TOKYO (Reuters) - Four Japanese automakers including Toyota Motor Corp, and Nissan Motor Co are recalling 3.4 million vehicles sold around the world because airbags supplied by Takata Corp are at risk of catching fire or injuring passengers.
The move announced on Thursday is the largest recall ever for airbags made by Takata, the world's second largest supplier of airbags and seatbelts. Shares of Takata tumbled almost 10 percent in Tokyo trading.
The recall is the largest since Toyota pulled back more than 7 million vehicles in October. The scale of the recent safety actions underscore the risk of huge global supply chain problems as automakers increasingly rely on a handful of suppliers for common or similar parts to cut costs, analysts have said.
The recall covers some of the top-selling Japanese cars, including Toyota's Camry and Corolla, and rivals like the Nissan Maxima and Honda Civic. All of the vehicles in question were manufactured in or after 2000.
In an accident, the airbag for the front passenger seat may not inflate correctly because of a manufacturing defect in the propellant used in the airbag inflator, the companies said. As a result, there is a risk of fires starting or of passengers being injured.
Toyota, Honda and Nissan said there were no reports of injuries or deaths because of the defective airbags.
The recall is the largest for Takata since 1995 when the Tokyo-based company was involved in a recall of over 8 million vehicles because of defective seatbelts.
Tokyo-based Takata said it supplies airbags and seatbelts to major automakers including Daimler AG and Ford Motor Co as well as the Japanese brands.
Some non-Japanese automakers were also supplied with the faulty airbags, Takata spokesman Toyohiro Hishikawa said. He declined to name those automakers.
DEFECT FOUND
Between 2008 and 2011, Honda Motor Co was forced to recall about 2.8 million vehicles after finding a defect with driver-side airbags supplied by Takata.
"When the last recall took place, we inspected everything such as the site of manufacturing, but we were not able to identify this problem," said Hideyuki Matsumoto, another spokesman for Takata.
Toyota said it would recall about 1.73 million vehicles produced between November 2000 and March 2004, including 580,000 vehicles sold in North America and 490,000 vehicles sold in Europe.
Honda said it was recalling around 1.14 million vehicles worldwide. Nissan Motor Co said it was recalling about 480,000 vehicles globally. It said the number of vehicles under recall could increase. Mazda Motor Co said it was recalling 45,500 vehicles worldwide.
The faulty airbags were manufactured between 2000 and 2002 in a Takata factory in Mexico.
The Toyota models covered by the recall include the Corolla, Tundra, Yaris and Camry. Nissan models include the Maxima and the Cube.
Toyota will exchange the faulty airbag inflators for new ones, a fix that is expected to take about an hour to two-and-a-half hours for most models, Toyota's Sakai said. He declined to give the costs related to the recall.
"The inflators themselves are not so expensive, but there is the cost to cover for the hours spent to fix the problem," said Kohei Takahashi, an auto industry analyst at J.P. Morgan in Japan.
The recall, announced during Japanese trading hours, hit Takata's shares harder than it did shares in the automakers, which typically carry reserves for recalls and warranty costs.
Shares in Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda, which continue to be supported by a weakening yen, were up between 3.1 and 5.8 percent, outpacing a 2 percent rise in the benchmark Nikkei. ($1 = 99.5050 Japanese yen)
(This story adds the dropped word "million" in the first paragraph)
(Reporting by Yoko Kubota and Mari Saito; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
IU study: Feelings of power can diffuse effects of negative stereotypesPublic release date: 10-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Liz Rosdeitcher rosdeitc@indiana.edu 812-855-4507 Indiana University
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- New research from social psychologists at Indiana University Bloomington suggests that feeling powerful might protect against the debilitating effects of negative stereotypes.
"If you can make women feel powerful, then maybe you can protect them from the consequences of stereotype threat," IU social psychologist Katie Van Loo said.
In new work, Van Loo and Robert Rydell, social psychologists in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the IU College of Arts and Sciences, brought the study of these two social forces -- power and stereotypes -- together to determine whether one could circumvent the debilitating impact of the other.
Negative stereotypes, according to an already large body of research, have insidious effects. The very fear of confirming a stereotype that reflects on one's identity -- that "women can't do math," for example -- is enough to undermine a woman's performance in the subject. Social psychologists have labeled this phenomenon "stereotype threat" and have documented its impact in such areas as test taking and athletics.
At the other end of the scale are the equal and opposite effects of power. Power, it has been shown, can have positive effects on individual agency, imparting a sense of freedom and control over one's cognitive, psychological and physical resources and, perhaps, paving the way for optimal performance.
"This paper looks at whether making women feel powerful and reminding them of a time in which they had power can prevent stereotype threat," Van Loo said. "I wanted to look at how high power can protect women from decreases in cognitive resources as a result of stereotype threat."
In a series of three experiments, Van Loo and Rydell built a case for this process. In the first, using a technique called semantic priming, participants were given scrambled sentences of five words, each one containing a word related to either high or low power ("dominant" and "controlling" vs. "subordinate" and "dependent"), which they would form into a sentence. Each group was then given a math test in which the instructions either invoked the negative stereotype about women and math or were gender neutral.
A second experiment used an essay-writing task to make the participants feel either high or low in power, calling upon them to recall an incident in which they had control over another person or people or another had control over them. A control group, neutral in power, enabled the researchers to gauge whether the low power diminished performance or high power boosted performance in contrast to the neutral condition of power. Members of each group then took the math test with either threat or no-threat instructions.
The third experiment examined one possible mechanism involved in this cognitive process: working memory capacity, "that aspect of memory, critical to math, which allows you to hold information and manipulate it in your mind," Van Loo said. Again divided into high, low and neutral power through the use of the writing task, participants were given a memorization task asking them to recall the last three letters in a series of letters presented to them. They were then given the math test as in the previous experiments.
Each instance led to the same conclusions. Feeling powerful protected participants from the deficits in working memory capacity that those without power and under stereotype threat experience. Women who felt high in power performed better in math than those in both the low power and control group, despite the stereotype threat instructions.
"It's not that power made them better at math," Van Loo said, "but it buffered them from the effect of the negative stereotype. When women feel powerful, they can demonstrate their ability relatively unimpeded by stereotype threat."
As the researchers observe in the study, these results highlight the pitfalls of using performance to evaluate the abilities of those belonging to negatively stereotyped groups without taking into consideration other environmental factors that may influence performance, such as stereotype threat and power.
As for the practical lessons to be taken from this study, Van Loo said, "It's a little preliminary, but the reason we did this is to try to get to the point where we could make a recommendation and show something that can be helpful."
"Maybe if you're a student and you're about to take a math test, try doing a thought exercise before you take a test," she said. "It might be helpful to think about a time when you had power. Maybe that would protect you."
The paper, "On the Experience of Feeling Powerful: Perceived Power Moderates the Effect of Stereotype Threat on Women's Math Performance," was published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Van Loo is a graduate student in the IU Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Rydell is an assistant professor in the department and director of the Social Cognition Lab.
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For a copy of the study, or to speak with Van Loo, contact Liz Rosdeitcher at 812-855-4507 or rosdeitc@indiana.edu, or Tracy James at 812-855-0084 or traljame@iu.edu.
This research was funded in part by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
IU study: Feelings of power can diffuse effects of negative stereotypesPublic release date: 10-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Liz Rosdeitcher rosdeitc@indiana.edu 812-855-4507 Indiana University
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- New research from social psychologists at Indiana University Bloomington suggests that feeling powerful might protect against the debilitating effects of negative stereotypes.
