Including Original "Paul H. Letters" Copyright © 1996-2024 Paul V. Heinrich / website © 1996-2024 Dirk Ross - All rights reserved.



Monday 25 March 2024

End-Permian (252 Mya) deforestation, wildfires and flooding (open access paper) 25OCT2019

 End-Permian (252 Mya) deforestation, wildfires and flooding (open access paper)

Below is a very interesting open access paper.

Vajda, V., McLoughlin, S., Mays, C., Frank, T.D., Fielding, C.R.,
Tevyaw, A.,
Lehsten, V., Bocking, M. and Nicoll, R.S., 2020. End-Permian (252 Mya)
deforestation, wildfires and flooding???An ancient biotic crisis with lessons
for the present. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 529, p.115875.

Yours,

Paul H.

British scientists try to find Antarctica's "missing meteorites" 30NOV2019

 British scientists try to find Antarctica's "missing meteorites"

Antarctica: Metal meteorite quest set to get under way
By Jonathan Amos, BBC Science, November 29,  2019

The Mystery of Antarctica’s Missing Meteorites
Hiding deep under the ice, iron meteorites could hold
clues to the solar system’s past., The Atlantic

An off-topic, but still interesting article is:

Scientists Recreated Volcanic Lightning by Blasting Ash Out of a Cannon
Robin George Andrews, Gizmodo, November 29,  2019

Yours,

Paul H.

Siberian gas venting and the end-Permian extinction 19DEC2019

 Siberian gas venting and the end-Permian extinction

Svensen, H., Planke, S., Polozov, A.G., Schmidbauer, N.,
Corfu, F., Podladchikov, Y.Y. and Jamtveit, B., 2009.
Siberian gas venting and the end-Permian
environmental crisis. Earth and Planetary Science
Letters, 277(3-4), pp.490-500.

Some related papers are:

Burgess, S.D., Muirhead, J.D. and Bowring, S.A., 2017.
Initial pulse of Siberian Traps sills as the trigger of
the end-Permian mass extinction. Nature
Communications, 8(1), p.164.

Polozov, A.G., Svensen, H.H., Planke, S., Grishina,
S.N., Fristad, K.E. and Jerram, D.A., 2016. The basalt
 pipes of the Tunguska Basin (Siberia, Russia):
High temperature processes and volatile
degassing into the end-Permian atmosphere.
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology, 441, pp.51-64.

Svensen, H.H., Frolov, S., Akhmanov, G.G., Polozov,
A.G., Jerram, D.A., Shiganova, O.V., Melnikov, N.V.,
Iyer, K. and Planke, S., 2018. Sills and gas generation
in the Siberian Traps. Philosophical Transactions
of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and
Engineering Sciences, 376(2130), p.20170080.

Rampino, M.R., Rodriguez, S., Baransky, E. and
Cai, Y., 2017. Global nickel anomaly links
Siberian Traps eruptions and the latest Permian
mass extinction. Scientific reports, 7(1), p.12416.

Yours,

Paul H.

Scanned and Searchable Historic Texas Newspapers Now Online 24DEC2019

 Scanned and Searchable Historic Texas Newspapers Now Online

Hi,

For people, interested in searching for reports of
aerolites, meteorites, and so forth in Texas, a
considerable collection of historic local and regional
newspapers is online as scanned and searchable
digital files in "The Portal to Texas History" at

For example, there are 595 hits for "aerolite" and
1,760 hits for "meteorite."

Yours,

Paul H.

Edscottite found in Wedderburn IAB iron meteorite 28DEC2019

 Edscottite found in Wedderburn IAB iron meteorite

Scientists Have Officially Found a Mineral Never Before Seen in Nature
Peter Dockrill, Science Alerts, December 25, 2019

the paper is:

Ma, C. and Rubin, A.E., 2019. Edscottite, Fe5C2, a new
iron carbide mineral from the Ni-rich Wedderburn
IAB iron meteorite. American Mineralogist, 104(9), pp.1351-1355.

Yours,

Paul H.

Metallosphaera sedula eats meteorites (open access paper) 28DEC2019

 Metallosphaera sedula eats meteorites (open access paper) 

Scientists Just Identified an Organism That Thrives on Eating Meteorites Mike Mcrae,
Science Alert, December 5, 2019

https://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-find-a-microbe-that-not-only-eats-meteorites-it-can-t-get-enough-of-them


The paper is:

Milojevic, T., Kölbl, D., Ferrière, L., Albu, M., Kish,
A., Flemming, R.L., Koeberl, C., Blazevic, A., Zebec,
Z., Simon, K.M.R. and Schleper, C., 2019. Exploring
the microbial biotransformation of extraterrestrial
material on nanometer scale. Scientific Reports, 9(1), pp.1-11.

