Adventure Ausrama Blog

The chemistry is altered in the cave water below a bushfire. Raging fires on the surface of the planet affect caves that intertwine below. Research into climate history is now complicated by this finding. Australian and UK scientists analysed water dripping in cave after a fire and found that the chemistry of moisture changed. There could be a new horizon, however. Stalagmites and stalactites store information about fires. The caves tested have clear data stretching back 200,000 years. Oxygen-16 is lighter than oxygen-18 and it evapourates quicker, so dripwater with more oxygen-18 would indicate fires or hot spells above. Pauline Treble of the University of New South Wales found that sites in a cave only 23 meters apart had different water chemical readings. This was caused by a recent bushfire in 2005 localized to one of the cave sections. ◆ Chemistry by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Tys Country Amusing Animal Photos Odd Weird Things Articles News Reviews ● Vis...

A way of detecting gold deposits beneath the ground has been right in front of our eyes for years. Eucalyptus trees take up gold particles into their leaves. X-ray imaging could replace test drilling. Eucalyptus roots go down a very long way in search of water. Some sinker roots reach 40 meters below the surface. If there is gold in the ground it is concentrated in the leaves. It is pushed to extremities of the tree because gold is toxic. Research has proven the theory. Trees above gold deposits store gold, but in gold-free areas there is no stored gold. It is place specific as well: the amount of gold particles varies with the level of gold deposits in the ground. There is no threat to the trees as the amount of stored gold is minuscule. All types of plants store minerals besides eucalyptus. However, the overwhelming number of plant species in Australia are eucalyptus. It is no longer necessary to drill in difficult, rocky places. Taking a few leaves for anal...