Latest news with #IceAge
CBC
2 days ago
- Science
- CBC
How climate change in the last Ice Age created the Bay of Fundy tides
Climate change feels like a contemporary issue, but the Bay of Fundy tides have roots in changes that happened at the end of the last Ice Age nearly 12,000 years ago, says a New Brunswick geoscientist. "Climate change is something that happens over and over again," said Catrina Russell, the education co-ordinator for Stonehammer Geopark. "The climate was always changing based on plate tectonics, the orientation of our continents. So at the end of the last Ice Age, a huge amount of water entered the ocean from that melting ice, raising sea levels and creating our tides." Russell is a researcher and educator for the 2,500-square-kilometre geopark in the Saint John area of southern New Brunswick. She recently conducted a tour called Rockin Uptown Tour with Jack Quirion, a biologist and climate change projects co-ordinator for ACAP Saint John. They both try to place geological and climate science in their historic and contemporary contexts, so that people understand the impacts on their lives. Russell said the region is still feeling the effects of the end of the last Ice Age, with rising temperatures resulting both from both human-made climate change and the natural changes in the environment. "What's happening now is that we are still at the end of this last Ice Age, so temperatures are still rising because of that," she said. "But what's happening here is we have a much higher rate." Russell said the geology of the area informed decisions made by earlier generations that continue to shape the lives of the people who live here now. "Geology is the foundation to everything we do, everything we are, it shapes our experience," she said. "Those first Loyalists landing right here on this site, they may not have stopped here if it hadn't been for the geology, for the tides." Over the decades, people who settled in Saint John altered the landscape themselves, doing infill projects on the waterfront to expand the footprint for residents and industry. "Looking at how much the landscape has changed over the last 200 years, and thinking about the hundreds of millions of years of history that have shaped that, it's really interesting," she said. Quirion is particularly interested in rising sea levels and how they will affect the natural shorelines and the ones created by infill projects. Saint John is still doing new developments and there are many existing ones affected by erosion and rising levels. "I've heard some voices in the community concerned where we're spending so much effort developing the waterfront," Quirion said. "We do have to be careful that we're not building things that might eventually end up underwater." ACAP is currently doing research into climate change impacts within the Stonehammer region, collecting information and coming up with mitigation strategies to share with the community. "We'll be looking at preventing erosion or slowing the rate of erosion," he said. "We'll be looking at maybe some ways that we can address this increasing flooding that we're gonna have to deal with." Find natural solutions to erosion and flooding He said they want people to take action that's good for the environment and area residents. "A lot of times people will want to put up a big rock wall on the coastline to prevent erosion and flooding," Quirion said.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
What are the 5 Great Lakes? And what makes them unique
Five Great Lakes of North America are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario, situated between the United States and Canada. The lakes are joined together through rivers and straits forming a huge system of waters, that plays an important part in transportation, trade and even settlement over centuries. Their shores host major cities, diverse ecosystems, and support over 40 million people with drinking water, recreation, and economic activities. Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest and deepest among all, that has an approximate area of 31,700 square miles and a maximum depth of 1,333 feet. It contains more water than all the other four combined and it is famous for its cold, clear waters and its rocky shores. Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake, which is fully located in the U.S. It is the third biggest in size and sustains big cities such as Chicago. Hydrologically it is linked with Lake Huron through the Straits of Mackinac. Lake Huron Lake Huron, second biggest in the area of surface area, includes thousands of islands including the largest freshwater island in the planet; Manitoulin Island. It plays a critical role in shipping, fisheries and recreation. Lake Erie Lake Erie is warmest and shallowest and as such is very productive to fishers but in danger of pollution and algal bloom. It has densely populated and industrialised shores. Lake Ontario The smallest lake in size is Lake Ontario. It lies on the eastern part of the chain that empties into the Atlantic Ocean through the Saint Lawrence River and one of the major routes of shipping and trade activities. Read More: What's the smallest ocean in the world and 5 interesting facts about it What makes the Great Lakes unique? Largest freshwater system in the world by surface area The Great Lakes constitute the largest collection of freshwater lakes in the world in terms of surface area totalling more than 94,000 square miles. They hold an approximate volume of 21% of the planet earth in terms of fresh water and thus act as paramount resources of fresh water all around the world. The lakes contain about 5,439 cubic miles of water with the Lake Superior having much more water than all other four lakes. Landlocked seas having oceanic features The lakes are very large and deep and thus instead of acting like all the common lakes, they act more like inland seas. They have breaking waves, powerful moving current, and far away horizons. The lakes also affect the regional climate such as the lake-effect snows that causes decentralized snows along the lakes. Read More: 10 Countries besides India that experience the monsoon season Geological formation and age Great Lakes were created in the last Ice Age 10,000 to 20,000 years ago as a result of glacial operations. Large glaciers left deep valleys that were filled up by meltwater as glaciers melted. These basins of the lakes are linked together, and thus constitute one drainage system dropping down from the basin of Lake superior. Read More: What Spiti feels like in the monsoon: 6 must-do experiences Economic and cultural significance The Great lakes area has a $6 trillion regional economy that forms millions of jobs through recreation, shipping and industry which is dependent on lakes. The lakes are part of the local culture and the cultural identity of the region itself as they have long history and their own lifestyle associated with their existence.
