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What planet could have been responsible for the killing the dinosaurs?
*️⃣ Many mysteries remain about the Chicxulub impactor that wiped out more than 60 percent of known species, including the non-avian dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex.
*️⃣ In a recent study, researchers used an innovative technique to demonstrate that the apocalyptic culprit had formed beyond Jupiter's orbit.
*️⃣ Scientists also suggest the Chicxulub impactor wasn’t a comet or a run-of-the-mill giant space rock—it was a conspicuously “carbonaceous” (C-type) asteroid, rich in carbon and organic compounds.
*️⃣ The conclusions are particularly notable, given how rarely this type of asteroid collides with Earth.
*️⃣ According to researchers, studying the nature of asteroids that have struck Earth since its beginnings:
📍 can help solve the enigma of the origin of our planet's water that may have been brought to Earth by asteroids;
📍 also allows humanity to prepare for the future.
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What are different types of love?
ℹ️ Love is often defined as a set of emotions and behaviors characterized by intimacy, passion, and commitment, also involving care, closeness, protectiveness, attraction, affection, and trust.
Psychologists note that love is a physiological motivation such as hunger, thirst, sleep, and identify several different types of love that people may experience.
❤️Friendship involves liking someone and sharing a certain degree of intimacy.
❤️Infatuation involves intense feelings of attraction without a sense of commitment, takes place early in a relationship and may deepen into a more lasting love.
❤️Passionate love is marked by intense feelings of longing and attraction, often involves an idealization of the other person and a need to maintain constant physical closeness.
❤️Compassionate/companionate love is marked by trust, affection, intimacy, and commitment.
💔Unrequited love happens when one person loves another who does not return those feelings.
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How does the placebo effect work?
Studies indicate that the brain controls a variety of responses that manifest as the placebo effect.
Physiological processes subject to placebos include pain response, depression, insulin secretion, immunosuppression, symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, and serum iron levels.
Multiple factors likely play a role:
✔️Expectation: if you think an injection will hurt, it probably will. Or, if you think a pill (real or placebo) helps a condition, then it likely does.
✔️Conditioning: a learned response or association between two events. If you get used that a real peal works for a certain period, a placebo that you take after that period will work too.
✔️Genetics: some people are genetically predisposed to respond to placebos.
❗️In some situations, a placebo is an effective treatment, even when people know they are taking a placebo.
Placebos have an effect on:
💊Asthma
💊Depression
💊Irritable bowel syndrome
💊Menopause
💊Pain
💊Sleep disorders
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What are some physical property examples?
Some examples of physical properties
📍Albedo–reflectivity of an object
📍Area–size of a two-dimensional surface
📍Boiling point–temperature at which a liquid changes into a gas
📍Brittleness–tendency to break under stress
📍Color–wavelengths of light reflected by matter
📍Density–amount of matter per unit of volume
📍Ductility–measure of how readily a substance stretches into a wire
📍Malleability–measure of how readily a substance may be pounded or pressed into sheets
📍Freezing point–temperature at which a substance changes from a liquid into a solid
📍Length–longest dimension of an object
📍Luster–measure of the interaction between light and an object’s surface
📍Mass–amount of matter in an object
📍Solubility–amount of matter that dissolves in a solvent
📍Temperature
📍Viscosity–resistance to deformation by stress; resistance to flow
📍Volume–3D space a substance occupies
📍Weight–effect of gravity on a mass
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How to tell if something is a physical or chemical property?
⚖️🔬 A physical property can be measured through observation and passive measurement (e.g. placing an item on a scale or noting qualitative features) that do not irreversibly change the material that has the property. Occasionally, physical properties will be measured with more active methods (e.g. measuring conductivity or resistance by applying a current of electrons).
🧪 Chemical properties are attributes of a substance that allow for a chemical change, often irreversible, and can't be observed without chemical experiments. Just as with physical reactions, there are some chemical properties, like oxidation (i.e. rust), which will display naturally through observation.
Throughout physical and chemical changes, 2️⃣ terms are also defined:
📌 extensive properties that rely on the amount of matter present (e.g. mass or caloric energy)
📌 intensive properties that are only dependent on the identity of the substance.
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How much of the world population is young?
📍 Today, the world counts 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24 – about 22,5 per cent of the global population, according to the United Nations.
📍 Today’s youth is the largest generation in history.
