What we can learn from the biggest extinction in the history of Earth
...ologic record in south China. The kilometer-thick, limestone fossil beds at the Great Bank of Guizhou formed in...s. As the ocean floor sank, new, younger layers of limestone formed on top of deeper, older ones. Since then, plate tectonics have turned these rocks on their si...MIT tool determines landslide risk in tropics
...ound that landslides are less common in areas with limestone bedrock, even though they may be relatively steep. "Limestone is a very hard rock that forms steep slopes naturally. So the steep slope is the stable condition for this rock," she said. While roughly half of the 50-square-kilometer area rests on be...Healthy coral reefs hit hard by warmer temperatures
...act visitors to the Great Barrier Reef live atop a limestone scaffolding built from the calcium carbonate secretions of each tiny coral, or polyp. While polyps provide the framework, coral's vivid hues come from symbiotic single-celled algae that live in the polyps. The algae supply much of the food coral need...Healthy reefs hit hardest by warmer temperatures
...act visitors to the Great Barrier Reef live atop a limestone scaffolding built from the calcium carbonate secretions of each tiny coral, or polyp. While polyps provide the framework, corals vivid hues come from symbiotic single-celled algae that live within the polyps cells. The algae supply much of the food c...First international conference on self-healing materials
...onkers works with bacteria which naturally produce limestone (calcium carbonate). If a crack occurs and water and oxygen enter the concrete, then the bacteria can get to work producing limestone. The main problem now is to create the right living conditions for the bacteria to be able to repair the crack when ...Fossil discovery marks earliest record of limbloss in ancient lizard
...riginally collected during the 19th Century from a limestone quarry in Slovenia. It then sat at the Natural History Museum in Trieste, Italy for almost 100 years before Caldwell and a colleague found it in 1996 during a trip to Europe. He later connected with Alessandro Palci, then a graduate student in Italy ...Extraordinary life found around deep-sea gas seeps
...rved 3040 cm long tube worms emerging from beneath limestone boulders and slabs lying at the core of the seeps. Around the rocks were patches of blackened sediment and pockets of white bacterial mats. Most sites also had extensive shell beds consisting of live and dead shells of various types of clams and mus......and/or produce calcium carbonate to form laminated limestone mounds. "We knew that the stromatolite ecosystem was dominated by photosynthetic cyanobacteria, and expected to see this reflected in a positive carbon isotopic value. However, we saw the exact opposite." Andres said. " We still don't understand...Oldest complex organic molecules found in ancient fossils
...he grays and tans of sedimentary rock, such as the limestone fossils in this study. Rock is inorganic, and replaces organic molecules such as pigments during fossilization. What O'Malley and her colleagues discovered is that some organic molecules occasionally survive the process. "Crinoid skeleton is very p...Retired FSU professor captures a 'living fossil' on video
...ock rat is so called for its only known habitat -- limestone outcroppings in Central Laos -- and the appearance of the animal's head and face, which sport long whiskers and beady eyes like those of a rat. (To view photographs and video of the Laotian rock rat, visit www.rinr.fsu.edu/rockrat .) Redfield's vide...Hebrew University researchers uncover eight previously unknown species
...me 2 kilometers, making it Israel's second largest limestone cave. It is to remain closed to the public to permit further scientific research. The invertebrate animals found in the cave four seawater and freshwater crustaceans and four terrestial species are related to but different from other, similar lif...Coral reef resilience: Better feeders survive bleaching
...ching persists, corals die, leaving behind ghostly limestone skeletons. Some corals can survive bleaching. The reasons for this, however, aren't well understood. Palardy and his colleagues had a hunch: In the absence of algae-derived nutrition, corals may tap energy reserves or increase feeding, a process wher...Highlights of American Chemical Society meeting in Atlanta, March 26-30
..., for example, to assemble compounds that dissolve limestone barriers from a collapsed cave wall or develop fertilizers to grow plants that supply oxygen to an underground laboratory. The researchers hope to finish developing the game next year and win some new chemistry fans in the process. ( CHED 1332 , Wedn...Phytoplankton bounce back from abrupt climate change
...eturn to the atmosphere. It is not until chalk or limestone beds are exposed to the elements that weathering returns the carbon to the atmosphere. "Today, we are sort of in the middle of a mass experiment," says Bralower. "With the oceans warming, we do not really know what the end result will be, but we can...Oysters: The natural way to protect our shores
...ther heavier shoreline protection structures (i.e. limestone rock breakwaters) which usually necessitate placement of additional material over time to maintain their effectiveness," authors, Bryan P. Piazza, Patrick D. Banks, and Megan K. La Peyre state. The authors evaluated the effectiveness of six experimen...Virginia Tech, Nanjing Institute researchers discover half-billion year-old fossils
...ew discovery of Ediacara fossils from fine-grained limestone of the Dengying Formation in South China by Xiao and his collaborators. "The Ediacara fossils from China were not deflated before they were incorporated in the rock," said Shen, "instead, they are preserved three-dimensionally in the rock." Using ser...Rock on! Indiana limestone: NIST's first and latest SRM
...70-gram sample of argillaceous ("containing clay") limestone quarried in Putnam County, Ind. NIST certifies eac... final assembly and subsequent operation. Prosaic limestone is a critical natural resource. In addition to being a building material, it is used in the manufact...Scientists discover odd-ball rodent
...e Kha-Nyou, other than it seems to prefer areas of limestone outcroppings and forest cover, and it appears to be a nocturnal vegetarian. It also gives birth to one offspring at a time, rather than a litter. Dr. Timmins, who also discovered a new species of striped rabbit from the same region in 1999, warns t...Discovery of an American salamander where it shouldn't be: Korea
...orean crevice salamander, for its preferred abode, limestone crevices. As the name implies, lungless salamanders from the family Plethodontidae have no lungs and breathe through moist skin. Because these nocturnal animals live, breed and lay their eggs on land, they typically are found in areas with abundant r......the animal, Babcock said. They also examined limestone deposits they found nearby, and identified fossils...pect, Babcock said. What we found was the weirdest limestone Ive ever seen. At a mountain site called Carapace Nunatak, about 100 miles from McMur...