"If you can make women feel powerful, then maybe you can protect them from the consequences of stereotype threat," IU social psychologist Katie Van Loo said.
In new work, Van Loo and Robert Rydell, social psychologists in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the IU College of Arts and Sciences, brought the study of these two social forces -- power and stereotypes -- together to determine whether one could circumvent the debilitating impact of the other.
Negative stereotypes, according to an already large body of research, have insidious effects. The very fear of confirming a stereotype that reflects on one's identity -- that "women can't do math," for example -- is enough to undermine a woman's performance in the subject. Social psychologists have labeled this phenomenon "stereotype threat" and have documented its impact in such areas as test taking and athletics.
At the other end of the scale are the equal and opposite effects of power. Power, it has been shown, can have positive effects on individual agency, imparting a sense of freedom and control over one's cognitive, psychological and physical resources and, perhaps, paving the way for optimal performance.
"This paper looks at whether making women feel powerful and reminding them of a time in which they had power can prevent stereotype threat," Van Loo said. "I wanted to look at how high power can protect women from decreases in cognitive resources as a result of stereotype threat."
In a series of three experiments, Van Loo and Rydell built a case for this process. In the first, using a technique called semantic priming, participants were given scrambled sentences of five words, each one containing a word related to either high or low power ("dominant" and "controlling" vs. "subordinate" and "dependent"), which they would form into a sentence. Each group was then given a math test in which the instructions either invoked the negative stereotype about women and math or were gender neutral.
A second experiment used an essay-writing task to make the participants feel either high or low in power, calling upon them to recall an incident in which they had control over another person or people or another had control over them. A control group, neutral in power, enabled the researchers to gauge whether the low power diminished performance or high power boosted performance in contrast to the neutral condition of power. Members of each group then took the math test with either threat or no-threat instructions.
The third experiment examined one possible mechanism involved in this cognitive process: working memory capacity, "that aspect of memory, critical to math, which allows you to hold information and manipulate it in your mind," Van Loo said. Again divided into high, low and neutral power through the use of the writing task, participants were given a memorization task asking them to recall the last three letters in a series of letters presented to them. They were then given the math test as in the previous experiments.
Each instance led to the same conclusions. Feeling powerful protected participants from the deficits in working memory capacity that those without power and under stereotype threat experience. Women who felt high in power performed better in math than those in both the low power and control group, despite the stereotype threat instructions.
"It's not that power made them better at math," Van Loo said, "but it buffered them from the effect of the negative stereotype. When women feel powerful, they can demonstrate their ability relatively unimpeded by stereotype threat."
As the researchers observe in the study, these results highlight the pitfalls of using performance to evaluate the abilities of those belonging to negatively stereotyped groups without taking into consideration other environmental factors that may influence performance, such as stereotype threat and power.
As for the practical lessons to be taken from this study, Van Loo said, "It's a little preliminary, but the reason we did this is to try to get to the point where we could make a recommendation and show something that can be helpful."
"Maybe if you're a student and you're about to take a math test, try doing a thought exercise before you take a test," she said. "It might be helpful to think about a time when you had power. Maybe that would protect you."
The paper, "On the Experience of Feeling Powerful: Perceived Power Moderates the Effect of Stereotype Threat on Women's Math Performance," was published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Van Loo is a graduate student in the IU Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Rydell is an assistant professor in the department and director of the Social Cognition Lab.
###
For a copy of the study, or to speak with Van Loo, contact Liz Rosdeitcher at 812-855-4507 or rosdeitc@indiana.edu, or Tracy James at 812-855-0084 or traljame@iu.edu.
This research was funded in part by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
If Windows 8 is the ticket to a bounce-back in PC sales, it's going to be a long, slow recovery. At least, as long as you ask IDC. It estimates that worldwide computer shipments in the first quarter of 2013 fell 13.9 percent to 76.3 million, which is the steepest quarterly drop the research firm has recorded since it started tracking PCs back in 1994. While the exact factors at work aren't clear, IDC blames it on a mix of customers spooked by Windows 8's unfamiliar interface, the continued rise of mobile devices, and the decline of the netbook. This isn't helped by the higher typical prices of touchscreen PCs, or by restructuring efforts at computing giants like Delland HP.
Who's reigning in this apparently declining PC empire, then? Worldwide, it's a different picture than it was a few months ago: HP is back on top at 15.7 percent, followed by Lenovo, Dell, Acer and ASUS. The American climate is somewhat more familiar, with HP in front at 25.1 percent while being chased by Dell, Apple, Toshiba and Lenovo. With the exception of Lenovo, however, virtually all of the manufacturers involved saw at least some decline in their PC shipments. To IDC, that's a sign that vendors and Microsoft need to find an antidote to the crazes for smartphones and tablets -- and find it quickly.
Contacts, collisions, sutures, belts, and margins -- new GSA Bulletin contentPublic release date: 9-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kea Giles kgiles@geosociety.org Geological Society of America
GSA Bulletin articles posted online ahead of print Mar. 7 - Apr. 5 2013
Boulder, Colo., USA GSA Bulletin articles posted online ahead of print over the last month study (1) a Carboniferous collision in central Asia; (2) crystal xenoliths in the Bolivian Altiplano; (3) The Tsakhir Event; (4) Onverwacht Group and Fig Tree Group contact, Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa; (5) iron oxide deposits in the Paraba Basin, NE Brazil; (6) the southern Alaska syntaxis; (7) paleotopography of the South Norwegian margin; and (8) the Cheyenne belt suture zone, USA.
GSA BULLETIN articles published ahead of print are online at http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/early/recent; abstracts are open-access at http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/. Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary copies of articles by contacting Kea Giles.
Sign up for pre-issue publication e-alerts at http://www.gsapubs.org/cgi/alerts for first access to new journal content as it is posted. Subscribe to RSS feeds at http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/rss/.
Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to GSA Bulletin in your articles or blog posts. Contact Kea Giles for additional information or assistance.
Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.
Early Carboniferous collision of the Kalamaili orogenic belt, North Xinjiang, and its implications: Evidence from molasse deposits Yuanyuan Zhang et al., Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, Ministry of Education, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China 100871. Posted online 7 March 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30779.1.
The Central Asian Orogenic Belt extends from the Urals to the coast of northern China, of similar age and complexity to the Appalachian mountain belt in eastern North America. It was formed by the subduction of ancient oceans and the resulting collision of continental plates. Erosion of mountains formed by plate collision leads to thick conglomerates being deposited close to the mountain front and sandstone farther away -- a sediment package known as molasse. One critical piece of the puzzle in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt was the closure of an ocean and collision resulting in the Kalamaili Mountains in northern Xinjiang, China. Yuanyuan Zhang et al. have dated zircon mineral grains and pebbles of volcanic rocks from near the base of the molasses, and they have also dated lava flows that overlie the molasse. These ages confine the age of the molasse, and hence of the rapid uplift of the Kalamaili Mountains, to between 343.5 Ma and 345 Ma. These ages also help in the understanding of how nearby continental blocks fit into the mountain-building puzzle.
Depositional history, tectonics, and detrital zircon geochronology of Ordovician and Devonian strata in southwestern Mongolia
T.M. Gibson et al., Dept. of Geology, Colorado College, 14 E. Cache La Poudre Street, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80903, USA. Posted online 7 March 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30746.1.