📍 Close to 90 per cent of these, live in developing countries, where they make up a large proportion of the population.
🌍 Africa has the youngest population of any continent. By 2030, young Africans are expected to make up 42 per cent of the world’s youth and account for 75 per cent of the those under age 35 in Africa.
📍There is no universally agreed international definition of the youth age group. For statistical purposes, however, the UN - without prejudice to any other definitions made by Member States—defines ‘youth’ as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years.
📍 The physical age of youth is sometimes categorized to be between 15 and 35 years.
🎉 International Youth Day takes place on August 12.
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How did ancient people call Mercury?
Mercury has been known since ancient times since it is visible to the naked eye.
✍️ The Babylonians called it "the jumping planet" and later Nabu, for the messenger to their gods.
✍️ In ancient China, the planet was Chen-xing, meaning “the Hour Star.”
✍️ In Hindu mythology, the name Budha was used for Mercury – the god that was thought to preside over Wednesday.
✍️ The same is true for the Germanic tribes, who associated the god Odin/Woden with the planet Mercury and Wednesday.
✍️ The Maya may have represented Mercury as an owl – or possibly four owls, two for the morning aspect and two for the evening – a messenger to the underworld.
✍️ The ancient Greeks called Mercury variously "Stilbon" ("the gleaming"), Hermaon, and Hermes, the swift-footed messenger of the Greek gods.
✍️ The Romans continued this tradition, naming the planet Mercurius after Mercury, a counterpart of Hermes.
It’s an apt name, since Mercury is the fastest planet ⬆️
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How many facial expressions do cats have?
🐈 Cats display at least 276 different facial expressions, according to a study.
😺😾🙀 About 46% of these expressions are friendly, nearly 37% are aggressive and roughly 17% are ambiguous. Each expression combines about four of 26 unique facial movements, including various ear positions, parted lips, jaw drops, dilated or constricted pupils, blinks, pulled lip corners, nose licks, protracted or retracted whiskers.
😽 The findings show cats are more articulate and affectionate than previously thought.
🐈⬛ Although the researchers haven’t been able to compare their results with those of wild felines, they do know that all close relatives of the domestic cat are ferociously solitary animals. Pet cats might have retained some of that defensive “wild” communication, but they probably started to pick up friendly facial expressions over the course of their 10,000-year history with humans.
ℹ️😻 International Cat Day takes place on August 8.
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Where were the world’s first traffic lights installed?
🚦Every year on August 5th, International Traffic Light Day is observed and highlights the importance of the traffic light.
🚥 The world's first traffic light was a manually operated gas-lit signal installed in London, Great Britain, in 1868 ⬆️. It showed a red or green light at night. In 1869 a gas leak caused an explosion, injuring its policeman operator, and the same year this traffic light was removed.
🚦 The history of the first electric traffic light starts with the installation of the first electric traffic signal system in Cleveland, USA, on August 5, 1914. That first traffic light signal only had two colors – green and red ⬆️.
🚥 In 1920 the first three-coloured traffic lights with red, yellow and green lights were put to service in New York and Detroit, USA.
🚦The first electric traffic lights in Europe were installed in the 1920s. Traffic lights returned to London in 1926.
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Why does Earth appear blue from space?
🛰🚀 From space, satellites and astronauts mostly see the Earth as a blue globe.
🔵 The color is produced because the blue part of the Sun’s light is scattered in all directions by air molecules—eventually reaching our eyes from so many angles that the entire sky looks blue. That blue light is reflected back into space by oceans that cover about 71% of our planet.
🌐 The entire planet isn’t blue, of course. The clouds themselves are white, reflecting the white, direct sunlight back out at any onlookers. Ice — such as the caps on our planet’s poles — appears white for the same reasons. The continents, similarly, appear either brown or green from a great distance, depending on the seasons and how covered-in-plants the terrain is.
⚫️ The Earth only appears blue if you are looking at it from outer space on the side that is being lit by the sun. It will appear black when orbiting around a part of the Earth that is experiencing night.
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How many wild tigers are left in the world ?
🐅 There are around 5,000 tigers left in the wild today, according to different scientific sources.
🐅🇮🇳India is home to some 3,700 wild tigers – approximately 75 per cent of the world’s wild tiger population. Since 1973, the Indian government is implementing Project Tiger ⬆️, an ambitious tiger conservation program.
