Earthquake of magnitude 6.2 strikes India's Nicobar Islands, GFZ says
The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), GFZ said.
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The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Research into Australian skinks' resistance to snake venom could streamline design of antivenoms
Australian skinks have evolved the means to resist snake venom by shutting down their muscles, suggests new research which could help to inform future treatments for snakebites. Research led by the University of Queensland has found that multiple species of Australian skink have evolved venom resistance through changes to a critical muscle receptor. In other animals, the receptor is the target of venom neurotoxins, which cause rapid paralysis and death. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Study co-author Prof Bryan Fry, who leads UQ's adaptive biotoxicology lab, said that when venomous snakes arrived in Australia 25 to 30m years ago from Asia that skinks would have been their prey, resulting in evolutionary pressure to evolve venom resistance. 'What was fascinating was that with the kind of mutations that we documented in the Australian … skinks that gave rise to resistance are the kind of mutations that we've seen in other animals outside Australia,' Fry said. Mongooses, which feed on cobras, are one such example. The researchers showed that the Australian major skink, Bellatorias frerei had the same mutation that gave the honey badger its resistance to cobra venom. The researchers looked at 47 skink species and found that 13 of these were resistant to snake venom. Of these 13 species, some had multiple types of resistance, leading the researchers to discover that the skinks had developed independent mutations conferring resistance on 25 occasions. Fry said the researchers used tissue banks from museums across Australia rather than testing venom on live skinks. Study co-author and UQ researcher Dr Uthpala Chandrasekara said in a statement: 'We used synthetic peptides and receptor models to mimic what happens when venom enters an animal at the molecular level and the data was crystal clear, some of the modified receptors simply didn't respond at all.' 'It's fascinating to think that one tiny change in a protein can mean the difference between life and death when facing a highly venomous predator. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'The more we learn about how venom resistance works in nature, the more tools we have for the design of novel antivenoms.' Dr Andrew Amey, collection manager of amphibians, reptiles and herpetology at Queensland Museum, who was not involved in the research, said that there were more than 470 currently recognised species of Australian skink, with more being discovered all the time – with little known about them. 'It is great to see research looking into how they deal with such an important predator that just might tell us more about how we can manage the effects of snakebite ourselves,' Amey said. The study was published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Kamchatka is moving AWAY from Russia: Scientists are baffled as peninsula shifts 6.5ft southeast following magnitude 8.8 earthquake
Last week, Russia 's Kamchatka Peninsula was hit by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake –the sixth–largest ever recorded. The tremor released enormous amounts of destructive energy, triggering tsunami warnings as far away as Chile and the western United States. But when the activity had subsided, scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences were baffled to find that the peninsula had actually moved away from the mainland. In some places towards the peninsula's southern tip, the landmass had drifted as much as 6.5ft (two metres) to the southeast. That is similar to the movement caused by Japan 's 9–magnitude Tohoku earthquake in 2011 – the fifth–largest earthquake ever recorded. In a post on Telegram, the Russian Academy of Sciences wrote: 'We made a preliminary calculation based on the results of geodynamic observations. 'It turned out that we all went quite well to the southeast. 'The maximum coseismic displacements after the earthquake of July 30 were observed in the southern part of the peninsula.' Earthquakes occur along Earth's faultlines - points where the tectonic plates meet and move past one another. On average, the tectonic plates only move about 0.6 inches (1.5 centimetres) per year, but that movement isn't even and steady. In places like the Kamchatka Peninsula, where the Eurasian and Pacific plates meet, the plates become caught and lock against one another. When this happens, huge amounts of pressure are built up in the rocks along the faultline, which is ultimately released in the form of an earthquake. Scientists call this process elastic rebound, and it explains why landmasses move so quickly during periods of intense seismic activity. As the tectonic plates release pressure in the form of an earthquake, the two plates can slip past each other and often move several metres at a time. This process can actually continue for days or even weeks following the initial earthquake as the plates settle and adjust their positions. In the Kamchatka Peninsula earthquake last Wednesday, the release of such a large amount of built–up pressure allowed the entire peninsula to move up to 6.5 feet southeast. The earthquake released enormous amounts of energy, which triggered tsunamis that swept the nearby area (pictured), and led to tsunami warnings as far away as Chile and the western United States This process also explains why large earthquakes rarely arrive as isolated incidents but, rather, as sequences. The Kamchatka earthquake followed a 10–day sequence made up of 50 magnitude 5.0 or larger earthquakes, including three magnitude 6.6 tremors and a magnitude 7.4 earthquake on July 20. Similarly, large earthquakes are almost always followed by aftershocks – smaller earthquakes which follow in the wake of the main event. Professor David Tappin, lead tsunami expert at the British Geological Survey, told Daily Mail: 'They result from the sudden change in stress within and between rocks after the principal earthquake, as the displaced crust adjusts to the effects of the main shock. 