Feature: Crystal Palace

Have you ever wondered living in a crystal palace? No, it is not even close to the man-made Crystal Mosque of Terengganu. This crystal cave is found in a remote part of Mexico. 

Nothing compares with the giants found in Cueva de los Cristales, or Cave of Crystals. The limestone cavern and its glittering beams were discovered in 2000 by a pair of brothers drilling nearly a thousand feet below ground in the Naica mine, one of Mexico's most productive, yielding tons of lead and silver each year. The brothers were astonished by their find, but it was not without precedent. The geologic processes that create lead and silver also provide raw materials for crystals, and at Naica, miners had hammered into chambers of impressive, though much smaller, crystals before. But as news spread of the massive crystals' discovery, the question confronting scientists became: How did they grow so big?

Processes

In their architecture crystals embody law and order, stacks of molecules assembled according to rigid rules. But crystals also reflect their environment. Spanish crystallographer Juan Manuel García-Ruiz was one of the first to study the Naica crystals beginning in 2001. More familiar with microscopic crystals, García was dizzied by the proportions of the Naica giants. By examining bubbles of liquid trapped inside the crystals, García and his colleagues pieced together the story of the crystals' growth. For hundreds of thousands of years, groundwater saturated with calcium sulfate filtered through the many caves at Naica, warmed by heat from the magma below. As the magma cooled, water temperature inside the cave eventually stabilized at about 136°F. At this temperature minerals in the water began converting to selenite, molecules of which were laid down like tiny bricks to form crystals. In other caves under the mountain, the temperature fluctuated or the environment was somehow disturbed, resulting in different and smaller crystals. But inside the Cave of Crystals, conditions remained unchanged for millennia. Above ground, volcanoes exploded and ice sheets pulverized the continents. Human generations came and went. Below, enwombed in silence and near complete stasis, the crystals steadily grew. Only around 1985, when miners using massive pumps lowered the water table and unknowingly drained the cave, did the process of accretion stop.

Research and discovery

Now, in the cave, a team of scientists and explorers is conducting research and working on a documentary. Stein-Erik Lauritzen, a professor of geology at the University of Bergen in Norway, is retrieving samples for uranium-thorium dating. His preliminary research suggests the largest of the crystals are about 600,000 years old. Penelope Boston, an associate professor of cave and karst science at New Mexico Tech, searches for microbes that might live among the crystals. In some of them, tiny bubbles of suspended fluid—the kind García studied—sparkle in our lights. They are little time capsules: Italian scientists led by Anna Maria Mercuri extracted pollen that may have been trapped within these inclusions. The grains appear to be 30,000 years old and suggest that this part of Mexico was once covered not by desert but by forest.

NEOShield to assess Earth defence

NEOShield is a new international project that will assess the threat posed by Near Earth Objects (NEO) and look at the best possible solutions for dealing with a big asteroid or comet on a collision path with our planet.

The effort is being led from the German space agency's (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin, and had its kick-off meeting this week.

It will draw on expertise from across Europe, Russia and the US.

It's a major EU-funded initiative that will pull together all the latest science, initiate a fair few laboratory experiments and new modelling work, and then try to come to some definitive positions.

Industrial partners, which include the German, British and French divisions of the big Astrium space company, will consider the engineering architecture required to deflect one of these bodies out of our path.

Should we kick it, try to tug it, or even blast it off its trajectory?

"We're going to collate all the scientific information with a view to mitigation," explains project leader Prof Alan Harris at DLR.

"What do you need to know about an asteroid in order to be able to change its course - to deflect it from a catastrophic course with the Earth?"

It's likely that NEOShield will, at the end of its three-and-a-half-year study period, propose to the politicians that they launch a mission to demonstrate the necessary technology.

The NEO threat may seem rather distant, but the geological and observational records tell us it is real.

About every 2,000 years or so, an object the size of a football field will impact the Earth, causing significant local damage.On average, an object about the size of car will enter the Earth's atmosphere once a year, producing a spectacular fireball in the sky.

And then, every few million years, a rock turns up that has a girth measured in kilometres. An impact from one of these will produce global effects.

The latest estimates indicate that we've probably found a little over 90% of the true monsters out there and none look like they'll hit us.

It is that second category that merits further investigation.