Southern Mongolia is centrally located within the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, which is a mosaic of crustal fragments that amalgamated during one of the largest periods of crustal growth on Earth. However, the precise timing and nature of the events that formed this region remain poorly constrained. T.M. Gibson and colleagues provide the first detailed study of the Lower Devonian Tsakhir Formation in the Shine Jinst region of southern Mongolia. They interpret a stratigraphic transition from quiet water carbonate deposits to coarse siliciclastic marine deposits as a record of a tectonic event, which they have titled "The Tsakhir Event." Their sedimentological analysis, in combination with detrital zircon geochronology data, provides important insights into the depositional history and the tectonic evolution of the Gobi-Altai zone, and more generally, the Central Asian Orogenic Belt.
Characterizing the continental basement of the Central Andes: Constraints from Bolivian crustal xenoliths Claire L. McLeod et al., NCIET, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK. Posted online 7 March 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30721.1.
Critical to understanding the development of active continental margins is knowledge of the crustal basement on which magmatic arcs are built. This study by Claire L. McLeod and colleagues reports results from a whole-rock geochemical and zircon U-Pb geochronological study of a suite of crustal xenoliths from the Bolivian Altiplano, Central Andes, that provide new insight into the evolution and composition of the continental basement beneath the region. The xenoliths comprise both igneous and metamorphic lithologies, including diorites, microgranites, gneisses, garnet-mica schists, granulites, quartzites, and dacites. The xenolith suite exhibits significant Sr-isotopic heterogeneity (87Sr/86Sr from 0.7105 to 0.7368) whilst Pb isotopic signatures reflect crustal domains previously constrained from scattered surface exposures of basement rocks. Ion microprobe U-Pb dating of zircon reveal Early Phanerozoic, Late Mesoproterozoic and Paleoproterozoic age peaks. The presence of these age peaks in the detrital zircon population record demonstrates the important role of crustal recycling in the construction of the modern day Andean margin. The lithological character of the xenoliths and their detrital zircon ages are inconsistent with current understanding of the eastern extent of the Arequipa-Antofalla Basement block beneath the Bolivian Altiplano and instead indicate that it terminates farther to the west than previously assumed.
Crustal fracturing and chert dike formation triggered by large meteorite impacts, ca. 3.260 Ga, Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa Donald R. Lowe, Dept. of Geological and Environmental Sciences, 118 Braun Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-2115, USA. Posted online 7 March 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30782.1.
The approx. 3260 million-year-old contact between the largely volcanic Onverwacht Group and overlying largely sedimentary Fig Tree Group in the Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa, is widely marked by chert dikes that extend downward for up to 100 m into underlying sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Mendon Formation (Onverwacht Group). In the Barite Valley area, these dikes formed as open fractures that were filled by both precipitative fill and the downward flowage of liquefied carbonaceous sediments and ash at the top of the Mendon Formation. Spherules that formed during a large meteorite or asteroid impact event occur in a wave- and/or current-deposited unit, spherule bed S2, which widely marks the Onverwacht-Fig Tree contact, and as loose grains and masses within some chert dikes up to 50 m below the contact. Four main types of chert dikes and veins are recognized: (Type 1) irregular dikes up to 8 m wide that extend downward across as much as 100 m of stratigraphy; (Type 2) small vertical dikes, most less than one m wide, which are restricted to the lower half of the Mendon chert section; (Type 3) small crosscutting veins, most less than 50 cm across, filled with precipitative silica; and (Type 4) small irregular to bedding-parallel to irregular veins, mostly less than 10 cm wide, filled with translucent precipitative silica. Type 2 dikes formed first and reflect a short-lived seismic event that locally decoupled the sedimentary section at the top of the Mendon Formation from underlying volcanic rocks and opened narrow vertical tension fractures in the lower, lithified part of the sedimentary section. Later seismic events triggered formation of the larger type 1 fractures throughout the sedimentary and upper volcanic section, widespread liquefaction of soft, uppermost Mendon sediments, and flowage of the liquefied sediments and loose impact-generated spherules into the open fractures. Late-stage tsunamis everywhere eroded and reworked the spherule layer. The coincidence of crustal disruption, dike formation, spherule deposition, and tsunami activity suggests that all were related to the S2 impact or impact cluster. Crustal disruption at this time also formed local relief that provided clastic sediment to the postimpact Fig Tree Group, including a small conglomeratic fan delta in the Barite Valley area. Remobilization and further movement of debris in the subsurface continued for some time. Locally, the deposition of dense baritic sediments over soft dike materials induced remobilization of material in the dike, causing foundering of S2 and ~1-2 m of overlying baritic sediments into the dike. Spherule beds occur at the base of the Fig Tree Group over wide areas of the Barberton belt, marking the abrupt change from approx. 300 million years of predominantly anorogenic, mafic, and komatiitic volcanism of the Onverwacht Group to orogenic clastic sedimentation and associated felsic volcanism of the Fig Tree Group. This area never again returned to Onverwachtstyle mafic and ultramafic volcanism but evolved approx. 100 million years later into the Kaapvaal craton. These results indicate that this major transition in crustal evolution coincided with and was perhaps triggered by major impact events approx. 3260 to 3240 million years ago.
Structural control on the formation of iron-oxide concretions and Liesegang bands in faulted, poorly lithified Cenozoic sandstones of the Paraba Basin, Brazil F. Balsamo et al., Dept. of Physics and Earth Sciences, Parma University, Campus Universitario, Parco Area delle Scienze 157/A, I-43124, Parma, Italy. Posted online 7 March 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30686.1.
In this contribution, F. Balsamo and colleagues describe the occurrence and geometry of different types of iron oxide deposits, which are significant indicators of the mobility of Fe2+ and O2 in shallow groundwater, associated with strike-slip faults developed in the vadose zone in quartz-dominated sandstones of the Paraba Basin, NE Brazil. The development of highly permeable and low-permeability domains along isolated fault segments promoted the physical mixing of Fe2+-rich waters and oxygenated groundwater. This arrangement favors O2 diffusion in flowing Fe2+-rich waters and, consequently, iron oxide precipitation as sand impregnations, small nodular concretions, and well-cemented mineral masses. The formation of hydraulically isolated compartments along more complex strike-slip fault zones promoted the development of Liesegang bands (a classical example of spontaneous self-organization process) in a reaction zone dominated by pore-water molecular diffusion of O2 into Fe2+-rich stagnant water. The structural-diagenetic coupling described in this paper support the role of tectonic activity on near-surface sandstone diagenesis in determining preferential hydraulic pathways for the physicochemical interaction between oxygenated groundwater and iron-rich fluids. Structural setting, fault zone architecture, and related grain size-permeability structures determine the dominant mode of solution interaction and, thus, the type and distribution of iron oxide deposits in deformed sandstones.
Focused exhumation in the syntaxis of the western Chugach Mountains and Prince William Sound, Alaska Jeanette C. Arkle et al., Dept. of Geology, University of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 0013, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA. Posted online 5 April 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30738.1.
