Mineral hints at bright blue rocks deep in the Earth

Minerals preserved in a diamond from a 100 million year old Kimberlite found in Brazil have revealed hints of the bright blue rocks that exist deep within the Earth.It also provides the first direct evidence that there may be as much water trapped in those rocks as there is in all the oceans.

The diamond contains minerals that formed as deep as 600km down and that have significant amounts of water trapped within them.

Diamonds, brought to the Earth's surface in violent eruptions of deep volcanic rocks called Kimberlites,
provide a tantalising window into the deep Earth.

The diamond contained a mineral, Ringwoodite, that is only thought to form between 410km and 660km beneath the Earth's surface, showing just how deep some diamonds originate. While Ringwoodite has previously been found in meteorites, this is the first time a terrestrial Ringwoodite has been seen. But more extraordinarily, researchers found that the mineral contains about 1% water.

While this sounds like very little, because ringwoodite makes up almost all of this immense portion of the
deep Earth, it adds up to a huge amount of deep water - up to several times the amount in the Earth's Oceans.

Elephants recognise Human voices

Elephants are able to differentiate between ethnicities and genders, and can tell an adult from a child - all
from the sound of a human voice.This is according to a study in which researchers played voice recordings to wild African elephants.

According to Prof McComb who led the study, "If you give a Masai man a lift in your car, you can see the
elephants behave in a different way around you. "They're much more wary of the car and you see a lot of smelling and listening."

Prof McComb wanted to find out if the animals used their very acute sense of hearing to identify a potential threat from humans.The scientists recorded Masai and then Kamba (agriculturalists) men, women and children saying, in their own language, "look, look over there, a group of elephants is coming".

When the team played recordings of these different voices through a camouflaged loudspeaker, they found that elephant family groups reacted more fearfully in response to the voice of a Masai man, than to a Kamba man's voice - retreating and bunching together defensively.And the adult male Masai voices triggered far more of these defensive reactions than the voices of women or boys.

Satellites are being used to track baby Loggerhead Turtles

Satellites are tracking tagged baby loggerhead turtles to find out where they go in their early years.
The babies are tracked from leaving the US coastal waters as they head off into the Atlantic Ocean. It appears they spend a long time in the Sargasso Sea, possibly living in amongst floating mats of Sargassum seaweed.

The tags fall off after about 220 days

Other data suggests that they travel in a circle born along by the North Atlanic Sea currents and get as far as the Azores and Cape Verde before heading back to the Gulf of Mexico

Hopes to release Asian Vultures back into the Wild in 2016

After the devastation wrought by a drug on Asian vulture populations, a project hopes to begin releasing captive-bred birds into the wild by 2016.

The Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction (Save) programme says it plans to release up to 25 birds into a 30,000-sq-km drug-free "safe zone". It then wants to establish many more and bigger safe zones.

Diclofenac - used by vets on cattle - was identified as causing a crash in vulture numbers and banned by India after the population dropped by 96%.

But, says Save, the version for human use is still given illegally to cattle.Much work is being done to educate local farmers into using safer alternatives

Diclofenac was banned for use by vets and farmers in 2006 because of its effect on vultures that feed on livestock carcasses. It either causes Kidney failure or makes them infertile

Vulures are essential to clean up carcasses that would otherwise rot and spread disease

Blue Diamond found in South Africa's Cullinan Mine

A rare blue diamond has been discovered in a mine in South Africa.

The 29.6-carat stone was recovered by Petra Diamonds at its Cullinan mine, about 40km (25 miles) north-east of Pretoria.

"This stone is one of the most exceptional stones recovered at Cullinan during Petra's operation of the mine," the company said.

Petra unearthed a 25.5 carat blue diamond which sold for $16.9m (£10.3m) in 2013.

Cullinan mine has produced hundreds of large stones and is famed for its production of blue diamonds - among the rarest and most highly coveted of all diamonds.

Uranium Mining in Tanzania

The government of Tanzania is pushing ahead with uranium mining in a section of the Selous. Serengeti Watch reported,

“While authorities say the plan will affect less than 1% of the reserve, dozens of environmental groups around the world are outraged. They say the mine will produce 60 million tons of radioactive and poisonous waste during its 10-year lifespan, and up 139 million tons if a projected extension of the mine is implemented.

According to Uranium Network, “the radioactive wastes pose a serious threat to Selous Game Reserve which is home to the world’s largest elephant population and other wildlife. No proven methods exist to keep the radioactive and toxic slush and liquids from seeping into surface waters, aquifers or spreading with the dry season wind into the Reserve.”

Arctic Summer Sea Ice volume increased

The bounce back in the extent of sea ice in the Arctic this summer was reflected also in the volume of ice.
Data from Europe's Cryosat spacecraft suggests there were almost 9,000 cu km of ice at the end of this year's melt season. This is close to 50% more than in the corresponding period in 2012.

But scientists caution against reading too much into one year's "recovery". "Although the recovery of Arctic sea ice is certainly welcome news, it has to be considered against the backdrop of changes that have occurred over the last few decades," said Prof Andy Shepherd of University College London, UK. "It's estimated that there were around 20,000 cu km of Arctic sea ice each October in the early 1980s, and so today's minimum still ranks among the lowest of the past 30 years,"

Yellowstone Volcano even more Colossal than we knew

The supervolcano that lies beneath Yellowstone National Park in the US is far larger than was previously thought, scientists report.

A study shows that the magma chamber is about 2.5 times bigger than earlier estimates suggested.The study team found the cavern stretches for more than 90km (55 miles), is up to 30km wide, and contains 200-600 cubic km of molten rock. It Reaches depths of between 2km and 15km (1 to 9 miles).

If the Yellowstone supervolcano were to blow today, the consequences would be catastrophic. Major eruptions happened 2.1 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago and 640,000 years ago.

The last one sent ash across the whole x6 of North America, and affected the planet’s climate.

2013 one of the Warmest on record

This year is likely to be among the top 10 warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

It continues a pattern of high temperatures blamed directly on man-made climate change.

All of the warmest years have been since 1998, and this year once again continues the underlying, long-term trend. The coldest years now are warmer than the hottest years before 1998.

Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases reached new highs in 2012, and are expected them to reach unprecedented levels by the end of 2013.

CO2 Emissions are turning the Oceans too Acid for many forms of life

The world's oceans are becoming acidic at an unprecedented rate and may be souring more rapidly than at any time in the past 300 million years.

Increasing acidification caused by human activities is adding 24 million tonnes of CO2 to the Oceans every day.Up to 30% of the Oceans species are unlikely to survive to 2100 if the acidification carries on at its present rate.The economic impact of the losses from aquaculture could be huge - the global cost of the decline in molluscs could be $130bn by 2100.

It's yet another environmental disaster in the making, which can be swept under the carpet by Politicians and Governments as there is no immediate and spectacular change that can be easily seen.