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Science
- Miami Herald
‘Perfectly preserved' Ice Age skull extracted from mine in the Canadian Klondike
At a placer mine in Canada's Klondike region, paleontologists made an unexpected and 'incredible' find. Initially, only half an of an animal skull, including the jaw, was visibly sticking out of the ground at the Hester Creek mine, according to a June 27 Facebook post from the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. The team from Yukon Paleontology returned the next day with tools to safely thaw out the find, still solidly frozen in the earth. Eager to help, the miners aimed their water hoses at the ground directly above the skull, 'which significantly sped up the excavation process,' experts said. With the miners' assistance, the team removed a complete and 'perfectly preserved' Ice Age horse skull, according to the post. 'The presence of canines tells us this horse was likely male, and because they were only partially erupted, we know he was likely a teenager when he died,' officials said. The depth at which the skull was found suggests the horse lived about 30,000 years ago, experts said in a Facebook comment. 'Many of the fossils coming out of this area are from the last Ice Age,' experts said. Paleontologists have identified more than 50 different species of horses that roamed across North America, Europe and Eurasia during the Ice Age. In the Yukon, the most common was Equus lambei, or the Yukon horse — a relatively small species that stood just under 4 feet tall at the shoulders, according to experts. Another unique species found in the region toward the end of the Ice Age was the North American stilt-legged horse — characterized by long, thin leg bones and an overall lighter build, experts said. Experts have not yet identified the species of the Hester Creek fossil. The mine is in Canada's Yukon territory.
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Alan Tudyk: Resident alien, android and voice actor
Alan Tudyk was nearly 50 when he scored his first starring role in a TV series as the titular extraterrestrial Harry Vanderspeigle in Syfy's 'Resident Alien.' It's not that he was underemployed or little known — he's been celebrated in genre circles since 'Firefly,' the 2002 single-season western-themed space opera in which he played the sweet, comical pilot of a spaceship captained by smuggler Mal, played by Nathan Fillion, with whom he has since been linked in the interested public mind, like Hope and Crosby, or Fey and Poehler. His own 2015 web series 'Con Man' (currently available on Prime Video), based on his experiences at sci-fi conventions, in which he and Fillion play inverted versions of themselves, was funded by an enormously successful crowd-sourced campaign, which raised $3,156,178 from 46,992 backers; clearly the people love him. You can't exactly call 'Resident Alien' career-making, given how much Tudyk has worked, going back to onscreen roles in the late 20th century and on stage in New York, but it has made him especially visible over a long period in a marvelous show in a part for which he seems to have been fashioned. He has, indeed, often been invisible, with a parallel career as a voice artist, beginning with small parts in 'Ice Age' in 2002; since channeling Ed Wynn for King Candy in Disney's 2012 'Wreck-It Ralph' (which won him an Annie Award), the studio has used him regularly, like a good luck charm. You can hear him in 'Frozen' (Duke of Weselton), 'Big Hero 6' (Alistair Krei), 'Zootopia' (Duke Weaselton), 'Moana' (Hei Hei), 'Encanto' (Pico) and 'Wish' (Valentino). He played the Joker on 'Harley Quinn' and voices Optimus Prime in 'Transformers: EarthSpark.' Performing motion capture and voice-over, he was Sonny the emotional android in 'I, Robot' and the dry droid K-2SO in both 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,' and again in 'Andor.' (He's a robot again in the new 'Superman' film.) This is a partial, one could even say fractional, list. Among animation and sci-fi fans, being the well-informed sorts they are, Tudyk is known and honored for this body of work as well. 