Daywatch: When did the Great Lakes basins form?
Good morning, Chicago.
As an ice sheet thousands of feet thick began its final crawling retreat from North America to the Arctic toward the end of the last glacial period some 10,000 years ago, it left behind the planet's largest freshwater system. At least that's what scientists have long believed about the formation of the Great Lakes.
But a recent study suggests that the timeline actually stretches further back — beyond the evolution of early humans and past the age of dinosaurs — to 200 to 300 million years ago when a hot spot, or plume of hot material, from underneath Earth's crust created a low point that the glaciers would finish carving out and filling with water much later.
'Most of upper North America was covered by glaciation. But why, in this particular area, (are there) these Great Lakes?' said Aibing Li, a seismologist at the University of Houston who co-authored the study, which was published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters in December. 'We'll see this surface feature, and we usually just consider that's just some very shallow process. It could have, actually, some deeper source, a deeper origin. It's not just like, randomly, on the surface, you have something special. Anything that happened in that area must have some reason.'
Read the full story from the Tribune's Adriana Pérez.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including the future of fluoride in drinking water, Wrigley Field's goose that flew the coop and a review of 'Boop! The Musical,' which opens on Broadway.
RFK Jr. says he plans to tell CDC to stop recommending fluoride in drinking water
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can't order communities to stop fluoridation, but he can tell the CDC to stop recommending it and work with the EPA to change the allowed amount.
Mayor Brandon Johnson still mired in firefighters contract standoff, despite dropping reorganization plan
When rank-and-file firefighters joined them to demand a contract last month, the Chicago Teachers Union framed the team-up in powerful terms: 'Two unions. One fight.'
Now, with a pending deal for teachers clinched last week, only one of them remains in the ring.
Andrew Boutros sworn in as Chicago's U.S. attorney
Veteran Chicago lawyer and former federal prosecutor Andrew Boutros was sworn in yesterday as the 42nd U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
Lawsuit settled in March 2019 air crash that killed Matteson Army captain
A settlement ends a lawsuit brought by the family of a U.S. Army captain from Matteson killed in a March 2019 commercial jet crash in Ethiopia.
The settlement was reached Sunday night before a trial in the case of the death of Antoine Lewis was scheduled to begin yesterday in federal court in Chicago.
Man with knife critically wounded in River North police shooting, authorities say
Police shot and critically wounded a man wielding a knife after a chase in River North yesterday afternoon, according to authorities. Two officers were also taken to the hospital but were not injured, sources said.
Column: After Wrigley Field's goose flew the coop, the search is on for a new Chicago Cubs rally animal
It's not known what caused the goose to leave Wrigley. It might have been the bleacher paparazzi that insisted on taking photos, or the bullpen implosion and fielding mistakes that led to Sunday's loss against the San Diego Padres.
The goose, who was nicknamed PGA — 'Pete Goose-Armstrong' — by one bleacherite, was unavailable for comment. And now, the search for a new rally animal to pick up the slack begins, writes Paul Sullivan.
Hearing begins on $2.8 billion NCAA settlement, with no indication the plan won't go forward
The landmark $2.8 billion settlement that will affect every corner of college athletics in the months ahead got its final hearing yesterday, including athletes who criticized the sprawling plan as confusing — and one that said it undervalued them — and attorneys who said they were concerned about the impacts on campuses across the country.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken gave no indication yesterday the complaints have changed her mind, setting the table for the plan to move forward.
Hank Haney used to prepare Tiger Woods for the Masters. Now he's back home, teaching amateurs of all levels.
In another part of his life, Hank Haney would have been at Augusta National this week. As Tiger Woods' swing coach from 2004-10, he would monitor every one of Woods' swings, looking for tweaks to perfect it while preparing one of the greatest players ever for another run at the Masters.
This week, though, finds Haney, 69, far away from golf's most intense spotlight. He's teaching at the new Hank Haney Golf Studio in Deerfield, just a mile or so from his boyhood home. Instead of working with the best of the best, Haney now instructs amateur players of all ages and abilities, ranging from low handicappers to the dreamer who just wants to break 90.
Auditorium's 2025-26 dance season includes Ensemble Español and Trinity Irish Dance
The Auditorium Theatre, henceforth known simply as The Auditorium, has announced its calendar of dance performances for the 2025-26 season. The five performances, all by female-led dance companies, open in November with Chicago's own Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater and conclude next spring with the annual visit by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Column: As circuses change, the Chicago Circus & Performing Arts Festival shows that the magic remains
How long has it been since you have been to a circus? Over the last decades, what we once knew has changed, writes Rick Kogan. Much of that has had to do with the shift away from animal acts due to animal rights activism and humane-treatment concerns. More change has come in response to the 'wonders' so easily found on the internet, making theatrical, story-driven performances preferable to one clown bashing another clown.
Cirque du Soleil and a few other shows emerged as wildly popular theatrical versions of the circus, where highly skilled human performers reign, and among the liveliest examples of this circus reinvention is available at the Chicago Circus & Performing Arts Festival.
What's not to love about Betty Boop, U.S.-based international ambassador? It's a rhetorical question, folks. She cannot be fired, writes Tribune theater critic Chris Jones.
Vastly improved from its Chicago tryout — director Jerry Mitchell being a master of the dogged retrofit — 'Boop!' is now a stellar little showcase for its ascendant young star, Jasmine Amy Rogers, who does not let playing a literal cartoon character get in the way of a fully fleshed out performance, as sweet and vulnerable as it is determined and resolute.
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If global temperatures reach around 4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the heat outweighs the cooling impact of an AMOC collapse in Europe , van Westen said. 'The warming signal actually wins.' But, he added, an AMOC collapse won't only affect temperatures. Other impacts include increased sea level rise, which will particularly affect the US, where a weaker AMOC is already driving significantly increased flooding on the northeastern coast, according to recent research. Stefan Rahmstorf, a physical oceanographer at Potsdam University in Germany who was not involved in the latest research, said the study confirms 'an AMOC collapse would have massive impacts on European climate.' The research uses only one climate model; others will rely on different models and will likely come up with a variety of scenarios, he told CNN. What ultimately happens will depend on the how the two opposing trends play out: AMOC-induced cooling and climate change-induced heating. A 'large uncertainty' remains, he said. The study is 'by no means the last word' especially as huge questions remain over whether the AMOC could be on course to collapse, said Richard Allen, a climate science professor at the University of Reading, also not involved in the research. 'But even the mere possibility of this dire storyline unfolding over coming centuries underscores the need to forensically monitor what is happening in our oceans,' he said. What is crystal clear is that an AMOC collapse would be very bad for society, van Westen said. 'We want to avoid it at all costs.'
