Ancient China: Lack Of Rainfall Could Have Contributed To Social Upheaval And Fall Of Dynasties

[yunowu]

ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2008) — Chinese history is replete with the rise and fall of dynasties, but researchers now have identified a natural phenomenon that may have been the last straw for some of them: a weakening of the summer Asian Monsoons.
Such weakening accompanied the fall of three dynasties and now could be lessening precipitation in northern China.
Results of the study, led by researchers from the University of Minnesota and Lanzhou University in China, appear in the journal Science.
The work rests on climate records preserved in the layers of stone in a 118-millimeter-long stalagmite found in Wanxiang Cave in Gansu Province, China........
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081106165233.htm

[yunowu]

ScienceDaily (Nov. 6, 2008) — Scientists say that a type of rock found at or near the surface in the Mideast nation of Oman and other areas around the world could be harnessed to soak up huge quantities of globe-warming carbon dioxide.
Their studies show that the rock, known as peridotite, reacts naturally at surprisingly high rates with CO2 to form solid minerals—and that the process could be speeded a million times or more with simple drilling and injection methods. The study appears in this week's early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Peridotite comprises most or all of the rock in the mantle, which undergirds earth's crust. It starts some 20 kilometers or more down, but occasionally pieces are exhumed when tectonic plates collide and push the mantle rock to the surface, as in Oman. Geologists already knew that once exposed to air, the rock can react quickly with CO2, forming a solid carbonate like limestone or marble.......
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081105180813.htm