 earthquake that triggered killer tsunamis throughout the Indian Ocean weakened at least a portion of California's famed San Andreas Fault, which suggests that large quakes can weaken fault zones worldwide. The results suggest that the Earth's largest earthquakes can weaken fault zones worldwide and may trigger periods of increased global seismic activity.

September 28th, 2009 LONDON - Experiments in stickleback fish have shown for the first time that the evolution of new sex chromosomes is the driving force behind the formation of a new vertebrate species. Up until now, most evidence has shown that new species arise because they have adapted to new environments.

September 23rd, 2009 Senate blocks bid to keep offshore drilling policyWASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday voted against an attempt by Republicans to keep in place a plan by the Bush administration to allow oil and gas drilling along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The 56-42 vote killed a proposal by Sen.

August 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In an exploration of the 'great Pacific Ocean garbage patch', scientists from the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) have discovered extensive plastic debris floating 1,000 miles from land. The Scripps research vessel (R/V) New Horizon left its San Diego homeport on August 2, 2009, for the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, located some 1,000 miles off California's coast, and returned on August 21, 2009.

August 27th, 2009 Researchers: Pacific trash possibly killing fishSAN DIEGO — Researchers say a Texas-sized garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean is possibly killing marine life and birds that are ingesting the trash. Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography on Thursday announced findings from an August expedition to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, about 1,000 miles west of California.

August 10th, 2009 USGS: huge earthquake hits in Indian OceanWASHINGTON —U.S. officials on Monday reported that a huge 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck in the Indian Ocean and issued a regional tsunami watch for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh that was lifted later.

July 31st, 2009 WASHINGTON - The deep-sea drilling vessel CHIKYU, for the first time in the history of scientific ocean drilling, successfully conducted riser-drilling operations to drill down to a depth of 1,603.7 meters beneath the seafloor, off the coast of Japan. Engaged in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 319, the CHIKYU is drilling deep into the upper portion of the great Nankai Trough earthquake zone to gain insights into geological formations and stress-strain characteristics.

July 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have found evidence that the earliest animals on Earth lived in lakes. Conventional wisdom has it that animal evolution began in the ocean, with animal life adapting much later in Earth history to terrestrial environments.

July 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has concluded that significant sea ice formation occurred in the Arctic earlier than previously thought, which suggests that sea ice formed in the Arctic before it did in Antarctica. "The results are also especially exciting because they suggest that sea ice formed in the Arctic before it did in Antarctica, which goes against scientific expectation," said scientific team member Dr Richard Pearce of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS).

July 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An analysis by scientists has suggested that the Arctic was an enclosed freshwater lake until about 38 million years ago, when tectonic activity caused it to undergo a transition to an ocean. Recent studies have suggested that beginning about 44 million years ago the Arctic underwent a transition from lake to ocean conditions.

June 18th, 2009 Australia, NZ to study Antarctic whalesWELLINGTON, New Zealand — Australia and New Zealand announced Thursday a non-lethal whale research expedition to the Antarctic, a direct challenge to Japan's research program that kills up to 1,000 whales a year. The six-week expedition, to set sail in a New Zealand ship early next year, will prove that whales can be studied without killing them, the two governments said in a joint statement.

May 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, it has been determined that monsoon drives long-term cyclicity of the carbon reservoir in the global ocean. For over 300 years, monsoon has been considered as a gigantic land-sea breeze of regional scale, but now it is considered as a global system over all continents but Antarctica.

May 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists, using multispectral images obtained from the Messenger spacecraft, are trying to reveal the origin and evolution of the planet Mercury. Mercury's interior is thought to generally resemble that of the Earth and Mars.

April 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A newly discovered fossilized skeleton of a carnivorous animal, has helped scientists pinpoint the origin of flippers - limb adaptations for swimming in water, in seals, sea lions, and the walrus. Researchers from the United States and Canada found the fossilized skeleton of a newly discovered carnivorous animal, Puijila darwini.