Kacie's post about sharks spurned my interest about endangered species, and so I set out to discover what qualified a species as "endangered." The United States Fish and Wildlife Service website
( http://www.fws.gov/endangered/about/faq.html ) describes endangered species as "at the brink of extinction." The website carefully separates this definition from that of threatened species, which are likely to be at the brink of extinction in the near future.

In addition to what defines an endangered species, I wanted to find out how researchers determined which species are endangered. There are two main processes by which this government agency decides to list a species as endangered.
In the petition process, a species is petitioned to be put on the endangered species list. This petition should include in depth data about the species and about its threat of extinction. The petition must pass a preliminary review and then a number of other reviews that determine if the species will be placed on the endangered species list.

The candidate assessment process analyzes potentially endangered species based on five criteria:
1. the present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of the species' habitat or range;
2. overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes;
3. disease or predation;
4. the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; and,
5. other natural or manmade factors affecting the species' continued existence.

The U.S. fish and wildlife service investigates species that meet some of these criteria and determine the state of its health.

So there are more than one way that an animal can be determined endangered, all of which require significant data and information.

Since everyone is talking about the devastating aspects of hurricanes, I thought I'd give an account of how hurricanes that veer north along the East coast provide a lot of excitement to New England surfers. Every year surfers along the New England coast eagerly encourage the arrival of hurricane season. While other regions and other people tend to dread the hurricane season and the potential damage it holds, NE surfers await the swells and waves brought hurricanes. Since hurricanes that veer Northward generally pass by New England far enough offshore to cause no damage, NE surfers generally expect little to no damage from hurricane season. They do, however, expect massive swells to roll in from hurricanes that stall offshore and spin out into the Atlantic. These swells send waves with long periods and great magnitude towards the coast, causing some danger among ships but little to the coast and land. When these storms pass by or are predicted to pass by, surf shops, beachgoers, and just about everybody along the coast begins talking about the waves and the surfers. Of course, hurricanes can make landfall up North, like Irene did. Those storms do negatively impact New England and although they are rare, NE surfers do not welcome the extreme damage they cause to the coastline, the unmanageable ocean conditions they churn up, and the potentially devastating damage they can cause inland. The map on this website indicates the path hurricane Katia (a storm that did not damage NE, but did churn up the seas and bring excellent surf) followed. http://www.abcnews4.com/story/15395290/hurricane-katia-weakens-slightly-in-open-atlantic The link I bookmarked shows surfers and waves that resulted directly from Hurricane Katia.

Unfortunately I did not get to surf these waves because I was down here at school already. I was on the Rhode Island coastline when hurricane Earl clipped New England last year, and I got to surf those waves a day before it passed over us. The rip currents the hurricanes produce are extremely strong, and the waves drastically change the shape and sand content of the beaches.

This video reports about the Nobel Prize being given to three U.S. born scientists for their 1998 theory that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate rather than a decreasing one. We talked about this in class, and while this theory is now commonplace and accepted today, it directly opposed the previously accepted theory that the gravity actually slowed down the expansion of the universe. In addition, this article provides an account of the Prize's reception and nature of the scientific discovery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/04/nobel-prize-physics-universe-accelerating I found it interesting that in the late nineties two teams headed by scientists "raced each other to make exquisitely precise observations of distant supernovae - or exploding stars - and announced their controversial results within weeks of each other in 1998." I also thought it was interesting to note that one scientists, Lord Rees, felt that members of each of these two scientific teams deserved some of the Nobel Prize money and recognition. He explained that the Nobel Prize can only be shared between 3 individuals, which constrains who receives the award. While the Nobel Prize certainly recognizes the importance of this scientific discovery, I think it also highlights that much more research will be done on this topic and on the elements that cause our universe to expand at an increasing rate.

I never really thought that scientists actually found any underwater cities or remnants of underwater cities, but your post spurned me to search the web for some info on them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/oct/16/lost-greek-city-atlantis-myth

This article talks about the finding of remnants of an ancient Greek city off the coast of Southern Greece. I think that finds like these definitely open the window to discovering and researching ancient civilizations in ways previously unavailable to scientists. The information that can be gleaned from discoveries like these should be used to help fill in the uncertainties that exist in our record of history. The article points out that submerged ruins represent untouched images of history; they have not been changed after hundreds of years.

http://www.livescience.com/9798-haiti-earthquake-science-caused-disaster.html

The website above provides a fairly scientific and easily understood explanation of what caused the devastating earthquake of January, 2010 in Haiti. What makes this article interesting is that it was written just one day after the earthquake occurred.

