Why a Tiny Island Created the Biggest Marine Sanctuary in the South Atlantic
Tristan da Cunha was first inhabited to keep an eye on Napoleon; now residents are looking out for lobsters.
Why a Tiny Island Created the Biggest Marine Sanctuary in the South Atlantic
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The town center of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, the island s only town. Dmitry Malov / Alamy
Like most places, the British Overseas Territory of Tristan da Cunha is a community made up of teachers, accountants, mechanics, and grocers. But here, on the most remote inhabited island on earth, the weather has a funny way of rearranging the professional landscape.
The constant nudging of the African continent toward Europe in a sort of geological âkissâ is the driving force behind earthquakes in the south of the Iberian peninsula. But fuelling the recent telluric movement in Granada â which has seen a number of tremors since January 23 â as well as other shocks registered in Spainâs southern province are the multiple faults that exacerbate tremors that are geologically considered to be low intensity. Together, these factors put more than 14 million Spaniards at risk, something that history confirms; earthquake records over the last 1,000 years show a map of high-risk levels around the edges of the continental plates, the east coast and the Pyrenees.
“An upsurge of hot rock from deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean may be driving the continents on either side apart,” writes Maria Temming in Science News. Not surprisingly in today’s politically correct world, Temming’s article does not mention ocean warming. Instead, the title of the piece enthuses that “An upwelling of rock beneath the Atlantic may drive continents apart.” Notice that the title does not mention the hot rock. Same with the subtitle: “The Mid-Atlantic Ridge may play a more active role in plate tectonics than thought.” No mention of hot rocks there, either. But I think the hot rocks are the most important takeaway … Continue reading →
Sat, 27 Feb 2021 12:00 UTC
An upsurge of matter from deep beneath the Earth s crust could be pushing the continents of North and South America further apart from Europe and Africa, new research has found.
The plates attached to the Americas are moving apart from those attached to Europe and Africa by four centimetres per year. In between these continents lies the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a site where new plates are formed and a dividing line between plates moving to the west and those moving to the east; beneath this ridge, material rises to replace the space left by the plates as they move apart.