Data from Nasa's Wise telescope suggests there are likely to be about 19,500 NEOs in the 100-1,000m size range, and the vast majority of these have yet to be identified and tracked.

New telescopes are coming that will significantly improve detection success. In the meantime, the prudent course would be to develop a strategy for the inevitable.

The strongest mitigation candidates currently would appear to be:

Kinetic impactor: This mission might look like Nasa's Deep Impact mission of 2005, or the Don Quijote mission that Europe designed but never launched. It involves perhaps a shepherding spacecraft releasing an impactor to strike the big rock or comet. This gentle nudge, depending when and how it's done, could change the velocity of the rock ever so slightly to make it arrive "at the crossroads" sufficiently early or late to miss Earth.

"The amount of debris, or ejecta, produced in the impact would affect the momentum of the NEO," says Prof Harris.

"Of course, that will depend on what sort of asteroid it is - its physical characteristics. What's its surface like; how porous or dense it is? This is really something you would want to test with a demonstration mission."

"Gravity tractor": This involves positioning a spacecraft close to a target object and using long-lived ion thrusters to maintain the separation between the two. Because of gravitational attraction between the spacecraft and the NEO, it is possible to pull the asteroid or comet off its trajectory. "It's like using gravity as a tow-rope," says Prof Harris. "It's not straightforward of course. Can you be sure those thrusters will keep working for the time they're needed - a decade or more? Do you have confidence that the spacecraft can look after itself autonomously all that time? These are the sorts of technical problems we will look at."

In both scenarios, the effects are small, but if initiated years - even decades - in advance should prove effective enough.

What we've learnt about asteroids, however, is that they are not all the same. Different rocks are likely to need different approaches.

One method often discussed but about which there is great uncertainty is "blast deflection" - the idea that you would detonate a nuclear device close to, or on the surface of (even buried under the surface), an incoming rock.

The Russian members of the NEOShield consortium will take a close look at the option.

At present, I detect a lot of scepticism out there about this approach. Delivering the device to just the right place would prove very difficult, and the outcomes, depending on the composition and construction of the NEO, would be very hard to predict. But some better numbers than we have currently are required and TsNIIMash, the engineering arm of the Russian space agency (Roscosmos), will gather all the available data.

"What we want to do is take a comprehensive view, to try to draw everything we know together, with the right expertise so that this thing has momentum," commented Dr Ralph Cordey, from Astrium UK.

"We will look at the spectrum of techniques, trying to see which ones might be applicable in different cases. And then taking it to a level where we do some detailed design work on a possible mission to demonstrate one or more of these techniques."

And Prof Harris added: "At the end of this, we want to be able to say to the space agencies 'if you're interested in asteroid mitigation, this is what we think. We have six countries represented in our consortium and we're all agreed this is the way to go'.

"The politicians would then have everything on a plate. All they have to do is decide whether or not to execute the mission."

Next Supercontinent Will Form in Arctic, Geologists Say

Geologists have long predicted that North and South America will eventually fuse together and merge with Asia, forming a new supercontinent along the lines of the ancient Pangea — the precursor to today’s great land masses, which separated about 200 million years ago.

In the past, researchers had guessed that the new continent, often called Amasia, would form either in the same location as Pangea, closing over the Atlantic near present-day Africa, or 180 degrees away, on the other side of the world.

But a new study predicts that Amasia will form over the Arctic Ocean.

“The fusion of North and South America together will close the Caribbean Sea and meet Eurasia at the present-day North Pole,” said Ross Nelson Mitchell, a geologist at Yale University, who worked on the study as part of his doctoral research.

“And Australia is moving north, and would probably snuggle to join Asia somewhere between India and Japan,” he added.

Mr. Mitchell and colleagues from Yale, who discuss their theory in the current issue of the journal Nature, modeled the movement of supercontinents of the past using paleomagnetic data, a measurement of the force between the earth’s rocks.

Once each supercontinent is assembled, it undergoes back-and-forth rotations about a stable axis on the Equator, Mr. Mitchell said. This motion is called true polar wander. Using this, the researchers determined the center of each of the previous supercontinents — Pangea (often spelled Pangaea), Rodinia and Nuna.

There was a clear pattern. In each case, the centers of the supercontinents were separated by 90 degrees.

