New Theory Why Tectonic Plates Move the Way They Do

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

A team of researchers including Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego geophysicist Dave Stegman has developed a new theory to explain the global motions of tectonic plates on the earth’s surface.The new theory extends the theory of plate tectonics — a kinematic description of plate motion without reference to the forces behind it .

This discovery explains why the Australian, Nazca and Pacific plates move up to four times faster than the smaller African, Eurasian and Juan de Fuca plates.

The computer models demonstrate that the subducted portion of a tectonic plate pulls on the portion of the plate that remains on the earth’s surface. This pull results in either the motion of the plate, or the motion of the plate boundary, with the size of the subduction zone determining how much of each.

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U.K. layers climate shift on Google Earth

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

The U.K. government  launched a Google Earth layer that models what Earth might look like in the event of a significant worldwide rise in temperature.

Specifically, the interactive map visually demonstrates what could happen if carbon emissions are not curbed, and as a result, Earth’s temperature rises four degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial worldwide climate average. As a plethora of scientists and politicians have repeatedly stated, an increase in things like drought and agricultural disruption as a result of drought, could lead to instability and violence in some parts of the world.

The free downloadable Four Degrees Celsius layer was developed and released by the U.K.’s Foreign Office (FCO) and Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in response to the public attacks that have been made against scientific research regarding global warming, according to the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

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Posted in climate change, earth, Ecosystem, Environment | 2 Comments

Indian Rupee has a symbol Now

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

The jury has given its verdict: the rupee will retain its Indian character with an international flavour. The five-member panel has chosen IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar’s design from among five shortlisted symbols and recommended it for Cabinet approval.

Kumar’s symbol (on the left) is an amalgam of the Devanagari ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ without the stem, very much in line with what Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had envisioned. “We intend to formalise a symbol for the Indian rupee which reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture,” Mukherjee said in his Budget speech this year.

The chosen symbol has the Finance Minister’s approval, said a Ministry official.

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Indian Ocean is Rising

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

Changing sea levels have happened before and will happen again in a dynamic world. Newly detected rising sea levels in parts of the Indian Ocean, including the coastlines of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Java, appear to be at least partly a result of human induced increases of atmospheric greenhouse gases, says a study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. The study, which combined sea surface measurements going back to the 1960s and satellite observations, will threaten inhabitants of some coastal areas and islands.

The key player in the rising Indian Ocean process is the Indo-Pacific warm pool, an enormous, bathtub shaped area of the tropical oceans stretching from the east coast of Africa west to the International Date Line in the Pacific. The warm pool has heated by about 1 degree Fahrenheit, or 0.5 degrees Celsius, in the past 50 years.

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