🐅🇷🇺🇨🇳 The second largest wild tiger’s population tiger is found in Russia and northeastern China. Only in Russia, the number of the Amur/Siberian tiger ⬆️ may now reach 600-700 animals.
🐯 The International/Global Tiger Day is observed every year on July 29.
The day was established in 2010 at the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit in Russia that brought 13 tiger range nations to address the alarming revelation that 97 per cent of wild tigers had vanished since the beginning of the 20th century.
The nations came together to join Tx2, intending to double the tiger population from 3,200 to at least 6,000 tigers.
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When and what would be the next supercontinent?
Scientists believe that supercontinents form on a cycle every several hundred million years or so, and we should expect another one in 200-250 million years.
There are currently 4️⃣ theories/models on the subject, shown at the video ⬆️.
Novopangaea (the antipodes of Pangea): if the Atlantic keeps opening and the Pacific keeps closing, the Americas would collide with the northward drifting Antarctica, and then into the already collided Africa-Eurasia.
Pangea Proxima: with the Atlantic Ocean closing, the Americas, Europe and Africa are brought back together and would be surrounded by a super Pacific Ocean.
Amasia: all the continents, except Antarctica, keep drifting north and and merge as the Arctic Ocean closes.
Aurica: if both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans are closing, the European and African plates would then rejoin the Americas.
ℹ️According to some experts, Novopangaea is the most likely future supercontinent.
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Who proposed the concept of supercontinents and what is the theory of continental drift?
Geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) ⬆️ first proposed the concept of supercontinents in 1912.
Wegener noticed that the shorelines of Africa and South America seemingly fit together like giant jigsaw puzzle pieces and therefore was convinced that all of Earth’s continents were once part of a supercontinent Pangaea.
Wegener suggested that the continental landmasses were “drifting” across the Earth.
Fossils of similar organisms across widely disparate continents ⬆️ encouraged his revolutionary theory of continental drift.
But Wegener could not explain the mechanism for how his theory works and thought that perhaps the rotation of the Earth caused the continents to shift towards and apart from each other. (It doesn't.)
Wegener’s theory was rejected for decades until scientists finally confirmed some of his ideas with the modern theory of plate tectonics.
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What was the most recent all-in-one supercontinent?
The most recent and certainly the best known supercontinent is Pangaea.
The name "Pangaea'' comes from Ancient Greek words meaning "all Earth."
This is how Pangaea could look like ⬆️.
According to scientists, after Columbia, Rodinia and Pannotia, Pangaea was one of four all-in-one supercontinents that included all of Earth’s landmasses at their time.
Pangaea existed in the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic when the dinosaurs arose.
Pangaea split when the Central Atlantic Ocean opened.
It was the progenitor of today's continents, and many of today’s mountain ranges were formed at the time of collision of continents and lithospheric plates.
However, today researchers believe that Pangaea never included all of Earth's landmasses. For example, modern-day north and south China were independent islands separated to the east of Pangaea around 359-299 million years ago.
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Why was one of the supercontinents called Rodinia and what modern continent was likely the core of it?
The giant land formation after Columbia was called Rodinia from the Russian “родина” (“rodina” means “motherland”) or “родить” (“rodit” means “to give birth”).
The ocean of that time — Mirovia comes also from the Russian word “мир” (“mir” means “world”) or “мировой” (“mirovoi” means “worldwide”, “global”).
Researchers don't know exactly how big Rodinia was, but North America was likely the core of it.
This is how Rodinia could look like from the South Pole ⬆️.
According to scientists, during Rodinia’s existence, the first multicellular organisms began to appear in oceans around the world.
Some researchers also believe that the theory of “Snowball Earth” refers to the period the breakup of this supercontinent.
ℹ️ The Snowball Earth is a geohistorical hypothesis that in the distant past ice smothered the entire planet, from the poles to the equator at least twice.
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Where does love live?
❤️🧠 Love is often associated with the heart, but, according to scientists, love is more about the brain.
Using cutting-edge brain imaging technology, researchers characterized the brain areas involved in love for six different objects: romantic partner, one’s children, friends, strangers, pets, and nature.
Scientists induced feelings of love using short stories and found that depending on its object different types of love light up different parts of the brain ⬆️
Interestingly, the experts found that love for one’s children generated the most intense brain activity, closely followed by the romantic type.
Interactions with different entities, whether humans, animals, or nature, led to varying patterns of brain activation.
