Planet Earth

Lost Tribe On Small Island In The Indian Ocean remain virtually untouched by modern civilization

Anything and everything anytime

The Sentinelese (also Sentineli, Senteneli, Sentenelese, North Sentinel Islanders) are one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples and one of the most uncontacted peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in India in the Bay of Bengal. They inhabit North Sentinel Island which lies westward off the southern tip of the Great Andaman archipelago. They are noted for vigorously resisting attempts at contact by outsiders. The Sentinelese maintain an essentially hunter-gatherer society subsisting through hunting, fishing, and collecting wild plants; there is no evidence of either agricultural practices or methods of producing fire. Their language remains unclassiied.

adaman

adaman2

The present population of the Sentinelese is not known with any great degree of accuracy. Estimates have been produced ranging from lower than 40, through a median of around 250, and up to a maximum of 500. In the year 2001, the Census of India officials recorded 39 individuals (21 males and 18 females); however, out of necessity this survey was conducted from a distance and almost certainly does not represent an accurate figure for the population who range over the 72 km² (17,800 acres) island. Any medium- or long-term impact on the Sentinelese population arising from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and resulting tsunami remains unknown, other than the confirmation obtained that they had survived the immediate aftermath.

On previous visits, groups of some 20–40 individuals were encountered regularly. Habitations of 40–60 individuals were found on two occasions. As some individuals are almost certainly hiding, a better approximation of group size cannot be determined. This would suggest that some 2–6 groups occupy the island. The rule of thumb population density of 1.5 km² (370 acres)/individuals in comparable hunter-gatherer societies indicates that one such group could live off the land alone. A significant amount of food is derived from the sea. It seems that the groups encountered, at any one time, could only have come from a rather small part of the island. There appear to be slightly more males than females. At any given time, about half of the couples seemed to have dependent children or the women were pregnant.

North Sentinel Island

The Sentinelese and other indigenous Andamanese peoples are frequently described as negritos, a term which has been applied to various widely separated peoples in Southeast Asia, such as the Semang of the Malay archipelago and the Aeta of the Philippines, as well as to other peoples as far afield as Australia (notably former populations of Tasmania). The defining characteristics of these “negrito” peoples (who are not a monophyletic group) include a comparatively short stature, dark skin and “peppercorn” hair, qualities also found commonly across the continent of Africa. No close contacts have been established, but the author Heinrich Harrer described one man as being 1.6 m (5′ 4″) tall and apparently left handed.

Negrito people of the Andaman Islands

From 1967 onwards, the Indian authorities in Port Blair embarked on a limited programme of attempts at contacting the Sentinelese, under the management of the Director of Tribal Welfare and anthropologist T. N. Pandit. These “Contact Expeditions” consisted of a series of planned visits which would progressively leave “gifts”, such as coconuts, on the shores, in an attempt to coax the Sentinelese from their hostile reception of outsiders. For a while, these seemed to have some limited success; however, the programme was discontinued in the late 1990s following a series of hostile encounters resulting in several deaths.

In 2006, Sentinelese archers killed two fishermen who were fishing illegally within range of the island. The archers later drove off, with a hail of arrows, the helicopter that was sent to retrieve the bodies. To this date, the bodies remain unrecovered, although the downdraught from the helicopter’s rotors at the time exposed the two fishermen’s corpses, which had been buried in shallow graves by the Sentinelese.

On 2 August 1981, the ship Primrose grounded on the North Sentinel Island reef. A few days later, crewmen on the immobile vessel observed that small black men were carrying spears and arrows and building boats on the beach. The captain of the Primrose radioed for an urgent airdrop of firearms so the crew could defend themselves, but did not receive them. Heavy seas kept the islanders away from the ship. After a week, the crew were rescued by a helicopter working under contract to the Indian Oil And Natural Gas Commission (ONGC).

The Sentinelese apparently survived the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and its after-effects, including the tsunami and the uplifting of the island. Three days after the event, an Indian government helicopter observed several of them, who shot arrows and threw stones at the hovering aircraft with the apparent intent of repelling it. Although the fishing grounds of the Sentinelese were disturbed, they appear to have adapted to the island’s current conditions.

Amazing that in 2013 there is still a tribe that has had virtually no contact with the outside world. To resist contact in such a vigilant way. Reminds me of the scene from Mutiny On The Bounty with Anthony Hopkins.