'Resident Alien,' whose fourth season is underway on Syfy, USA and Peacock (earlier seasons are available on Netflix, which has raised the show's profile considerably), is a small town comedy with apocalyptic overtones. It sees Tudyk's alien, whose natural form is of a giant, big-eyed, noseless humanoid with octopus DNA, imperfectly disguised as the new local doctor, whom he kills in the first episode. (We will learn that the doctor was, in fact, an assassin, which makes it sort of … all right?) Learning English from reruns of 'Law & Order,' the being now called Harry will preposterously succeed in his masquerade, and in doing so, join a community that will ultimately improve him. (By local standards, at least.) It's a fish way, way out of water story, with the difference that the fish has been sent to kill all the Earth fish — I am being metaphorical, he isn't actually out to kill fish — although he is now working to save them from a different, nastier race of alien. Some actors play their first part and suddenly their name is everywhere; others slide into public consciousness slowly, through a side door — which may lead, after all, to a longer, more varied career. Tudyk has the quality of having arrived, despite having been there all along. Like many actors with a long CV, he might surprise you, turning up on old episodes of 'Strangers With Candy,' 'Frasier,' 'Arrested Development' or 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,' or repeatedly crying 'Cramped!' in a scene from 'Patch Adams,' or in the movies 'Wonder Boys,' 'Dodgeball: A True Underdog Tale' or '3:10 to Yuma.' You might say to yourself, or the person you're watching with, 'Hey, that's Alan Tudyk.' (You might add, 'He hasn't aged a bit.') It was 'Suburgatory,' an underloved ABC sitcom from 2011, though not underloved by me, where he played the confused best friend of star Jeremy Sisto, that, combined with 'Firefly,' cemented Tudyk in my mind as someone I would always be happy to see. He's handsome in a pleasant, ordinary way. If he's not exactly Hollywood's idea of a leading man, it only points up the limitations of that concept. His eyes are maybe a trifle close set, his lips a little thin. There's a softness to him that feeds into or productively contrasts with his characters, depending on where they fall on the good-bad or calm-hysterical scales. (In the current season of 'Resident Alien,' a shape-shifting giant praying mantis has taken over Harry's human identity, and this evil twin performance, which somehow fools Harry's friends, is as frightening as the fact that the mantis eats people's heads.) It makes his robots relatable and roots his more flamboyant characters, like Mr. Nowhere, the villain in the first season of 'Doom Patrol' — who comments on the series from outside the fourth wall, inhabiting a white void where he might be discovered sitting on a toilet and reading a review of the show he's in — in something like naturalism. As Harry, Tudyk is never really calm. Relaxed neither in voice nor body, he tucks his lips inside his mouth and stretches it into a variety of blobby shapes. The actor can seem to be puppeteering his own expressions, which, in a way Harry is, or splitting the difference between a real person and an animated cartoon, in the Chuck Jones/Tex Avery sense of the term, which is not to say Tudyk overplays; he just hits the right note of exaggeration. Harry often has the air of being impatient to leave a scene and get on with whatever business he's decided is important. Though he's given to explosive bursts of speech, as the character has developed, the humor he plays becomes more subtle and quiet, peppered with muttered comments and sotto voce asides he means to be heard. He is, as he likes to point out, the smartest and most powerful being around, but he has the emotional maturity of a child. At one point, having lost his alien powers, Harry was willing to sacrifice the entirety of his species to get them back. Where once he had no emotions, now he is full of them. Last season, he was given a romance, with Heather (Edi Patterson), a bird person from outer space, which has continued into the current run; he is also a father, with a great affection — anomalous in his species — for his son, Bridget, an adorably fearsome little green creature. And he loves pie. And that Tudyk himself seems genuinely nice — there are interviews with him up and down YouTube, and my friend David, who worked on 'Firefly,' called him 'kind, grateful and curious' — makes him easy to like, however likable a person he's playing. That possibly shouldn't matter when assessing an actor's art, but it does anyway.
