Monday, July 23, 2012
MERITORIOUS UNIT COMMENDATION GIVEN AT KITSAP-BANGOR NAVAL BASE
FROM: U.S. NAVY
120720-N-ZZ999-009
BANGOR, Wash. (July 20, 2012) Rear Adm. Bob Hennegan, commander of Submarine Group 9, addresses the audience during a ceremony awarding the Meritorious Unit Commendation to the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, squadrons and staffs based at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Casey Amdahl/Released)
U.S. DEPUTY OF DEFENSE CARTER MEETS WITH JAPANES OFFICIALS IN TOKYO
Carter: U.S., Japan Both 'Thinking Big' on StrategyBy Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service
TOKYO, July 21, 2012 - Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter told reporters here today that as the United States rebalances its defense strategy toward the Asia-Pacific, "our central and anchoring" ally, Japan, is also beginning a strategic shift.
The deputy secretary, who arrived here July 20 as part of a 10-day Asia-Pacific tour, has met with Japanese government leaders including Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto and Parliamentary Senior Vice-Minister of Defense Shu Watanabe. Carter said those meetings left him feeling Japan's government leaders are expanding their strategic thinking "both functionally and geographically."
The deputy secretary spoke here during a press briefing with a number of regional media representatives. He said U.S. leaders welcome Japan's growing strategic interests, and will "work with the government of Japan and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to realize that vision."
"We're both, in a sense, thinking big and thinking strategically at the same time," he added. "That has great potential."
Carter noted his visit to Asia-Pacific nations, which will also include stops in Thailand, India and South Korea, follows similar trips by President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta.
Those visits, Carter noted, focused on articulating the new strategy, which the president announced in January. His own presence here, he added, is aimed at getting the gears turning.
"They sent me here because my job as the chief management officer of the Department of Defense is to implement that vision," the deputy secretary said. "I came to this region to meet with our friends and partners and allies -- [and] to meet with and assess our own forces throughout the region -- with an eye to carrying out that turning of the strategic corner."
Carter said while growth is slowing in the United States' defense budget, the necessary resources are available to fund the new Asia-Pacific focus.
"All of the capacity that has been tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 10 years is capacity that we can focus now on the Asia-Pacific region, and that's a tremendous amount of capability," he said.
Within the existing defense budget, Carter added, "We are shifting the weight of our innovation and investment from counterinsurgency-type warfare to the kinds of capabilities that are most relevant to the Asia-Pacific theater."
He noted putting the strategy in place is "just a matter of making it happen, and deciding which specific things to do."
Defense leaders are determined to make those decisions in consultation with U.S. friends and allies, the deputy secretary said.
Carter said Japan is America's central regional ally and has been for many decades.
"Naturally I come here first, to Tokyo," he said.
The U.S. and Japan, he added, have "tremendous momentum in many, many areas: joint planning, technology sharing, [and] joint exercises and training."
Carter traveled to Japan from Guam. He noted that Guam, an island U.S. territory, offers important training opportunities for both U.S. and Japanese forces.
"In both of our countries, it becomes more and more difficult to do the kind of training that requires access to wide areas of territory," he said. "And that is possible in Guam, so that's a great opportunity for both of us."
Carter added that Guam is also important to both nations as a consequence of the "2+2" agreement U.S. and Japanese defense and diplomatic leaders signed in April.
Under that agreement, nearly 5,000 U.S. Marines currently stationed on the Japanese island of Okinawa will transfer to Guam, while the United States will return to Japan much of the land in Okinawa those forces now use.
"The 2+2 agreement with respect to the movement of Marines to Guam was a great milestone," Carter said. "From my point of view I'm very optimistic that there's momentum on both sides to implement the agreement. I think that's the way forward."
The U.S. and Japan have long debated how to relocate many of the Marines on Guam, Carter said, noting the issue was settled "by the 2+2 agreement and I think that is a very good thing."
Carter added that Guam represents more than just a new site for the rotational deployment of Marines.
"There's a large Air Force base, there's a large Navy base; Japanese forces have been to each and exercised from each, and those are important capabilities irrespective of the Marine Corps issue," he said.
Carter has also taken part on discussions with the new commander of U.S. Forces Japan, Air Force Lt. Gen. Salvatore A. Angelella, who took command July 20. The deputy secretary told reporters the general "will be a great partner for the government of Japan."
In every way, the deputy secretary said, there is a lot of forward progress in the U.S.-Japanese alliance.
