Tag: Water

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Precipitation by Sally Quon

precipitation –
an atmospheric river
freezing as it falls

by Sally Quon

I first heard the term ‘atmospheric river’ in 2021 when my region was hit by one or more. Roads were washed out, landslides, farms flooded and livestock destroyed. This winter another atmospheric river formed and descended upon us, but this time in the form of snow.

Further reading:

‘Minister’s statement on one-year anniversary of atmospheric river’, Government of British Columbia: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2022EMBC0063-001700

‘Atmospheric River’, Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_river

Author bio:

Sally Quon is a disabled writer from the Okanagan Valley in beautiful British Columbia. She actively engages in photography, creative non-fiction, and poetry, including a budding interest in Japanese short forms. She is a member of Haiku Canada and an associate member of the League of Canadian Poets. You can find out more about Sally here: https://featherstone-creative.com and follow her on Twitter @QuonSally

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Diamond Rain

Does Neptune ever
feel lonely, with a wall of
diamonds round it’s heart?

Diamonds might be precious but they’re composed of carbon, an element that’s common here on Earth and throughout the universe.

Under the right conditions (pressure and heat) carbon turns into diamonds. Marvin Ross predicted in 1981 that such conditions might be found in the mantels of the Solar System’s ice giants, Neptune and Uranus.

Recent research has supported this, with laser shock experiments on polystyrene performed by Kraus et al. (2017) replicating the conditions approximately 10,000km below the surfaces of Neptune and Uranus. Their experiments created nanodiamonds, supporting evidence that diamond precipitation occurs in the mantels of these planets.

Now further research has strengthened this evidence. The earlier studies used pure hyrdrocarbon systems (polystyrene is C8H8) but the interiors of Neptune and Uranus are more complex than that, consisting mainly of a dense fluid mixture of water (H2O), methane (CH4), and ammonia (NH3).

To understand diamond formation under more complex conditions similar to those found on Neptune and Uranus, Zhiyu et al. (2022) investigated diamond formation using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics (C10H8O4). The researchers found that diamond formation is likely to be enhanced by the presence of oxygen, which in their research accelerated the splitting of the carbon and hydrogen.

Under the conditions found on Neptune and Uranus it’s likely that much larger diamonds would be formed, potentially millions of carats in weight. Over millennia these vast diamonds are predicted to sink slowly through the icy layers of the mantel before melting near the cores, creating an ever changing layer of diamonds around the cores of the planets.

The latest research may also explain another peculiarity about Neptune and Uranus: their unusual magnetic fields. Under the conditions that form diamonds in the mantel, the researchers also found evidence that superionic water might be created. Superionic water conducts electric current and is likely to impact the planets’ magnetic fields.

In addition to learning more about the Universe, there are practical implications for us on Earth resulting from the research too. Nanodiamonds have a range of important uses, including in medical sensors, non-invasive surgery, sustainable manufacturing, and quantum electronics. This latest research points the way towards a new way of fabricating nanodiamonds for such uses.

Further reading:

Ross, M. (1981) The ice layer in Uranus and Neptune—diamonds in the sky? https://doi.org/10.1038%2F292435a0

Kraus, D. et al. (2017) Formation of diamonds in laser-compressed hydrocarbons at planetary interior conditions https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-017-0219-9

Zhiyu, H.E. et al. (2022) Diamond formation kinetics in shock-compressed C─H─O samples recorded by small-angle x-ray scattering and x-ray diffraction https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo0617

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Attachment

muscles need iron
so do mussels it appears
such sticky anchors

Iron is an essential element for almost all living organisms. The majority of iron in mammals is found in red blood cells (haemoglobin) and muscle cells (myoglobin), supporting the transport, storage and release of oxygen. In humans, iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world and can lead to iron-deficiency anaemia, symptoms of which include fatigue, headaches, weakness, angina, breathlessness, complications during pregnancy and delayed growth in infants and children.

Iron is also important for many animals, utilised to help strengthen hard materials such as rodent teeth or the carbonate armour of some gastropods. Yet iron can be found in soft biological materials too, including the sticky anchors that mussels use to attach to rocks and the threads that connect those adhesives to the mussels’ inner tissues.

To investigate the importance of iron in mussel anchors, Hamada et al. (2020) varied seawater iron levels in a controlled environment and examined adhesive thread samples from Blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) which had been living in the water for 3 days. The researchers measured thread strength by securing the entire length of the threads and measuring how much force was required to pull them until the adhesive failed.

Adhesive strength increased as the iron level of the water increased until an optimal amount was reached, after which the adhesive strength declined. Examination of the plaques themselves also revealed differences in morphology, including colour and microstructural features, arising from the different iron levels of the water.

The results confirm that iron is a key component of how mussels anchor themselves to rocks and demonstrate how changing ocean chemistry might affect these molluscs in the future.

Further reading: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c02392

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Mars

If you say water

then we say volcanism,

else Mars is too cold.

Recent observations of Mars have suggested the presence of liquid water beneath the ice at the South Pole, prompting researchers to ask how water could exist in liquid state under Mars’ environmental conditions.

Research by Soria and Bramson (2019) suggests that the most likely theory to explain the presence of water would be an underground source of heat such as the formation of a magma chamber in the area within the past few hundred thousand years. The researchers also suggest the reverse is true – if there isn’t such a heat source then it’s unlikely that the earlier suggestions of liquid water are correct.

Original reseach: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080985

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What welcome awaits?

Drought. The water’s gone.

A forced move to find new homes.

What welcome awaits?

 

Relocation due to environmental problems can be a dangerous process. Linke et al (2018) interviewed individuals in Kenya who have been forced to relocate as a result of drought. They found that people forced to move are more likely to be victims of violence than the general population. The research also found that such displaced individuals only support the use of violence if they themselves have been victims of violence. This suggests that such migrant populations are unlikely to be the sources of violence unless victimized first.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aad8cc

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Hidden benefactor

Your water footprint.

Hidden benefactor of

a healthy diet.

 

Dietary changes can lead to big health benefits, but there are global benefits to a change in diet too. Vanham et al (2018) have found that a healthy diet results in a decrease in the water footprint required to produce the food. Whilst healthy vegetarian or pescetarian diets have the lowest water footprint, even a change to a healthy diet containing meat results in a decrease in water footprint of between 11% and 35%.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0133-x