Business Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Times
The ocean has a story; Singapore Oceanarium tells it all
[SINGAPORE] The Singapore Oceanarium at Resorts World Sentosa doesn't just take you into the ocean's depths. It pulls you through 500 million years of marine history, from prehistoric predators to tomorrow's fragile coral reefs. Spread over 22 themed zones and three times the size of its predecessor (SEA Aquarium), the new oceanarium is designed less like an aquarium and more like a time machine. It's one of few marine attractions in the world that doesn't just display the ocean's biodiversity – it shows you the past, present and future, in an immersive presentation. The coral reef exhibits are a kaleidoscope of colours. PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN, BT The journey begins in the world's earliest chapters. Creatures long vanished from Earth – such as the jaw-snapping dunkleosteus and the terrifying xiphactinus – rear their prehistoric heads through life-sized animatronics, towering replicas and augmented reality. Alongside them, ancient survivors such as the horseshoe crab and Australian lungfish live in real tanks, having outlasted the Ice Age and even the dinosaurs. The subsequent zones show the ocean as we know it today. In one called Singapore's Coast, visitors are transported to the island's mangrove shores, where the archerfish and barred mudskipper dart between tangled underwater roots. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself. Sign Up Sign Up A re-creation of Singapore's waters shows how they teem with life. PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN, BT In Coral Gardens, reef fish shimmer like confetti. In Ocean Wonders, moon jellies float in a 6.8 m kreisel tank, mesmerising the viewer with their gentle undulations. In Open Ocean, the star attraction, a 36 m wide viewing panel allows one to peer into a massive 18 million litre habitat where manta rays, zebra sharks and spotted eagle rays glide by slowly and majestically. But the oceanarium doesn't stop at spectacle and wonder. In an unexpected pivot, it dives into the urgency of protecting our oceans before it's too late. Jellyfish perform their hypnotic, pulsing waltz. PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN, BT The Open Ocean Currents zone uses art and projection mapping to track the journey of a single plastic bottle drifting across the seas. In Ocean's Future, you step into an animated ice shelf that's fracturing and falling all around you, as global warming destroys one of Earth's last great frontiers. Other installations present haunting visions of what the ocean could become if we don't act. Predators galore in this section highlighting prehistoric sea creatures. PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN, BT Behind all this is the beating heart of the oceanarium: the Research and Learning Centre. The first of its kind in Asia to be certified Green Mark Platinum Zero Energy, the facility runs on 100 per cent solar power and houses coral propagation labs, jellyfish nurseries, and conservation efforts for critically endangered species such as the bowmouth guitarfish and the sunflower sea star. The oceanarium showcases critically endangered creatures such as the axolotl (ambystoma mexicanum), a paedomorphic salamander. PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN, BT It's not just a place for scientists – it's open to the public too, through workshops, behind-the-scenes tours, and hands-on experiences that combine education with real-world conservation. Families can dig for real fossils in day programmes, design custom fish on interactive screens, or get up close with Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in guided spotlight tours. Fancy falling asleep to this view? Singapore Oceanarium invites you to glamp overnight. PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN, BT For those chasing a more exclusive thrill, try the Ocean Dreams experience. It's a sleepover inside the oceanarium, where guests spend the night in glamping tents pitched right in front of a giant viewing panel. Dinner is curated. The lights are soft. And as the sea creatures drift by, so do your thoughts. This isn't just an aquarium. It's a call to care – for the sea, its future, and our place in it. Tickets start at S$50 for adults and S$39 for children or senior citizens. For Singapore residents, tickets start at S$42 and S$35, respectively. The attraction will be open daily from 10 am to 7 pm from Jul 24.