The Yakutat microplate is subducting at a shallow angle beneath southern Alaska and in the region of maximum curvature of most of the major mountain belts and faults -- the southern Alaska syntaxis. The shallow subduction is thought to be responsible for most of the deformation in the region, as well as for devastating earthquakes such as the 1964 Good Friday M9.2 megathrust earthquake. Most studies of deformation have concentrated on the inboard deformation areas along the Denali fault in the Alaska Range, or on the more outboard collision-related deformation in the St. Elias orogen. This new study by Jeanette C. Arkle and colleagues focuses on the western Chugach Mountains and Prince William Sound area in between the inboard and outboard regions. They use thermochronologic data to infer recent and relatively rapid rock uplift that is focused in the core syntaxial area and interpret this focused rock uplift as being caused by underplating above the shallow subducting microplate. The increase in underplated material may be the result of influx of material derived from erosion of the St. Elias orogen farther outboard, thus attesting to the causal and temporal linking of these orogenic systems and the positive feedbacks between precipitation, glacial activity, and rock uplift.
Linking offshore stratigraphy to onshore paleotopography: The Late JurassicPaleocene evolution of the south Norwegian margin Tor O. Smme et al., Statoil, Martin Linges vei 33, 1330 Fornebu, Norway. Posted online 5 April 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30747.1.
The link between paleotopography and basin stratigraphy along the South Norwegian margin is a long-debated topic that recently has received new attention. Despite the wealth of data available both onshore and offshore, regional relationships between onshore source areas and offshore depocenters remain to be established. In this study, Tor O. Smme and colleagues use the volume of discrete Upper Jurassic-Paleocene, point-sourced depositional units to estimate corresponding landscape topography at the time of deposition. This is accomplished by comparing the observed volume to an ideal sediment prediction model. The results show that the geometry and volume of offshore sedimentary units are best explained by topography that varies from ~1.6 km in the latest Jurassic, to ~0.5 km in the Late Cretaceous, and ~1.1 km in the Paleocene. Long-term changes in sediment flux to the margin suggests that the onshore topography has experienced recurrent periods of uplift along major fault zones followed by periods of regional denudation. This approach may also be useful for analyzing source-to-sink relationships along continental margins elsewhere.
A new view of an old suture zone: Evidence for sinistral transpression in the Cheyenne belt W.A. Sullivan and R.J. Beane, Dept. of Geology, Colby College, 5803 Mayflower Hill, Waterville, Maine 04901, USA. Posted online 5 April 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30679.1.
This article revisits a fossil plate tectonic boundary, the Cheyenne belt, which lies near the Wyoming-Colorado boarder. The Cheyenne belt separates an old piece of crust, the 1,650 to 1,800-million-year-old Colorado province, from a very old piece of crust, the 2,500 to 3,100-million-year old Wyoming province. These crustal plates were connected or sutured together about 1,750-million years ago, and they now make up part of the stable core of the North American continent and underlie much of the central and southern Rocky Mountains. The authors present a new detailed dataset collected using modern analysis techniques that were not available when the area was last examined in detail 25 to 30 years ago. This dataset, combined with other new data from the region, indicates that the Wyoming and Colorado provinces collided obliquely rather than head on as previously thought. The authors' conceptual model for the Cheyenne belt suture zone explains a number of different geologic phenomena including the orientations of faults at the boundary between the two plates, the differences in temperatures at which the rocks were deformed across these faults, and a 2 to 10 km difference in the thickness of Earth's crust across the fossil plate boundary.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contacts, collisions, sutures, belts, and margins -- new GSA Bulletin contentPublic release date: 9-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kea Giles kgiles@geosociety.org Geological Society of America
GSA Bulletin articles posted online ahead of print Mar. 7 - Apr. 5 2013
Boulder, Colo., USA GSA Bulletin articles posted online ahead of print over the last month study (1) a Carboniferous collision in central Asia; (2) crystal xenoliths in the Bolivian Altiplano; (3) The Tsakhir Event; (4) Onverwacht Group and Fig Tree Group contact, Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa; (5) iron oxide deposits in the Paraba Basin, NE Brazil; (6) the southern Alaska syntaxis; (7) paleotopography of the South Norwegian margin; and (8) the Cheyenne belt suture zone, USA.
GSA BULLETIN articles published ahead of print are online at http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/early/recent; abstracts are open-access at http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/. Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary copies of articles by contacting Kea Giles.
Sign up for pre-issue publication e-alerts at http://www.gsapubs.org/cgi/alerts for first access to new journal content as it is posted. Subscribe to RSS feeds at http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/rss/.
Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to GSA Bulletin in your articles or blog posts. Contact Kea Giles for additional information or assistance.
Non-media requests for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service, gsaservice@geosociety.org.
Early Carboniferous collision of the Kalamaili orogenic belt, North Xinjiang, and its implications: Evidence from molasse deposits Yuanyuan Zhang et al., Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, Ministry of Education, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China 100871. Posted online 7 March 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30779.1.
The Central Asian Orogenic Belt extends from the Urals to the coast of northern China, of similar age and complexity to the Appalachian mountain belt in eastern North America. It was formed by the subduction of ancient oceans and the resulting collision of continental plates. Erosion of mountains formed by plate collision leads to thick conglomerates being deposited close to the mountain front and sandstone farther away -- a sediment package known as molasse. One critical piece of the puzzle in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt was the closure of an ocean and collision resulting in the Kalamaili Mountains in northern Xinjiang, China. Yuanyuan Zhang et al. have dated zircon mineral grains and pebbles of volcanic rocks from near the base of the molasses, and they have also dated lava flows that overlie the molasse. These ages confine the age of the molasse, and hence of the rapid uplift of the Kalamaili Mountains, to between 343.5 Ma and 345 Ma. These ages also help in the understanding of how nearby continental blocks fit into the mountain-building puzzle.
Depositional history, tectonics, and detrital zircon geochronology of Ordovician and Devonian strata in southwestern Mongolia
T.M. Gibson et al., Dept. of Geology, Colorado College, 14 E. Cache La Poudre Street, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80903, USA. Posted online 7 March 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30746.1.
Southern Mongolia is centrally located within the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, which is a mosaic of crustal fragments that amalgamated during one of the largest periods of crustal growth on Earth. However, the precise timing and nature of the events that formed this region remain poorly constrained. T.M. Gibson and colleagues provide the first detailed study of the Lower Devonian Tsakhir Formation in the Shine Jinst region of southern Mongolia. They interpret a stratigraphic transition from quiet water carbonate deposits to coarse siliciclastic marine deposits as a record of a tectonic event, which they have titled "The Tsakhir Event." Their sedimentological analysis, in combination with detrital zircon geochronology data, provides important insights into the depositional history and the tectonic evolution of the Gobi-Altai zone, and more generally, the Central Asian Orogenic Belt.
Characterizing the continental basement of the Central Andes: Constraints from Bolivian crustal xenoliths Claire L. McLeod et al., NCIET, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK. Posted online 7 March 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30721.1.
Critical to understanding the development of active continental margins is knowledge of the crustal basement on which magmatic arcs are built. This study by Claire L. McLeod and colleagues reports results from a whole-rock geochemical and zircon U-Pb geochronological study of a suite of crustal xenoliths from the Bolivian Altiplano, Central Andes, that provide new insight into the evolution and composition of the continental basement beneath the region. The xenoliths comprise both igneous and metamorphic lithologies, including diorites, microgranites, gneisses, garnet-mica schists, granulites, quartzites, and dacites. The xenolith suite exhibits significant Sr-isotopic heterogeneity (87Sr/86Sr from 0.7105 to 0.7368) whilst Pb isotopic signatures reflect crustal domains previously constrained from scattered surface exposures of basement rocks. Ion microprobe U-Pb dating of zircon reveal Early Phanerozoic, Late Mesoproterozoic and Paleoproterozoic age peaks. The presence of these age peaks in the detrital zircon population record demonstrates the important role of crustal recycling in the construction of the modern day Andean margin. The lithological character of the xenoliths and their detrital zircon ages are inconsistent with current understanding of the eastern extent of the Arequipa-Antofalla Basement block beneath the Bolivian Altiplano and instead indicate that it terminates farther to the west than previously assumed.
Crustal fracturing and chert dike formation triggered by large meteorite impacts, ca. 3.260 Ga, Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa Donald R. Lowe, Dept. of Geological and Environmental Sciences, 118 Braun Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-2115, USA. Posted online 7 March 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30782.1.
The approx. 3260 million-year-old contact between the largely volcanic Onverwacht Group and overlying largely sedimentary Fig Tree Group in the Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa, is widely marked by chert dikes that extend downward for up to 100 m into underlying sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Mendon Formation (Onverwacht Group). In the Barite Valley area, these dikes formed as open fractures that were filled by both precipitative fill and the downward flowage of liquefied carbonaceous sediments and ash at the top of the Mendon Formation. Spherules that formed during a large meteorite or asteroid impact event occur in a wave- and/or current-deposited unit, spherule bed S2, which widely marks the Onverwacht-Fig Tree contact, and as loose grains and masses within some chert dikes up to 50 m below the contact. Four main types of chert dikes and veins are recognized: (Type 1) irregular dikes up to 8 m wide that extend downward across as much as 100 m of stratigraphy; (Type 2) small vertical dikes, most less than one m wide, which are restricted to the lower half of the Mendon chert section; (Type 3) small crosscutting veins, most less than 50 cm across, filled with precipitative silica; and (Type 4) small irregular to bedding-parallel to irregular veins, mostly less than 10 cm wide, filled with translucent precipitative silica. Type 2 dikes formed first and reflect a short-lived seismic event that locally decoupled the sedimentary section at the top of the Mendon Formation from underlying volcanic rocks and opened narrow vertical tension fractures in the lower, lithified part of the sedimentary section. Later seismic events triggered formation of the larger type 1 fractures throughout the sedimentary and upper volcanic section, widespread liquefaction of soft, uppermost Mendon sediments, and flowage of the liquefied sediments and loose impact-generated spherules into the open fractures. Late-stage tsunamis everywhere eroded and reworked the spherule layer. The coincidence of crustal disruption, dike formation, spherule deposition, and tsunami activity suggests that all were related to the S2 impact or impact cluster. Crustal disruption at this time also formed local relief that provided clastic sediment to the postimpact Fig Tree Group, including a small conglomeratic fan delta in the Barite Valley area. Remobilization and further movement of debris in the subsurface continued for some time. Locally, the deposition of dense baritic sediments over soft dike materials induced remobilization of material in the dike, causing foundering of S2 and ~1-2 m of overlying baritic sediments into the dike. Spherule beds occur at the base of the Fig Tree Group over wide areas of the Barberton belt, marking the abrupt change from approx. 300 million years of predominantly anorogenic, mafic, and komatiitic volcanism of the Onverwacht Group to orogenic clastic sedimentation and associated felsic volcanism of the Fig Tree Group. This area never again returned to Onverwachtstyle mafic and ultramafic volcanism but evolved approx. 100 million years later into the Kaapvaal craton. These results indicate that this major transition in crustal evolution coincided with and was perhaps triggered by major impact events approx. 3260 to 3240 million years ago.
Structural control on the formation of iron-oxide concretions and Liesegang bands in faulted, poorly lithified Cenozoic sandstones of the Paraba Basin, Brazil F. Balsamo et al., Dept. of Physics and Earth Sciences, Parma University, Campus Universitario, Parco Area delle Scienze 157/A, I-43124, Parma, Italy. Posted online 7 March 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30686.1.
In this contribution, F. Balsamo and colleagues describe the occurrence and geometry of different types of iron oxide deposits, which are significant indicators of the mobility of Fe2+ and O2 in shallow groundwater, associated with strike-slip faults developed in the vadose zone in quartz-dominated sandstones of the Paraba Basin, NE Brazil. The development of highly permeable and low-permeability domains along isolated fault segments promoted the physical mixing of Fe2+-rich waters and oxygenated groundwater. This arrangement favors O2 diffusion in flowing Fe2+-rich waters and, consequently, iron oxide precipitation as sand impregnations, small nodular concretions, and well-cemented mineral masses. The formation of hydraulically isolated compartments along more complex strike-slip fault zones promoted the development of Liesegang bands (a classical example of spontaneous self-organization process) in a reaction zone dominated by pore-water molecular diffusion of O2 into Fe2+-rich stagnant water. The structural-diagenetic coupling described in this paper support the role of tectonic activity on near-surface sandstone diagenesis in determining preferential hydraulic pathways for the physicochemical interaction between oxygenated groundwater and iron-rich fluids. Structural setting, fault zone architecture, and related grain size-permeability structures determine the dominant mode of solution interaction and, thus, the type and distribution of iron oxide deposits in deformed sandstones.
Focused exhumation in the syntaxis of the western Chugach Mountains and Prince William Sound, Alaska Jeanette C. Arkle et al., Dept. of Geology, University of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 0013, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA. Posted online 5 April 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30738.1.
The Yakutat microplate is subducting at a shallow angle beneath southern Alaska and in the region of maximum curvature of most of the major mountain belts and faults -- the southern Alaska syntaxis. The shallow subduction is thought to be responsible for most of the deformation in the region, as well as for devastating earthquakes such as the 1964 Good Friday M9.2 megathrust earthquake. Most studies of deformation have concentrated on the inboard deformation areas along the Denali fault in the Alaska Range, or on the more outboard collision-related deformation in the St. Elias orogen. This new study by Jeanette C. Arkle and colleagues focuses on the western Chugach Mountains and Prince William Sound area in between the inboard and outboard regions. They use thermochronologic data to infer recent and relatively rapid rock uplift that is focused in the core syntaxial area and interpret this focused rock uplift as being caused by underplating above the shallow subducting microplate. The increase in underplated material may be the result of influx of material derived from erosion of the St. Elias orogen farther outboard, thus attesting to the causal and temporal linking of these orogenic systems and the positive feedbacks between precipitation, glacial activity, and rock uplift.
Linking offshore stratigraphy to onshore paleotopography: The Late JurassicPaleocene evolution of the south Norwegian margin Tor O. Smme et al., Statoil, Martin Linges vei 33, 1330 Fornebu, Norway. Posted online 5 April 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30747.1.
The link between paleotopography and basin stratigraphy along the South Norwegian margin is a long-debated topic that recently has received new attention. Despite the wealth of data available both onshore and offshore, regional relationships between onshore source areas and offshore depocenters remain to be established. In this study, Tor O. Smme and colleagues use the volume of discrete Upper Jurassic-Paleocene, point-sourced depositional units to estimate corresponding landscape topography at the time of deposition. This is accomplished by comparing the observed volume to an ideal sediment prediction model. The results show that the geometry and volume of offshore sedimentary units are best explained by topography that varies from ~1.6 km in the latest Jurassic, to ~0.5 km in the Late Cretaceous, and ~1.1 km in the Paleocene. Long-term changes in sediment flux to the margin suggests that the onshore topography has experienced recurrent periods of uplift along major fault zones followed by periods of regional denudation. This approach may also be useful for analyzing source-to-sink relationships along continental margins elsewhere.
