Buzz
Our planet is teeming with untapped forces. While many of these remain shrouded in mystery, every day unveils new aspects of these powers. As time passes, we continue to uncover the inner workings of the events that shape our world. Who knows, in a mere 100 million years, we might finally have all the answers.
10. What Triggered the Siberian Crater?
In August 2014, an enormous crater appeared on the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia. This mysterious hole raised eyebrows, as giant craters are far from a common occurrence, except perhaps for sinkholes in Florida. Experts debated the cause of the crater, while some conspiracy theorists proposed wild ideas like meteors or alien activity.
To unravel this puzzle, scientists focused on logic rather than fantasy, diving into the depths of the crater itself. The cause wasn’t extraterrestrial, but a much more grounded and less spectacular explanation—methane. Tests showed that methane levels inside the crater reached almost 10 percent, far higher than the 0.000179 percent typically found in the atmosphere.
The troublesome gas escapes from thawing permafrost, and as global temperatures continue to rise, methane bubbles rise to the surface more rapidly. Once the methane blobs reach a critical mass, they burst through the Siberian crust. This theory is supported by the fact that the mysterious Siberian pits resemble explosion craters more than sinkholes or implosion cavities. Scattered debris around the area further suggests powerful explosions.
9. What Triggers Earthquake Lights?
Earthquake lights would be awe-inspiring if it weren’t for the fact that they occur during earthquakes. These strange flashes have been seen in different forms, like orbs and columns. While some speculate that aliens might be responsible, scientists believe the phenomenon results from a perfect storm of piezoelectric forces combined with geological stress.
However, the real cause is slightly different. Instead of the previously suspected quartz-rich rocks, it appears that earthquake lights are caused by sparking volcanic rocks. Igneous rocks such as basalts and gabbros are filled with pores and tiny cracks. Picture Earth as a pint of ice cream. Basalts and similar rocks are like the ribbons of fudge—cooled magma that solidified into porous rock veins stretching deep underground, acting as channels for electrical forces.
When seismic waves travel through the Earth, they trigger these rocks, turning them into improvised battery cells. This electrical energy is released in dazzling, psychedelic rainbow bands shooting up from the ground. However, volcanic rocks capable of producing these stunning effects are rare, which is why earthquake lights don’t occur frequently.
8. Can Hurricanes Assist Invasive Species?
A surprising link between hurricanes and the spread of invasive marine species has been uncovered by researchers from Nova Southeastern University. Lionfish, notorious for wreaking havoc on native ecosystems by devouring resources and rapidly multiplying, have flourished in recent years. Hurricanes have been found to contribute to their spread by increasing lionfish migrations by 45 percent and boosting their populations by 15 percent. The situation has become so dire that both sailors and land dwellers are urged to eat more lionfish.
The Florida Straits initially served as the lionfish’s entry point, but by 1992, the invaders had spread throughout the Bahamas as well. Scientists were baffled. How did these normally stationary fish manage to travel so widely? The answer lay not in their efforts, but in the ocean currents that carried them unknowingly. The primary culprits behind this migration were hurricanes, which alter sea currents as they pass through the tropics and subtropics. Researcher Matthew Johnston compares these redirected currents to express lanes on a superhighway.
Normally, strong ocean currents act as barriers that keep lionfish confined to certain areas. But when a powerful storm passes, it disrupts these currents, diverting them eastward. This shift sweeps lionfish eggs and larvae away, enabling the invasion to spread further.
7. Why Was The Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami So Enormous?
The Tohoku earthquake, a colossal 9.0 magnitude disaster that struck Japan in March 2011, was an extraordinary event—the fifth-largest quake ever recorded. However, the resulting tsunami was even more immense than expected, and it hit the island in an unusual location, at least from a scientific standpoint.
The enigma lingered until NASA remembered it had two perfectly positioned satellites that captured the tsunami as it happened. The likelihood of such a satellite alignment was a mere one in 10 million. The European Space Agency (ESA) also had instruments monitoring the event. Oceanographic data, precise to the centimeter, revealed that the destruction was caused by not just one, but two tsunamis.
The devastating earthquake unleashed two enormous waves that struck the island nation, merging into what scientists have aptly named a “double tsunami.” This catastrophe gave researchers their first clear view of this destructive phenomenon. Although twin tsunamis had been suspected in previous events—such as the 1960 Chilean tsunami that crossed the Pacific and claimed 200 lives in Hawaii and Japan—this was the first time scientists had witnessed the two waves merging. With this new understanding, they will be better equipped to predict future events, improve hazard maps, and design more effective evacuation routes.
6. What’s The Terrestrial Equivalent of A Black Hole?
Black holes are the most mysterious and mind-boggling entities in the cosmos. Researchers have found an Earth-bound counterpart in the vortices of the South Atlantic, which create aquatic event horizons from which nothing escapes—at least until the vortex dissolves.
These vortices are small compared to their origin, the mighty Agulhas Current, which sweeps across the Indian Ocean before turning back on itself. When the conditions align just right, this looping current generates smaller eddies that flow outward into the broader ocean.
These oceanic eddies can persist for several months and share remarkable similarities with their cosmic counterparts. Both are surrounded by impenetrable barriers—eddy walls of swirling water and black holes surrounded by orbiting photons and cosmic debris. Anything that enters this forbidden zone is pulled into a singularity and is lost forever. Like black holes, the eddies also feature central singularities from which nothing can escape, creating self-contained microenvironments.