"It's a great time to be here, [and a] great time of new purpose and new horizons," Carter said.
SENATOR CARL LEVIN ON HSBC BANK AND IT'S TERRORIST/DRUG KINGPIN CONNECTIONS
FROM: U.S. SENATOR CARL LEVEN'S NEWSLETTER
How a Global Bank Brought Big Risks to the U.S.07-20-2012
For today’s sprawling international banks, access to the U.S. financial system is a must. Global banks want access to U.S. dollars, and U.S. wire transfer systems. And they want the safety, efficiency, and reliability that are the hallmarks of U.S. banking.
But some banks abuse that access. The Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair, recently released a report and held a hearing on how one such global bank, HSBC, exposed the U.S. financial system to abuse by money launderers, drug kingpins, terrorists, and rogue nations such as Iran.
HSBC, headquartered in London, has been among the most active banks in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. It first acquired a U.S. presence in the 1980s; today its leading U.S. affiliate is HSBC Bank USA. The bank has more than 470 branches across the United States and 4 million customers.
But HSBC’s history in the United States is one of poor protections against illicit money flows. In 2003, the Federal Reserve and New York State Banking Department required the bank to revamp its anti-money laundering program. And in 2010, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency again demanded changes. The OCC cited massive failures in HSBC’s monitoring system.
To examine these issues, the subcommittee issued subpoenas, reviewed more than 1.4 million documents, and conducted extensive interviews with HSBC officials from around the world, as well as officials at other banks, and with federal regulators. Our evidence showed five key areas in which HSBC exposed the U.S. financial system to abuse:
HSBC units in Europe and the Middle East conducted transactions with the U.S. unit while hiding the fact that the transactions involved rogue regimes such as Iran, Sudan and North Korea. From 2001 to 2007, HSBC units overseas sent 25,000 transactions involving Iran, worth $19 billion, and in 85 percent of those transactions, concealed the links to Iran.
HSBC’s U.S. bank did business with offshore banks linked to terrorist financing. For example, it opened an account for a Saudi Arabian bank with known links to terror groups when the Saudi bank threatened to pull its business from HSBC worldwide unless it could open a U.S. account.
HSBC cleared hundreds of millions of dollars in suspicious bulk travelers cheques. One Japanese bank regularly sent HSBC’s U.S. bank $500,000 or more a day in such cheques, all sequentially numbered and signed with the same illegible signature –sure signs of wrongdoing. When regulators forced HSBC to investigate, the Japanese bank could provide no information about the mysterious Russian clients behind the transactions.
HSBC offered bank accounts to what are known as bearer-share corporations, a form of corporation prone to money laundering and other illicit activities because it can be used to conceal the true owners of the corporation. One such HSBC account was used by a father-son team of Florida developers who later were convicted of tax fraud.
It’s deplorable that a bank would demonstrate such weak defenses against terrorists, drug money and rogue regimes. But making matters worse is the poor effort by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, HSBC’s main U.S. regulator. The OCC knew of and tolerated HSBC’s unacceptable performance for more than five years without taking a single enforcement action.
Our report includes a number of recommended changes, for both HSBC and the OCC. Officials at the bank and the regulatory agency have promised improvements, and the steps they have announced so far are welcome. HSBC cooperated with our investigation, and its leaders apologized at our hearing. But promised changes have failed to materialize in the past. This global bank, and the agency that oversees it, must do a better job of protecting Americans from the illicit flows of money that enable crime, terrorism and weapons proliferation.
TEXAS DEPUTY ARRESTED FOR BRIBERY, EXTORTION INTENT TO DISTRIBUTE DRUGS
Friday, July 20, 2012
Starr County, Texas, Sheriff’s Deputy Arrested and Detained on Bribery, Extortion and Drug Charges Second Starr County Deputy Arrested in Bribery and Extortion Conspiracy
A Deputy Sheriff for the Starr County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office has been ordered detained by a federal magistrate judge in the Southern District of Texas on charges of conspiracy, federal programs bribery, extortion and drug possession with intent to distribute, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Nazario Solis III, 34, of Rio Grande City, Texas, was ordered detained yesterday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Dorina Ramos in McAllen, Texas. Solis was arrested on July 12, 2012, on charges contained in an indictment filed in the Southern District of Texas.
