{"id":288460,"date":"2024-03-28T19:18:37","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T13:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=288460"},"modified":"2024-03-28T19:18:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T13:48:37","slug":"50000-year-old-magnetofossil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/50000-year-old-magnetofossil\/","title":{"rendered":"50,000-year-old magnetofossil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source-<\/strong>This post on 50,000-year-old magnetofossil<\/strong> is based on the article “Goa scientists find 50,000-year-old magnetic fossils in Bay of Bengal”<\/a><\/strong> published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d<\/strong> on 26th March 2024.<\/p>\n

Why in the News?<\/h2>\n

Recently, scientists have found 50,000-year-old magnetic fossils in the Bay of Bengal. It is one of the youngest giant magnetofossils to be found yet.<\/p>\n

About the magneto fossil<\/h2>\n
\"Magentofossils\"
Source:<\/strong> The Hindu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Needle,\"Needle,\"Needle,<\/p>\n

1. About:<\/strong> Magnetofossils are the fossilised remains of magnetic particles.<\/span><\/p>\n

They are created by magnetotactic bacteria, also known as magnetobacteria.<\/p>\n

2. Magnetotactic bacteria are mostly prokaryotic organisms<\/span> that arrange themselves along the earth\u2019s magnetic field. These unique creatures were first described in 1963.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. These organisms were believed to follow the magnetic field to reach places that had optimal oxygen concentration.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. It was found that the bacteria contained novel structured particles<\/span> in small sacs that essentially worked as a compass.<\/span> They are rich in iron.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. These magnetotactic bacteria create tiny crystals made of the iron-rich minerals<\/span> magnetite or greigite. The crystals help them navigate the changing oxygen levels<\/span> in the water body in which they live.<\/p>\n

6. The fossils left behind by the crystal-creating bacteria help scientists collect information regarding the conditions that prevailed millions of years ago, and which contributed to \u201cthe sediment magnetic signal\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Findings of the study<\/h2>\n

1. The sediment core from the southwestern Bay of Bengal<\/span> consisted mainly of pale green silty clays.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. There is presence\u00a0of \u2018conventional\u2019 magnetofossils<\/span> along with giant ones.<\/p>\n

3. At a depth of around 1,000-1,500 m, the Bay of Bengal has a distinctively low oxygen concentration.<\/span><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0The rivers Godavari, Mahanadi, Ganga-Brahmaputra, Cauvery, and Penner played a crucial role in the formation of the magnetofossils.<\/p>\n

5. Nutrient-rich sediments from rivers introduced reactive iron to the Bay of Bengal along with organic carbon in low-oxygen conditions, which supported growth of magnetotactic bacteria.<\/p>\n

6. The freshwater discharge from these rivers along with the other oceanographic processes, like eddy formation,<\/span> provided the oxygen content in these waters that isn\u2019t usually found in other low-oxygen zones.<\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus: Science and technology<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source-This post on 50,000-year-old magnetofossil is based on the article “Goa scientists find 50,000-year-old magnetic fossils in Bay of Bengal” published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 26th March 2024. Why in the News? Recently, scientists have found 50,000-year-old magnetic fossils in the Bay of Bengal. It is one of the youngest giant magnetofossils to be found… Continue reading 50,000-year-old magnetofossil<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738],"tags":[11872,10498],"class_list":["post-288460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}