Planet Earth

Scientists Have Identified The Secret That Fuels Yellowstone’s Explosive Hellfire –

It’s the prettiest powder keg on the planet – the Yellowstone supervolcano, simmering under the mystique and grandeur of the national park that adorns the fearsome caldera. And scientists just got one step closer to understanding the hidden geology of this epic blowhole.

Using supercomputers to model the behaviour of two known magma chambers concealed below the surface of Yellowstone, scientists have identified a ‘transition zone’ where the magma bodies almost meet.

Here, they form a vast slab of solidified, pressure-trapping rock that could be what fuels the supervolcano’s hellish explosions.

“We think that this structure is what causes the rhyolite-basalt volcanism throughout the Yellowstone hotspot, including supervolcanic eruptions,” says geologist Ilya Bindeman from the University of Oregon.

“This is the nursery, a geological and petrological match with eruptive products.”

The mid-crustal sill that separates magma under Yellowstone (Dylan Colon)

Bindeman and his team detected this naturally occurring munitions dump underground by running simulations based on recent research from scientists at the University of Utah, who used seismic imaging to detect not just one but two gargantuan magma chambers buried within the crust of Yellowstone caldera.

To investigate how these dual chambers of molten rock came to be – and to try to understand the magma transfer relationship between them – Bindeman and colleagues ran computer simulations tracing Yellowstone’s hypothetical evolution over 7 million years, to see how these disparate chambers might form.

The numbers suggest the seismic readings aren’t wrong, with repeated simulations producing two magma chambers, separated by a transition zone made up of what’s called a mid-crustal sill composed of cooler magma, which is sandwiched between the hotter, more viscous reservoirs.

Per the modelling, this rock shelf is located about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) below the surface of Yellowstone, and is between 10 to 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) thick.

The sill is composed of solidified gabbro, a rock formed from cooled magma, and the researchers say it’s possible the same phenomenon forms in other supervolcanoes around the world.

Due to the simulated basis of the study, we can only hypothesise about the mid-crustal sill’s existence for now, but given the data confirm seismic observations of the caldera, the team thinks their findings offer the first glimpse of how magma distributes itself inside the supervolcano.

While these insights don’t necessarily tell us any more about how or when Yellowstone might next erupt, it does bring us closer to that kind of understanding – and when we’re talking about an event that could choke the planet in a catastrophic volcanic winter, that’s some pretty important stuff to know.

The findings are reported in Geophysical Research Letters.

Planet Earth

California Bay Area Residents Living on a ‘Tectonic Time Bomb’

I’m sure there are many locations that this can be said of. Many of worlds deadly fault have heavily inhabited cities on them so they are all potential time bombs in way but perhaps some have a greater chance of ‘going off’ than others.

via Sputniknews:

A US Geological Survey (USGS) published this month reveals that California Bay Area residents are living on a “tectonic time bomb,” also known as the Hayward Fault.

In fact, researchers claim that the Hayward Fault, which runs about 74 miles along the bottom of the East Bay Hills, is far more dangerous than the better-known San Andreas Fault, the continental transform fault extending around 750 miles through California that was behind one of the worst earthquakes in US history, the 1906 San Francisco quake that killed around 3,000 people.

“The USGS and its partners have worked together to anticipate the impacts of a hypothetical [magnitude] 7.0 earthquake on the Hayward Fault, before it happens, so that people can use the latest science in their efforts to become even better prepared,” said Ken Hudnut, USGS science adviser for risk reduction and one of the lead authors of the “HayWired Earthquake Scenario” report published by USGS this month.

According to the report, at least 800 people could be killed and 18,000 injured in a hypothetical magnitude 7.0 earthquake on the Hayward fault centered below Oakland.

In addition, fires triggered by damage from the main shock could burn down 52,000 single-family homes. More than 2,500 people may need to be rescued from collapsed buildings while more than 22,000 people might require rescue from stalled elevators.

Water distribution systems in the bay region could also be impacted. The report predicts that East Bay residents would lose water service for at least six weeks; others may lose water service for as long as six months. The lack of normal water service would also prevent the efficient suppression of fires — that’s a huge risk, considering 90 percent of the damage in San Francisco caused by the 1906 quake was from fires it started and not from the shaking ground itself.

“This fault is what we sort of call a tectonic time bomb,” USGS earthquake geologist emeritus David Schwartz said, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“It’s just waiting to go off,” he added.

