mountain

Mountain gorilla inbreeding has distorted their facial features

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The mountain gorilla population is small and inbreeding levels are high – and now there’s evidence this inbreeding may explain why some gorillas have distorted facial features Life 23 February 2022 By Christa Lesté-Lasserre An extreme example of facial asymmetry in a female Virunga mountain gorilla cranium McGrath K et al. The degree of distortion … Read more

Mountain Glaciers Have Less Ice than Previously Thought

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Many of the world’s glaciers contain significantly less ice than scientists previously estimated. That means some mountain communities that rely on melting ice may run out of fresh water faster, according to new research. Glaciers in the Andes Mountains of South America, in particular, may contain far less ice than previous studies suggested. That means … Read more

Earth’s Ancient ‘Supermountains’ May Have Been Crucial For Life as We Know It

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Once, there were giants. Mountain ranges that rivaled the Himalayas in height used to stretch thousands upon thousands of kilometers across the seams of merging supercontinents, billions of years in the past.   Like the teeth of decrepit old gods, they’ve long been worn down to their roots by time and decay. But in those … Read more

Mysterious Footprints Suggest Neanderthals Climbed a Volcano Right After It Erupted

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According to legend, the devil once took a walk down the side of a volcano in southern Italy, each step preserved forever in solid rock. The tracks are known as the “Ciampate del Diavolo“‘ or “Devil’s Trail” – but details published in 2020 reveal a less diabolical yet far more interesting story on how they … Read more

This Mysterious Fire in Australia Has Been Burning For at Least 6,000 Years

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In a national park a four-hour drive north of Sydney in Australia, a fire is smoldering out of control – and it’s been doing so for at least 6,000 years. Known as ‘Burning Mountain’, the mysterious underground blaze is the oldest known fire on the planet. And some scientists estimate it may be far more … Read more

The ‘Somalaya Mountains’ Might Be The Biggest Mountain Range You’ll Never Get to See

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Every geography schoolbook has them: maps that look like today’s Earth, but not quite, since all continents are merged into a single supercontinent. Those maps were used to explain why dinosaurs in South America and Africa, or North America and Europe looked so alike.   Paleogeographic reconstructions like these provide context to study the processes … Read more

Microplastics: Pollution in French mountain air may have crossed Atlantic Ocean

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Microplastics travelled thousands of kilometres across oceans and continents in a fast-moving layer of the atmosphere before being captured on a mountain in the French Pyrenees Environment 21 December 2021 By Carissa Wong Capturing microplastics at the Pic du Midi Observatory Jeroen Sonke Microplastics found at a mountain top in the French Pyrenees may have … Read more