Scientists to Drill Earth's Mantle, Retrieve First Sample?

It may not be a journey to the center of the Earth, but it could be the closest thing yet.

Scientists are planning to drill all the way through the planet's miles-thick crust to Earth's deep, hot mantle and retrieve samples for the first time. The samples, they say, would rival moon rocks for sheer scientific import—and be nearly as hard to get.

"That has been a long-term ambition of earth scientists," geologist Damon Teagle told National Geographic News.

But a lack of suitable technology and insufficient understanding of the crust have long tempered that ambition. (Get an overview of Earth's magma and other layers).

Now, better knowledge of the Earth's shell and technological advances—for example, a Japanese drill ship equipped with six miles (ten kilometers) of drilling pipe—have put the goal within reach, according to a commentary in this week's issue of the journal Nature, co-written by Teagle, a geologist at the U.K.'s University of Southampton.

Even so, drilling into the mantle would be "very expensive" and would require new drillbit and lubricant designs, among other things, according to the paper.

But if all goes as planned, drilling could begin by 2020, Teagle said. As soon as next month, the team will begin exploratory missions in the Pacific, where crews will "bore further into the oceanic crust than ever before," the paper says.

(Related: Find out how Earth's mantle once housed a magma "ocean.")

Mantle Holds Clues to Quakes and Earth Origins

Between Earth's molten core and hard, thin crust, the roughly 2,000-mile-thick (3,200-kilometer-thick) mantle contains the vast bulk of Earth's rocks. But we don't know much about them, because all we have are bits that have come to the surface via volcanoes or been trapped in ancient mountain belts.

But all these mantle samples no longer really represent mantle conditions and makeup, since they've been altered in the long process of coming to the surface, so they providing only tantalizing glimpses of what lies below, scientists say.

Drilling would tell scientists not only what the mantle is like, but also reveal the nature of the Moho layer, a shadowy transitional layer at the base of the crust.

"We know what the happens to seismic waves as they cross the Moho, but we don't know what it is," Teagle said.

Scientists would also be able to look for signs of life in the deep crustal rocks.

"Wherever we've looked, up to 120 °C (248 °F), we've seen evidence of microbial activity," Teagle said. "We would certainly test that on the way to the mantle."

But the big prize is the mantle itself.

Getting a sample, he said, would tell us much about the Earth's origins and history.

Mantle rocks would also provide insight into how current mantle processes operate—highly important in understanding the plate tectonics that drive many earthquakes, tsunamis, and eruptions, he added.

(Related: "Infant, Magma-Ball Earth Glimpsed Via Newfound Rocks.")

Deep Ocean, Shallow Crust

The best place to drill, Teagle said, is in the mid-ocean, because that's where Earth's crust is thinnest—only about four miles (six kilometers) thick, versus tens of miles deep in continental regions.

But the mid-ocean, is, of course, still deep—about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) in the targeted areas. That's nearly twice the depth reachable by today's offshore drilling techniques, Teagle said. So far, drills have penetrated only about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) into undersea crust.

(Also see: "'First Contact With Inner Earth': Drillers Strike Magma.")

And while the seabed is cold, the drill would have to be able to reach into a zone where temperatures would hit 570°F (300°C) and pressures would mount to 2,000 atmospheres—equivalent to more than 4 million pounds per square foot (21 million kilograms per square meter).

"There are deeper drill holes than this," Teagle said, "but they have been done on land or into relatively soft sediments."

There's no danger of a blowout, such as the Gulf oil spill, because there are no oil and gas deposits in the mid-ocean for the drill to accidentally penetrate, he added.

Nor would the mantle rocks suddenly erupt out of the hole, since the channel would be narrow and mantle rocks aren't molten.

"There is a risk of failure in that the hole could collapse," he said, "but there is no perceived environmental risk."

What we know- It's not gold!

All the fuss over gold in Kampung Melayu seems to be for nothing after experts revealed that the glittering stones there were worthless. Associate Professor Dr Md Radzuan Junin, head of the Geology Depart­ment of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Faculty of Petroleum Engineering and Renewable Energy, said the glittering stones had always been mistaken for gold.

People digging for ‘gold’ on a road at Jalan Mewah, Kampung Melayu in Johor Baru. — ABDUL RAHMAN EMBONG / The Star

“However, based on my experience, the shiny stones are known as ‘fool’s gold’, which glow in the dark and shine under the sunlight due to its iron sulphide or pyrite content,” he said yesterday.

