Study shows Nepal could face bigger quakes
BIGGER NEPAL QUAKE COULD FOLLOW:
The devastating earthquake that hit Nepal earlier this year did not fracture the entire fault zone, which could mean more strong quakes for the region.
The 7.8-magnitude quake on April 25, which killed more than 9000 people, was thought to have occurred on the western portion of the Main Himalayan Thrust fault.
A report in Nature Geoscience found that the quake only released stress on a portion of the fault.
Seismic and satellite data suggested the quake started northwest of Kathmandu and travelled about 140 kilometres along the fault, running beneath the city but not rupturing at ground level.
The researchers said the earthquake might have transferred stress into other portions of the fault, which should now be monitored, as they could cause more strong quakes in subsequent ruptures.
ANCIENT ‘TOOTHLESS’ WALRUS FOUND:
Changing sea levels drove the evolution of a walrus species, but they were without tusks to begin with.
Kiwi and Japanese researchers have identified a new species of walrus from fossils found in Japan. It lived about 10 million years ago, and while it had canine teeth about eight centimetres long, they did not compare to the famous tusks of today.
These days there is only one walrus species, but at least 20 species are known from fossils. The findings, published in PLOS One, suggest the new species evolved after becoming geographically isolated by rising sea levels.
STRESS DRIVES EATING CHOICES:
Everyone probably knew this anyway, but stress can drive people to make less healthy food choices. So blame a bad morning meeting for the junk food lunch.
Researchers offered two groups of people a choice between healthy and unhealthy foods after one group had been put through a stressful test. Surprise, surprise – those in the stressed group were more likely to opt for an unhealthy food choice.
The researchers said their results showed that stress could affect self-control, and suggested tht future research could investigate whether stressreducing activities – such as exercise or peer support – could minimise that effect.
WHY THE LONG FACE?
Horses have one of the greatest ranges of facial expressions of any animal, second only to cats. Now, researchers at the University of Sussex in England have developed a system to code horse facial expressions to give an objective measure of the variety of faces the equines can pull.
Between various manipulations of ears, eyes, lips and other smaller facial muscles, the researchers found 17 different equine expressions. Humans have 27 distinct expressions, and cats have 21.
The researchers now plan to work out which emotional states relate to different expressions.
BACTERIA’S EXTREME SURVIVAL STRATEGIES:
Bacteria living in the extreme conditions of volcanic soils can switch to an alternate fuel source to survive.
University of Otago and GNS Science researchers cultivated a strain of acidobacteria, Pyrinomonas methylaliphatogenes, from the heated and acidic geothermic soils of the Taupo Volcanic Zone. The bacteria were able to survive the harsh environment by scavenging trace amounts of hydrogen from the air when their preferred carbohydrate fuel source was absent.
It is the first time such a metabolic shift has been found in acidobacteria, and adds to a growing body of research on the different ways bacteria tweak their metabolism to survive.