The indictment charges Solis with one count of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and extortion, one count of federal programs bribery, one count of extortion, one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute marijuana, one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana and one count of attempt to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. The indictment also charges Jason Michael Munsell, a Deputy Sheriff with the Starr County Sheriff’s Office, with conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and extortion, one count of federal programs bribery and one count of extortion. Munsell, 26, surrendered to the FBI in McAllen on July 17, 2012, and was released on bond the following day.
According to the indictment, from approximately March 2011 to approximately April 2011, Solis and Munsell accepted approximately $1,500 total in cash payments from the operator of a gambling business in Starr County in exchange for providing warning of law enforcement activity involving the gambling business. The indictment further alleges that Solis and Munsell were recorded confirming that they had provided such notice about a law enforcement raid on at least one occasion in March 2011, allowing the business to remove money and employees that might otherwise have been arrested.
Solis is also charged with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute and possession with the intent to distribute less than fifty kilograms of marijuana in approximately April 2011.
The indictment also charges Solis with attempting to distribute three kilograms of cocaine and cash in exchange for semi-automatic and fully-automatic firearms. The indictment alleges that Solis engaged in extensive negotiations with another individual to obtain the firearms, which Solis intended to send to his "boss" in Mexico. However, the individual with whom Solis engaged in negotiations was an undercover law enforcement agent, and no actual firearms were sent to Solis. The indictment alleges that Solis was recorded stating, "My boss likes the 308 [rifle] … he likes the M-4s [rifle] and the 223 [rifle]." The indictment further alleges that Solis preferred semi-automatic rifles, complaining that fully-automatic rifles used "too much ammo." Solis allegedly stated, "We kill one bird and we shoot seven times. That’s not, that’s not very good mathematics."
Solis faces a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and supervised release for each conspiracy charge; 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and supervised release for each charge of extortion and federal programs bribery; five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and supervised release for the marijuana distribution charge; and five to 40 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and supervised release for the attempted cocaine distribution charge.
Munsell faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and supervised release for the conspiracy charge and 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and supervised release for each charge of extortion and federal programs bribery.
An indictment is merely an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Peter Mason and Anthony J. Phillips of the Public Integrity Section in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Public Corruption Task Force in McAllen, which is comprised of U.S. Customs and Border Protection-Internal Affairs, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Office of Professional Responsibility, Department of Homeland Security-Office of Inspector General and the Texas Rangers. The Drug Enforcement Administration Houston Division and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also participated in the investigation.
A SUN FEEDS THE APPETITE OF A SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE
FROM: NASAImage Credit: NASA, S. Gezari (The Johns Hopkins University), and J. Guillochon (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Black Hole Caught in a Stellar HomicideThis computer-simulated image shows gas from a star that is ripped apart by tidal forces as it falls into a black hole. Some of the gas also is being ejected at high speeds into space.
Using observations from telescopes in space and on the ground, astronomers gathered the most direct evidence yet for this violent process: a supermassive black hole shredding a star that wandered too close. NASA's orbiting Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope on the summit of Haleakala in Hawaii were used to help to identify the stellar remains.
A flare in ultraviolet and optical light revealed gas falling into the black hole as well as helium-rich gas that was expelled from the system. When the star is torn apart, some of the material falls into the black hole, while the rest is ejected at high speeds. The flare and its properties provide a signature of this scenario and give unprecedented details about the stellar victim.
To completely rule out the possibility of an active nucleus flaring up in the galaxy instead of a star being torn apart, the team used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to study the hot gas. Chandra showed that the characteristics of the gas didn't match those from an active galactic nucleus.
The galaxy where the supermassive black hole ripped apart the passing star in known as PS1-10jh and is located about 2.7 billion light years from Earth. Astronomers estimate the black hole in PS1-10jh has a mass of several million suns, which is comparable to the supermassive black hole in our own Milky Way galaxy.
DOD AND THE WIRELESS SPECTRUM
Defense CIO: Wireless Spectrum a Critical EnablerBy Claudette Roulo
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2012 – "Spectrum is the critical enabler that ensures information is dependably available to train our forces and ensure our mission accomplishment," Teresa M. Takai, the chief information officer for the Department of Defense, said today.
Takai was speaking at the announcement of the release of a report, "Realizing the Full Potential of Government-Held Spectrum to Spur Economic Growth," from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST.
The report was released following President Barack Obama’s June 2010 memo asking federal agencies to free up 500 megahertz of space in the radio spectrum for the ongoing growth of wireless services and to help further economic growth.
