Tag: lurks
A hidden danger lurks beneath Yellowstone
Mount Ontake in Japan rises 3,067 meters above sea level — a windswept giant standing head and shoulders above densely forested hills. This ancient volcano is a popular trekking site. A trail traverses its ash- and boulder-strewn ridges. There are several huts and a shrine. On September 27, 2014, hikers took advantage of a blue sky and gentle wind. At 11:52 a.m., over a hundred of them stood on the summit, eating snacks and taking photos. Disaster struck with little
A fantastical world of potential giant viruses lurks beneath the soil
Giant viruses may try out all sorts of funky lewks.
New images reveal the varied — and sometimes whimsical — shapes of hundreds of potential soil-dwelling giant viruses. One shape is dubbed “haircut” for its fibers that bristle like freshly buzzed hair. “Gorgon” has tubelike appendages snaking from its shell. And flaps poking out of “turtle” resemble the reptile’s head, limbs and tail, virologist Matthias Fischer and colleagues report June 30 at bioRxiv.org.
These and other peculiar-looking shapes “clearly tell … Read more
Granite likely lurks beneath the moon’s surface
Watch out Yosemite — the moon has its own impressive rock display.
An enormous chunk of granite, measuring roughly 50 kilometers wide, may be buried beneath the lunar surface, researchers reported July 5 in Nature. Finding such a behemoth, by far the largest granite structure spotted beyond Earth, is a surprise given that forming this type of rock typically requires plate tectonics or abundant water.
When Apollo astronauts landed on the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, they encountered