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Categories: Anthropology: General, Geoscience: Earthquakes
Published Drought encouraged Attila's Huns to attack the Roman empire, tree rings suggest
(via sciencedaily.com) Hunnic peoples migrated westward across Eurasia, switched between farming and herding, and became violent raiders in response to severe drought in the Danube frontier provinces of the Roman empire, a new study argues.
Published Early humans may have first walked upright in the trees
(via sciencedaily.com) Human bipedalism -- walking upright on two legs -- may have evolved in trees, and not on the ground as previously thought, according to a new study.
Published Extinct 'monkey lemur' shows similarities to fossil humans
(via sciencedaily.com) Analysis of teeth of extinct lemurs has revealed fascinating clues to the evolution of humans, a new study has found.
Published Immune system of modern Papuans shaped by DNA from ancient Denisovans, study finds
(via sciencedaily.com) Modern Papuans' immune system likely evolved with a little help from the Denisovans, a mysterious human ancestor who interbred with ancient humans, according to a new study.
Published How intensive agriculture turned a wild plant into a pervasive weed
(via sciencedaily.com) Agriculture is driving rapid evolutionary change, not just on farms but also in wild species in surrounding landscapes, new research has found.
Published Finding faults deeply stressful
(via sciencedaily.com) Evidence that a complete stress release may have contributed to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake that broke records. Both sedimentary formations above and below the plate boundary fault lie in the stress state of normal faults in which vertical stress is greater than maximum horizontal stress. The new data show good consistency with previous results above the fault -- at the boundary between the North American plate and the subducting Pacific plate -- suggesting that combining geophysical data and core samples to comprehensively investigate stress states is effective.
Published For 400 years, Indigenous tribes buffered climate's impact on wildfires in the American Southwest
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Devastating megafires are becoming more common, in part, because the planet is warming. But a new study suggests bringing 'good fire' back to the U.S. and other wildfire fire-prone areas, as Native Americans once did, could potentially blunt the role of climate in triggering today's wildfires.
Published Jawbone may represent earliest presence of humans in Europe
(via sciencedaily.com) For over a century, one of the earliest human fossils ever discovered in Spain has been long considered a Neanderthal. However, new analysis from an international research team dismantles this century-long interpretation, demonstrating that this fossil is not a Neanderthal; rather, it may actually represent the earliest presence of Homo sapiens ever documented in Europe.
Published Landslide risk remains years after even a weak earthquake
(via sciencedaily.com) Satellite observations have revealed that weak seismic ground shaking can trigger powerful landslide acceleration -- even several years after a significant earthquake.
Published Earthquake lab experiments produce aftershock-like behavior
(via sciencedaily.com) Earthquakes are notoriously hard to predict, and so too are the usually less-severe aftershocks that often follow a major seismic event.
Published Ancient DNA from medieval Germany tells the origin story of Ashkenazi Jews
(via sciencedaily.com) Extracting ancient DNA from teeth, an international group of scientists peered into the lives of a once-thriving medieval Ashkenazi Jewish community in Erfurt, Germany. The findings show that the Erfurt Jewish community was more genetically diverse than modern day Ashkenazi Jews.
Published Interdisciplinary environmental history: How narratives of the past can meet the challenges of the anthropocene
(via sciencedaily.com) A new article discusses vital methodological issues for humanities-based historical inquiry and argues that the challenges of the Anthropocene demand interdisciplinary research informed by a variety of historical narratives.
Published Human evolution wasn't just the sheet music, but how it was played
(via sciencedaily.com) A team of researchers has identified a group of human DNA sequences driving changes in brain development, digestion and immunity that seem to have evolved rapidly after our family line split from that of the chimpanzees, but before we split with the Neanderthals.
Published 'Primordial super-enhancers' provide early snapshot of the mechanisms that allowed for multicellularity
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study has found that organelle-like transcriptional condensates are an ancient and flexible tool used by cells to drive rapid gene expression.
Published 1,700-year-old spider monkey remains discovered in Teotihuacán, Mexico
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The complete skeletal remains of a spider monkey -- seen as an exotic curiosity in pre-Hispanic Mexico -- grants researchers new evidence regarding social-political ties between two ancient powerhouses: Teotihuacán and Maya Indigenous rulers. The remains of other animals were also discovered, as well as thousands of Maya-style mural fragments and over 14,000 ceramic sherds from a grand feast. These pieces are more than 1,700 years old.
Published Exploring the deep: Drones offer new ways to monitor sea floor
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have developed a novel method for measuring the earth's crust on the seafloor. A lightweight geodetic measurement device was mounted on a sea-surface landing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The mobility of this new system will enable rapid, efficient collection of real-time deep seafloor information, which is critical for understanding earthquake risk, as well as various other oceanographic observations.
Published Monitoring 'frothy' magma gases could help evade disaster
(via sciencedaily.com) Volcanic eruptions are dangerous and difficult to predict. A team has found that the ratio of atoms in specific gases released from volcanic fumaroles (gaps in the Earth's surface) can provide an indicator of what is happening to the magma deep below -- similar to taking a blood test to check your health. This can indicate when things might be 'heating up.' Specifically, changes in the ratio of argon-40 and helium-3 can indicate how frothy the magma is, which signals the risk of different types of eruption. Understanding which ratios of which gases indicate a certain type of magma activity is a big step. Next, the team hopes to develop portable equipment which can provide on-site, real-time measurements for a 24/7 volcanic activity monitoring and early warning system.
Published Oldest evidence of the controlled use of fire to cook food, researchers report
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The remains of a huge carp fish mark the earliest signs of cooking by prehistoric human to 780,000 years ago, predating the available data by some 600,000 years, according to researchers.
Published Using 1980s environmental modeling to mitigate future disasters: Could Japan's 3/11 disaster have been prevented?
(via sciencedaily.com) On March 11, 2011, multiple catastrophes in Japan were triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake, including the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This event, also known as the 3/11 disaster, is what is known as a compound disaster. Now that over a decade has passed since this event, researchers are investigating how to prevent the next compound disaster.
Published Report outlines plans for major research effort on subduction zone geologic hazards
(via sciencedaily.com) Subduction zones, where one tectonic plate slides beneath another, produce the most devastating seismic, volcanic, and landslide hazards on the planet. A new report presents an ambitious plan to make major advances in understanding subduction zone hazards by bringing together a diverse community of scientists in a long-term collaborative effort, deploying new instrumentation in subduction zones, and developing more sophisticated and accurate models.