To geologists, the mineral we are very familiar with the name of pyrite. In fact, many pyrites are found during the course of field trips among the Curtin Geology students. In times like this, we really need geologists to make sure we are not one of the fools. It is obvious that there is no Curtin Geology students in the village to explain to them that it is not gold, otherwise why would they keep digging for 'gold'? Hours of observing pyrite in the lab is worth something after all!-iGeology

Petroleum Geoscience Conference & Exhibition 2012

Hello!

There will be a conference and exhibition on Petroleum Geoscience industry in Malaysia in April next year. 

The  Petroleum Geoscience Conference and Exhibition 2012 (PGCE 2012) details are as follow:

Date: 23rd-24th April 2012 (Teaching Weeks, no holidays)

Student fee: RM100.00

Venue: Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC)

The Petroleum Geoscience Conference & Exhibition 

2012 (PGCE 2012) is one of the largest geoscience 

events in South East Asia. 

It was started more 

than 30 years ago by the Geological Society of 

Malaysia (GSM). In 2005 PETRONAS joined the 

organization of the event, taking it to the next 

level. 

The two-day programme for 2012 includes a large 

conference, short courses, technical exhibition, 

student programme and field trips presenting the 

latest developments in geophysics, geology and 

reservoir engineering.

In 2011 almost 1,800 visitors from countries all over the world attended the event

There will be field trips that we can look forward to:

Field Trip 1

Wednesday, 25 April 2012 - Thursday, 26 April 2012

Geological Field Trip of the Palaeozoic Limestone of Kinta Valley 

Field Trip Leader: Professor Dr. Bernard J. Pierson

Shell Chair in Petroleum Geosciences, Head of SEACARL (South-East Asia Carbonate Research Laboratory), Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP)

Field Trip 2

Wednesday, 25 April 2012 - Friday, 27 April 2012

Sedimentary Geology of Nyalau Formation (Early-Middle Miocene), Sawarak Basin

Lithofacies, Stratigraphic Surfaces and Depositional Sequences: Implications on Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production.

Field Trip Leader: Dr. Abdul Hadi Abd. Rahman (Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS) & Dr. Mazlan Hj Madon (PETRONAS)

Field Trip 3

Wednesday, 25 April 2012 - Friday, 27 April 2012

Study of Fractured Metasedimentary and Granite Outcrops, Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia: An Analogue for Fracture Basement Exploration in Malay Basin

Field Trip Leader: Dr. Narender Pendkar (PETRONAS Carigali) & Mr. Mohd. B. Kadir (PETRONAS Carigali)

The field trips are very interesting and surely bring tonnes of benefits to us. They will be held straight after the conference.

Students can look forward to a special tailored first day programme with talks and the PGCE 2012 Geo-Quiz!

More information will be available soon.

It is an event organised by Geological Society of Malaysia (GSM) with Petronas. 

Curtin students probably cannot go as we will be having classes.

However,

Important: If many of you are interested (or at least 'feel like going'), do tell CGC by commenting your name below so that we have the numbers of people and at least  do something about it. 

Register now for Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs

Register now for Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs — a joint AAPG-EAGE workshop in Bali Register now and save US $100 Before 14 January: AAPG/EAGE members:  US $1,300. Nonmembers:$US $1,400. After 14 January: AAPG/EAGE members: US $1,400. Nonmembers:US$1,500 Register now to be a part of Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs, a join AAPG-EAGE workshop to be held 15-17 February 2012 in Bali. Geotechnical professionals from industry and academia, both those actively working these topics and those wishing to learn more, will benefit from the collaborative exchange of ideas at this event, as well its accompanying core workshop. A range of session topics will integrate detailed observations and perspectives from inter-related fields of research such as structural geology, geomechanics, geophysics and reservoir engineering to better understand and predict the presence, distribution, controls and impact of fractures in carbonates. Technical Program Convenors: Julie Kupecz, Pearl Energy Indonesia (a Mubadala Company) Robert Park, Sherwood Holdings, Jakarta Sigit Sukmono, Institut Teknologi, Bandung  More... Visit the website for more information or to register for the joint AAPG-EAGE workshop.