By: Mckenna Pearson
Summary:
There is a volcano, underwater, near the island of Guam that erupts so frequently that it has built a new cone 131ft high and 984ft wide in the time span of three years. Bill Chadwick, a volcanologist at Oregon State University said: 'that's as tall as a 12-story building and as wide as a full city block.’ This amazing volcano, named NW Rota-1, has created a habitat in which shrimp, crab, limpets and barnacles, have thrived on. Chadwick said: 'they're specially adapted to their environment and are thriving in harsh chemical conditions that would be toxic to normal marine life.' NW Rota-1 has created a heat source so the animals living on it can thrive and mate at the appropriate times. The animals that have already been living here have adapted to the toxic conditions and can live happily on NW Rota-1. A biologist from the University of Victoria, said that two species of shrimp had revealed intriguing adaptations to volcano living. Her name is Verena Tunnicliffe. Tunnicliffe said 'the 'Loihi' shrimp has adapted to grazing the bacterial filaments with tiny claws like garden shears.’ The second group of shrimp is a new species as well. They are like the first group when they are young, but, when they grow to their adult stage, their front claws grow and, instead of being the prey, they are now the predators. 'The new species attacks the Loihi shrimp and preys on marine life that wanders too close to the volcanic plumes and dies. Tunnicliffe said: 'we saw dying fish, squid, and so on, raining down onto the seamount, where they were jumped on by the volcano shrimp - a lovely adaptation to exploiting the noxious effects of the volcano.'
Why I chose this article:
I chose this article to write my current events journal on because it's interesting and it is also what we're studying, in class, at the moment. I didn't know that volcanoes could erupt under water though. I though that if they did, then the lava would cool so fast that the volcano wouldn't have time to erupt at all. But they can! And I though that was cool. That's why I chose this article form my current event journal.
link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1177886/Creatures-living-violent-undersea-volcano-climate-change-survival-clue.html
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Creatures living on violent undersea volcano give climate change survival clue
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2 comments:
Mckenna,
I feel that you did a great job with your current event. I like the topic you chose because we are learning about it in class. Also, I feel that it was a good choice because it gave us an example of a volcanic eruption. You did a great job of summarizing the article and it was very interesting! Good Job.
- Alexa Gores
Mckenna,
I thought that you did a great job writing your article and I found it very infomative and thorough. I don't knew if it was because you didn't go when you were suppsoed to but I think you could have put a little more detail into your actual presentation. The undersea volcanoes were also very interesting and very good timing for our subject matter. I thought you did a great job selecting and writing your article, but could put a little more detail in your presentation.
-Nebo Nagano-Young
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