Pieces Of Lost Continent Discovered Buried Beneath Indian Ocean February 25, 2013 Brett Smith for redOrbit.

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Tales of submerged or lost areas of land have been prevalent in popular culture since the days of Plato. Yet, while we never found the lost city of Atlantis, an international group of scientists has found evidence of an ancient micro-continent resting beneath two islands in the Indian Ocean. Until around 750 million years ago, all of the dry land on Earth was collected into a single continent called Rodinia, the older supercontinent counterpart to the more well-known Pangaea. The supercontinent was driven apart by tectonic forces, slowly fragmenting and drifting apart some 750 million years ago. New evidence suggests at least one landmass got lost in this continental ballet that occurred millions of years before the emergence of man. According to a new report in Nature Geoscience, a strip of land, which scientists have dubbed Mauritia, linked the landmasses that would later become modern day India and Madagascar between 2,000 and 85 million years ago. The team of British, Norwegian, South African and German scientists made this discovery while studying grains of sand from the beaches of Mauritius, a tiny yet popular tropical island in the Indian Ocean. Using lead-uranium dating techniques, the team was able to date the grains back to a volcanic eruption that occurred around nine million years ago, yet they contained minerals that were between roughly 600 million and 2 billion years old. We found zircons that we extracted from the beach sands, and these are something you typically find in a continental crust, co-author Trond Torsvik of the University of Oslo, Norway told BBC News. They are very old in age. After a recalculation of geohistorical plate tectonics, the team was able to explain how and where the fragments ended up on Mauritius. They said that large plumes of magma rise from deep within the Earth and soften the tectonic plates from below until the plates break apart at the hotspots. On the one hand, it shows the position of the plates relative to the two hotspots at the time of the rupture, which points towards a causal relation, said Bernhard Steinberger of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, who also co-authored the report. On the other hand, we were able to show that the continent fragments continued to wander almost exactly over the Reunion plume, which explains how they

were covered by volcanic rock. Torsvik said that pieces of Mauritia might be located about 6 miles beneath the Indian Ocean and around Mauritius. About 85 million years ago, the microcontinent broke up and eventually disappeared beneath the waves. But once upon a time, it was sitting north of Madagascar, Torsvik noted. And what we are saying is that maybe this was much bigger, and there are many of these continental fragments that are spread around in the ocean. We need seismic data which can image the structure, Torsvik said. Or you can drill deep, but that would cost a lot of money. He says that future studies of the area will be focused on finding out more details about the lost landmass. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112790748/pieces-of-lost-continentfound-022513/

29 April 2013 Everest: Climbers Steck and Moro in fight with Sherpas Police in Nepal are investigating an alleged fight between two famous European climbers and their Nepalese mountain guides on Mount Everest. Switzerland's Ueli Steck and Simone Moro from Italy were at 7,470m (24,500ft) when the brawl occurred. The pair allegedly ignored orders to hold their climb and triggered an icefall which hit the Sherpas laying fixed ropes. The climbers deny this. Both sides have since reached a peace deal, reports say. Mr Steck told the BBC that their three-man team - which included Briton Jonathan Griffith - was nearing Camp Three on Saturday, when the "conflict" broke out. He said they had been keeping a respectful distance so as not to disturb the work of the Sherpas laying ropes. The climbers continued to Camp Three but later descended to Camp Two to "finish the discussion" and were met by more than 100 angry Sherpas, who began to beat them and throw rocks, Mr Steck said. He said the Sherpas threatened to kill the climbers if they did not leave the camp.