Yours,

Paul H.

Quadrantid meteor shower will peak 03/04 January, Friday night/Saturday morning 03JAN2020

 Quadrantid meteor shower will peak 03/04 January, Friday night/Saturday morning

Quadrantid meteor shower will peak tomorrow
night (03/04 January, Friday night/Saturday morning)!
Bad Astronomy, Phil Plait, January 2, 2020

By the way, really weird stuff is also happening in Colorado skies.

Mysterious drones flying nighttime patterns over
northeast Colorado leave local law enforcement stumped
Phillips County sheriff says there are at least 17 of
the aircraft that fly between 7 and 10 p.m. nightly
By Shelly Bradbury, The Denver Post, December 23, 2019

‘It’s Creepy’: Unexplained Drones Are Swarming by
Night Over Colorado. Sheriffs in western Nebraska
and eastern Colorado say they don’t know who’s
flying the drones — or why. The F.A.A. is investigating.
Mitch Smith, New York Times, January 1, 2020

Mysterious swarms of giant drones have started to
appear in the Colorado and Nebraska night sky,
and nobody knows where they're coming from
Irene Jiang, Business Insider, December 30, 2019

Yours,

Paul.

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."
William Faulkner, Act 1, Scene III, Requiem for a Nun (1951)

New Zealand's 10th meteorite discovered 25MAR2024

New Zealand's 10th meteorite discovered

New Zealand's 10th meteorite discovered by couple sitting in Queenstown spa
by Juliet Speedy, NewsHub, March 22, 2024
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/03/new-zealand-s-10th-meteorite-discovered-by-couple-sitting-in-queenstown-spa.html

Newshub video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM92Hij6gx0

Meteorite falls and finds in New Zealand
https://teara.govt.nz/en/table/4694/meteorite-falls-and-finds-in-new-zealand

Aotearoa's 10th meteorite discovered
RNZ, March 21, 2024
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/512328/we-found-the-bastard-aotearoa-s-10th-meteorite-discovered

Yours,

Paul H.

Thursday 14 March 2024

Claims of Extrasolar Spherules from Pacific Ocean Site CNEOS 2014-01-08 Disputed 14MAR2024

Claims of Extrasolar Spherules from Pacific Ocean Site CNEOS 2014-01-08 Disputed

Recently, a preprint has been posted to the arXiv site that disputes proposal that Be,La,U-rich spherules recovered form
Pacific Ocean Site CNEOS 2014-01-0 are from an extrasolar origin. Instead, they argued to be microtektites of terrestrial lateritic sandstone.

The preprint is:

Desch, S., 2024. Be, La, U-rich spherules as microtektites of terrestrial laterites: What goes up must come down. arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.05161.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.05161

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2403/2403.05161.pdf


The proposed extrasolar spherules are discussed in:

Loeb, A., Adamson, T., Bergstrom, S., Cloete, R., Cohen, S., Conrad, K., Domine, L., Fu, H., Hoskinson, C., Hyung, E., Jacobsen, S., Kelly, M., Kohn, J., Lard, E., Lam, S., Laukien, F., Lem, J., McCallum, R., Millsap, R., Parendo, C., Petaev, M., Peddeti, C., Pugh, K., Samuha, S., Sasselov, D., Schlereth, M., Siler, J.J., Siraj, A., Smith, P.M., Tagle, R., Taylor, J., Weed, R., Wright, A., and Wynn, J. 2023.,

Discovery of Spherules of likely extrasolar composition in the Pacific Ocean site of the CNEOS 2014-01-08 (IM1) bolide. 
Loeb, A., Adamson, T., Bergstrom, S., Cloete, R., Cohen, S., Conrad, K., Domine, L., Fu, H., Hoskinson, C., Hyung, E., Jacobsen, S., Kelly, M., Kohn, J., Lard, E., Laukien, F., Lem, J., McCallum, R., Millsap, R., Parendo, C., Petaev, M., Peddeti, C., Pugh, K., Samuha, S., Sasselov, D., Schlereth, M., Siler, J.J., Siraj, A., Smith, P.M., Tagle, R., Taylor, J., Weed, R., Wright, A., and Wynn, J. 2024. 
Recovery and classification of spherules from the Pacific Ocean site of the CNEOS 2014 January 8 (IM1) bolide.
Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society 8: 39.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ad2370/meta


Related paper, reprint and press release:
Desch, S., and Jackson, A., 2023. Critique of arXiv submission 2308.15623, "Discovery of Spherules of Likely Extrasolar Composition in the Pacific Ocean Site of the CNEOS 2014-01-08 (IM1) Bolide", by A. Loeb et al arXiv:2311.07699
https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.07699