A new view of an old suture zone: Evidence for sinistral transpression in the Cheyenne belt W.A. Sullivan and R.J. Beane, Dept. of Geology, Colby College, 5803 Mayflower Hill, Waterville, Maine 04901, USA. Posted online 5 April 2013; http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/B30679.1.
This article revisits a fossil plate tectonic boundary, the Cheyenne belt, which lies near the Wyoming-Colorado boarder. The Cheyenne belt separates an old piece of crust, the 1,650 to 1,800-million-year-old Colorado province, from a very old piece of crust, the 2,500 to 3,100-million-year old Wyoming province. These crustal plates were connected or sutured together about 1,750-million years ago, and they now make up part of the stable core of the North American continent and underlie much of the central and southern Rocky Mountains. The authors present a new detailed dataset collected using modern analysis techniques that were not available when the area was last examined in detail 25 to 30 years ago. This dataset, combined with other new data from the region, indicates that the Wyoming and Colorado provinces collided obliquely rather than head on as previously thought. The authors' conceptual model for the Cheyenne belt suture zone explains a number of different geologic phenomena including the orientations of faults at the boundary between the two plates, the differences in temperatures at which the rocks were deformed across these faults, and a 2 to 10 km difference in the thickness of Earth's crust across the fossil plate boundary.
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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) ? Jurors in the longest state trial in New Hampshire's history will return to the courtroom this week after a nearly two-week hiatus to hear closing arguments in the state's groundwater contamination case against Exxon Mobil Corp.
Lawyers for the state want jurors to hold Exxon Mobil liable to the tune of $240 million to monitor and clean up wells and public water systems contaminated by the gasoline additive MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether.
Lawyers for Exxon Mobil counter that MTBE was used to comply with federal Clean Air Act requirements to reduce smog. They also blame any lingering contamination on third parties not named in the state's decade-old lawsuit.
Each side will get three hours to make its case Monday.
If the court keeps to the schedule outlined last week, the jury won't begin its deliberations until Tuesday. That's when Superior Court Judge Peter Fauver plans to instruct the 15 jurors on the law and randomly select the three who will become alternate jurors before sending the panel of 12 behind closed doors.
Lawyers who were in court last week hammering out final details made clear that the jury's verdict won't be the final word in the case. Both sides indicated they were laying the groundwork for an appeal.
The trial began Jan. 14 and testimony ended March 27, making it the longest in state history. Court Clerk Bill McGraw said the Claremont school funding challenge of the 1990s ? the trial's only rival in terms of duration and complexity ? "pales by comparison."
The jurors were chosen from a pool of 500 people who were sent 22-page jury questionnaires last October. The lawyers eliminated those whose principal source of drinking water is a well. McGraw said jury selection was biggest logistical challenge.
"That was the cow the python had to swallow," he said of the number of prospective jurors brought in and the coordination needed to question them.
The jury will have more than 450 exhibits to view in the deliberations room while it mulls the testimony of scores of witnesses ? some of them on videotape.
The jury will be asked to determine whether MTBE is a defective product and whether Exxon Mobil failed to warn its distributors and vendors about the characteristics and care needed in handling gasoline containing it.
MTBE, experts on both sides agreed, travels farther and faster in groundwater and contaminates larger volumes of water than gasoline without the additive.
If jurors find Exxon Mobil is liable for damages, they must then determine what was the oil giant's market share of all gasoline sold in New Hampshire between 1988 and 2005. The state contends it was 30 percent; Exxon Mobil says it's closer to 6 percent.
The state banned MTBE in 2007.
Lawyers for Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil claim state environmental officials knew or should have known about the contaminating qualities of MTBE. The judge refused to allow them to use a picture of two ostriches with their heads in the sand as a graphic during closing arguments.
Exxon Mobil is the sole remaining defendant of the 26 the state sued in 2003. Citgo was a co-defendant when the trial began, but it began settlement negotiations with the state on day two and withdrew from the trial. Citgo ultimately settled for $16 million ? bringing the total the state has collected in MTBE settlement money to $136 million.
McGraw said last week the trial went more smoothly than anticipated and wrapped up earlier than expected.
"I'm sure the jurors are happy not to be here through July," he said.
MADRID (Reuters) - One of Spain's best known film directors, Juan Jose Bigas Luna, who shot actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem to fame in the 1990s with his celebrated film "Jamon, Jamon", has died of cancer at the age of 67.
Bigas Luna was known in Spain for his erotically charged films like Bilbao (1978) and had more recent success again outside his home country with "My Name Is Juani", a 2006 movie about a young woman ditching her small town for Madrid.
Spain's Academy for Cinematography Arts and Sciences said on its Twitter account on Saturday:
"The Academy is sorry about the passing away of Bigas Luna yesterday ... The 67-year-old film director was working on his next film."
Bigas Luna died at his home in Tarragona, near the northeastern city of Barcelona.
His 1992 film, "Jamon, Jamon" (Ham, Ham), not only gave Bardem and Cruz, now married, their big break, but Bigas Luna also won a Silver Lion award at the Venice Film Festival for the comedy drama.
Spain's Culture Minister, Jose Ignacio Wert, said most internationally famous Spanish actors had worked with the director.
"Bigas Luna's films were always characterized by a very fresh vision, although sometimes with a touch of acidity about our environment," Wert said in a statement.
Bigas Luna's latest film was Di Di Hollywood, released in 2010. He was working on a film adaptation of a novel by Catalan author Manuel de Pedrolo.
(Reporting by Leticia Nunez and Inmaculada Sanz; Writing by Clare Kane, edited by Richard Meares)
Singapore beauty e-tailer, Luxola, just raised its Series A round from GREE Ventures. The amount was undisclosed, but has been rumored to be in the region of $2 million. The company carries about 60 brands of cosmetics and beauty products on its website, and ships to countries in Southeast Asia like Singapore and Malaysia. Its site was launched in September 2012, and it had previously raised a seed round of about $596,820 (S$740,000) from Wavemaker Labs and Singapore government fund, the National Research Foundation. Its initial angel round was about $423,460 ($525,000), according to CEO and founder, Alexis Horowitz-Burdick. Besides its latest funding round, the company has also managed to pull over former PopSugar Director of Affiliates and Social, Christine Ng. Prior to that, she was product manager at Sephora, where she led the beauty store’s social media and interactive product efforts. She joins Luxola as its chief marketing officer. “We’re grateful for Christine. The sort of experience she has doesn’t exist in Southeast Asia yet because the community isn’t that old. She doesn’t just have online experience, but also directly with the beauty industry,” said Horowitz-Burdick. Before founding Luxola, she came to Singapore from Washington, DC about six years ago. She had started a group buying site called The Sweet Spot. “I wasn’t interested in the race to the bottom anymore,” she said, of the decision to sell higher-tier products. The average basket price for Luxola is about US$44 (S$55), she said. Luxola employs a staff of ten. Those are split into two on the engineering side, three handling creative and design tasks, and two marketing people. The new funding will allow Luxola to continue its expansion into the region and set up warehouses there, to complete fulfillment more easily. Currently, it has a warehouse space in Singapore and ships out of it.