"We are dependent on industry for innovative products that can be used for national security," Takai said. "In that regard, we remain fully committed in support of the national economic and security goals of the president’s 500 MHz initiative."
"Military spectrum requirements are diverse and complex," she added. "We must ... recognize the growing spectrum demands resulting from [DOD’s] increasing reliance on spectrum-dependent technologies."
As an example, Takai cited the increased use of unmanned aerial systems, or UASs, to process critical intelligence and reconnaissance data. The number of UASs accessing the government-held spectrum increased from 167 in 2002 to more than 7,500 in 2010, resulting in a dramatic increase in UAS use and training requirements, she said.
To cope with the increasing demand, the U.S. will need to adopt an "all of the above strategy," said Jason Furman, the principal deputy director of the National Economic Council. Such a strategy, he said, will entail not just traditional reallocation of frequencies, but infrastructure development, incentive auctions and new technologies.
"If the nation expands its options for managing federal spectrum, we could transform the availability of this national resource from scarcity to abundance," said Mark Gorenberg, the chair of the PCAST working group responsible for the report.
The PCAST report recommended employing new technologies to more efficiently utilize the existing spectrum. For example, the report suggested, rather than reserving a frequency for use by a single agency or private company, new technologies can allow a frequency to be shared by a many users.
This approach could lead to a "shared-use superhighway," according to the report, moving away from the idea of single band ownership in favor of larger groups of shared frequencies. This superhighway would be a tiered system that establishes a hierarchy on frequencies shared by multiple entities while routing traffic to open spaces on those frequencies.
Pointing to a 95 MHz-wide section of the spectrum that is currently shared by more than 20 agencies holding more than 3,000 frequency assignments, many of them defense related, Lawrence Strickling, the administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Department of Commerce, said: "It will take at least ten years and about $18 billion to clear this band of the federal uses and then make it available to commercial uses."
"It’s going to cost too much and take too long to reallocate this spectrum the old-fashioned way. The solution, as PCAST recommends, is for federal agencies and commercial users to share the spectrum," said Strickling, who also serves as the assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information.
"The implementation of more effective and efficient use of this finite radio frequency spectrum and the development of solutions to meet these goals is essential to national security and economic goals," Takai said.
"The move from an exclusive-right spectrum management regime to one focused on large-scale spectrum sharing between federal and commercial systems represents a major shift in the way spectrum is managed," Takai added. "While this shift represents many challenges, we will continue to work with our industry partners and our government partners to develop equitable spectrum sharing solutions."
U.S.-SOUTH SUDAN RELATIONS
Map Credit: U.S. State DepartmentFROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
The United States recognized South Sudan as a sovereign, independent state on July 9, 2011 following its secession from Sudan. The United States played a key role in helping create the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that laid the groundwork for the 2011 independence referendum and secession. Several disputes between Sudan and South Sudan remain unresolved post-independence, including the management of oil resources and the status of the Abyei region. The United States supports the efforts of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel to help the parties work through these issues.
U.S. Assistance to South Sudan
The U.S. Government is the leading international donor to South Sudan. Through the U.S. Agency for International Development, it seeks to help make South Sudan increasingly stable while helping the government deliver basic services to citizens; provide effective, inclusive, and accountable governance; diversify the economy; and combat poverty. Increasing stability in South Sudan will depend on a combination of strengthening core governance institutions and processes to make them more inclusive, responding to the expectations of the population for essential services and improved livelihoods, and containing conflicts and addressing the grievances behind them.
Numerous Sudanese refugees have fled to South Sudan due to post-independence fighting. The United States is committed to meeting humanitarian needs, and has urged the international community to join it in efforts to relieve suffering and assist those affected by the ongoing violence.
Bilateral Economic Relations
The United States has no significant trade with South Sudan.
South Sudan's Membership in International Organizations
With independence, South Sudan became the 195th country in the world, and the 193rd member of the United Nations. The UN Security Council established the UN Mission in the Republic of South Sudan in July 2011 to consolidate peace and security and to help establish conditions for development.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
EXPORT-IMPORT BANK AUTHORIZED $23.7 BILLION IN FIRST NINE MONTHS OF FY 2012
FROM: U.S. EXPORT-IMPORT BANKEx-Im Bank Authorizes More than $23.7 billion in first nine months of FY’12
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States exported $183.1 billion in goods and services in May 2012, according to data released today by the U.S. Commerce Department. The all-time high of $184.4 billion was recorded in March 2012. Preliminary data shows that Ex-Im Bank authorized more than $23.7 billion in financing during the first nine months of Fiscal Year 2012.