The findings extend beyond understanding emotional responses, offering potential applications in improving mental health and paving the way for more effective therapies that strengthen emotional well-being and personal relationships.
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How big were ancient sea scorpions and why?
🌊🦂 Eurypterids, or “sea scorpions,” are an extinct group of chelicerates, arthropods related to horseshoe crabs, scorpions, spiders, mites, and ticks.
They thrived all over the world for more than 200 million years in the Devonian period of the Paleozoic Era, until their disappearance during a mass extinction at the end of the Permian 250 million years ago.
The pterygotid eurypterids reached total lengths of more than 2.5 meters (8 ft) and sometimes are called the largest arthropods ever to exist.
Sea scorpions were also the only eurypterids that were able to swim across open oceans.
Scientists suggest several explanations why sea scorpions grew to be so big:
📌 the atmosphere with a higher concentration of oxygen (35%, compared to 21% today) accounts for the gigantism during the Devonian period
📌 the necessity to pierce the ever-evolving armor of their fish prey
📌 the lower gravity found underwater
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What is placebo and nocebo effects?
The placebo effect is the phenomenon where a subject experiences an effect from an inactive substance or fake treatment, which is called a placebo.
A placebo, in turn, is a substance or treatment that has no effect. Examples of placebos – sugar pills, consumable liquids or solids, saline injections, and fake surgeries.
The placebo effect is a therapeutic benefit or apparent side effect from a placebo. Alternatively, it is a treatment with the exact composition of inactive ingredients or the same steps as the therapy, minus the active substance or procedure.
However, some scientists refer to a therapeutic or beneficial response as the placebo effect and side effects or a negative response as the nocebo effect (negative placebo). The nocebo effect also includes withdrawal symptoms some patients experience after discontinuing a placebo treatment.
ℹ️ The term "placebo" became part of medical jargon in the late 18th century.
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Why is it important to know the chemical properties of a substance?
It’s important to know the chemical properties of a substance because the information helps:
✅ Identify it
✅ Classify it
✅ Store it safely
✅ Know its hazards
✅ Predict its reactions with other samples
✅ Predict its uses
✅ Purify it
✅ Separate it from other chemicals
✅ Develop new materials for various applications
Matter has many chemical properties. Examples include:
✔️ Chemical bond formation
✔️ Chemical reactivity
✔️ Coordination number
✔️ Corrosivity
✔️ Flammability
✔️ Oxidation states
✔️ Toxicity
✔️ Reactivity
✔️ Acidity and basicity
✔️ Enthalpy of formation
✔️ Heat of combustion
✔️ pH
✔️ Half-life
✔️ Surface tension
✔️ Hygroscopy
✔️ Catalytic ability
✔️ Chemical stability
✔️ Electronegativity
✔️ Radioactivity
✔️ Solubility
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How many pets are homeless?
ℹ️ New research used data from over 900 sources, along with almost 30,000 public surveys and 200 expert interviews to build a picture of pet homelessness across 20 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, The Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Turkey, Thailand, the U.S., and the U.K.
✍️ The findings from these countries revealed that almost 35% of cats and dogs are homeless:
143 million dogs living on the street and 12 million dogs in shelters
203 million cats living on the street and 4 million cats in shelters
These numbers and percentages vary across countries; e.g., about 70% of pets in Greece and India are homeless, 32% - in Mexico, 20% - in the U.S., and only 5% of pets in the U.K. are homeless.
📅 Every third Saturday in August, animal lovers around the world come together to observe International Homeless Animals Day (IHAD). In 2024, the date is August 17th.
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What are unique features of Mercury?
Mercury is a terrestrial planet that shares several characteristics with other planets in this category, such as Earth, Venus, and Mars, but also possesses unique features ⬇️.
📌 Terrestrial Planet Characteristics: Terrestrial planets consist primarily of rock and metal, have solid surfaces, and are closer to the Sun compared to gas giants. Mercury fits this description and is the innermost planet in our solar system.
📌 Surface Composition: Mercury’s surface is similar to that of the Moon, featuring numerous impact craters from collisions with asteroids and comets. The surface also features extensive plains, as well as cliffs and ridges that suggest a history of geological activity. The surface consists of silicate rocks and dust.
📌 Internal Structure:
Core: One of Mercury’s most notable features is its disproportionately large core, which makes up about 60% of the planet’s total mass. This is significantly larger in proportion compared to the other terrestrial planets. The core is primarily iron and is partly liquid.