Rescue workers look for trapped people after a residential building collapsed in Thane, Mumbai, India, Thursday, April 4, 2013. At least 6 persons were killed and 40 were injured when an under-construction residential building collapsed on Thursday evening according to local reports.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Rescue workers look for trapped people after a residential building collapsed in Thane, Mumbai, India, Thursday, April 4, 2013. At least 6 persons were killed and 40 were injured when an under-construction residential building collapsed on Thursday evening according to local reports.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Rescue workers carry the body of a women near the site of a residential building collapsed in Thane, Mumbai, India, Thursday, April 4, 2013. At least 6 persons were killed and 40 were injured when an under construction residential building collapsed on Thursday evening according to local reports.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Rescue workers carry the body of a man near the site of a residential building which collapsed in Thane, Mumbai, India, Thursday, April 4, 2013. At least 6 persons were killed and 40 were injured when an under construction residential building collapsed on Thursday evening according to local reports.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Rescue workers look for trapped people after a residential building collapsed in Thane, Mumbai, India, Thursday, April 4, 2013. At least 6 persons were killed and 40 were injured when an under construction residential building collapsed on Thursday evening according to local reports.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Rescue workers look for trapped people after a residential building collapsed in Thane, Mumbai, India, Thursday, April 4, 2013. At least 6 persons were killed and 40 were injured when an under construction residential building collapsed on Thursday evening according to local reports.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
MUMBAI, India (AP) ? A residential building being constructed illegally on forest land in a suburb of India's financial capital collapsed into a mound of steel and concrete, killing at least 41 people and injuring more than 50 others, authorities said Friday.
The eight-story building in the Mumbai suburb of Thane caved in Thursday evening, police said. Rescue workers with sledgehammers, gasoline-powered saws and hydraulic jacks struggled Friday to break through the tower of rubble in their search for possible survivors. Six bulldozers were brought to the scene.
"There may be (a) possibility people have been trapped inside right now," local police commissioner K.P. Raghuvanshi said Friday.
At the time of the collapse, between 100 and 150 people were in the building. Many were residents or construction workers, who were living at the site as they worked on it, said Sandeep Malvi, a spokesman for the Thane government.
More than 20 people remained missing Friday afternoon and three floors of the building remained to be searched, said R.S. Rajesh, an official with the National Disaster Response Force who was at the scene.
"All the three floors are sandwiched ... so it's very difficult for us," he said, adding that rescuers were continuing to pull survivors from the wreckage.
The dead included at least 11 children, police said.
At least four floors of the building had been completed and were occupied. Workers had finished three more floors and were adding the eighth when it collapsed, police Inspector Digamber Jangale said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the structure to collapse, but Raghuvanshi said it was weakly built. Police were searching for the builders to arrest them, he said.
"The inquiry is ongoing. We are all busy with the rescue operation; our priority now is to rescue as many as possible," he said.
Police with rescue dogs were searching the building, which appeared to have buckled and collapsed upon itself. Rescuers and nearby residents stood on the remains of the roof trying to get to people trapped inside. Residents carried the injured to ambulances and one man carried a small child caked white with dust from the wreckage.
Raghuvanshi said rescue workers had saved 15 people from the wreckage.
Building collapses are common in India as builders try to cut corners by using poor quality materials, and multi-storied structures are built with inadequate supervision. The massive demand for housing around India's cities and pervasive corruption allow builders to add unauthorized floors or build entirely illegal buildings.
The neighborhood where the building collapsed was part of a belt of more than 2,000 illegal structures that had sprung up in the area in recent years, said Malvi, the town spokesman.
"Notices have been served several times for such illegal construction, sometimes notices are sent 10 times for the same building," he said.
G.R. Khairnar, a former top Mumbai official, said government officials who allowed the illegal construction should be tried along with the builders.
"There are a lot of people involved (in illegal construction) ? builders, government machinery, police, municipal corporation ? everybody is involved in this process," he told CNN-IBN television.
The building that collapsed was illegally constructed on forest land, and the city informed forestry officials twice about it, Malvi said.
A local resident, who did not give his name, said the site was meant to hold a smaller structure and accused officials of turning a blind eye to the problem.
"They made an eight-story building of what was supposed to be a four-story building. People from the municipality used to visit the building but the builder still continued to add floors," he said.
In one of the worst recent collapses, nearly 70 people were killed in November 2010 when an apartment building in a congested New Delhi neighborhood crumpled. That building was two floors higher than legally allowed and its foundation appeared to have been weakened by water damage.
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Ngashangva contributed to this report from New Delhi.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Continuing its track record for programming that highlights American subcultures, TLC will announce eight new unscripted series at its upfront presentation for advertisers on Thursday in New York City.
Coming off the success of its top rated (and often-debated) series "Here Comes Honey Boo," "Breaking Amish," "Long Island Medium" and "Sister Wives," its new 2013-14 slate ranges from dating to dancing and death.
Most notably, the Discovery Communications-owned cable network has ordered "Best Funeral Ever" to series. Following the buzz of the special that aired in January, the series will pick up with the staff of a Dallas-based funeral home.
"TLC prides itself on telling authentic stories and going into the hidden cultures that spark conversations, evoke emotion and open eyes to a different way of life," TLC's general manager Amy Winter said in a statement.
"Our upcoming slate of new and returning series moves the network forward further with the compelling storytelling, real-life moments and trusted experts that our viewers will want to welcome into their homes, and tell their friends about," she continued.
Additionally, TLC announced several new series earlier this week, including "My Dream Wedding (Working Title)" hosted by "So You Think You Can Dance's" Cat Deeley; a "Breaking Amish" spinoff; hunky handymen to the rescue show, "Honey Do"; "Family S.O.S." with "Supernanny" star Jo Frost; and its commission of Amblin Entertainment's two-hour documentary film, "Letters to Jackie: Remembering President Kennedy."
In all, the cable channel is going forward on an ambitious 52 new and returning series. See below for TLC's descriptions for the eight new series to be announced on Thursday.
Alaskan Women Looking For Love (working title): When you're in Alaska, the odds are you can find a man... but chances are the men are a little odd. TLC introduces five women - some of whom have never left the 49th state - who are dreaming of love and opportunity that they think can only be found on distant shores: Miami. Will their dreams come true with a more exotic romance, or will they realize all the heat they needed was back in Alaska? (3Q 2013)
Ballroom Blitz (working title): For some, amateur ballroom dancing is more than a passion - it's a way of life. Whether a billionaire or someone struggling to make ends meet, these dance floor devotees will do anything it takes to prepare for their competitions and win it all. (4Q 2013)
Best Funeral Ever: The buzzed-about special now returns as a series. For most of us, death is a time to mourn. But for others, it's a time to honor loved ones and celebrate their lives with home-going celebrations, services that turn the traditional funeral on its head. In its first season, BEST FUNERAL EVER goes inside the Dallas-based Golden Gate Funeral Home where John Beckwith Jr. and his staff organize the most unique ceremonies in the country, proving once again that, while you may be in a casket, it can still be fantastic! (4Q 2013)
Cajun Paranormal (working title): Go inside the world of 'Louisiana Spirits Paranormal Investigations,' which was founded in 2005 by Brad Duplechien and Brandon Thomas because they are fascinated by ghosts, hauntings and other forms of paranormal phenomena... also, they had nothing better to do on the weekends. Now, these mismatched Southerners operate the largest paranormal investigation company in Louisiana. They have tackled over 500 cases and still haven't killed each other... yet. (3Q 2013)
Husband Hunters (working title): They have the dress, the venue and the cake picked out... in fact, almost every detail is in place - except for the groom. For these focused women - their dream is getting married, and finding a husband has become their top priority. (4Q 2013)
My Teen Is Pregnant And So Am I: Having a baby is an intense emotional journey for any woman, but everything is heightened when mothers and their teenage daughters find themselves pregnant at the same time, as TLC explored in last year's hit special. Now, returning as a series, MY TEEN IS PREGNANT AND SO AM I offers a captivating look inside as families struggle to deal with two generations of women sharing this life-changing experience together. And as their bellies grow, so does the tension. Through tears and turmoil, joy and heartbreak, these mothers and daughters have nine months to fight through their battles and learn to lean on each other while they come to terms with their extraordinary new lives. (3Q 2013)
The Good Buy Girls: Meet Brook Roberts and Tara Gray, two pageant girls turned home shopping hosts. They are sharp-tongued, ambitious and a little cutthroat - a duo that will stop at nothing to take their struggling home shopping network, DSN, to the next level. The series follows Brook and Tara as they cultivate new products and do everything they can to sell their way to the top. Nothing will discourage these girls - not even their stubborn boss or unconventional co-workers. (2Q 2013)
Women of Homicide: This new series will go undercover and follow the most elite female homicide detectives across the country, observing them on the job as they work to investigate the cases that plague their cities and catch the criminals behind these crimes.(4Q 2013)
University of Denver vice chancellor for athletics and recreation Peg Bradley-Doppes may have had ample reason to fire hockey coach George Gwozdecky. But DU fans and supporters won't know until she steps forward to explain her decision.
