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Categories: Anthropology: Early Humans, Geoscience: Earthquakes
Published Some Pre-Roman humans were buried with dogs, horses and other animals
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Some people from an ancient community in what is now northern Italy were interred with animals and animal parts from species such as dogs, horses and pigs. The reasons remain mysterious, but might indicate an enduring companion relationship between these humans and animals, or religious sacrificial practices, according to a new study.
Published Great apes playfully tease each other
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Babies playfully tease others as young as eight months of age. Since language is not required for this behavior, similar kinds of playful teasing might be present in non-human animals. Now cognitive biologists and primatologists have documented playful teasing in four species of great apes. Like joking behavior in humans, ape teasing is provocative, persistent, and includes elements of surprise and play. Because all four great ape species used playful teasing, it is likely that the prerequisites for humor evolved in the human lineage at least 13 million years ago.
Published Ancient rocks improve understanding of tectonic activity between earthquakes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Rocks once buried deep in ancient subduction zones -- where tectonic plates collide -- could help scientists make better predictions of how these zones behave during the years between major earthquakes, according to a research team.
Published Innovation in stone tool technology involved multiple stages at the time of modern human dispersals
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study illuminates the cultural evolution that took place approximately 50,000 to 40,000 years ago, coinciding with the dispersals of Homo sapiens across Eurasia. The insights gleaned from their examination of stone tool technology challenge the widely held notion of a rapid cultural and technological 'revolution' that enabled anatomically modern humans to surpass Neanderthals and other archaic humans. Instead, the research suggests a nuanced evolutionary process, unfolding gradually over an extended period, with changes occurring at various times. These findings challenge the conventional theory on the timing and nature of cultural transitions during this pivotal period in human history.
Published New method to more accurately spot underground nuclear tests
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A more accurate way of identifying underground nuclear tests, including those conducted in secret, has been developed.
Published Thailand's Iron Age Log Coffin culture
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A mortuary practice known as Log Coffin culture characterizes the Iron Age of highland Pang Mapha in northwestern Thailand. Between 2,300 and 1,000 years ago, individuals were buried in large wooden coffins on stilts, mostly found in caves and rock shelters.
Published A new origin story for deadly Seattle fault
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The Seattle fault zone is a network of shallow faults slicing through the lowlands of Puget Sound, threatening to create damaging earthquakes for the more than four million people who live there. A new origin story, proposed in a new study, could explain the fault system's earliest history and help scientists improve hazard modeling for the densely populated region.
Published Neanderthals and humans lived side by side in Northern Europe 45,000 years ago
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Archaeologists have debated whether Neanderthals or modern humans made stone tools that are found at sites across northern Europe and date from about 40,000 years ago. A new excavation at one site in Germany turned up 45,000-year-old bone fragments that, when analyzed for mitochondrial DNA, proved to be from Homo sapiens. This is the earliest evidence that modern humans overlapped with Neanderthals in northwest Europe, thousands of years before Neanderthals went extinct.
Published How did humans learn to walk? New evolutionary study offers an earful
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study, which centers on evidence from skulls of a 6-million-year-old fossil ape, Lufengpithecus, offers important clues about the origins of bipedal locomotion courtesy of a novel method: analyzing its bony inner ear region using three-dimensional CT-scanning. The inner ear appears to provide a unique record of the evolutionary history of ape locomotion.
Published Key factors in human-made earthquakes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers report that the roughness of pre-existing faults and associated stress heterogeneity in geological reservoirs play a key role for causing human-made earthquakes, so-called runaway events. The study combines novel fluid injection experiments under acoustic monitoring performed in GFZ's geomechanical laboratory with numerical modelling results.
Published New map shows where damaging earthquakes are most likely to occur in US
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists recently revealed the latest National Seismic Hazard Model, showing that nearly 75% of the United States could experience a damaging earthquake, emphasizing seismic hazards span a significant part of the country.
Published Is natural spa water a fossil of water? Uncover the real ultra-deep water cycles
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery regarding the origins of non-meteoric water in natural spa waters located in central Japan. Based on numerical modeling, their results suggest that this water has been confined within the lithosphere for an extensive period of 1.5-5 million years. They identified three primary sources for this ancient water: the Philippine Sea Plate, the Pacific Plate, and ancient seafloor sediments, particularly in the Niigata and southwest Gunma regions.
Published Seismic and infrasonic signals used to characterize Nord Stream pipeline events
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study provides further evidence that the Nord Stream seismic signals came from a complex source. The signals lasted longer than would be expected from a single explosive source, the researchers say, and were more like the signals detected from an underwater volcano or a pipeline venting gas.
Published Morocco earthquake had unusual deep slip, according to new modeling
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In their rapid characterization of the magnitude 6.8 Al Haouz earthquake in Morocco, researchers suggest that the earthquake ruptured roughly 25 kilometers deep beneath the surface.
Published AI provides more accurate analysis of prehistoric and modern animals, painting picture of ancient world
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study of the remains of prehistoric and modern African antelopes found that AI technology accurately identified animals more than 90% of the time compared to humans, who had much lower accuracy rates depending on the expert.
Published Was the earthquake induced or natural? New study tests frameworks to answer the question
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using questionnaires created to determine whether a particular earthquake is natural or induced by human activity, a panel of experts concluded that the November 2022 magnitude 5.2 Peace River earthquake sequence in Alberta, Canada was likely to be induced.
Published New geophysical technique enhances imaging of fluid-filled rocks finding connections with microearthquakes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have recently introduced a new method called ambient noise differential adjoint tomography, which allows researchers to visualise rocks with fluids better, leading to potential advancements in the discovery of water and oil resources, as well as applications in urban geologic hazard and early warning systems for tsunamis and the understanding of the water cycle.
Published Recycling concrete using carbon can reduce emissions and waste
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Amid the rubble of large-sale earthquake, war or other disaster -- and as ageing buildings and infrastructure are replaced -- mountains of concrete are often taken to landfill or pounded into rubble for roads. For a more sustainable approach, experts are developing a 'value add' for old broken concrete to 'upcycling' coarse aggregate to produce a strong, durable and workable concrete using a small amount of a secret ingredient -- graphene.
Published Paleolithic humans may have understood the properties of rocks for making stone tools
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Research suggests that Paleolithic humans in the Middle East selected flint for their cutting tools based on differences in the mechanical properties of the rock. They seem to have purposefully selected the most suitable rocks for fashioning into tools, even being able to distinguish rocks that were unsuitable.
Published A mixed origin made maize successful
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Maize is one of the world's most widely grown crops. It is used for both human and animal foods and holds great cultural significance, especially for indigenous peoples in the Americas. Yet despite its importance, the origins of the grain have been hotly debated for more than a century. Now new research shows that all modern maize descends from a hybrid created just over 5000 years ago in central Mexico, thousands of years after the plant was first domesticated.