Mantle: Surrounding the core is a silicate mantle, which is about 400 kilometers (250 miles) thick. The mantle likely consists of silicates and minerals similar to those found on Earth’s mantle.
Crust: The outer shell of Mercury is a thin silicate crust that is about 100-300 kilometers (62-186 miles) thick. It’s the part of Mercury that bears the brunt of impacts from space debris. There is a decent amount of water ice, but the low atmospheric pressure means it can’t exist as a liquid.
📌 Lack of Plate Tectonics: Unlike Earth, Mercury does not exhibit plate tectonics. However, there are signs of past geological activity, such as volcanoes, fault scarps, and ridges.
📌 Density and Composition Mysteries: Mercury’s high density (second only to Earth in our solar system) and oversized iron core have puzzled scientists for years. Mercury may have formed from the solar nebula closer to the Sun, where materials like iron were more abundant. Alternatively, perhaps Mercury was once a larger planet that lost its outer layers due to a massive impact or intense solar radiation early in its history.
📌 Magnetic Field: Despite its small size, Mercury has a weak global magnetic field. This magnetic field may result from a dynamo effect in its liquid iron core.
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Which planet may hide a real treasure?
Mercury, the smallest planet in the solar system, may hide an all-diamond layer up to 18 kilometers (10 miles) thick at the boundary between the core and the mantle, new research suggests.
Scientists used data collected by MESSENGER spacecraft to inform their theories about the structure of the planet's interior.
When the planet was formed around 4.5 billion years ago, the metal core was entirely liquid which progressively crystallized over time.
Two processes could have resulted in the diamond layer:
1️⃣ the crystallization of the magma ocean that likely contributed to forming only a very thin diamond layer at the core/mantle interface
2️⃣ the crystallization of the metal core of Mercury.
The study suggests that under extreme pressure, the carbon in the mantle turned into diamond.
According to scientists, the results could point to differences between the formation of Mercury and other planets, including Earth and Mars.
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Why is World Day for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons observed on August 6?
🇺🇸💥☢️🇯🇵 Also known as Hiroshima Day, World Day for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is observed on August 6th every year as a solemn commemoration of the atomic bombing by the United States of America of the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.
✔️On August 6th 1945, during World War II, a U.S. B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb (codenamed "Little Boy") on Hiroshima. It was the first ever use of atomic weapons in warfare.
✔️ The bombing of Hiroshima and that of Nagasaki on August 9th resulted in immense destruction and loss of life. The immediate aftermath saw these Japanese cities engulfed in a massive firestorm, with a large area reduced to ruins. The estimated death toll was up to 150,000 people.
🕊 World Day for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons serves as a reminder of the devastating impact of nuclear weapons and advocates for peace and the abolition of nuclear armaments.
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What is a blue planet where it rains molten glass?
🌏 Earth is called the 'Blue Planet'.
🔵 There's another "blue marble" alien planet about 60 light-years from Earth, where the world is anything but friendly to life. Known as HD 189733b, this planet ⬆️ is a giant, gaseous world resembling Jupiter, but much hotter. With a surface temperature of 980°C (1800°F) and winds that reach 6,400 km/h (4,000 m.p.h.), it’s not even remotely likely to be home to flora and fauna.
💦 Moreover, on HD 189733b there are rainstorms of glassy silicate particles, because of which, according to researchers, it appears blue.
ℹ️ HD 189733b is one of so-called hot Jupiter alien planets that are large, roughly Jupiter-sized planets and become very hot by circling tight around their stars. Hot Jupiters are easy to spot from a distance because as they pass in front of a star, their disc blots out a large portion of the star's light; HD189733b causes a three per cent drop in its star's light, for example.
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What is pareidolia?
Pareidolia (pronounced "par-i-DOH-lee-a") is a brain phenomenon in which a person or even a group of people see or hear something significant in a random image or pattern.
The word is derived from the Greek words para, meaning something faulty, wrong, instead of, and the noun eidōlon, meaning image, form or shape.
Face pareidolia occurs when humans see faces in inanimate objects, e.g. in a tree trunk or a piece of burnt toast.
According to researchers:
🔺 the human brain can see not only facial features, but also emotion in inanimate objects
🔺 humans are likelier to see male, rather than female faces, in inanimate objects
🔺 feminine-looking illusory faces are recognized as happy faster
🔺 masculine-looking illusory faces are perceived as angry quicker
🔺 face-like patterns activate similar socio-cognitive processes as real faces
🔺 humans have stronger face-like patterns than animals, which shows how important such social information is to humans.