Until then, we're left scratching our heads at his unceremonious dumping [read entire article].
Apr. 5, 2013 ? NASA's Kepler space telescope, in concert with Cornell-led measurements of stars' ultraviolet activity, has observed the effects of a dead star bending the light of its companion red star.
The findings are among the first detections of this effect -- a result predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity -- in binary, or double, star systems.
The dead star, also called a white dwarf, is the burnt-out core of what used to be a star like our sun. It is locked in an orbiting dance with its partner, a small "red dwarf" star. While the tiny white dwarf is physically smaller than the red dwarf, it is more massive. When the white dwarf passed in front of its star, its gravity caused the starlight to observably bend and brighten.
"This white dwarf is about the size of Earth but the mass of the sun," said Phil Muirhead, Ph.D. '11, of the California Institute of Technology and lead author of the findings to be published April 20 in the Astrophysical Journal, titled "Characterizing the cool KOIs: A mutually eclipsing post-common envelope binary."
"It's so hefty that the red dwarf, though larger in physical size, is circling around the white dwarf," Muirhead continued.
The research team used Cornell-led ultraviolet measurements of the star called (Kepler Object of Interest) KOI-256 taken by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a NASA space telescope operated by Caltech. The GALEX observations were conducted by Cornell researchers Jamie Lloyd, associate professor of astronomy and of mechanical and aerospace engineering; Kevin Covey, former postdoctoral associate now at Lowell Observatory; and Lucianne Walkowicz of Princeton University and Evgenya Shkolnik of Lowell Observatory.
Still in early phases and for which Cornell students are now being recruited by Lloyd, the GALEX program measures ultraviolet activity in all the stars in the Kepler field of view -- an indicator of potential habitability for planets.
Graduate student and co-author Jim Fuller also did a theoretical analysis of the star system in the context of its future and past evolutions.
The red dwarf orbits the white dwarf in just 1.4 days. This orbital period is so short that the stars must have previously undergone a "common-envelope" phase in which the red dwarf orbited within the outer layers of the star that formed the white dwarf, Fuller explained.
Moreover, the short orbital period means the red dwarf's days are numbered: In a few billion years, the intense gravity of the white dwarf will strip material off the red dwarf, forming a hot accretion disk of in-falling material around the white dwarf.
"This system is especially exciting because it allows us to accurately characterize the peaceful state of these systems before the violent mass-transfer phase begins," Fuller said.
Kepler's primary job is to scan stars in search of orbiting planets. As the planets pass by, they block the starlight by miniscule amounts, which Kepler's sensitive detectors can see.
So far, Kepler has identified more than 2,700 planet candidates. Still ongoing is the mission's search for planets similar to Earth in size and temperature that orbit a star like our sun. Ultimately, Kepler will reveal how common Earth-size planets are in the Milky Way galaxy.
To learn more about this particular star system, Muirhead and colleagues also used the Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego. Using a technique called radial velocity, they discovered that the red dwarf was wobbling around like a spinning top. The wobble was too big to be from the tug of a planet. That's when they knew they were looking at a massive white dwarf passing behind the red dwarf, rather than a gas giant passing in front.
One of the consequences of Einstein's theory of general relativity is that gravity bends light. Astronomers regularly observe this phenomenon, often called gravitational lensing, which has been used to discover new planets and hunt for free-floating planets.
In this new study, scientists used gravitational lensing to determine the mass of the white dwarf. By combining this information with all the data they acquired, they were able to accurately measure the mass of the red dwarf and the physical sizes of both stars.
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Philip S. Muirhead, Andrew Vanderburg, Avi Shporer, Juliette Becker, Jonathan J. Swift, James P. Lloyd, Jim Fuller, Ming Zhao, Sasha Hinkley, J. Sebastian Pineda, Michael Bottom, Andrew W. Howard, Kaspar von Braun, Tabetha S. Boyajian, Nicholas Law, Christoph Baranec, Reed Riddle, A. N. Ramaprakash, Shriharsh P. Tendulkar, Khanh Bui, Mahesh Burse, Pravin Chordia, Hillol Das, Richard Dekany, Sujit Punnadi, John Asher Johnson. CHARACTERIZING THE COOL KOIs. V. KOI-256: A MUTUALLY ECLIPSING POST-COMMON ENVELOPE BINARY. The Astrophysical Journal, 2013; 767 (2): 111 DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/767/2/111
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Public release date: 10-Apr-2013
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Singapore beauty e-tailer, Luxola, just raised its Series A round from GREE Ventures. The amount was undisclosed, but has been rumored to be in the region of $2 million. The company carries about 60 brands of cosmetics and beauty products on its website, and ships to countries in Southeast Asia like Singapore and Malaysia. Its site was launched in September 2012, and it had previously raised a seed round of about $596,820 (S$740,000) from Wavemaker Labs and Singapore government fund, the National Research Foundation. Its initial angel round was about $423,460 ($525,000), according to CEO and founder, Alexis Horowitz-Burdick. Besides its latest funding round, the company has also managed to pull over former PopSugar Director of Affiliates and Social, Christine Ng. Prior to that, she was product manager at Sephora, where she led the beauty store’s social media and interactive product efforts. She joins Luxola as its chief marketing officer. “We’re grateful for Christine. The sort of experience she has doesn’t exist in Southeast Asia yet because the community isn’t that old. She doesn’t just have online experience, but also directly with the beauty industry,” said Horowitz-Burdick. Before founding Luxola, she came to Singapore from Washington, DC about six years ago. She had started a group buying site called The Sweet Spot. “I wasn’t interested in the race to the bottom anymore,” she said, of the decision to sell higher-tier products. The average basket price for Luxola is about US$44 (S$55), she said. Luxola employs a staff of ten. Those are split into two on the engineering side, three handling creative and design tasks, and two marketing people. The new funding will allow Luxola to continue its expansion into the region and set up warehouses there, to complete fulfillment more easily. Currently, it has a warehouse space in Singapore and ships out of it.