In fact, according to Schwartz, the Hayward fault is especially dangerous “because of the density of the population directly on or astride it, which would include San Francisco, and the amount of infrastructure that crosses it.” The fault runs through heavily populated areas including Richmond, El Cerrito, Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro, Hayward, Union City, Fremont and San Jose.

Awareness of the potential danger of an earthquake along the fault has grown over recent years, thanks to the efforts of officials.

“The Hayward Fault runs beneath the foundations of more than 300 buildings and other structures. One such building, the University of California Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium, is nearly bisected by the fault and has been retrofitted to withstand shaking and fault offset,” the report states.

UGGS researchers also revealed that California’s minimum building codes are not sufficient to guarantee safety in the event of an earthquake across the Hayward Fault. The buildings are currently only required to be strong enough to allow people to safely evacuate them after a quake. Even if all 2 million structures in the greater San Francisco Bay area were renovated to comply with safer building codes, a “Haywired” scenario earthquake would still completely collapse an estimated 8,000 buildings. Nearly 100,000 buildings would be red-tagged, which means that they would be unsafe to enter due to quake damage, while 390,000 would be yellow-tagged and have occupancy limits imposed on them due to structure damage. The potential scenario could also result in at least $82 billion in property damage.

The Hayward Fault typically produces a big earthquake about once every 150 to 160 years. The last major earthquake on the fault happened about 150 years ago on October 21, 1968. That quake had a magnitude of 6.8 and killed five people and injured 30 others. It also caused about $350,000 in property damage in San Francisco alone.

“Even given the uncertainties, we are definitely closer to the next one than we are away from it,” Schwartz noted.

Sputniknews

Planet Earth

Company Develops Revolutionary Way to Create Leather, Wood, and Bricks from Mushrooms

In a world where the average person consumes more resources than could possibly be regenerated in their lifetime, it’s no surprise to hear that our quickening resource consumption is resulting in a slow-motion collapse of the environment and all life on the planet.

However, researchers at a San Francisco Bay startup company have discovered a way to counteract this degradation. MycoWorks, a company which creates products out of fungi, believes that the answer may lie in replacing just some of the many products we consume with this entirely sustainable and renewable source material.

“They can take our greatest resource, which is human waste, and turn that into something that’s really valuable to us. They have the ability to give us everything that we want” ~Philip Ross, Chief technology officer at MycoWorks

The company currently has the ability to create material which is similar to animal skin, but even sturdier than leather. They were able to create products which are more durable than deer skin in only a matter of months, but what is perhaps most encouraging about the project is that the material only takes two weeks to create, whereas real leather takes about two years for animal to be ready, without considering the costs of feed and housing.

On the contrary, mushroom-based products are entirely cruelty-free and can be created from any number of waste materials such as hemp hurds, paper waste, saw dust, and corn cobs. By feeding mushrooms particular things that they like, as well as managing temperature and light exposure, these scientists are able to create various breathable materials which theoretically could replace cloth, leather, and even wood and brick.

“My hope is that this will become a globalized industry that well beyond my lifetime…this will just become a standard way that human beings are going to figure out how to provide for themselves.” ~Philip Ross

Not only is the material extremely durable and strong, but it is a highly competent flame retardant as well. Even when subjected to extremely hot flames, the fungus material stays intact and is immediately self-extinguishing. The combination of high-quality material and ease of production could make it an extremely desirable product for all types of consumers.

Being more resilient than brick and less flammable than wood, this material would naturally work well for building. Eventually, Philip and other scientists believe that it will be possible to produce smartphones, solar panels, and a whole plethora of other products from waste material and mushrooms.

“Everything that we call agricultural waste is actually an incredible resource that mushrooms can grow on. We’re past peak oil, so if we are going to replace our current materials with something, it’s still going to have to hold up in some type of sustainable way.” ~Philip Ross

This new material could go hand in hand with other environmentally friendly materials like hemp. If hemp and mushrooms were used together to create fuel, cloth, building materials, leather, and plastics, there would almost no longer be a need for concern over environmental damage or a lack of sustainability.

If you’re interested in growing your own material from mushrooms, you can do so by following their guide in a short YouTube video. Theoretically, you could start building your own products from mushrooms right away. It’s even possible to embed intricate colors and patterns directly into the material if you know how.

MycoWorks, after having debuted in 2016 with their plan to create enough mushroom material to sustain the growing industry, is still in operation today and continues to reach thousands of people with their message. With enough demand for locally-produced and sustainable materials, the future of consumer goods could turn from an environmental blight back into a sustainable way we can move forward into the future.