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.07699.pdf


'Alien' spherules dredged from the Pacific are probably just industrial pollution, new studies suggest. LiveScience, Nov. 16, 2023
https://www.livescience.com/space/extraterrestrial-life/alien-spherules-dredged-from-the-pacific-are-probably-just-industrial-pollution-new-studies-suggest


Gallardo, P.A., 2023. Anthropogenic Coal Ash as a Contaminant in a Micro-meteoritic Underwater Search. 
Research Notes of the AAS, 7(10), p.220.
http://ispcjournal.org/journals/2024/32/PhC_vol_32_Lomas.pdf

Yours,

Paul H.

Saturday 9 March 2024

Interstellar Meteorite was Just a Truck 09MAR2024

Interstellar Meteorite was Just a Truck

Interstellar Signal Linked to Aliens was Actually Just a Truck
  The findings from a Johns Hopkins University-led team raise doubts that materials pulled last year from the ocean are alien
materials from a 2014 meteor fireball John Hopkins University, HUB, March 7, 2024
https://hub.jhu.edu/2024/03/07/alien-meteor-truck/


Seismic Rumble From an 'Alien Technology' Meteor Was Actually a Passing Truck, Scientists Say The rumblings of
\the motor vehicle apparently resembled that of a fireball passing through Earth’s atmosphere.
By Isaac Schultz, Gizmodo, March 8, 2024
https://gizmodo.com/rumble-alien-technology-meteor-actually-truck-2014-1851319770

Yours,

Paul H.

Wednesday 6 March 2024

Physicists suggest a possible way to confirm or deny the existence of the Chinguetti meteorite ...

Physicists suggest a possible way to confirm or deny the existence of the Chinguetti meteorite
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-physicists-deny-chinguetti-meteorite.html


The paper is:

Warren, R., Warren, S. and Protopapa, E., 2024. 
New evidence on the lost giant Chinguetti meteorite. arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.14150.
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2402.14150
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.14150


Yours,

Paul H.

Tuesday 27 February 2024

Strange Metal From Beyond Our World, Found in Ancient Treasure Stash, The Treasure of Villena, Iberia

Strange Metal From Beyond Our World, Found in Ancient Treasure Stash, The Treasure of Villena, Iberia
Michelle Starr, ScienceAlert, February 2024
https://www.sciencealert.com/strange-metal-from-beyond-our-world-found-in-ancient-treasure-stash


The paper is:

Rovira-Llorens, S., 2023 ¿Hierro meteorítico en el Tesoro de Villena?
(Meteoritic iron in the Villena Treasure?) Trabajos de Prehistoria 80 (2) julio-diciembre 2023, e19
https://tp.revistas.csic.es/index.php/tp/article/view/929/1110


Yours,

Paul H.

Sunday 11 February 2024

Footprints of birds, pterosaurs, dinosaurs below the K/Pg boundary, Las Encinas, Formation. Coahuila, Mexico

Footprints of birds, pterosaurs, dinosaurs below the K/Pg boundary, Las Encinas, Formation. Coahuila, Mexico



There is an interesting paper about the tracks of footprints of birds, pterosaurs, dinosaurs found below the K/Pg boundary in the Las Encinas Formation, State of Coahuila, Mexico.
 Although it is in Spanish, a more or less usable translation can be obtained using document option of Google Translate at-
https://translate.google.com/?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&op=docs

The open access paper is:
Serrano-Brañas, C., Espinosa-Chávez, B., Flores-Ventura, J., Barrera-Guevara, D., Torres-Rodríguez, E., Cadena-González, D., and Vega, F.J., 2024. Huellas de aves, pterosaurios, dinosaurios y el límite K/Pg en Coahuila, México (Footprints of birds, pterosaurs, dinosaurs and the K/Pg limit in Coahuila, Mexico). Revista-Maya-Geociencias, Febrero 2024. pp. 96-105.
https://revistamaya.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Revista-Maya-Geociencias-Febrero-2024.pdf

https://revistamaya.com/?page_id=73


PDFs of more issues of Revista Maya Geociencia at
https://revistamaya.com/?page_id=73


A related paper is:
Serrano-Brañas, C.I., Espinosa-Chávez, B., Ventura, J.F., Barrera-Guevara, D., Torres-Rodríguez, E. and Vega, F.J., 2022. New insights on the avian trace fossil record from NE Mexico: evidences on the diversity of latest Maastrichtian web-footed bird tracks. Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 113, p.103686.

Yours,
Paul H.

