south pacific islands
grrlscientist | May 30, 2006This is an interesting story from my favorite part of the world: why did this lake at the top of a once-dormant volcano suddenly turn red? Is this the result of a chemical reaction? (That's my guess).
Volcanologists were puzzled today about why a lake atop a rumbling volcano on the South Pacific island of Ambae has changed color from blue to bright red.
Mount Manaro, one of four volcanos currently active in the island nation of Vanuatu, has been showing signs of erupting for only the second time in 122 years.
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tags: vanuatu, volcano, red lake, South Pacific Islands
grrlscientist | April 6, 2006tags: birds, South Pacific Islands, Philippines, ornithology, new species, conservation, Camiguin, parrot
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Camiguin Hanging-parrot, or Colasisi, Loriculus camiguinensis,
is newly described and is found only found on the Philippine Island of Camiguin.
This tiny island is especially rich in biodiversity but is increasingly threatened
by logging, agriculture and human settlement.
Click image for much larger view in its own window.
Note: this a live pet.
Photo by Thomas Arndt, Courtesy of The Field Museum of Natural History.
Hey, dear readers, a colleague of mine, Jose Tello, co-discovered a…
grrlscientist | March 29, 2006
Fossilized mosasaur skull (source linked from image).
Mosasaurs are marine reptiles, not dinosaurs.
But the reason I show this fossil here will (hopefully) become more obvious after you read the story.
A 2 kilometer-long treasure trove of fossilized bones, teeth and claws from dinosaurs and ancient reptiles was recently unearthed on the Chatham Islands, approximately 850 kilometers (530 miles) east of New Zealand (see map, below), proving that dinosaurs also inhabited South Pacific islands.
Jeffrey Stilwell, a US-born fellow in palaeontology at Melbourne's Monash University, said he…
grrlscientist | March 20, 2006
The Good News: Not extinct -- YET!
Portrait of the Sumatran Rhinoceros, Didermoceros sumatrensis.
Photo by Alain Compost (WWF-Canon).
For those of you who like to read about endangered species that have somehow managed to survive despite our best efforts to exterminate them, I have some good news! A small but apparently viable population of the Sumatran rhinoceros subspecies, Didermoceros sumatrensis harrissoni, is now confirmed to exist in the northeast state of Sabah on the island of Borneo.
The Sumatran rhino is comprised of several subspecies that are thought to be extinct throughout…
grrlscientist | February 7, 2006
Male Berlepsch's Six-wired Bird of Paradise, Parotia berlepschi.
Photo by Bruce Beehler.
Click image for larger version in its own window.
I would give anything -- in fact, I'd give absolutely everything I ever had, currently have and could ever hope to have -- to be part of the recent Conservation International (CI) expedition to Indonesia. This month-long expedition was the brain child of scientist and CI vice president, Bruce Beehler. His goal? To explore the mysterious Foja Mountains in western New Guinea, formerly known as Irian Jaya.
Beehler gathered a team of 25 international…
grrlscientist | February 1, 2006tags: Environment, tsunami, earthquake, Indonesia, Mangrove, Shrimp Farming
Note: Originally published on 2 January 2005. Nominated for the 2005 Koufax Award for "Best Individual Post".
Indonesian Mangrove.
All the survivors agreed that 26 December 2004 was an idyllic morning, indeed, it was a perfect morning, in spite of the earthquake. This earthquake was triggered within an interval of a few seconds when the Indian tectonic plate suddenly plunged 20 meters (60 feet) under the Burmese tectonic plate along the Sunda Trench. This submarine jolt caused the Burmese plate and the lands…