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Why is July 23 important for whales and dolphins?
🐳🐬 23 July is World Whale and Dolphin Day.
This date was chosen in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) because on July 23, 1982, for the first time, a total ban on commercial whaling was declared.
Today, this day still raises awareness about the issues facing these beautiful marine mammals.
This decision of the IWC has been successful. The killing of whales has declined precipitously; more than 2 million whales were killed in the century before the moratorium, a small fraction of that since. The reduced hunting pressure has allowed stocks of most whale species to rebound. E.g., since 1986, the western South Atlantic stock of humpback whales, has increased from 1,000 to nearly 25,000.
Except Japan, Iceland and Norway, most countries respect the commercial whaling moratorium. However, the ban on commercial whaling still allows whale harvest by aboriginal peoples in Alaska, Canada and Russia.
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What is the theory of land bridges between continents?
Before Alfred Wegener, other scientists also tried to unravel mysteries of Earth’s geology.
In the mid-1800s an Austrian geologist Eduard Suess (1831-1914) tried to solve how mountain ranges form and was tipped off by similar fern fossils found in South America, India and Africa.
Suess developed a theory of sea level rise and regression over time that would have linked together the southern hemisphere continents with land bridges.
This theory is only partially correct because there are land bridges on Earth, e.g. the Bering land bridge between Russian Siberia and American Alaska, but there isn't one between South America, Africa, and India, the ocean depths in those areas being too deep to support the land bridge idea of Suess.
Nevertheless, Suess first hypothesized the existence of a supercontinent Gondwana or Gondwanaland, which name he got from the Gondwana region of central India, and the Tethys Ocean.
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Which supercontinent emerged twice?
Gondwana is a supercontinent that emerged twice in the geological history of Earth.
The Early Gondwana (pre-Pangea) existed around 550-330 mya, and, together with Baltica, Siberia and Laurentia, was one of four landmasses that broke away from Pannotia.
⬆️ It was then the largest landmass on Earth, bringing together about 64% of the planet's landmass, but some geologists still don’t consider it a supercontinent.
The Early Gondwana’s assembly created the first massive mountain range on Earth as high as the Himalayas. Remnants of these mountains are found in Brazil and northern Africa.
The Late Gondwana (post-Pangea) emerged about 175 mya ago as the Southern part of Pangaea ⬆️ (the Northern part was Laurasia) and broke up about 150-140 mya.
It was then characterized by a tropical climate, a wide variety of flora and fauna, and a significant tectonic activity.
Today, the remnants of the Late Gondwana can be found in the southern hemisphere.
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Which of the possible supercontinents was the most short-lived?
The supercontinent Pannotia was formed about 650 mln years ago and lasted until 540 mln years ago. So, Pannotia could be the most short-lived of all possible supercontinents.
The jury is still out on whether Pannotia can rightfully be called a supercontinent.
According to researchers, Africa could be at the center of Pannotia, surrounded by other landmasses the time. This happened because Pannotia was formed by the subduction of exterior oceans (which pulled Rodinia apart and pushed Pannotia together).
This is how Pannotia could look like from the South Pole ⬆️.
During the existence of Pannotia there were two proto-oceans — Panthalassa and the Pan-African ocean, and this supercontinent broke apart with the opening of the Iapetus Ocean.
Since the major part of the land in those days was just near the poles, it is believed that the glaciations reached its peak just about 600 mln years ago.
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How big was the supercontinent Columbia?
At peak accumulation, about 1.8 billion years ago, virtually all of Earth's land mass was joined to the supercontinent Columbia creating a surface estimated to have been about 12,900 km from North to South and about 4,800 km in its widest part from West to East.
It is named "Columbia" because scientists posited that the landmass connected what is now eastern India with the Columbia basalts region in what is now North America.
These are two images how this supercontinent could look like ⬆️.
Scientists believe that once sutured together, Columbia was long-lived, existing for more than 500 million years.
The landmass of this supercontinent began to fragment around 1.6 billion years ago because of increased magma plume activity in the Earth's mantle. The breakup was slow and could last from 1.6 to 1.2 billion years ago.
According to researchers, during the time of Columbia, the first plants colonized land in the form of red algae.
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