Researchers are eager to explore how these whirlpools impact the movement of marine debris, microorganisms, and waters with varying temperatures and salinities. They are hopeful that similar turbulent vortices might exist due to other natural processes, such as eolian black holes created by hurricanes.
5. Do Wildfires Always Lead to Global Warming?
Although we’re only a few months into the year, there’s already a contender for the most ironic geopyrological discovery of 2015: Wildfires can actually cause regional cooling. This may seem counterintuitive because fire is, well, hot. And conventional wisdom tells us that fires reduce trees and vegetation to pollutants, releasing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
However, the breakdown of extensive organic matter can have positive effects too. By clearing away vegetation, the local albedo, or reflective capacity, is increased. More sunlight is bounced back into space, leading to localized cooling. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable in boreal biomes.
That said, the initial burst of pollution from a major fire does contribute to warming. As the dark ash falls, it blankets the region, enhancing the absorption of solar radiation. But once the ashes settle, the cooling effect kicks in.
Eventually, a snowy, highly reflective surface is exposed to the Sun, and solar radiation is reflected back into space. New deciduous trees take the place of the pre-fire conifers, and their young, shiny leaves offer additional reflective surfaces to combat the Sun's heat. In the winter, these newcomers shed their leaves, unlike the evergreen pines, once again revealing a mirror-like surface.
So, yes, the fire itself is an environmental hazard. However, scientists predict that within about eight decades, the effects will have been reversed, and the cooling impact will continue to persist.
4. What’s Behind The Global Warming Hiatus?
Global temperatures soared throughout the 20th century, but since 1998, there's been an unexpected slow-down. This lull has sparked hope among the wasteful and given ammunition to climate change skeptics. However, for scientists, the reduced rate of global warming raises more questions than answers.
It turns out we’re experiencing a temporary calm in the environmental storm. The Pacific Ocean is playing a key role by absorbing large amounts of solar radiation, part of a natural cycle that unfolds over small geological periods of time.
The global warming hiatus—now regarded as more of a “false pause”—began in the late ’90s, aligning with the tail end of the El Nino warming event from 1997–1998. The Pacific Ocean goes through alternating hot and cold phases every 16-20 years, suggesting that warmer waters could return at any time. While these fluctuations won’t significantly alter long-term trends, we at least have a better understanding of the situation now.
3. What Causes The Theta Aurora?
The theta aurora, named after its resemblance to the Greek letter theta, is a ring-shaped zone of electromagnetic activity located at the boundary between Earth and space. It’s invisible from the ground, and its existence remained unknown until space exploration allowed us to view Earth from an external perspective.
Unlike the familiar auroras seen on postcards, the phenomena responsible for triggering theta auroras were not fully understood. One theory suggests that the event is caused by hot plasma blobs slamming into our magnetosphere. But with the help of satellite data, scientists uncovered another possible cause: redirected solar winds and magnetic mirrors (when ions bounce from high-density to low-density areas).
It appears the theta aurora is driven by plasma confined within specific fields. The charged particles heat up and bounce off the field lines, like being trapped inside a giant, magnetic bouncy house. This theory differs from the earlier hypothesis, which proposed that the aurora was caused directly by solar winds sweeping against Earth’s magnetic field.
2. What’s Happening With Earth’s Core?
As if uncovering a lubricating belt of tectonic sludge weren’t enough of an adventure, researchers from the University of Illinois and Nanjing University have stumbled upon a remarkable discovery: Earth’s second core. This breakthrough seismic research reveals that our planet's innermost core is, in fact, the second innermost one. And the smaller sphere within it is tilted on its side, with its iron crystals aligned east to west, not the usual north to south.
This revelation is nothing short of a scientific celebration, deserving of the finest champagne. The newly uncovered core gives us a glimpse into Earth’s complex inner structure, resembling a planetary onion with multiple layers of turmoil. The smaller core churns against an outer molten iron alloy shell, gradually growing at a rate of less than 1 millimeter per year.
This new core also acts like a geologic time capsule. Researchers estimate it solidified between 500 million and 1.5 billion years ago, not so long ago in the context of Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history. Something significant must have occurred soon after its formation, which could explain why it’s tilted sideways.
1. What Do The Tectonic Plates Slide On?
While the concept of plate tectonics has been widely accepted, the exact mechanism beneath the continental slabs has remained unclear. To solve this mystery, scientists in New Zealand employed one of the oldest methods in scientific research: explosions.
Seismic data is typically gathered through natural earthquakes, but the researchers in New Zealand couldn’t afford to wait for one. Instead, they ventured to the southernmost point of New Zealand’s North Island, where they injected explosive slurry into a series of 50-meter-deep (160 ft) steel-lined boreholes. These boreholes were drilled along a key subduction zone, where the Pacific plate meets the Australian plate. The explosion created an earthquake-like event that provided valuable seismic data.
The researchers discovered that the lithosphere, or Earth’s crust, slides over a 5-kilometer-thick (3 mi) layer of jelly-like rock, which acts as a lubricant. Known as the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary (LAB), this slippery layer disconnects the crust from the mantle and allows the continents to shift. It is believed that the LAB’s viscosity is due to an increased water or magma content, with even a slight increase of 1–2 percent compared to the crust being sufficient to create the gelatinous boundary.
Despite extensive research, scientists are still unsure whether the tectonic plates are being pushed or pulled across the viscous layer beneath them, or if this material is present under all plates. The involvement of a hidden race of malevolent mole people remains an unsolved enigma as well.
