Discovery
Traces of mini-continent found: Scientists said Sunday in Paris they had found traces of a micro-continent hidden underneath the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.
The slab, dubbed Mauritia, was probably formed around 61-83 million years ago after Madagascar split from India, but eventually broke up and became smothered by thick lava deposits, they said.
In a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists analysed beach sand on Mauritius that contained ancient zircons between 660 million and about two billion years old.
The minute chips of mineral were a remarkable find, as they were buried in sand formed only recently in geological terms — from nine-million-year-old volcanic rock.
“The zircon points to the existence of fragments of an ancient micro-continent beneath the island (Mauritius), pieces of which were brought to the surface by recent volcanic activity,” said a Nature statement.
The Indian Ocean floor may be littered with hidden land fragments that broke off as the once super-continent Pangea split up and formed the continents we know today, the paper suggests.
Pangea began to rift about 200 million years ago, yielding Gondwana in the south and Laurasia in the north.
Gondwana in turn split into Madagascar, Australia, Antarctica and India between 80 and 130 million years ago.
The new study suggests that Mauritia became detached when Madagascar and India split up. (AFP) Probe launched into eggs: Authorities in Germany said on Monday a probe had been launched into farms suspected of selling eggs as “organic” but not adhering to the conditions required for the label.
Prosecutors in the northwestern state of Lower Saxony are “investigating estab- lishments that are suspected to have fraudulently sold organic and free-range eggs,” a consumer affairs ministry spokesman told reporters.
The investigation, carried out by prose- cutors in the Lower Saxony city of Oldenburg, began in 2011 and should be completed soon, the spokesman, Holger Eichele, told a regular government news conference.
Some 150 farms in the state and 50 elsewhere in Germany are under suspicion of not giving their chickens sufficient space to be able to claim they are selling “organic” produce, newsweekly Spiegel reported.
“If these accusations are confirmed, then we are talking about fraud on a grand scale,” said Eichele.
“Deceiving the consumer but also the large number of egg farms in Germany which work and farm honestly and sell honest products,” added the spokesman.
Speaking in Brussels ahead of an EU agriculture ministers meeting, German Consumer Affairs Minister Ilse Aigner said that, if found guilty, the culprits must face “the full force of the law.” (AFP) Woman scales Everest twice: A Nepalese climber was confirmed on Monday as the first woman to scale Mount Everest twice in a single season, Guinness World Records said in Kathmandu, after she made the second summit within days of the first.
Chhurim Sherpa, 29, reached the 8,848-metre (29,028-feet) peak on May 12 last year before returning to base camp for a well-earned rest and then repeating the stunning feat a mere week later.
“I am very happy for this recognition. I was determined that the record should be held by a Nepalese woman and I’m proud to be one,” said Sherpa, from Nepal’s eastern hills.
Another Sherpa, Pasang Lhamu, died on her descent after becoming the first Nepalese woman to reach the summit of the world’s tallest mountain in 1993. (AFP)