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First Major Rain in Centuries Triggers Wave of Death in Earth's Driest Desert
After not experiencing any meaningful amounts of precipitation for at least 500 years, Chile’s Atacama Desert is finally getting some rain. Quite unexpectedly, however, these rains—instead of fostering life—are doing the exact opposite.
[...] The unprecedented rains, the authors say, are the result of changing climatic conditions over the Pacific Ocean. An extensive “mass of clouds” came to the desert from the Pacific Ocean—an “unprecedented phenomenon,” the researchers say, that occurred twice in three years.
The resulting precipitation resulted in the widespread extinction of many native microbial species. The local extinction rate, according to the new study, reached as high as 85 percent in the hardest-hit places. Extremophile organisms, accustomed to arid conditions, were unable to cope with the influx of water.
“The hyperdry soils before the rains were inhabited by up to 16 different, ancient microbe species,” said Alberto G. Fairén, an astrobiologist at Cornell and a co-author of the new study, in a statement. “After it rained, there were only two to four microbe species found in the lagoons,” said Fairen, who is also a researcher with the Centro de Astrobiología, Madrid. “The extinction event was massive.”
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 18 2018, @09:44PM (6 children)
... occurred twice in three years. Sounds like the second time *was* precedented. Goddam illiterate millennial scientists.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 19 2018, @12:14AM (3 children)
Millenials are the worst generation. They literally have instant access to the collective knowledge of mankind, yet waste their time thinking they are being productive when they are 'protesting' on twitter because there are not enough emojiis in the lastest update of some app or OS.
I am really worried for society worldwide once the baby boomers and GenX-ers die off in a few decades. Those age groups are the only ones now keeping millenials in check. Maybe there is hope the post-millenials will re-learn the skill of objective and critical thinking or in other words, using their brains again. Otherwise of 500 years of enlightenment will come to an end with the Millenial generation.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 19 2018, @01:26AM
By the time the boomers finally relinquish the reins of power, the Gen-Xers will be considered too old. Like Prince Charles. Power is going to go directly to the millennial twitter hive minds.
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Monday November 19 2018, @05:21AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 19 2018, @10:48PM
This is so unironically true. I hate my generation (I am the oldest Millenial). How excited was I knowign I no longer had to go to the library to quench my thirst for knowledge once I got the internet. How that feeling compares to the the despair I know feel, seeing those schmucks throw away their money on trips to foreign shitholes while claming they need Communism because they will never own a house otherwise....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 19 2018, @01:54AM
The last author was publishing papers (as last author, meaning probably had a supervisory role) in at least 1996, so I doubt only millenials are responsible.
https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_q=&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=any&as_sauthors=%22V.+Parro%22&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_allsubj=all&hl=en [google.co.uk]
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday November 19 2018, @10:06AM
Two rainfalls in three years was unprecidented.
However, this is a lesson in the implications of having a Poisson distribution. It may have been unprecedented, but it certainly wasn't impossible.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves