|
About the Cover
A lava bubble bursts as it comes in contact with sea water at
Kupapau Point, Kalapana, Hawaii (1989). Courtesy of J.D.
Griggs, Hawaii Volcano Observatory, USGS |
by Victor van Beuren
|
|
by David Applegate
Senators Debate Response to Oil Crisis
|
|
|
|
|
by Kristina Bartlett and Devra Wexler
Sunken ship (Blackbeard’s?) aids science
Yucca Mountain still a go
Russia’s troubled waters
Earth Science Week ’99 kicks off
Stalagmites reveal past climate
|
Features
The Day the Sea Stood Still
Nearly 10 years ago, researchers studying the Antarctic sea floor
discovered evidence that global atmospheric and ocean temperatures spiked
abruptly about 55 million years ago. The long-term explanation for the
dramatic climate change, called the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum, is
still unclear, but the LPTM’s impact on Earth was unmistakable: Much of
the planet’s deep-sea marine life vanished. Did some catastrophe —
perhaps a volcano — trigger these events or were they simply the result
of 5 million years of global warming? Conclusion of a two-part series.
by Tom Yulsman
Doctor Koch’s Horrendous Hydrarchos
It was a great age of hyperbole — the 19th century— and Albert
Koch was just the man for the times. Let others scour for gold, he would
stake his fortune on the mighty mastodons of eras past. And when he found
them, off he went to display his prizes at backwater road shows and in
big-city exhibitions across two continents. Citizens were dazzled, real
scientists were bedeviled, but the bones sold big and “Doctor” Koch went
right on digging. Two of today’s real scientists take us on a journey from
Saxony to St. Louis and from Alabama to the British Museum.
by Robert H. Dott Jr. and William M. Jordan
|
|