'Aftershocks can happen in the days, months, or even years after the initial earthquake and are typically smaller than the main shock.' According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Kamchatka earthquake has already been followed by magnitude 6.9 and 6.2 aftershocks. The USGS says that the sequence remains active and that more aftershocks remain likely. The USGS predicts there is a 47 per cent chance of there being at least one magnitude 7.0 or larger earthquake in the month following the Kamchatka earthquake. These slips mean the aftershocks remain likely. This graph shows the likelihood that at least one earthquake of a given magnitude will occur within a month of last week's activity Within a year, there is a 13 per cent chance that the region will be hit by a magnitude 8.0 or larger event. Scientists believe that the flurry of activity following the initial earthquake has now also triggered two volcanic eruptions in the region. The Kamchatka Peninsula is situated directly above the Ring of Fire, a 25,000–mile chain of volcanoes that stretches around the Pacific Ocean. The Ring of Fire is home to over 425 active volcanoes, including 22 within the peninsula itself. Just hours after the earthquake, Klyuchevskaya Sopka, the largest volcano in the region, exploded with a stream of lava and ash. On August 3, the Krasheninnikov Volcano then became the second volcano to suddenly erupt following the earthquake. As it erupted for the first time in over 500 years, the volcano sent a plume of ash 3.7 miles (6 km) into the sky. Scientists believe that these eruptions were triggered by the earthquake, which opened new faults in the rock and allowed more magma to escape towards the surface. Those changes in structural integrity and pressure may have pushed Klyuchevskaya Sopka and Krasheninnikov into erupting. This has sparked concerns that Russia's recent earthquakes could trigger a wave of devastating volcanic eruptions along the Ring of Fire. However, earthquakes will only trigger eruptions in volcanoes which are close to eruption. That means scientists do not expect to see significantly increased rates of volcanic activity along the geological fault. The Earth is moving under our feet: Tectonic plates move through the mantle and produce Earthquakes as they scrape against each other Tectonic plates are composed of Earth's crust and the uppermost portion of the mantle. Below is the asthenosphere: the warm, viscous conveyor belt of rock on which tectonic plates ride. The Earth has fifteen tectonic plates (pictured) that together have moulded the shape of the landscape we see around us today Earthquakes typically occur at the boundaries of tectonic plates, where one plate dips below another, thrusts another upward, or where plate edges scrape alongside each other. Earthquakes rarely occur in the middle of plates, but they can happen when ancient faults or rifts far below the surface reactivate. These areas are relatively weak compared to the surrounding plate, and can easily slip and cause an earthquake.
The Independent
6 hours ago
- The Independent
How the ‘Little Boy' Hiroshima nuclear bomb transformed modern warfare forever
Eighty years ago, a weapon was used which would transform modern warfare and the entire world forever. Hiroshima, in Japan, was the target of the first ever nuclear weapon, dropped by the US Air Force on 7 August 1945 - killing more than 150,000 people in the months afterwards, according to some estimates. Although victory had been declared in Europe four months earlier, American forces continued to fight Japan over the summer, in what would be the final months of the protracted Pacific War. Just three days after the catastrophic nuclear attack on Hiroshima, Nagasaki met a similar fate. It had been just weeks since the first successful test of a nuclear weapon was masterminded by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Eighty years later, The Independent takes a look at the direction nuclear warfare took after that seminal day - and how different nuclear weapons are now How has the nuclear bomb developed since 1945? Nicknamed 'Little Boy', the bomb dropped on Hiroshima exploded some 1,800 feet above the city, where it delivered around 12.5 kilotons of TNT. Large sections of the city - five square miles - were razed to ashes. Within just four days, 120,000 people were killed, many instantly vaporised and others dying due to the impact of the burns and radiation in the days afterwards. ''Little Boy' was a gun-type weapon, which detonated by firing one mass of uranium down a cylinder into another mass to create a self-sustaining nuclear reaction,' the National Museum of the US Air Force explains. 'Weighing about 9,000 pounds (4.5 tons), it produced an explosive force equal to 20,000 tons of TNT [explosive].' Delivered by the USAAF B29 bomber `Enola Gay', 'Little Boy' has now been entirely taken out of operational use - but its creation had set US and Russian scientists into a frantic race to develop the largest and most powerful nuclear weapons, in the largest quantities. Seven years after the two Japanese cities were decimated by the atomic bomb, the US tested a brand new type of nuclear weapon: the hydrogen bomb. First tested at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the hydrogen bomb was 500 times more powerful than the one used in Hiroshima. It is believed that many if not all current nuclear weapons in America's stockpile are hydrogen - or thermonuclear - weapons. The largest ever bomb test was conducted by the Soviet Union, who tested a 58-megaton atmospheric nuclear weapon nicknamed the 'Tsar Bomb' near northern Russia. In recent decades, following many years of international efforts to prevent the production of new nuclear weapons, the US has focussed on modernising its existing stockpile. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS), the US has begun a modernisation programme which will 'ultimately see every nuclear delivery system replaced with newer versions over the coming decades'. How large have nuclear arsenals grown? The Hiroshima bomb was dropped a mere three weeks after the Trinity test, the first successful test of a nuclear weapon the world had ever seen. At the time, the American nuclear arsenal consisted of two weapons: the bombs which were used to destroy large areas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a catastrophe for the Japanese people, hundreds of thousands of whom were killed. But it was seen by some as one of the main reasons World War Two came to an end when it did. Fast forward five years and the US had developed 299 more nuclear weapons, a nuclear arsenal nearly 60 times larger than that of the Soviet Union, which contained five, having tested its first nuclear bomb just one year earlier in 1949. After a rapid period of dramatically increasing stockpiles during the Cold War saw the US stockpile hit a peak of 31,255 in 1961 and the Russian stockpile peak at 45,000 in 1986 - according to BAS estimates - numbers steadily decreased for decades. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) says the US has approximately 5,044. Russia is estimated to have around 5,580, making it the world's largest stockpile. In descending order of the size of their arsenal, the other seven countries believed to have nuclear weapons are China, France, United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, North Korea. Not all of these countries openly admit they possess the weapons. In the eight decades since the catastrophes in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have never been used in combat - but the incomparable destructiveness of hydrogen bombs and the sheer number of nuclear weapons in the world makes their risk far greater.