“U.S. exports have exceeded $180 billion every month this year,” said Fred P. Hochberg, chairman and president of Ex-Im Bank. “Exports remain a true bright spot in our economic recovery and are instrumental in creating and sustaining American jobs.”
Exports of goods and services over the last twelve months totaled $2.152 trillion, which is 36.3 percent above the level of exports in 2009. Over the last twelve months, exports have been growing at an annualized rate of 13.7 percent when compared to 2009.
Over the last twelve months, the major export markets with the largest annualized increase in U.S. goods purchases were Panama (37.5 percent), Turkey (31.5 percent), Argentina (30.1 percent), Chile (29.1 percent), Hong Kong (29.0 percent), Honduras (27.8 percent), Peru (26.3 percent), Russia (26.2 percent), Brazil (23.5 percent), and Ecuador (22.7 percent).
MAN INDEICTED FOR ACTING AS UNREGISTERED AGENT FOR SYRIA
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Friday, July 20, 2012 Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, 48, a resident of Leesburg, Va., was sentenced today to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for collecting video and audio recordings and other information about individuals in the United States and Syria who were protesting the government of Syria and to providing these materials to Syrian intelligence agencies in order to silence, intimidate and potentially harm the protestors.
Lisa Monaco, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Neil MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and James McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, made the announcement following sentencing by United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton.
Soueid, aka "Alex Soueid" or "Anas Alswaid," a Syrian-born naturalized U.S. citizen, was charged by a federal grand jury on Oct. 5, 2011, in a six-count indictment in the Eastern District of Virginia. He was convicted of unlawfully acting as an agent of a foreign government on March 26, 2012.
"Mohamad Soueid acted as an unregistered agent of the Syrian government as part of an effort to collect information on people in this country protesting the Syrian government crack-down. I applaud the many agents, analysts and prosecutors who helped bring about this important case," said Assistant Attorney General Monaco.
"Mr. Soueid betrayed this country to work on behalf of a state sponsor of terror," said U.S. Attorney MacBride. "While the autocratic Syrian regime killed, kidnapped, intimidated and silenced thousands of its own citizens, Mr. Soueid spearheaded efforts to identify and intimidate those protesting against the Syrian government in the United States."
"By illegally acting as an agent of Syria, Mr. Souied deceived his adopted country of the United States in support of a violent and repressive despotic government," said Assistant Director in Charge McJunkin. "Through today’s sentencing, he will now be held accountable for his actions."
According to court records, from March to October 2011, Soueid acted in the United States as an agent of the Syrian Mukhabarat, which refers to the intelligence agencies for the Government of Syria, including the Syrian Military Intelligence and General Intelligence Directorate. At no time while acting as an agent of the government of Syria in this country did Soueid provide prior notification to the Attorney General as required by law. The U.S. government has designated the Syrian government a state sponsor of terrorism since 1979.
Under the direction and control of Syrian officials, Soueid recruited individuals living in the United States to make dozens of audio and video recordings of protests against the Syrian regime – including recordings of conversations with individual protestors – in the United States and Syria, which he provided to the Syrian government. He also supplied the Syrian government with contact information for key dissident figures in the United States, details about the financiers of the dissident movement, logistics for protests and meetings, internal conflicts within the movement, and the movement’s future plans.
In a handwritten letter to a Syrian official in April 2011, Soueid outlined his support for the Syrian government’s repressions of its citizens, stating that disposing of dissension must be decisive and prompt and that violence, home invasions, and arrests against dissidents is justified.
The Syrian government provided Soueid with a laptop to further their ability to surreptitiously communicate, which he later destroyed. In late June 2011, the Syrian government paid for Soueid to travel to Syria, where he met with intelligence officials and spoke with President Bashar al-Assad in private.
To thwart detection of his activities by U.S. law enforcement, Soueid lied to a Customs and Border Patrol agent upon his return from meeting with President al-Assad in Syria, and he also lied repeatedly to FBI agents when they questioned him in August 2011. Following the FBI interview, Soueid destroyed documents in his backyard and informed the Mukhbarat about his FBI interview.
