Prime Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al-Thani chaired Wednesday the cabinet's regular meeting held at its seat at the Amiri Diwan.
Ancient Northland swamp kauri solves 42,000 year old mystery
21 Feb, 2021 05:00 PM
7 minutes to read
Some of this giant ancient swamp kauri tree uncovered at Ngāwhā has been used by researchers to confirm the date when the Earth reversed its magnetic poles. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Northern Advocate
Ancient swamp kauri from Northland has been used to confirm a temporary breakdown of Earth s magnetic field 42,000 years ago sparked major climate shifts leading to global environmental change and mass extinctions.
A new international study using ancient swamp kauri from Ngāwhā shows this dramatic turning point in Earth s history was triggered by a reversal of Earth s magnetic poles and changing solar winds.
“We found a lot of worked flint from the Mesolithic period,” Richard Cooke explained. “There were three post holes, material from which was carbon dated at between 9220 and 9280 years old.”
In total, the archaeologists recovered 314 stone objects buried at the site. In addition to flints they also found many chipped pieces of chert, a hard sedimentary rock made from quartz crystals that is suitable for making tools. A few intact, rudimentary stone tools made from these materials were found at the new site, including scrapers that were likely hand-manufactured to cut meat and/or scrape hides, and small sharp blades called microliths that could function as versatile knives. They also discovered a tool they referred to as a “ notch,” which they believe was used to shape pieces of wood into useful objects.
22 February 2021, 4:37 am EST By NASA Releases List of Earth Organisms that can Survive on Mars Temporarily After Using the MARSBOx Back in 2019 ( Screenshot From Pxhere Official Website )
Humanity could unknowingly contaminate Mars as well as other worlds that are being explored in the future with certain microorganisms that come from our planet. Scientists over at NASA as well as the German Aerospace Center have previously launched a number of fungal as well as bacterial organisms straight into the stratosphere back in 2019 for the MARSBOx experiment.
Can there be life on Mars?
The MARSBOx experiment can be seen here as it covers how the stratosphere, which is the second major layer of the Earth s said atmosphere just a little above the ozone layer, has certain conditions that are quite closely similar to that of the Red Planet as well as a per