Friday Headlines: 10-17-14

Friday Headlines, October 17, 2014

THE LATEST IN THE GEOSCIENCES

 

Today’s round-up:

Massive landslides in Italy

Strutting kangaroos

 

Massive Landslide in Italy Caught on Video

This is actually kind of ‘old’ news, as this happened back in 2010. However, this is yet another example of mass wasting happening on Earth.

This landslide/slump is believed to have been caused by heavy rains. If you look at the footage provided by the link, there’s evidence of a massive head scarp, characteristic of slumps. But the way the material moves, it’s speed and almost liquidness, makes me want to call this a landslide.

Either way, this event falls into the category of “You see it coming and you can (probably) get out of the way to safety.”

 

Giant One-Toed, Rabbit-Faced, Sloth-Like ‘Roos Once Roamed Earth

It was a gigantic relative of modern kangaroos, living in that by-gone age (about 30,000 years ago) when everything seemed to be giant.

Reconstruction of Sthenurus stirlingi. Art by Brian Regal.
Reconstruction of Sthenurus stirlingi. Art by Brian Regal.

This rabbit-faced kangaroo relative weighed more than 500 pounds (compared to about 120 pounds for a large, modern kangaroo). It was so massive that the authors that describe this new species hypothesize that hopping was impossible.

Instead, this giant ‘roo probably ‘strutted,’ putting one foot in front of the other like we do. Or maybe like Tyrannosaurus did!