This investigation is being conducted by the FBI’s Washington Field Office with assistance from the Loudon County, Va., Sheriff’s Office. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dennis Fitzpatrick and Neil Hammerstrom of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Brandon L. Van Grack of the Counterespionage Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
SCIENTISTS FIND POSSIBLE CAUSE OF EARTH'S "ICEHOUSE CLIMATE"
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATIONGypsum from land to sea: Iran's Zagros Mountains contain much water-soluble gypsum.Ancient Alteration of Seawater Chemistry Linked With Past Climate Changen. Photo Credit: NASA. Dissolution or creation of huge gypsum deposits changed sulfate content of the oceans
July 19, 2012
Scientists have discovered a potential cause of Earth's "icehouse climate" cooling trend of the past 45 million years. It has everything to do with the chemistry of the world's oceans.
"Seawater chemistry is characterized by long phases of stability, which are interrupted by short intervals of rapid change," says geoscientist Ulrich Wortmann of the University of Toronto, lead author of a paper reporting the results and published this week in the journal Science.
"We've established a new framework that helps us better interpret evolutionary trends and climate change over long periods of time. The study focuses on the past 130 million years, but similar interactions have likely occurred through the past 500 million years."
Wortmann and co-author Adina Paytan of the University of California Santa Cruz point to the collision between India and Eurasia approximately 50 million years ago as one example of an interval of rapid change.
This collision enhanced dissolution of the most extensive belt of water-soluble gypsum on Earth, stretching from Oman to Pakistan and well into western India. Remnants of the collision are exposed in the Zagros Mountains in western Iran.
The dissolution or creation of such massive gypsum deposits changes the sulfate content of the ocean, say the scientists, affecting the amount of sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere and thus climate.
"We propose that times of high sulfate concentrations in ocean water correlate with global cooling, just as times of low concentrations correspond with greenhouse [warmer] periods," says Paytan.
"When India and Eurasia collided, it caused dissolution of ancient salt deposits, which resulted in drastic changes in seawater chemistry."
That may have led to the end of the Eocene epoch--the warmest period of the modern-day Cenozoic era--and the transition from a greenhouse to an icehouse climate. "It culminated in the beginning of the rapid expansion of the Antarctic ice sheet," says Paytan.
Canada's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council supports Wortmann's research and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) supports Paytan research.
"Abrupt changes in seawater composition are a new twist in our understanding of the links among ocean chemistry, plate tectonics, climate and evolution," says Candace Major, program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences.
To make the discovery, the researchers combined past seawater sulfur composition data collected by Paytan with Wortmann's recent discovery of the strong link between marine sulfate concentrations and carbon and phosphorus cycling.
They found that seawater sulfate reflects huge changes in the accumulation and weathering of gypsum, which is the mineral form of hydrated calcium sulfate.
"While it's been known for a long time that gypsum deposits can be formed and destroyed rapidly, the effect of these processes on seawater chemistry has been overlooked," says Wortmann.
"The idea represents a paradigm shift in our understanding of how ocean chemistry changes over time, and how these changes are linked with climate."
Data used in the research were collected aboard the ocean drillship JOIDES Resolution and through the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).
IODP is an international research program dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of the Earth through drilling, coring and monitoring the subseafloor.
The JOIDES Resolution is a scientific research vessel managed by the U.S. Implementing Organization of IODP. Texas A&M University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership comprise the implementing organization.
Two lead agencies support the IODP: the U.S. NSF and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Additional program support comes from the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling, the Australia-New Zealand IODP Consortium, India's Ministry of Earth Sciences, the People's Republic of China's Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources.
-NSF-
HSS SAYS AFFORDABLE CARE ACT HELPS MILLIONS WITH FREE PREVENTATIVE CARE
More than 16 million people with Medicare get free preventive services in 2012"Millions of Americans are getting cancer screenings, mammograms and other preventive services for free thanks to the health care law," said Secretary Sebelius. "These new benefits, made possible through the health care law, are helping people stay healthy by giving them the tools they need to prevent health problems before they happen."
Prior to 2011, people with Medicare faced cost-sharing for many preventive benefits such as cancer screenings. Through the Affordable Care Act, preventive benefits are offered free of charge to beneficiaries, with no deductible or co-pay, so that cost is no longer a barrier for seniors who want to stay healthy and treat problems early.
The law also added an important new service for people with Medicare — an Annual Wellness Visit with the doctor of their choice— at no cost to beneficiaries.
For more information on Medicare-covered preventive services, please visit: http://www.healthcare.gov/law/features/65-older/medicare-preventive-services/index.html
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