One of the Sherpas threw a pocket knife at Mr Moro but "luckily [it] just hit the belt of his backpack", Mr Steck said, adding that they escaped with no serious injuries. Mr Steck said the conflict was the symptom of a long-term problem of "cultures", but did not elaborate. Ang Tshering Sherpa, the former president of the Nepal Mountaineers Association, told the BBC that climbing leaders of various teams at base camp helped broker a peace deal on Sunday. Exact details are not very clear, but the two sides clearly had a misunderstanding, Mr Ang said. 'Damaged pride' In a statement, Mr Moro said that "getting hit by chunks of ice is a very natural occurrence" on an ice face. "As it stands, no Sherpa has come forward to show any injury." "The climbers believe that the lead Sherpa felt that his pride had been damaged as the climbers were moving unroped and much faster," the statement added. When they returned to their tents, Mr Moro said a mob of guides had grouped together to attack them. "[The guides] became instantly aggressive and not only punched and kicked the climbers, but threw many rocks as well," said Mr Moro. More than 3,000 people have scaled Mount Everest since it was first conquered by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Straddling Nepal and China, the world's highest mountain has an altitude of 8,848m (29,029ft). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22336540

Psy, del xito viral en las redes a embajador de turismo de Corea del Sur

(CNNTravel) La nueva cancin de Psy, Gentleman, confirm que era un artista de ms de un solo xito: el video musical ya tiene 251 millones de vistas en YouTube desde que se estren hace dos semanas. As que tiene sentido que Corea del Sur utilice a la sensacin del baile dancepop para hacer publicidad en el extranjero. Psy fue escogido como embajador de turismo de Corea del Sur y acaba de terminar de grabar una serie de comerciales para televisin para mostrar al pas, segn la Organizacin de Turismo de Corea (KTO, por sus siglas en ingls). Ciertamente es una mejor eleccin que el exvocero Kenny G, el saxofonista estadounidense de cabello rizado, quien ocup el cargo honorario de embajador desde octubre de 2012. Deberes Segn la KTO, Psy tendra la posicin honoraria durante aproximadamente un ao. Tuvo el mismo cargo para el distrito Gangnam de Sel el ao pasado. En los nuevos comerciales, que se transmitirn en 70 pases a partir del prximo mes, el cantante cmico ayuda a mostrar cosas que hay que comer y hacer y los lugares que hay que visitar en Corea del Sur, como el distrito de compras nocturno Dongdaemun y la Cosmetic Road (Calle de cosmticos) en el centro de Myeongdong, conocida por sus tiendas de maquillaje llamativas. Marketing social "Hemos buscado formas para aprovechar nuevos medios como marketing social y YouTube y debido a que Psy se convirti en una estrella mundial de esa forma, todo tuvo sentido, dijo Kang Jong-soon del equipo de marketing de KTO. A travs de l, intentamos presentar los conceptos culturales coreanos ms modernos y divertidos como bul-gum, dijo Kang. Traducido aproximadamente como Viernes Ardientes, bul-gum es el equivalente coreano al sentimiento gracias a Dios que es viernes de occidente y es la excusa frecuentemente citada para beber grandes cantidades de soju las noches de viernes. Psy acept un pago mnimo para el trabajo. Representar oficialmente a Corea del Sur fue un trabajo significativo, dijo. Tambin viajar con estilo: a principios de este mes, Asiana Airlines anunci que Psy ser su embajador honorario de marca durante un ao, con lo que

obtendr boletos gratis para los asientos de primera clase en cualquier vuelo de Asiana durante un ao.

Ms de 100 muertos y 700 heridos por el colapso de un edificio en Bangladesh

24 abril 2013 CNN) Un edificio de ocho pisos se derrumb el mircoles en las afueras de la capital de Bangladesh, Daca, dejando ms de 100 muertos y al menos 700 heridos, de acuerdo con la agencia nacional de noticias. La estructura albergaba varias fbricas de prendas y un centro comercial. El derrumbe es el desastre ms reciente en la industria de la ropa en Bangladesh. El Ejrcito trabaj desde temprano con voluntarios para rescatar a la gente de los escombros pues las autoridades temen que muchas personas siguen atrapadas, segn la agencia Sangbad Sangstha de Bangladesh. En noviembre, un incendio en otra fbrica en un suburbio de Daca mat al menos a 112 personas y en 2005, 70 personas murieron en el derrumbe de otro edificio de acuerdo con la agencia de noticias de Bangladesh. En el pas hay alrededor de 4,500 fbricas de prendas en las que se produce mercanca para marcas como Walmart y JC Penny. Las prendas significan el 80% de las exportaciones anuales de Bangladesh, equivalentes a unos 24,000 millones de dlares.