Wednesday 7 February 2024

Strange yellow glass found in Libyan desert may have formed from lost meteor impact

LIBYAN DESERT GLASS- Strange yellow glass found in Libyan desert may have formed from lost meteor impact

Libyan desert yellow glass: how we discovered the origin of these rare and mysterious shards, Elizaveta Kovaleva Lecturer,
University of the Western Cape The Conversation, November 20, 2023
https://theconversation.com/libyan-deserts-yellow-glass-how-we-discovered-the-origin-of-these-rare-and-mysterious-shards-217565

Strange yellow glass found in Libyan desert may have formed from lost meteor impact By Elizaveta Kovaleva
Live Science, December 03, 2023
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/strange-yellow-glass-found-in-libyan-desert-may-have-formed-from-lost-meteor-impact

The paper is:
Kovaleva, E., Helmy, H., Belkacim, S., Schreiber, A., Wilke, F.D. and Wirth, R., 2023. 
Libyan Desert Glass: New evidence for an extremely high-pressure-temperature impact event from nanostructural study. 

Thursday 4 January 2024

Holocene impact craters on Earth

Holocene impact craters on Earth

An interesting recently published open access summary of Holocene Impact Craters.

Losiak, A., 2023. Holocene impact craters on Earth. Miscellanea Geographica. Vol. 27 • No. 4
https://intapi.sciendo.com/pdf/10.2478/mgrsd-2023-0016

https://sciendo.com/journal/MGRSD

Yours,

Paul H.

Wednesday 27 December 2023

OT - Happy New Year with Cats

OT - Happy New Year with Cats

Cats have nearly 300 facial expressions,
including a 'play face' they share with humans
By Jennifer Nalewicki, Live Science, October 30, 2023
https://www.livescience.com/animals/cats/cats-have-nearly-300-facial-expressions-including-a-play-face-they-share-with-humans

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Paul

Thursday 7 December 2023

Open access paper supporting Bolaven Plateau as location for source crater of Australasian strewn field

Open access paper supporting Bolaven Plateau as location for source crater of Australasian strewn field

Kerry Sieh, Dayana Schonwalder Angel, Jason Herrin, and Jia Yong Quah, 2023. Proximal ejecta of the Bolaven extraterrestrial impact, southern Laos, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 120 (50) e2310351120
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2310351120

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2310351120

Yours,

Paul H.

Tuesday 21 November 2023

Harvard astronomer’s “alien spherules” are industrial pollutants

Harvard astronomer’s “alien spherules” are industrial pollutants
Big Think, November 14, 2023
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/harvard-astronomer-alien-spherules/

The open access paper is:
Gallardo, P.A., 2023. Anthropogenic Coal Ash as a Contaminant in a Micro-meteoritic Underwater Search. Research Notes of the AAS, 7(10),
p.220.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ad03f9/meta

Yours,

Paul H.

Wednesday 25 October 2023

The Moon Is 40 Million Years Older Than Thought, Lunar Rock Samples Suggest

The Moon Is 40 Million Years Older Than Thought, Lunar Rock Samples Suggest
By Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, October 23, 2023
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-moon-is-40-million-years-older-than-thought-lunar-rock-samples-suggest-180983117/

Scientists believe moon is 40 million years older than first thought
By Simon Druker, UPI, October 23, 2023
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2023/10/23/moon-40m-years-older-lunar-surface-cyrstals/4101698072068/

The Moon is 40 million years older than previously thought
ScienceDaily, Northwestern University, October 23, 2023
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231023124332.htm

The open access paper is:

Greer, J., Zhang, B., Isheim, D., Seidman, D.N., Bouvier, A., and Heck, P.R., 2023. 4.46 Ga zircons anchor chronology of lunar
magma ocean Geochemical Perspectives Letters v27, Published 23 October 2023
https://doi.org/10.7185/geochemlet.2334

https://www.geochemicalperspectivesletters.org/article2334/

Yours,

Paul H.

Wednesday 11 October 2023

Suspected extraterrestrial impact crater reported from North Korea

Suspected extraterrestrial impact crater reported from North Korea

A suspected extraterrestrial impact crater, the Hapcheon impact
crater, is reported from North Korea by the below open access papers.

Lim, J., Hong, S.S., Han, M., Yi, S. and Kim, S.W., 2021.
First finding of impact cratering in the Korean Peninsula. Gondwana Research, 91, pp.121-128.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1342937X20303105

Lee, J.Y., Shin, S., Yoon, H.H., Kim, J.C., Choi, Y., Nahm, W.H. and Kim, H., 2023. 
The Sedimentary records of the Hapcheon impact crater basin in Korea over the past 1.3 Ma. Frontiers in Earth Science, 11, p.1102785.