Dirt ! The Movie

  "Floods, drought, climate change, and even war are all directly related to the fate of humble dirt. Made from the same elements as stars, plants, and human beings, dirt is very much alive. One teaspoon of dirt contains a billion organisms working in balance to sustain a series of complex, thriving communities that are invisibly a part of our daily lives. DIRT! The Movie tells the story of Earth’s most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility — from its miraculous beginning to its tragic degradation. This insightful and timely film tells the story of the glorious and unappreciated material beneath our feet.

Narrated by Jaimie Lee Curtis and inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, DIRT! The Movie introduces viewers to dirt’s fascinating history. Four billion years of evolution have created the dirt that recycles our water, gives us food, and provides us with shelter. But humanity has endangered this vital living resource with destructive methods of agriculture, mining practices, and urban development, with catastrophic results: mass starvation, drought, and global warming."

pbs.org 

Limestone : Tura , Mokattam , Turonian , Meleke , Eramosa lagerstätte, Istrian stone, etc...

Limestone is a sedimentary rock whose chief mineral component is calcite (calcium carbonate: CaCO3). Limestone can be formed by precipitation of calcite dissolved in water or by depostion of marine organisms and entrainment of secondary minerals. Approximately 80 to 90% of limestone composition are skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera.

Some other carbonate grains comprising limestones are soil types such as ooids, peloids, intraclasts, and extraclasts; moreover, certain limestones do not consist of grains at all, but rather and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, the latter also known as travertine.

Due to the ease of dissolution and precipitation processes of calcium carbonate, limestone occurrences are linked to fascinating topographic phenomena of cave, karst and limestone pavements, the latter often called alvar.

 

 

 via eoearth.org

Violent U.S. Storms in 3D, Riding with Rhea and X Marks the Spot

A simulated 3-D flyby of the TRMM satellite around severe storms on Aprill 28, 2011
Credit: NASA/SSAI, Hal Pierce
"NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite captured 3-D images of severe thunderstorms that were spawning tornadoes over the eastern United States on April 28, detecting massive thunderstorms and very heavy rainfall. Tornadoes associated with this extremely unstable weather left at least 202 dead across the Eastern U.S, with injuries numbering over a thousand." 
via universetoday.com
 

 

Animation made from raw Cassini image data acquired April 25, 2011

"Assembled from 29 raw images taken by the Cassini orbiter on Monday, April 25, this animation brings us along an orbital ride with Rhea as it crosses Saturn’s nighttime face, the planet’s shadow cast across the ringplane. Sister moons Dione and Tethys travel the opposite lane in the background, eventually appearing to sink into Saturn’s atmosphere." 
via universetoday.com

 

An unnamed crater on Mercury taken by MESSENGER's Narrow Angle Camera. Credit:
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

"Buried treasure on Mercury? If so, I’d look here first. This image shows a currently unnamed crater with an “X” emblazoned on it. The perpendicular lines that cross the crater are secondary crater chains caused by ejecta from two primary impacts outside of the field of view, according to MESSENGER scientists. MESSENGER has been in orbit of Mercury since mid-March of this year, and its Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) pivot and Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) spotted this unusual landform. MESSENGER will be mapping more than 90% of Mercury’s surface as part of a high-resolution surface morphology base map that will be created with MDIS."
via universetoday.com

If Gravity was Visible...the Earth would look like a rotating potato.

In this GOCE image, gravity is strongest in yellow areas; it is weakest in blue ones. Credit: ESA
via universetoday.com
via youtube.com

"Although they aren’t particularly fond of the comparison, scientists from the GOCE satellite team had to admit that new data showing Earth’s gravity field – or geoid — makes our planet look like a rotating potato. After just two years in orbit, ESA’s sleek and sexy GOCE satellite (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) has gathered sufficient data to map Earth’s gravity with unrivalled precision. While our world certainly doesn’t look like a spinning tuber, this exaggerated view shows the most accurate model of how gravity varies across the planet."

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park

"Composed of large, white, sweeping dunes, at first glance Lençóis Maranhenses looks like an archetypal desert. In fact it isn't actually a desert. Lying just outside the Amazon basin, the region is subject to a regular rain season during the beginning of the year. The rains cause a peculiar phenomenon: fresh water collects in the valleys between sand dunes, spotting the desert with blue and green lagoons that reach their fullest between July and September.  

The area is also surprisingly home to a variety of fish which, despite the almost complete disappearance of the lagoons during the dry season, have their eggs brought from the sea by birds."

via en.wikipedia.org