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Domain: alaska-freegold.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to alaska-freegold.com.
Stories · 4
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Arctic Ocean Survey May Reveal Lost World
core plexus writes " A new survey of the depths of the ice-capped Arctic Ocean as reported at Reuters, BBC, and others, could reveal a lost world of living fossils and exotic new species from jellyfish to giant squid, scientists said on Thursday. They speculated that Arctic waters might hide creatures known only from fossils, such as trilobites that flourished 300 million years ago. The international scheme will include probing a 12,470-foot abyss off Canada described by project leaders as the "world's oldest sea water -- a vast, still pool unstirred for millennia, walled by steep ridges and lidded with ice." Bring on the "Jurassic Park" references." -
El Nino Fires A Key Source Of Greenhouse Gases
core plexus writes "Science Daily has an interesting article suggesting that El Nino-related fires may be a significant source of 'Greenhouse Gases.' By combining satellite data and measurements of atmospheric gases, they have quantified for the first time the amount of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, emitted by these fires. In addition, the scientists determined that almost all of the increased levels of methane measured during 1997 and 1998 can be attributed to the worldwide fires at the time, underscoring the impact El Nino has on methane emissions." -
Toshiba Pushes Safe, Small Nuclear Reactor Design
core plexus writes "This article describes a proposal from a Japanese corporation that wants to thrust the Interior Alaska community of Galena into international limelight by donating a new, unconventional electricity-generating plant that would light and heat the Yukon River village pollution-free for 30 years. There's a catch, of course. It's a nuclear reactor. Not a huge, Three Mile Island-type power plant but a new generation of small nuclear reactor about the size of a big spruce tree. Designers say the technology is safe, simple and cheap enough to replace diesel-fired generators as the primary energy source for villages across rural Alaska." -
Shuttle Launches Form Arctic Clouds
core plexus writes "The Anchorage Daily News is reporting that in late May, researchers reported finding that the shuttle's exhaust, 97 percent of which is water vapor, quickly migrates to the highest reaches of the atmosphere above the Arctic. There the vapor spreads out about 50 miles high in Earth's mesosphere, just below the thermosphere, the air's highest layer, and settles to form a wispy type of cloud called noctilucent clouds. The shuttle trails a giant plume of exhaust while rising through the atmosphere, Mike Stevens, the study's lead author, said earlier this summer on Arctic Science Journeys Radio at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. "You can think of it as essentially a long garden hose that is on the order of (621 miles) long," Stevens said."