Humboldt Squids

Author's note: This post is about the possibility of an invasive species. I am focusing on sentence structure in this piece.

While vast majorities of large species in the Pacific Ocean are slowly dying out, a sizable creature of the deep is uprising. They range to six feet long and to one hundred pounds. Often eating their peers, they will devour almost anything they set their mind on. These ferocious cephalopods are creating a high profile for themselves across the Pacific. The Humboldt Squid has the best ability to overpopulate the oceans.   

Humboldts live 660 to 2,300 feet below sea level. They range from dark purple to blinding white. Every spring they migrate north to as far as Alaska. On the trip schools of up to 1,200 squids travel up to fifteen miles per hour. To evade predators they will jump out of the water and soar in the air. The Humboldt’s barbed suckers (below) pierce the flesh of its prey and then its tentacles drag it to its baseball sized beak, an inescapable trap.

Main predators of the Humboldt squid are being over fished off the coast of California and Mexico, making migration less of a hassle and letting the squids rapidly multiply. As the squid attack whatever they see, less and less native fish are found angering the fishermen of the area. “El rojo diablo” a common nickname for the Humboldt Squid meaning “the red devil” suits its behavior.  Humboldt squid used to live from San Diego to Peru.  Now sightings in Chile and  Alaska are common.

Many things are unknown about the Humboldt. Questions about spawning and prey are still left hanging due to the extreme depths the squid go to. Numbers of the Humboldt are unknown because of how deep they live as well. As of today they aren’t too many Humboldts inhabiting the Pacific Ocean, but tomorrow they may be across the globe. The deadliest threat to overpopulate the oceans is the Humboldt Squid.

Leaf Haiku

Falling autumn leaves

Fall’s colorful castaways

Flicker through the air

The Mercury Hollows

Author's note: I saw a television show about mercury and how we do not know much about it. Trying to learn more I researched more about mercury, and came up with mercury's hollows.  I am focusing on content and description in this piece. 

 Mercury, a deceased, bombarded planet. What lies beneath the ruined surface?  As it is the closest planet to the sun, it is very difficult to take a peek at what Mercury has to prove. This unusual glimpse of Mercury could lead to a first in the galaxy. The most atypical attribute in the Solar system are the Mercury hollows. 

Mercury consists of two distinct surface geographies, plains and craters.  Hilly plains between the craters are considered what the cratered areas once where before asteroids and space junk trampled the surface. Thousands of miles wide, the craters take up most of the area on the planet.  Recently, the NASA spacecraft MESSENGER provided us with closer, more in depth images of Mercury’s surface. These pictures present new landforms in the deep craters. 

Groups of holes are spotted on the walls and floors of the craters.  The hollows are highly reflective, smooth, and have flat ends. Many astronomers are wondering what these hollows are.  Mercury has changed very little over the last centuries. The hollows in the craters have suddenly come to our surprise.  Scientists discovered that Mars has similar hollows as Mercury, could they be related?

Known to scientist as the Swiss-Cheese terrain, the holes in the ice caps of Mars may be the same creations. On Mars these hollows are formed by carbon dioxide in the form of ice turning directly into a gas. Sublimation on Mars is expected because it is ice. It is interesting that this could be happening on Mercury with a whole different material, rock. 

Another theory of this bizarre formation is Solar wind. The tiny planet, Mercury, has no atmosphere so it is prone to solar wind attacks. The unstable sulfur particles in the surface rock get swept away and cause the rock it came from to crumble. The hollows could be produced from solar wind strikes or even just the heat from the sun. 

Both the solar wind and the sublimation theory have their counter theories. As we anticipate more pictures from MESSENGER, scientists wonder what really the reflective substances are. Do the reflections in the rock show signs of life from the burned out planet? The hollows of Mercury are the most mysterious land creations in the solar system.