The culprits of the earthquake were the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates, which slipped past each other and released an immense amount of energy. Like the San Andreas fault we spoke of in class today, which causes the numerous earthquakes experienced by California, the Haiti region has the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault.

As a reminder, transform plate boundaries (the type of boundaries that cause earthquakes) shift along faults- jagged points at which the plates catch each other, eventually overcoming friction and moving in an abrupt jerk. When the energy that was stored get released in this abrupt jerk, the natural disaster we know as an earthquake occurs.

What interests me most about this specific article and phenomena is that scientists and the public in general can have an understanding of how and why earthquakes occur. It amazes me that such a violent and powerful natural event can be analyzed and understood so well. Although earthquakes occurring along the Caribbean plate are not as common as those that occur along Pacific plate and the San Andreas fault (largely because the Caribbean plate and its faults are much smaller), scientists have always known that an earthquake could occur there. We cannot predict exactly when earthquakes will occur, but I think it is quite an accomplishment that we have been able to develop an understanding of where they may occur and why they may occur.

I do not believe that transform boundaries are the only type of boundary that causes earthquakes. I think that earthquakes mostly occur where plates are sliding against one another (transform), grinding and eventually overcoming frictions power to release an immense amount of energy as they move. Most important, however, is that earthquakes occur at faults. There are three types of faults: normal, reverse, and strike slip.
Normal faults occur where plates are diverging, or moving away from one another(divergent boundaries). Reverse faults occur where plates are pushing up against one another(convergent boundaries). Strike slip faults occur where plates are moving alongside one another in opposite directions (transform); the Haiti earthquake occurred at a strike slip fault.

This link provides some images to go along with a description of the different faults. http://www.geo.mtu.edu/UPSeis/where.html

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/13/world/20100113-haiti-close-ups.html


This New York Times interactive article enables you to view some photos of the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake in 2010. One of the most dangerous effects the earthquake had on Haiti was its destruction of necessary infrastructure. Many hospitals and roads were severely damaged if not destroyed; and electricity and telephone communication were knocked out. Most homes were destroyed or damaged, particularly the smaller tin-roof homes much of the lower class lived in.

The third image, food distribution, strikes me the most in this Times article. It shows that the public had such little access to food and water that they actually swarm a food distribution truck for relief. The fact that all of this disorder and famish stemmed from the movement of tectonic plates puts into perspective how large and impactful the plates really are.

Just a bit of info on the SurfRider club-
The club a worldwide organization with chapters all across the U.S. and in other nations. Its primary focus is to preserve the ocean, its waves, the beaches, and to connect ocean enthusiasts (particularly surfers). I'm a member of the UM SurfRider club, and I plan to renew my membership when I get back home to Rhode Island. Let me know if you have any interests/questions about the club.

The event this Saturday (9:30-noonish) is a dune restoration. It will be out in the sun and water, and you get to meet a ton of the local community and local surfers. Let me know if you are interested.

I learned a little bit about "Bioaccumulation" of toxic materials in marine life last year, and it poses a threat to humans as well as ocean dwellers. I did not, however, know that killer whales were directly damaged by this phenomenon. I think the biggest issue with PCBs is their resistant nature and long life span- they do not break down easily into less harmful components. In terms of bioaccumulation as a threat to humans, fish (particularly larger more dominant fish) accumulate large quantities of toxins in their tissues. The most commonly known toxin may be mercury, which is renowned for accumulating in tuna. While a decreased consumption of tuna and other large fish would certainly be an ideal solution, the fact is that large fish are highly sought after for consumption. This leads to issues that arise from mercury poisoning in humans, a deadly threat.

While laws may be put in place to minimize the release of mercury into the environment, mercury that existed decades ago may exist in the tissue of some fish today, and may still accumulate in even larger fish. This in addition to any mercury being released today poses a serious problem that lacks no clear solution. Mercury cannot be eliminated or cleaned from a fish. This article from the Utah state government's website illustrates how mercury may enter the environment and be passed from fish to fish. http://www.mercury.utah.gov/bioaccumulation.htm